Page 47

“Don’t play dumb.” Her face hardened, and shadows flickered around her from the torch on the wall nearby. “Are you doing this to get back at me?”

He ground his teeth together. “I’m not doinganything. The only thing I’ve done is be a good host.”

“I find that difficult to believe based on what I saw earlier. She’s not someone to use against me, Thane. I thought you were fine with… us.”

“I am,” he snapped and tore his gaze away.

“She was wearingyourclothes, and you didn’t have a shirt on.”

“Why don’t you ask her?”

“I will.”

“Why do you care anyway? You got what you wanted. You sound jealous.” With everything in him, he wanted her to be.Gods, he didn’t think it would be this hard. She left with Hel and he was the one who told her to go.

Part of him was just jealous that they had a soulmate and he was left with nothing. Even if they’d been as close as anyone could be all those years before in their past life, he was still the third wheel. Even when he had Varlett as his fiancée, she wasn’t what Valeen was to Hel. It had been an arrangement for political power, and sex. That was all it was.

Hel and Valeen had a special bond that even time and war and heartache couldn’t break. They had a love that he desperately craved.

A love that he thought he had with her…

Now he wasn’t even sure he knew what love was if it could be taken away, if love could slip right through his fingertips and into the hands of someone else.

She glared at him, and he swore soft shadows began to flutter around her. “You’ve never seen me jealous, Thane. If I was, believe me, you’d know. But she is my sister.”

“And Hel is my cousin.”

Her crushing blue eyes bore into him, straight to his soul. It made him a little uneasy. It had been a long time since he’d been on the wrong side of her wrath. “And I was with him before I was ever with you. This is different and you know it.”

“Are you saying she’s off-limits then?”

“I thought nothing was going on,” she retorted and folded her arms, lifting a brow.

“Katana understands what I’m going through, with people gossiping behind my back about my ex-fiancée sleeping with my cousin. She knows what it’s like to watch the person you were in love with be with someone else. Compared to how Hel acted, I think I’m doing a remarkably good job. I could be a territorial asshole, couldn’t I?”

He realized he talked about their love in the past tense, and that it was true. He’d been drawn to her and loved her here and in his life as War, but those chains were… broken somehow. It was as if he was seeing her for who she truly was, not the love of his life for the first time. He wasn’t even sure when it happened.

With a sigh she dropped her arms to her sides. “Look, I’m not saying she’s off-limits?—”

“Well good because it isn’t your place anymore.”

Valeen’s eyes flashed then she cracked a smile. “No, it’s not. Katana is a beautiful person, and I wouldn’t blame you if you did develop feelings?—”

“There is nothing going on, as I said. I barely know her.” She was gorgeous and he did find himself very attracted to her but there wasn’t anything beyond that.

“Alright, but you will know her. I’ve never met anyone else like Katana. She used to be the brightest person in any room, and one could argue she still is, but I can see in her eyes she’s traumatized. She needs safety.” They both glanced through the crack in the door. He found her sitting at the table, smiling. The sunlight shined on the back of her head making her hair even brighter, illuminating her golden skin. “And I should have anticipated the gossip of the servants. I am sorry.”

He lifted a shoulder. “I really don’t care all that much about the gossip of servants.”

“Just be careful with Katana. I don’t know what is going to happen with her and Atlanta. She told me she doesn’t want to see him and that she doesn’t consider him her husband anymore, but I don’t want you to get hurt again.”

The last thing he needed was to fall for another goddess and have her go back to her former lover. The main difference between them was that Katana remembered her last life. “You don’t need to worry. Shall we?” Thane pulled the door all the way open and gestured for her to go in first.

Wearing her gold crown tonight, Orlandia stared Hel down while he smoked a civar and picked at something beneath his nails. Katana beamed at them both, waved at Valeen and patted the seat between her and Hel. Fennan picked at the food on his plate while Piper and Leif sipped their wine looking anywhere but at the others at the table.

“Well, well, the High King and my wife are late.” Hel blew out a cloud of smoke and narrowed his eyes at him. “Busy?”

Thane quickly took his seat. The chair legs scraped loudly on the stone floor as he scooted up to the table. It was set with a mouth-watering spread. Meats and steamed vegetables and colorful fruit with a silver candelabra centered and a royal-blue tablecloth beneath it all. “Nope, just preparing myself for what is sure to be alovelydinner.”