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“Have I not?” Talos laughed, but it didn’t hold a modicum of humor. “I came here to help, only to discover from your brother that you have had possession of my missing bride for days without returning her.”
Math took a step forward, as if he might step between them but then changed his mind at the last second. Instead, he held up one finger, as if asking permission to interject a thought. “In our, um, defense, we didn’t know that she was your wife until you arrived.”
Jael hated the way the elf stared down at his apprentice as if he were dirt beneath his boots. It was clear what he thought of goblins—and humans, for that matter. “Now that you do, I demand you give her to me immediately.”
Angry words raced to Jael’s lips, but he’d lost control of himself once and wasn’t about to allow it to happen again. “She isn’t ours to give,” he said instead. He hadn’t been ignoring her when she dressed him down moments ago. He’d overstepped—and he knew it. As much as he may wish otherwise, he needed to let her fight this battle. “She will speak for herself.”
“Then it is settled,” Talos said, sounding smug. “We’ll leave at once.”
Jael’s mouth fell open. “But you haven’t even asked her what she wants! And I thought you came here to help us!”
“That was beforeyou attacked me.” He looked meaningfully at Jael. “I might have been convinced to offer aid, since you’re incapable of handling your own affairs. But now, the only thing I wish to do is collect my bride and leave. You can handle your own problems.”
“Lord Talos,” one of the older elves murmured as he laid a cautionary hand on his leader’s forearm. But Anrid’s husband shook him off with a frown. “Perhaps you will reconsider...” the old one suggested, sounding bleak, as if he knew his attempt would be fruitless.
“I’m not going anywhere.” Anrid’s determined voice echoed through the chamber as clearly as if she had shouted. She sat beside Medda, her head bent as she focused on the little girl. But when she spoke, it was for the benefit of the entire room. “I am not going anywhere until Medda is out of danger.”
Talos chuffed disagreeably. “The goblin child is of no concern of yours. Your duty is to come with me.”
Anrid’s head shot back, and she gawked at her betrothed as if he’d sprouted horns. “I will not leave.”
In that moment, Jael had never loved her more. But he couldn’t say such things in front of her beastly prospective husband. Indeed, he said nothing at all as Anrid and Talos engaged in a silent battle of wills. He held his breath and waited to see how it would fall out. He knew better than to come to her defense without her permission.
At last, the dark elf’s mouth turned downward, his hands flexing and clenching in turn. “Very well. I may know of someone who can help the child. There is a healer in Nestra who is known to fix impossible problems. I can take the child with me.” When Anrid opened her mouth to speak, the dark elf halted her by holding up a palm. “I will take her if you come with me at once.”
“Absolutely not.” The words were out of his mouth before Jael even realized he had spoken.
Anrid swept to her feet and shook out her skirts, stalking toward him. “Do not speak for me. Of course I will go with him to get help for Medda.”
“It’s not that simple.”
His gut twisted as he realized this had to be the worst time to tell Anrid the truth about the binding and the Bifrost. If he told her the truth now, if he told her that he’d been concealing this from her with Medda lying on the floor between them…she’d never forgive him. If she stayed, he risked losing the child and Anrid’s respect. If he let her go, he might save one goblin life, but what of all the other lives in Agmon? What about the Bifrost? What about her?
There was no right choice. Whatever decision he made, he’d never be able to forgive himself.
They stood two feet apart. She’d never appeared more beautiful than she did in this moment, with her bleary eyes and nose red from crying. With her hair tumbling around her shoulders and her mouth set in a grim line.
Fierce and beautiful and fragile all rolled together.
“Please,” he began, faltering over the word. “Please don’t go.”
It seemed so weak in light of everything he felt and all he wanted to say. But he’d never excelled at saying things, not like Kora who could convince a girl to jump off a cliff with him. Or like Eris who could talk the girl off the cliff when she was dead set on learning how to fly.
He willed her to understand all these things with a look, one look, because that’s all he could give her right now. Don’t go, don’t go, don’t go...
She stared into his eyes, the anger fading like distant thunder. Conflicting emotions pulsed at random as the storm in her gaze ebbed and receded. Without the anger wrapping her like armor, the human girl who’d taken his heart by storm appeared small and fragile, and he hated that he brought her to this place of vulnerability.
She wet her lips with her tongue and whispered, “Why? Why should I stay?”
Chapter 31
Her heart cried the words, but her voice had more self-control.
She waited for him to answer, for him to say the words she both longed for and dreaded; words that would bind them both in ways neither of them were prepared for—not with her bound to another and his world hanging in the balance.
Anger still coursed through her veins, but so did something else. She didn’t want them to part like this. She wanted Medda to somehow make a magical recovery and for her and Jael to mend the rift her angry words had created between them. Now that she had taken a few calming breaths, she regretted how harshly she’d spoken to him. Yes, he’d lost his temper, but had it truly been his fault that Medda got hurt? The Bifrost was more to blame, for it had reacted just as childishly as Jael and caused the quake.
And Lord Talos—her heart shuddered just thinking about his cruel tone and words.
