“I heard about the emergency meeting,” he said, watching her face. “About the treaty. Did—did you really free both Ravence and Seshar?”
“Yes,” she said, “I did.”
“How? What did you say to make Farin agree? What happened in the meeting?”
“I gave him an offer he couldn’t back away from.” Her words were forced, short, as if it took enormous effort to say them. “With the pressure we put on him, the mines, the ships, the council, he folded. Seshar is free now, Samson.”
Different emotions rang through him, each enormous and powerful, but within the clamor of his elation, guilt laced up his throat again. He remembered their last argument. His brusque, harsh words; her bright, wet eyes. They were always arguing, and he found himself powerless and wounded to be caught in the same vicious cycle again where, at an impasse, he felt the brunt of his shame, the knife of her judgmental silence. Samson flexed his hand, unsure.
Elena watched him, quiet, unmoving.
Finally, after a few beats, she spoke, her voice thick and coarse. “You should go and find the Black Scales. Start arranging for your journey to Seshar.”
“What about you?” he asked. The thought of returning to Seshar without her after all they had done, after whatshehad done, depressed him into a thick gloom. “Where will you go?”
“Home,” she said, her voice hollow. “We both have to return to our homes, don’t we?”
He hesitated. She was right, and she was wrong. Seshar could be her home, just as Ravence could be his. They had fought and bled for each other for so long, and so much, that he did not where his began and hers ended. They were interlinked. Viciously, horribly—ravishingly. He knew Elena at her worst, just as she knew him in his deepest, darkest throes. No. He could not leave it like this. It was a disservice to their nations, their men, themselves.
“Come with me,” he said suddenly, urgently. “Ravence and Seshar—they are both yours. Seshar would love to meet the queen who freed them.”
“Don’t say that,” she whispered. Why would she not meet his eyes? “Seshar is not mine. It will never be. Please, Sam. Go home.”
“Seshar is your home too.” He paused. Cold sweat broke out on his arms, and his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. There it was again, that question, lodged in his throat, refusing to move. Elena turned, and his heart ratcheted a few degrees as her eyes dragged up his face. Maybe it was fool’s courage, or maybe it was his frustration overpowering his hesitation, but Samson found himself reaching out and raising her face to his. “Let me show you.”
“Sam—”
“Marry me,” he said.
Her eyes crashed into his.“What?”
“We were already engaged. Why not take it a step further? Marry me, Elena, and Ravence and Seshar will become one kingdom. We can rule it together, you and I. We will make sure Farin never again comes for our homes, our people—”
She pulled back. “I can’t.”
His heart wrenched. Silence beat in his ears, and then, in a soft voice, “Can you honestly tell me that you have not considered it? Power, absolute. People, worshipping at your feet. Our feet. You and I will make the most wondrous, powerful team, Elena.”
“I— Ravence is my home. I must go back to it first.”
“And Seshar.” He smiled. “You must see it. The wide beaches, sand so white it feels like pearls spilling between your fingers. We’ll have fresh nut-roast coffee in Ajgar. There’s a mangrove forest, not too far from my home, filled with little pools of fish so beautiful—”
“No,” she said, voice cold in its finality.
He stopped, his bite-sized hope fizzling out like a snuffed flame. “Elena, what is it? Why are you suddenly so— What have I done wrong?”
“This isn’t aboutyou, Samson,” she snapped. Her anger slid into him with its familiar pain, its lasting sting. He felt himself beginning to rise to it, like a puppet jerked by a string, bound to his old habits, but he caught himself just at the end.
“Think about it, Elena.”
“Go to Seshar. Leave me be,” she said.
He watched her go, entrapped by a sudden feeling of helplessness to know he could say nothing to call her back.
CHAPTER 62
JAYA
We cannot save the dead, but we can free them.
