“Of course.” She tipped her head back, gazing up at him. “How could you think for a moment my priorities would be any different?”
He slid his hands up and down her back. “Maybe it’s my compulsion to be always wrong.”
She breathed a laugh. “Hardly that. These are difficult times. I’m afraid, too.”
“You never seem afraid.”
“Not true. You knew I needed to be held after you rescued me from that tower. It’s just my turn to hold you.”
He kissed her, a lingering, intimate caress of deep emotion. “I suppose we make a good team that way.”
“In every way,” she averred. “But Gabriel?”
“Yes, my heart?”
“Reel the magic back now, please. We’re going to need it more than we need rain or silver dust on the floor.”
With a chagrined curse, he did.
Jadren had never been all that fond of himself—that simply wasn’t in the cards for him—but it was a revelation to discover these new depths of self-loathing. An all-time record.
Have we hit bottom yet? He wondered wryly to himself.
If we haven’t, I really hate to see what the real bottom is like, that other voice answered.
Certifiably insane. So much so that he’d attacked Seliah, all but raping her.
All but? The sardonic inner voice echoed. Just because you didn’t actually get your cock inside her doesn’t make it any less of a rape.
Shut up, he told himself.
Yeah, like that will work. I’m inside your head, you idiot.
He clutched his hands to said head, digging in his fingers as if he could pry his skull open. Even if he could, he’d probably just heal from it. His mother had gone to new lengths in her experiments this time, carried away in a frenzy of delight that he could draw on Seliah’s magic to bolster his healing. Some pieces still rattled around inside him, slowly migrating through his flesh, and if he’d had a blade handy he might’ve taken it to himself to cut them out already.
Fortunately, Seliah had fallen into an exhausted sleep, so wasn’t awake to question his behavior. She’d been far too forgiving, seeming to think he hadn’t been in his right mind. When he’d refused to discuss that—or the fact that he remembered every detail, including the intensely erotic clasp of her tight sheath on his fingers, which must mean he’d been perfectly sane—she’d finally stopped trying to get him to talk to her. The labs were dark, everyone gone.
Just him and his self-recriminations. He’d fucked everything up.
Not exactly a brilliantly executed plan, asshole, his inner voice agreed.
This time, he couldn’t argue.
Something clinked on the glass and he jerked up his head, narrowing his eyes to make out a shadow moving in the darkness beyond, black on black. The clink came again, tapping softly: three pulses. The child in him nearly wept at the old code his father had used to communicate without words. A squeeze of the hand. A tap on his shoulder behind his back where no one could see. I love you.
He tapped it back. One, two, three. I love you. And didn’t even hate himself too much that tears leapt to his eyes. His father had come to see him. Fyrdo couldn’t do anything—he was as powerless as Jadren, perhaps more so because his love for his wizard chained him more thoroughly than any threats—but it meant a great deal that his father had risked even this much. Would Fyrdo be able to help Seliah escape? There was a slim chance. Though—he kicked himself—Seliah couldn’t leave without him now. She’d suffer too much from the bond attenuation before she managed to get to Gabriel. With her still tenuous mental stability, the risk wouldn’t be worth it. Of course, if she stayed with him, she might end up dead.
Death or insanity? his inner voice mused. Always so difficult to choose.
Another click and, to his heart-thudding shock, the cage door opened.
His father stood in the doorway. “Come with me, both of you,” he said. “Hurry.”
~ 20 ~
Jadren wasted no time waking Seliah. One positive about her traumatic experiences fleeing from whatever ghosts and shadows her madness had generated was that she woke fully alert, silently, and ready to run. All he had to do was whisper in her ear that they were escaping and she slipped her hand into his, following with a perfect trust that shamed him.
She’s not trusting you, his inner voice commented acidly. She trusts Fyrdo. Which was fair. He only hoped his father knew what he was doing. Jadren couldn’t imagine what could have prompted his father to take this unprecedented action. He only knew he was beyond grateful for the rescue, particularly for Seliah’s sake. She trailed close behind him, fingers interlaced with his, moving with him with a grace and synchrony that was new.
