“Better than you were eight or nine months ago, huh?”
“Absolutely. Now I get the opportunity to choose how I spend my days.”
“And nights. How does it feel to live in a tent?”
“It is not like we are roughing it. Dra’Kaedan has provided us with everything including cool air.”
“The condo is finished, but did you want to remove all the furniture and replace it with giant piles of pillows?”
Ellery chuckled. “Tiri has a similar setup in your private living space, but I have no desire to continue living on cushions. I grew quite accustomed to a comfortable bed when I met all of you.”
“I doubt anyone can say they’ve had such a momentous year as you have since meeting your other half.”
“Perhaps not, but I am glad to finally have control again. I am putting together a list of things I plan to accomplish while I am here at D’Vaire.”
Zane nodded. “I figured you wouldn’t be content with simply waiting until it’s safe for you to return home before you assumed more of your role as Emperor.”
“Is that all you wished to discuss with me? My plans for the future?”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m interested in all of your plans. I’ll offer my help however I can but no, there’s more we need to talk about.”
“Where would you care to start?”
“I have had this conversation in my head many times since that day I handed you the mug with Wesley’s poison in it. I’ve come to realize words will only take you so far. All I can offer you is my most sincere apology that I gave you the coffee.”
“You should not be apologizing to me.”
Zane’s gaze hardened. “I disagree. Whether anyone likes it or not—and I can assure you I do not—I had a role in all of this.”
“You did. But I do not think you have grasped the situation for what it is. You are not complicit in Wesley’s plot to unseat me as Emperor and force me into dragon form. That is why you should not apologize. In fact, you were a victim as much as I was.”
“No. I certainly wasn’t victimized as you were.”
“Will you at least admit you were a victim?”
“No.”
“How can you say that? You did not know what I was going to drink. All the eyes of the Sentinel Brotherhood and the Order of the Fallen Knights immediately went to you, and they had to clear your role in it. Were they not the men they are, you could have very well paid the price for handing me the mug. Wesley underestimated them, because I truly believe that was his intention. If you were found guilty, he would not have been.”
“I’m not sure I can agree. The reputation of those men is well-known.”
“And still they are often misjudged or undervalued. Simply look to all the rumors that abounded for centuries about the sentinels. The fallen knights were not always held in the best esteem by shifters. It was not until Drystan and Conley discovered they were once dragons that the tide truly changed. When their dragons were given back to them, that separation between the two sides of the Council finally evaporated.”
“You’ve studied Council history well.”
“Wesley lived through all of that. His mind may not have been open enough to accept their honor. He could not acknowledge my own role as Emperor as tolerable. That does not sound like a man willing to see the truth staring him in the face.”
“He hasn’t answered any questions regarding his actions. All we can do is assume.”
“It is not an assumption that you were innocent or that you were a victim of his plot along with me.”
“I wasn’t torn from my mate for months, Elf.”
“Were you not, in a way? Has guilt not tugged at your soul, saddening you and preventing you from fully enjoying life?”
Zane shifted uncomfortably on his seat. This conversation was nowhere near the ones he’d had in his head. Ellery was viewing things from a different lens, and it left Zane befuddled. “I can’t just wash away my actions.”
“You should. You didnothingwrong.”
