Page 261 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
Seconds later, five royal guards swarmed the rotunda, spears out.
I leapt in front of Pete. “Briar, tell them to back off!”
Briar did no such thing. He continued glaring at Pete, who didn’t give a flying fuck—his concern solely for me.
Pete clasped my hand by my hip, drawing me back from the spears. And from Briar.
Even as I moved into Pete’s protective warmth, I shouted, “Tell them to back off, Briar! Or I’ll rip your fucking bollocks off myself!”
I hope I know what bollocks are.
The reality of the situation clobbered Briar like a baseball bat to the mouth. He knew by my scent that I’d slept with someone (if he couldn’t already tell that scent was symptomatic of an affinity bond), but I noted his shock. He’dneverhave guessed my lover to be a harbinger, let alone the harbinger who’d captured me.
“Amy, what the fuck did you do?” Briar’s humanity returned with a vengeance. “Him?Really?”
“Briar, you don’t even know him.”
“I don’t need to know him! He’s a fuckingharbinger!”
“Yes, he is,” I snapped. “He’s a harbinger, and he’s human, and he’s a predator, and he’s the most honest, most giving, most selfless person you will ever fucking meet!”
Briar goggled at me. “He kidnapped you! For a bounty!”
“Yes—yes, he did. And then he saved me! He brought me here, Briar! When every harbinger and their mother was hunting me, he brought me here to protect me! Then he tried to sac—”
“That’s such bullshit, Amy,” Briar interrupted, his voice harder yet calmer. We were back to the condescending adult to child dynamic. “You’re smarter than this, honey. You can’t seriously believe he doesn’t have some ulterior motive for doing what he’s done. What’s he asked you for? Asylum along with the refugees?”
“No.” I glanced skyward, shaking my head. “He—he didn’t have to ask. I offered it to him.”
Briar groaned into his hands like he might be sick. “Amy.”
I bit my lip, feeling I’d lost control of the conversation.
Beside me, Pete cleared his throat. “Still want me to follow you, Shorty?”
Ignoring the face Briar made at my ill-fitting nickname, I whirled on Pete. “Yes.” Pete eyed me, and I sniffed. “It’s going to take a lot more thanthisfor me to free you from your pledge, buddy.”
Pete’s expression warmed, though it lost none of its dry humor.
“Pledge?” Briar repeated, baleful and tired. “There’s a pledge now?”
“Mm, yes.” Myrrdin moseyed over to my glaring ex—at least in my mind—and dispersed the guards with a simple gesture. “If you’ll allow me, I can explain that and several other pertinent details about the princess and her harbinger.” Myrrdin angled my way, lifted a slender hand. “If Pete would kindly unbind Briar—”
Pete arched a droll brow down at me, making it clear—he only took orders from me.
I couldn’t help smirking as I said, “Let him go.”
Winking, Pete retracted his tether from Briar. Its shadowy body wafted toward me, its velvety tongues tickling my shoulders on its journey back into Pete’s hand.
“Well, then,” Sedge said on my right. “Shall we go before another battle breaks out?”
“Aye,” Pete agreed, his humor faltering at the memory of what awaited us in Eden—anguish and lamentation. “Let’s be on our way.” He offered me his hand.
“This isn’t settled, Amy!” Briar called as I took my current lover’s hand. I peered over my shoulder at my stern-mouthed, sharp-eyed past. “We still need to have that talk.”
“We will.”When I’m good and ready, dude.
Then I squeezed Pete’s hand, leaned my head into his strong arm, and strode back into Eden.
