He rushed forward, grasping her hands in his and forcing her to look up into his eyes. “Don’t you understand, Cyrene? You are the target. Malysa wants to get to you. You need someone to watch your back. Why won’t you let anyone take care of you?”
She swallowed at his words. At the fierceness and tenderness wrapped in every syllable. She was standing before him, covered in the blood of Indres, risking everything for the sake of her people, running headfirst into destiny, and he was trying to save her.
“I don’t need to be taken care of,” she softly told him, bringing her hand to his cheek. “I need a partner in this madness.”
“Then let me be that.” He brushed a stray strand from her face. “I will stay if you think that best, but I would rather be at your back when the madness hits.”
She nodded. Because she wanted that, too. She had been leaving him here for practicality’s sake. Or at least, it was what she wanted to tell herself. That it wasn’t because every moment brought them closer together. They had no promises to each other anymore, and the closer he got, the more linked she felt. When she felt certain she was walking into imminent death.
22
The Journey
“Are you sure that you don’t want to take the portal at Tenchala?” Cyrene asked Avoca.
She gave Cyrene an annoyed look. “We do not even know if Eldora’s portal is open.”
“You know that I can open it from my end.”
“You don’t know if Malysa is watching. It’s best to limit it.” Avoca closed up her pack and then straightened. “Plus, I need to do this on foot. I don’t want to barge in like that. I haven’t been home in two years.”
“I know. I know how much you miss it.”
Avoca didn’t deign a response to that. She glanced off to the rest of their waiting party and then back to Cyrene. “Be safe, Cyrene.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“I never…” She cleared her throat. “I never apologized for what I said.”
Cyrene swallowed. “You don’t need to apologize. I know where your head was at then.”
“I regretted it when you left. I wanted to take it back. But it was too late by then. And Ahlvie…” She choked on his name.
Cyrene reached out and grasped her hand. “I miss him, too. We will get him back.”
Avoca nodded. “He’s still in there, Cyrene. He had the opportunity to kill me, and he stopped the beast. I think we can still reach him.”
“And we will,” Cyrene told her.
Avoca shouldered her pack. She nudged Cyrene’s shoulder. “So, you and Dean?”
Cyrene glanced in his direction, worrying away at her bottom lip. Leave it to Avoca. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“And yet, you said that you would marry for an alliance.”
“It’s not something that I can ask Brigette to do and not consider for myself,” she admitted. She was still surprised that he hadn’t brought that up yesterday during their argument. Also glad that it hadn’t come up.
Avoca put a hand on her shoulder. “As someone who was supposed to marry for an alliance, I can tell you that marrying for love is infinitely better.” She tipped her chin down and looked at Cyrene from under big black lashes. “And worth pursuing.”
Cyrene understood her meaning perfectly. And blushed a shade of scarlet to match.
Avoca chuckled and hugged her friend. “I will see you again soon. Good luck.”
“You too,” she said softly and then watched Avoca trek off into the forest toward her home.
Cyrene knew that she was sending her there, but it didn’t make their separation hurt any less. At least they were walking away in a better place than the last time.
She sighed and turned back toward the rest of their party. Dean, Orden, and Fenix were packed and waiting for her. She steadied her mind and let go of what she couldn’t control. Part of leading was delegating. She needed Avoca to go to Eldora, and they didn’t have time to do it all together. She knew that Avoca could take care of herself.
“Let’s head out,” she said. “It should still take a few hours to fly to Tenchala.”
Dean nodded and gestured for Orden to follow him to Halcyon. But Fenix didn’t move. He just stared over Cyrene’s shoulder and waited. She knew what…or more specifically, who he was waiting on. Rhea hadn’t come to say good-bye. She had been furious from the start that Cyrene was sending Fenix in as a spy. Furious with Fenix for volunteering for such a life-threatening mission.
No matter how they’d explained it was a necessity, Rhea wouldn’t hear it. And Cyrene couldn’t blame her. Not after Eren. Not after she had lost the first man she loved. It was asking a lot.
But they had all lost someone in this war. Cyrene knew the weight of her suffering. She had experienced it all again in the Domina court. She was still continuing on despite it. She knew Rhea was strong enough to do it, too.
Still, she had thought Rhea would show.
“Do you want to…find her?” Cyrene asked sympathetically.
He just straightened further. “She will come.”
“She’s stubborn.”
“You’re stubborn.”
Cyrene grinned. “We have always shared that quality.”
“We’re eating daylight,” he said in frustration as the minutes ticked by. “I thought she would come.”
Cyrene had thought so, too. It wasn’t like Rhea to let anyone go off like this. If they left without a good-bye, she knew that both Rhea and Fenix would regret it. Regret was not a quality she wanted in her spymaster.
“There,” he breathed as if he were seeing a vision.
And Cyrene saw her finally. Rhea strode toward them, clothed in a dark dress, with her own pack on her back.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Fenix asked.
“Coming with you,” she snapped.
“Absolutely not.”
Cyrene winced. “Rhea…”
“Don’t,” Rhea snarled at her. She took a deep breath. “My entire life, I have said that I belong in the background. That I belong with my books and my inventions. I was one to blend into the background while Cyrene took the spotlight. I preferred that.” Her eyes were insistent. “You asked me so many times to be a part of this adventure. For me to join you on your quest. And I always said no. I said that I belonged here. Well, all that has gotten me was tortured, the person I cared for killed, and then my invention used to destroy an entire island. I will not sit on the sidelines any longer. I’m going with you to Byern. This is my fight, too.”
Cyrene flicked her eyes to Fenix, waiting to see his reaction.
He just smiled. “It’s about time, Rhea Gramm.”
Then he slid his arm around her waist and kissed her long and hard on the mouth. She pulled away, gasping.
“I thought you were going to argue with me,” she sputtered.
Fenix shrugged. “I’ve been waiting for you to find your own agency for a long time. Come with me. We will find a way to be together in this.”
Rhea nodded, clearly a little surprised that she didn’t have to argue more. Then she tipped her gaze to Cyrene. “Um…is that okay?”