Grittiness burns my eyes as I roll over to see him sitting at the edge of the mattress, close enough to reach out to touch him if I wish.
I don’t.
“Yourpeople,” the words fall like venom from my lips, “stoned a woman today. They threw rocks at her until she ceased to breathe, to feel, to hope.”
A muscle jerks in his jaw as he lowers his hand to my arm, his touch tentative at first, as if he fears me ripping away. I don’t move.
He doesn’t reply.
How I wish he would. How I wish he would assure me he sees things the way I do.
“Do you not care?”
“I care,” he says, his voice low, hoarse.
“Then why don’t you do anything? Why doesn’t Luc?”
“I’m a stranger to them.” The muscle jerks faster as he looks away, pinning his gaze beyond my shoulders. “And their hate is deeper than a ravine. I don’t know how to change it.”
“Surely, the council can change things.”
“The council is new. Most of the Bloodstone people don’t accept it. At least, not yet.”
“What do they accept?” I ask, needing to understand them.
Again, Gabriel’s focus shifts beyond my shoulders, pinning to a different place. Perhaps, a different time. “Roland.”
My chest squeezes at that name. Said curtly. Said, as if it pained Gabriel to speak his leader’s name.
“Where is he?”
Gabriel stiffens and stands. “Not here.”
“Obviously, he’s not here. I want to know why.”
“There are other cities,” Gabriel says, his tone flat.
Where is a map when I need one? I must learn about these other cities.
“Are you saying you don’t know? How are you on the council, and you don’t know where your leader is?”
“Why do you care?” Gabriel asks.
I shift to sitting and pull my knees forward. “Because I am living here with you. I want to know the world I may someday bring children into.” The last words sour against my lips, the lie even hard for me to say. To breathe life into. To give voice to something that was only a thought before now—a thought I never planned to be a reality.
It would be wrong to have a baby with a man I don’t intend to stay with.
“Children?” Gabriel hikes a brow and allows his gaze to slide over me.
“Yes.” I smooth my crumpled surcoat over my legs and make myself stare into those silver-blue eyes. “Have you ever thought of yourself as a father?”
He smirks, and my first thought is to kick him. My second thought is to look away from the obvious mirth in his eyes.
I do neither.
“Are you offering to give me children?” he asks.
“I am your wife.”
