35. Lorken
Lorken
Icarried Athena to my quarters without slowing, my mind still clouded with the red haze that had consumed me the moment I'd seen my brother's hands on her.
I remembered almost none of the fight itself.
It existed only as a blur of rage and a single driving need to punish him for daring to hurt Athena.
Now that I’d reached my quarters, the haze was slowly fading, replaced by sensations I hadn't registered in the heat of the battle. I tasted the coppery tang of my own blood where it had trickled down from the split above my brow and the salt-sting of sweat mixing with it.
The sight of my furs and the silence that fell the instant the door sealed behind us doused some of the fire still raging in my chest. I looked down at the woman in my arms and registered the true evidence of what my brother had done to her, the red marks banding her wrists and smear of blood across one cheek.
Instinct drove me forward again, and I kicked off my boots as I strode into the bathing chamber and straight into the water with her still cradled against my chest.
She gasped as the warmth closed around us both, her head jerking back. "What are you—?”
I released her legs, letting her feet find the sloped floor while I kept one arm curled around her waist. Then I used my free hand to cup water and smooth it gently across her cheek, melting the blood from her skin.
She blinked up at me as the rushing water splashed behind us. "Why are we in here?"
"You are wounded," I said. "The water heals."
She let out a husky laugh. "It's not my blood. It's yours."
I hadn't fully registered that I was injured, though I knew I'd taken blows of my own.
She lifted a hand from the water and pressed her fingers gently to the cut above my brow, dribbling water with a tenderness that made my chest squeeze.
Then her palm moved lower, to the shallow slash across my chest where Zarn's blade had caught me before Dawz intervened, and I hissed a breath through my teeth at the sting I hadn't let myself feel until now.
"You are not injured?" I asked
She shook her head. "My wrists are sore. It'll fade." Her gaze lifted to mine, almost apologetic. "You're the one who's hurt."
I grunted. "I have had worse." It was true, though the ache blooming across my ribs and along my jaw was beginning to twinge.
Her voice dropped, quiet enough that the waterfall nearly swallowed it. "You didn't have to do that. You didn't have to fight your own brother for me."
I hooked a finger beneath her chin and tipped her face up until she was forced to meet my gaze. "Yes, I did. I vowed to protect you, even from my own brother." I paused, shame burning my face. "Even from myself."
Her brow creased. "What do you mean?"
"I doubted you." I forced myself to hold her gaze even as my eyes wanted to drop "I let my brother's suspicion become my own, even though I knew better. I never should have accused you or doubted you."
She was quiet for a moment, as droplets of water flecked our faces. "I forgive you."
I shook my head, as if her forgiveness was too easy. “I should not have torn open wounds that were not mine to touch and then left you in pain.”
Her throat worked as she swallowed. "My mother refused to talk about my father, so I truly never knew. Having Zagrath blood was as much of a shock to me as it was to you.”
"I believe you.” And I did. I had seen the truth of it in her face the moment I’d confronted her, and I saw it now.
“No amount of Zagrath blood," she said, her chin lifting with familiar challenge, "would ever make me a sympathizer."
Something eased in my chest at the conviction in her voice, and I let my thumb trace along her jaw. "Then you are as good as Vandar now."
A slow smile curved her mouth, unguarded in a way I hadn't yet seen from her. "I like the sound of that." Then the smile faded and she tipped her head, studying me. "But why me? You barely know me."
I dragged my thumb slowly across the soft curve of her bottom lip, my gaze following the motion, unable to look away from her mouth as I battled with how much to reveal.
"I knew you were mine the moment I saw an image of you.
I knew it more surely the moment you held a blade to my throat.
Every moment I have spent with you, every time you have defied me, every time you have challenged my authority has only proven it further.
" I let my hand slide to cradle the side of her face.
"I do not need to know everything about you to know you and adore you, Athena. "
A soft, breathless sound escaped her, and before either of us could speak another word, I closed the distance between us and captured her mouth with mine.
Her lips were soft and lush and tasted faintly of salt, and all thoughts fled my mind as she yielded to my kiss and moaned in my mouth.
When her arms rose to wind around my neck, her fingers threading into my damp hair, I felt nothing in that moment but the softness of her against me, and the certainty that I would never let her go.