“Not always,” I argued, giving him my weight, which he savored if the way I was held, so tight, face pressed down into my shoulder, was any indication. “But that’s okay because I know I’m loved.”
“I hope you do, because you are.”
He didn’t need to convince me.
Seventeen
I woke before dawn, checked to see if Zev was back, found he was, and immediately got everyone moving. Eris rousted everyone for me, and we were out, loaded into two SUVs, before the rest of the palace was even stirring. We were halfway to Ghadira Bay before my phone rang.
“You left without saying goodbye,” Varic said on the other end.
“You’re killing Gideon today,” I replied sadly. “You have enough on your plate; you didn’t need to have to think about me.”
“I like thinking about you. I had no idea that I needed to make certain you couldn’t leave the palace without my permission.”
“You would never do that,” I told him. “I know you wouldn’t.”
“Don’t try and leave the island,” he warned me, his voice going cold.
“Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know. Why would you leave without letting me know?”
“I just told you.”
“Did you know that the council wanted Zev to appear in the throne room?”
“No,” I said, even though the thought had crossed my mind. It was logical.
“I had no idea, until Eris reported to me last night, that Zev and Gideon were anything but mortal enemies.”
It stung that Eris would share something without my permission, and even though I knew why—she’d been a member of Varic’s dreki for ages—it didn’t help me feel any less betrayed. “Yeah, I think that was a pretty well-kept secret,” I said mildly, like it was no big deal who Zev loved and who loved him in return.
“And so,” he began, clearing his throat, “it could be argued that I am about to kill Zev’s love, so what would keep him from killing mine?”
“But you know him better than that.”
“Or perhaps not at all,” he countered fast, almost attacking me.
“It’s not—that would never occur to him. Zev knows Gideon can’t be saved. He knows if Gideon were released that he couldn’t go live with him happily on some island somewhere in the South Pacific,” I explained, willing him to understand. “Gideon would go right back to what he was doing, plotting and being a puppet master, and Zev is the kind of man who bores with inactivity, which is why I worry about him when I go back to New Orleans, but––”
“Let me speak plainly,” Varic said, and how flat his voice sounded, how cold, was so out of character that it was scary. “The council, and my father, want to have Zev tortured in front of Gideon so that we can find out everything he knows.”
I swallowed down the kneejerk response, and waited.
“He—there’s still someone out there that we don’t know about who colluded with Gideon, who was there at his villa with you, and he has an entire network of spies that––”
“But you reminded them,” I said confidently, finding my footing in the relationship I had with Varic. Letting him hear the faith I had in him. “I know you did.”
Silence.
“I trust you.”
Quick exhale of breath. “Not even a moment of hesitation?”
“A moment, yeah, but no more than that.”
“Yes,” he said with a deep sigh. “I reminded my father, as well as the council and all the other representatives of the other families, that Zev is the champion of my consort and is therefore untouchable to all but myself.”
“Good.”
“And for me saving his love, Gideon was moved to tell everyone, again, that this was why you shouldn’t be allowed to live, because clearly you’ve bewitched me.”
I grunted.
“He dies at sunset.”
“Okay,” I said and went quiet.
“This trip has been a horror, but everything will go back to normal, I promise you.”
“Will it?” I asked him, trying to imagine that. “Because I think all this intrigue is probably the reason you usually stay away, but I also think it’s the reason you might not be able to leave.”
“What are you taking about?”
“I think the only way this ship truly rights itself is with you here, ensuring that things are not overlooked.”
“No, Jason,” he insisted, and I could hear the frustration in his voice. “I promise you that we won’t stay.”
“But you can’t really make that promise,” I assured him gently. “I don’t think that, after this thing with Gideon, that everyone will have faith in your father anymore. How could the council? How can his subjects? The person the king trusted more than anyone killed the king’s mother, drove the queen away, and tried to kill his son’s consort. Why wouldn’t he step down?”
“My father will not––”
“I think he will, and I think you know better.”
He was silent because what could he say? I was right. There was no question. It turned out that Gideon was right—the Noreia, as a whole, needed Varic.
“It’s hard to try and defend the king I know he is when we’re not speaking and I can barely look at him.”
I exhaled sharply. “Forgive him for keeping you away from me. He paid for his mistake, and I’m sure he’s had to explain to everyone what happened.”
“He has.”
“And everyone sided with the wolf of Maedoc.”
“Yes,” he admitted almost sadly.
“So let him off the hook. He’s your father, and he made a mistake because he doesn’t know me, doesn’t know what you look like with me. He’ll learn that I make you stronger, not weaker, and that we’re supposed to be together.”
“Yes, we are.”
“Then?”
He sighed deeply. “I’ll talk to him.”
“Good,” I said softly. “Now, I’m going to enjoy the villa for a few days, and then I’m going to go home and––”
“No, Jason, you––”
“If you can’t come home,” I told him, “then I’ll come back, bring everything I love from my apartment above the store, and live with you here.”
I could hear him breathing.
“Varic?”
“Give me a little time.”
“I will,” I soothed him.
“I need you at the villa for at least three days. Don’t go before then.”
“Deal,” I said, smiling into the phone.
“I’m not ready to be king,” he told me. “And unlike everyone else, I believe my father just needed a wake-up call, and that’s what he’s had. People think I give him too much credit, but I don’t. He’s a great man with great flaws, but he’s navigated the Noreia through unprecedented changes.”
“You don’t have to convince me. I’m on your side,” I informed him.
“I know that, I just—don’t leave me.”