“What was I supposed to do? Let him kill her?”
“You were supposed to trust her, Daemon, just like you were supposed to do when Stefanos baited you into responding the other night. Your overreaction is what made him think she wasn’t strong enough. Your overreaction is what gave Isidor the chance to make his move.You. Not her. Stop blaming everyone but yourself.”
“You think I’m going to apologize for inadvertently keeping that snake from taking her to Ellas?”
Perla stepped back. Snarled. “No. In fact I don’t. And that’s the problem.”
Elianne had done her fair share of making Dae growl over the years, but she had to hand it to Perla—the princess had actuallymade him lose his temper. His veins glowed—something she’d seen him do purposefully, sure, for effect. Like when Isidor had come the last time, or even to show her his feelings the other day. But that had been controlled, careful.
Now she felt the magma boiling and surging in the mountain around them, its pulse no doubt matching his. “Dae, stop.” The temperature in the room climbed higher and higher, and while she didn’t mind, Perla would. “If you boil the princess of Daryatla alive, I’m pretty sure it would be an act of war.”
Wind and water whirled around the princess, who smirked. “Let him try it.”
Dae lifted a hand, flame dancing over his palm. Then he went utterly still.
The magma returned to its usual courses. The temperature dropped abruptly back to normal, so fast it gave Elianne a chill. The fire in his palm guttered out.
Perla’s posture didn’t relax, but it shifted. “What? What is it?”
Elianne pushed herself up a bit more, clenching her teeth against the pain.
Dae spun, wide eyes focused on her again. “He’s free.”
She frowned. “Yes, I know, and it’s my fault. I—”
“Not Isidor—Nik.” He cocked his head to the side, as if listening to a faraway whisper. Then he shook it. “Gone now, but it was him. I have no doubt about it. He was pulling lava to the surface at…I don’t know exactly, somewhere at the edges of my range. Which means on Fjordlandi. He’s free of Stefanos.”
“If Nik’s free, then Kyrja must be too.” Perla made for the door. “I need to get outside, where I can better sense the sea.”
Elianne tried to swing her legs over the edge of her bed, to stand, to get out there, to wherever Nik was.
Her head spun, the world tilted. “Fire and ashes,” she hissed.
Hands landed on her shoulders, one moved to cradle her head, and Dae eased her back down. “You need to rest, Elianne.”
Nearly thirty years she’d known him, and he’d never used that soft tone. Maybe she would have welcomed the familiarity before. Maybe, if he’d shown her this soft side of himself earlier, it would have helped her let go of the memories of Tristan. But now? “I need to go. Stop Isidor. I need to help Nik.”
“You’ll do him no good like this. You’d collapse before you made it out of the mountain.” This time, the words didn’t sound harsh. Just true. “Isidor is no match for his daughter, she already proved that. And Kyrja and your son together? Unstoppable.”
That also rang of truth. But this truth only made her heart ache more. Her son didn’t need her. Maybe he had when he was a boy, when she’d been taken from him. But he didn’t need her now. She squeezed her blurry eyes shut. “You should have let him kill me.”
“No.” He pressed warm lips to her forehead, but then his heat retreated. When she opened her eyes, she saw he had moved halfway to the door. “But I should have let you fight your own battle. The wind wielder was right about that.” He hesitated, throat bobbing. He took a step toward the door. “I’m sorry. She’s right. This is my fault, all of it. Every flaming thing.”
She shook her head, regretted it. Winced as she reached out a hand toward him. “It’s not. You’ve been a good leader to us all. The best you could have been.”
“No. I relied on myself, my own strength, when I knew that was futile.” He huffed out a breath and rubbed a hand over the tattoos on the side of his head. Then let it fall to his side. “I believed Axel’s lies. Isidor’s. I let them tell me who I was, what I was. And then I resented you for not letting me do the same to you.”
Her brows drew together. “What?”
“I wanted to dictate your identity—you always refused.” He clenched a fist, and she felt a pulse of lava go out from the heart of Helviti, through the underground pathways, out beyond hersenses. “As you should have. You were right to hold your son in your heart all these years. You’re his mother, and you never forgot it. Perla’s right—I resent it. Resent that no one ever loved me that much. No one ever fought for me like you fight for him.”
It had never once occurred to her that Dae wanted someone to fight for him. He’d never shown a moment’s vulnerability, never let any of them in closer than arm’s length.
Maybe she should have known. He was a person, beneath the scowls and gruffness. And everyone needed love.
Yet even as she thought it, she knew she wasn’t the one he needed it from, not really. She’d just been the only one nearby. Perhaps she should have made more of an effort, become a real friend. But more?
The memory of his kiss hadn’t lingered. Oh, it had obliterated the shudder-inducing thought of Isidor’s, and for that she was grateful. It had been pleasurable and warm and conjured images of what could be.
