Page 145 of War Queen
She hesitated. “I want to, but…” She shook her head. “Not yet. I just have to… I don’t know, I just need to think. It’s all so much.”
Mikael’s expression changed, but she wasn’t sure to what. He dropped down from his horse and stepped to the ridge, away from them. Something was wrong. Or rather, something wasmorewrong…
Norah slipped off Sephir and followed. She waited for more of his anger.
But it didn’t come.
Instead, he turned and held out his hand. She took it, and he pulled her close and drew her chin up to look at him. “He looks just like the Bear?”
She nodded.
His voice dropped to just above a whisper. “I know that must be hard for you. I’m sorry.”
Gods, she loved this man, and she hugged him tightly. “Thank you. For us coming. For just being here.”
“Always.” And he held her closer.
As she pulled back, her eye caught something, and she froze. In a tree not far away sat a small bird—a small, brown bird, with a blood mark on its head. She clutched Mikael’s arm.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“The bird,” she whispered.
Both Mikael and Soren, who was dropping down from his own mount, looked to where she stared.
“It’s his,” she said, realizing. “The birds are his.” It all fell into place. Her pulse beat faster as her mind swirled. “That means he’s the one who sent the assassins.”
She flinched as Soren grabbed his crossbow from the back of his saddle and loosed an arrow, dropping the bird to the ground.
Mikael pulled her back to look at him, his face gravely serious. “Salara, you understand there can be no peace with this man.”
She jerked back. “Wait, what?”
“He tried to take your life.”
“That was quite a while ago. Circumstances can change. People can change.”
His eyes grew darker. “You defend him?”
“No, I just don’t want to throw away the possibility for peace based on something he did before he even knew me!”
“He doesn’t know you!” he said, louder now. “And you don’t know him. He’s violated your mind and deceived you, and you can’t trust him.”
She wouldn’t deny that, but she couldn’t skip so quickly to war for actions of the past. She needed to let her mind calm and talk it through when the tension faded.
“Can we just go home?” she asked. “And talk about this then?”
He quieted and sighed. “Of course.”
They mounted their horses and started back north.
Chapter thirty-seven
Calm.
Calm, she told herself.
But Norah was anything but calm. The journey back hadn’t brought her to a rational place; it had only allowed her mind the space to rehash everything Lucien had done. And it made her angry.
