Page 156 of War Queen
Oh, right. They were supposed to be angry at each other. But she didn’t want to be angry at him anymore. She sighed. “Of course.”
He pulled up her fingers to his lips to kiss them. “Good.”
In the dimly lit stairwell, Norah held the vial of blood in her hand. She’d have to tell Mikael she was talking to Lucien eventually. But when? She sighed.
After she brokered peace, she told herself.
That was her purpose, after all, and she was close—she could feel it. She drew a deep breath and called Lucien back.
She knew he was there when the room changed around her. Her seat on the stair turned to a seat on a garden bench. It was summertime. A bird lighted on a fountain in front of her, and then flew away, and she felt his presence on the bench beside her. She still had so many questions. She hoped they might be able to pick up where they left off before.
She pulled the vial from her pocket. “So, your birds bring me these?”
He nodded. A good start.
“And my crown?”
“I have larger friends.” From between the topiaries in the garden, two dogs emerged, but they weren’t like any dogs she’d seen before. They were black dogs, large—almost as big as Cusco and Cavaatsa had been, except they had no ears and no tails.
Norah shuddered. “Did you do that to them?”
He shook his head. “No. With me, they have a very different life than the one they had before.”
A different life than before… Lucien had had a different life too. Mikael had told her how he’d been a blood sport fighter and led the rebellion against the old king of Rael.
He watched her watching him. “You have more questions?”
She pulled her mind back; she did have more questions. “You said something, before, both the last time we spoke and when you came as the assassins. You knew Alexander’s blood had touched my skin in Kharav. How?” It felt strange to be talking so casually about the attempt on her life with the one who had tried to claim it.
He nodded. “His blood allowed me to travel the same as my own. When it touched your skin, I saw you. And I knew he was with you.”
“And that’s how you came to me in the mortium after he died.”
He sat for a time before speaking. “I knew something had happened. A searing pain came to me, greater than I’d ever felt before. When I woke, his weight—the weight I’d carried inside for my entire life—it was just gone. And his blood touched so many. So many minds, so loud—his blood was on all their skins. And I knew.”
She could only watch him.
“All those years, I wanted him dead,” he continued, “and then for him to be snuffed from me in an instant… I wasn’t ready. I couldn’t believe it.”
Lucien paused. “I wanted him back,” he whispered. “And so I searched, but the weight was gone. I sought his blood, reaching out to everyone it had touched. And it brought me to the mortium. To you.” He paused, his eyes now staring through her. “I saw him,” he whispered, “in your mind, for the first time in our adult lives.”
Norah swallowed. All the pieces were falling into place.
He smiled sadly. “You saw me as I am, before I realized where I was, before I realized I was inyourmind. It was too late to change my projection.”
“The markings on your neck,” she remembered.
He nodded.
Norah pressed her knuckles to her lips, trying to make sense of the chaos in her mind. “And then you came back; you came as Alexander.”
He gave another nod, seemingly ashamed. “I wanted you to let me back in,” he said. “You still had his blood on your skin, and so I returned. I could project everything: his dress, his hair”—he paused—“everything but his voice and his words.”
“So, you came back for my secrets.”
“I saw it as an opportunity against my enemy, yes,” he admitted. He hesitated before saying, “But as I got to know you”—he stopped again—“it didn’t make me happy to deceive you.”
They sat in the quiet for a long time.
