Page 82 of Dark Chains: First Link
"You're quiet," Areana said, and her voice carried a note that was either concern or calculated innocence.
"I have nothing to add to your report."
She studied his face. "Would you prefer that I didn't tell you about these things?"
"I would prefer many things that are not available to me."
"That's not an answer."
He looked at her, this woman he had loved for five thousand years, who had conspired behind his back and whose fall fromthe cliff had sent him plummeting after her without a moment's hesitation.
"Tell me whatever you want," he said.
She held his gaze, and for a moment, the bright social mask slipped, revealing something older and more complicated underneath. She understood his anger. She had always understood him better than anyone, which was what made her so effective and so dangerous.
"I tell you these things because I want you to know the world I'm living in now," she said. "I want you to understand what it's like outside this building."
"What it's like," he repeated. "You mean what it's like among the people who captured me and hold me prisoner?"
"I mean what it's like to be free."
The word landed between them hard.
Free.
She meant it in every sense. Free from the harem. Free from the island. Free from him, though she would never say it in those words because she still loved him, and her love was the only thing he trusted completely in this wretched situation.
But love and loyalty were not the same thing, and Areana had always been better at the former than the latter.
"I'm tired," Navuh said. "I'd like to return to bed."
The nurse glanced at Areana, which irritated him. She should have responded to his request, not sought confirmation from his mate.
"Of course," Gertrude said, and began the process of turning the wheelchair around in the corridor, which required a three-point maneuver that was as undignified as everything else about this excursion.
Areana walked beside the chair in silence as they returned down the corridor. The Guardian followed. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. The wheels turned, and the rhythm of the distance was the same going back as it had been going out.
"The wedding ceremony will be presided over by Annani," Areana said, as if the silence had again become intolerable and she needed to fill it. "My sister does that for all the clan weddings. She loves it."
Annani. The adversary around whom the Brotherhood's entire ideology had been constructed.
Annani was presiding over weddings. Welcoming defectors from the Brotherhood into her community. Babysitting grandchildren.
"Did Annani preside over Kalugal's wedding as well?" he asked, and the question emerged calmer than he felt.
"No."
Well, at least there was that. He waited for her to continue telling him about Kalugal's wedding, but she didn't.
"What about Lokan?"
"Lokan and Carol are not married. They are fated mates, though. As are Jacki and Kalugal."
Navuh's chest suddenly felt tight.
Fated mates were rare, and for both of his sons to find their mates among the clan meant one thing.
It had been fated.
