Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Briar
“Would you let me run? If Dromon wasn’t here, would you let me go?” I asked breathlessly. “After the harem, you said you owed me a favor.”
This time, it was he who squeezed my hand. “I do owe you a favor, but no, I wouldn’t let you run. My brother-in-law trusts me to keep you safe and to keep the kingdoms from tearing each other apart.
“If I set you free, Knox and Marina would be irate at the elves, and while the night casters don’t have as much power as they used to, and four shifters aren’t all that terrifying, I won’t sacrifice any of my kind to fulfill my debt to you.
It is my debt to pay, not theirs. Besides, what good would it do for me to thank you for saving my life by letting you run into a place filled with monstrous creatures? ”
I couldn’t have gotten free with Dromon following us, but I couldn’t stop the crushing disappointment filling my chest.
“I understand,” I murmured.
Devnair looked behind us to where Dromon stood fifty feet away. With their superior hearing, he might still be able to listen to our conversation, but I wasn’t sure.
“Now, if you somehow got free and came to Terra for help, I wouldn’t turn you away.
” Devnair cast his voice so low as he spoke that I had to strain to hear him.
“Eternals are allowed to seek sanctuary in other kingdoms; it rarely happens as they seldom have friends in those kingdoms to help them, but it does occur, and you do have a friend. My sister is also eternally grateful that you insisted on freeing me, and my brother-in-law loves her dearly.”
I stared at the woods as his words sank in. He’d help me if I got to Terra, and I would have the support of the king and queen of the elves; it was far more than I had seconds ago, yet it was still so very far away and impossible.
“So, all I have to do is escape the shifters, flee into the woods full of monstrous creatures, and somehow find my way to Terra. And that’s only if, and it’s a big if, I’m not taken back to Nightshade and imprisoned again,” I whispered.
He grinned at me. “Be the thorn, Briar, and slash your way through the flesh of those who handle you unkindly.”
“I like this guy,” Gizzi whispered into my mind.
“So do I,” I admitted.
“Dromon is coming,” Devnair said.
I didn’t get a chance to look at the shifter before Devnair turned me and we strolled back toward the hall. Dromon waited for us to pass him; once we did, he fell in behind us again.
“Why did you ask if I was different before I met Seth or not until afterward?” I asked, recalling our earlier conversation.
“I was curious if the casters are all heartless fucks from birth or if they only become such exorbitant pricks after their Needing and binding to their gods. Did finding love as a child change you, or were you born different from them?”
I pondered this before replying. “Most of the children in our kingdom are delightful. Some are cruel, but most are sweet and kind. You may not believe this, but my mother deeply loves my sister. They’re not overly affectionate, but the love is clear between them.
“However, the adults in our kingdom are very different from the children. I don’t know if it’s time that beats them down and changes them, the Needing, or the binding.”
“The Needing didn’t change you.”
“I didn’t go through it like the others. I wasn’t in the harem. Maybe that made the difference.”
“Knox, or the other shifters, didn’t help you through it?”
My mouth dropped. “That’s a little personal, don’t you think?”
His eyes glittered with amusement. “Yes, it is personal, but it’s also a valid question.”
“Knox helped me through it.”
Of course, it wasn’t in the way Devnair assumed, as we didn’t have sex, but he’d been there through it. I trusted the elf, but not with this.
I didn’t know why, but something deep inside told me to keep the truth of my Needing from him. I still had no idea what I’d become, and I was sure Devnair would be shocked enough by my revelation to tell others about it.
“I knew there was still chemistry between you, and he clearly doesn’t like you being alone with another man… even if sometimes you might prefer to kill each other,” he said.
“Not sometimes… most of the time.”
“Anger and chemistry. It’s a potent mix.”
“One that might kill us both.”
He chuckled. “But it might be a lovely way to go… or at least very enjoyable.”
I didn’t share his sentiment about that, but I let it go. “Hmm,” I grunted. “Knox told me the day casters also rape others in the harem. My mother told me they didn’t have sex in there but pleasured themselves. Is that true?”
I regretted asking the question when Devnair stopped walking and his friendly demeanor turned colder. The twinkle faded from his eyes.
“Knox wasn’t lying to you,” he confirmed.
“I didn’t think he was, but had to be sure.”
Dromon prowled closer. He’d sensed a change in Devnair’s demeanor, and Dromon would never let something happen to Knox’s mate… or rejected mate… or… or whatever I was to that confounding man.
Shaking his head, Devnair cleared his mind of his dismal thoughts as his gaze shifted to me again, and warmth returned to his eyes. We resumed walking.
“What about your powers now that you’re unbound to the gods?” he asked.
I hadn’t told anyone about my newfound ability to communicate with Gizzi, or the voice in the woods, and I wasn’t going to tell him about it either.
“I gain more energy from plants and nature than I did before,” I said. “And my potions are stronger, as are the powers I already had, but so far, those are the only differences I’ve detected.”
“So you don’t gain more power from the sun or moon like the night and day casters?”
“No.”
I didn’t remind him that we stood in a kingdom where the sun and moon were rarely visible. Things could change once I exposed myself to them.
“I see,” he murmured.
He stopped outside the hall and stared at the building for a minute before resuming our walk. “It seems they’re still in discussions.”
We strolled over to where they’d tied the horses to a hitching post outside the hall. The caderns that the cyclopes rode were tied to nearby trees.
Devnair led me over to a black-and-white leopard appaloosa with soulful brown eyes. The second the horse spotted Devnair, it nickered and pawed the ground.
Devnair rested his hand on the horse’s nose. “I missed you too, Toric.”
I rubbed the horse’s neck. “He’s beautiful.”
“He is.”
“What is your sister’s name?” I asked.
Devnair’s face lit up with love. “Elora.”
“You’re close.”
“Very. She’s my best friend.”
“How lovely.”
When Toric nudged me with his nose, I smiled and rested my forehead against his as I inhaled the wonderful scents of horse and leather. Oh, how I loved animals.
“How did you manage to make friends with a lowleeto?” Devnair asked while I rubbed the side of Toric’s beautiful face.
“I gave him some food in the woods,” I said. “Gizzi became my friend after that.”
“You named him Gizzi?”
I tried not to react to his question as I realized I’d almost revealed too much. “It’s cute.”
“It’s interesting.”
“It’s a great name,” Gizzi said grumpily.
“It is,” I reassured him and pet his head.
The sound of the door crashing open drew my attention away from Toric as a cyclops turned sideways and ducked through the doorway. I tensed at the realization the meeting had ended.
When my hands fell to my sides, Toric nudged me, and I absently resumed petting him. I wish I could ride you away from here, I thought.
“I’d take you away if I could,” a voice whispered back, but this deep, soulful voice didn’t belong to Gizzi.
When I gawked at Toric, he nudged me again. “Was that you?” I asked.
Toric’s head bobbed up and down. “And that is you.”
My mouth dropped at the confirmation Gizzi wasn’t the only animal I could speak to.