Page 177 of Shadow Queen
He didn’t look angry.
“Salara,” he said softly, finally breaking the silence. He didn’t sound angry.
She couldn’t leave him standing there. Norah stepped backward and opened the door wider, inviting him in, and he followed. He shut the door behind him, then stood silently.
“I didn’t expect you,” she said.
“Are you upset I’ve come?”
She shook her head slowly. She’d never be upset about him coming to her.
He breathed out, as if relieved. “Would you be upset if I stayed?” he asked.
How quickly he could make her forgive him. She shook her head again.
He stepped nearer and slowly reached out his hand to take hers. Despite him being drenched by the rain, his skin was warm, and it felt good. She let him pull her closer to him.
“I’m sorry, Salara,” he breathed. His nearness made the world fall away. He pulled her even closer. “Would you be upset if I kissed you?” he asked.
She would be upset if he didn’t. She lifted her chin to him.
His kiss wasn’t the hungry force it usually was. He kissed her softly, as if unsure—asking, searching, seeking her forgiveness.
And she gave it to him. She sought forgiveness herself. He wasn’t the only one among them with fault.
“You were right to be angry,” she said as she broke from their kiss. “I’m sorry I lied. Two times I’ve kissed Alexander, and both bring deep regret. It’s not something I want to talk about, but I will if you ask me. And yes, I didn’t want you to read Phillip’s letter. His tone toward me is not one you’d take kindly to, and it worried me. But I’ll recite it word for word; the worry has burned it into my mind. I just… I don’t want secrets between us. And I want to rid you of this doubt.”
Norah reached up and ran her fingertips through the short crop of his beard. “And I want you to let me in. I want you to tell me what worries you.” She pulled his lips back to hers. “Will you talk to me?” she whispered, then kissed him softly with her own plea for forgiveness.
She pulled back and looked up at the darkness of his eyes. Slowly, he nodded. She dropped her cloak on a chair by the door.
“Come, then,” she said, taking his hand and leading him to the bedchamber. Inside, she turned to him. She pulled his wet cloak from his shoulders. He stood as she took her time draping it over a chair and turning her attention back to him. He was soaked through, and needed dry clothing.
“What did the seer show you?” she asked as she pulled his shirt out from his breeches, one side and then the other.
“I’ve failed,” he said. “I’ve failed to change my fate.”
She swallowed as she drew his shirt up. He bowed his head and lifted his arms, letting her take it from him.
Norah dropped down, pulling at the heel of his boot, and he let her take them, the left and then right. She rose again, and their gazes locked as she pulled loose the ties of his breeches. “How does the seer know?”
“Because fate can’t be changed. But I already knew this.”
She pulled down his breeches, then stooped as he stepped out of them. “Then why did you go?” Rising back up, she met his eyes again.
“It’s the curse of the seer—to draw a man into obsession.”
Norah stepped to the armoire and pulled out a clean linen tunic and breeches. “What else did you see?” she asked as she moved back to him. She knew he’d seen Alexander. He’d already told her so.
He hesitated. “I saw the Bear.” His eyes were filled with sorrow. “He came to your bed in the night, and you took him.”
She said nothing but cursed the seers in the depths of her soul. She cursed the visions. They did nothing but cause pain, and for what? She unfolded the clean breeches, and he took them and stepped into them. He drew them up, around his waist, and she pulled tight the ties, slowly looping them closed.
“Many things are not as they seem in these visions,” she said finally. “You know this.”
“Some things aren’t. Yet some things are exactly as they seem.”
She shook out the folded tunic and raised it, and he complied, bowing his head for her to put it on him. She swallowed again. “I don’t know how else to show you that I choose you,” she whispered. “That I love you and that I’m beside you. I would never betray you.”
