Page 51 of Daughter of the Drowned Empire

There was a sudden knock on my apartment door. I froze, not sure I wanted to see anyone, or who besides Aemon even knew I was here. The knocks persisted. Louder, more urgent.

Straightening my tunic, I pulled the front door open to find a distraught Tristan stumbling inside, arms already reaching for me. His hair was mussed; for once, he looked disheveled.

“Lyr! Gods.”

I took a step back. Fear gripped me. The sensation started in my toes, rising rapidly through my body.

His face fell, arms dangling uncertainly at his sides. “You’re afraid of me?”

My lower lip trembled, and I hated myself for it. I was afraid of him. I’d been afraid for two years.

“Because I bound you?” he asked, the shame and anguish surging through his voice.

“Yes,” I whispered.And because you’d bind my sisters if you could. If you knew.

“I….” He ran his hands through his hair, shaking. “I see you in my mind every time I close my eyes. The look on your face when I—it’s been killing me.” He shook his head, his hand reaching for me before he pulled it back, hugging himself. “Damnit, Lyr, it had to be me. I couldn’t let someone else do that to you.” This time he did reach for me, his hands on my shoulders, the pressure light. I tensed. “I knew they’d need the binding removed at some point—and hoped they’d need me to do it. It was the only way I could make sure I saw you again.”

I stepped out of his touch, backing toward the couch. “You paid a small fortune to do so barely an hour later. If you really meant to rescue me, why bind me to begin with?”

He closed his eyes, his hands fisting at his sides. “I-I don’t know. I panicked. I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. When I saw you being arrested, I just…I did whatever I could to stay at your side. In case….” He snapped his mouth shut.

“In case what?”

“In case the charges were true.”

My chest heaved. In case I had vorakh. Did that mean…had he wanted to be the one to kill me? And add another notch on his vorakh hunting belt? Or…was his mind changing about them?

“But then you didn’t see me again all week. You left me alone for seven days. Why?”

He shook his head again. “If that damned forsworn bastard had just stayed out of my way. Lyr, I wanted to see you. So badly. I was forbidden.”

His grandmother. Lady Romula. She still ran Ka Grey, still had final say in all of Tristan’s decisions. I shook my head.

He stepped forward, submissive, his palms open. “Please, don’t be afraid of me. I-I need to touch you.”

My chest hammered. Something coiled inside of me, tight and pressing. I’d been left alone for a week, untouched until today when the nahashim had snaked through my body, violating me to reveal my secrets. I shuddered, the ghost of their horrid embrace still reverberating inside.

“Please,” he begged. “Lyr. Let me hold you.”

I closed my eyes, inhaling and exhaling. This was Tristan. He loved me. He’d never hurt me….

Except he did hurt me. Again and again. More than he ever knew.

I took a step forward, and then another, until we were face to face, close enough for me to feel his breath on my cheek. My hands balled into fists at my side.

His hand snaked out, fingers curling around my waist, and I stumbled back from his touch. “No. Not yet.”

His eyes widened, hurt and shame clouding them. “Lyr, I love you.”

“What if…what if I’d had a vorakh?” I said suddenly. My throat went dry. “What would you have done?”

Tristan cocked his head to the side. “I would have killed anyone who tried to hurt you. I would have protected you, kept you safe with every last breath in my body.”

A shudder ran through me, and my heart lifted. “You would have defended me?”

“Lyr, I’d do anything for you.” His aura warmed, cocooning me with the truth of his words.

And just like that, the thing coiled tightly in my core unraveled. I didn’t feel any hesitation. I wanted Tristan. I wanted to touch him. I wanted him to touch me. All the doubt, all the fear I’d felt, ebbed away. He had changed, he was different. And he was mine. He would protect me. And if he’d come around on that, he could come around to my sisters. If not today, then soon. There was hope.