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“A successful trip, Norahi?” He asked, holding out a hand to take the papers I shoved at him without meeting his eyes.

“Yes. Now if you’ll excuse me -“

“She’s not in her room,” he told me, and I stopped short. He regarded me with raised eyebrows as I turned back to face him.

“What’s that?” I felt ridiculous feigning ignorance, and Regan sighed heavily.

“She’s in the temple, as she has been every afternoon since the ball.” He narrowed his eyes. “She seems to be praying rather hard for something. Perhaps you should go and ask her what it is.”

I gave no credence to the thoughts that plagued me as I stormed to the temple. I had no time to wonder why Regan would tell me where she was, much less why he would tell me what she had been doing while I was gone. I didn’t trust anyone here.

I hurried up the temple steps as the sun began to set, the smell of incense meeting me.

My heart swelled as I saw her, kneeling in front of Lada’s altar in the corner. Elara sensed my presence at the same moment, rising to her feet and spinning around to look at me, the blue veil covering her hair falling to the floor. Her eyes were both sad and full of joy, and I rushed across the tiles to take her in my arms.

“Oh gods,” she breathed against my neck. “I missed you.”

I drew back, taking her face in my hands, looking her over, then running my hands over her shoulders, between her breasts, over her belly - all the places that blood had poured from her in my dreams. Her lip trembled as I did, understanding completely my urgency. And then -oh gods -I realized she’d had the same dreams.

“Are you alright?” I asked, then shook my head, crushing her against me again, breathing in the sweet scent of her hair.

“Are you?” She gazed up at me. “That lady, at the ball. She… You and she… He makes you do that, doesn’t he?” A tear rolled off her lashes.

I swept it away with my thumb and shook my head. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it does.” She pressed her hands to my chest. “Whatever hurts you, hurts me. I felt your anguish, my love.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I laced my fingers through her hair, cradling her to my chest. “It’s over, and I’m here with you, and that’s all that matters. Remember? That’s all there is. You, and me.”

She sobbed quietly in my arms, and I simply held her, pressing kisses to that soft golden hair.

“Theron threatened me,” she murmured after a while, her face red and tear-streaked as she looked up at me. “He said things were going to get worse, so much worse. And that it would be all my fault. Because I refused him again.”

“This isnotyour fault. Anything he does, anything at all, that is not your fault. None of this.”

She shook her head emphatically. “I can’t give in to him. Iwon’t.”

“No, you won’t, and I won’t let you.” I brought my mouth down on hers, tasting the saltwater on her trembling lips, knowing how dangerous this was, knowing that at any moment a guard could discover us. But she was so sweet and warm, and I could not resist her. I decided that any punishment I’d bear would be worth it for those few moments of tasting the one being in this Realm that belonged entirely to me.

The kiss made her cry even harder, her fingers curling around the collar of my shirt and dragging me into her. I never wanted to let go. I never wanted to step away. And yet I knew this wasn’t over. I knew I’d have to watch her fight again in the Pit, and I’d be powerless to help her.

If Theron meant to make matters worse, he’d find a way to sink to new levels of depravity. The thought made my blood heat with rage. How the fuck was I going to protect her from all of this?

There was a cough, and I drew back quickly. I looked up to see the priestess entering the temple, gazing intently in the other direction.

I clutched Elara’s face in my hands, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll see you tonight.”

She inhaled deeply through her nose, shaking her head. “You can’t, Theron has placed extra guards around my tower. I hear them all night, talking and laughing. It’s too dangerous.”

I gritted my teeth.Fucking Theron. “It’s alright, my love. I’ll see you in the training arena.”

She nodded, still crying, and pressed my hand to her chest. “Yours. Remember?”

“Always, princess. As I am yours.”

I tore myself away from her and left her, still weeping, in the temple, resigning myself to the reverberating anguish of my nightmares as I threw my travel-weary body into my bed.

I’d lied to her, of course. It wasn’t just her, and me. There was an entire world around us, determined to keep us apart, to tear her to shreds, and to break me down again.