"You could've told me six months ago that you wanted to come here," I say, pulling away from where my body spoons hers as my earlier annoyance at her resurfaces.
"Now, where's the fun in that?"
My displeasure grows. "I'm serious."
She gives me a loud round of applause. "Congratulations on being the first man in Yterras who is equally as grumpyaftergetting his dick sucked as he was before."
Damn her. I laugh, against my will. Maybe she has a point, I don’t want to scare her off me as soon as she’s come back. I like her as my lover.
She smiles at me fondly, a little apology in those pretty eyes. "I didn't tell you because my army hadn't decided when you left. When we signed the contract I figured it'd take a messenger three months to arrive anyway."
"I didn't think your people would choose to come here."
"They chose here because they love seeing new places. Plus, the money was too good to pass up for them, and your offer to train them all in basic healing was one we'd never had.” She sighs. “Everyone thinks I'm mortal, so soon I'll have to leave and find a new life before they realise how slow I'm aging. My role isn't just to lead my people, but to put them in the best position for the next Commander. So you offering to train all of them in basic healing? It's an offer I'd never refuse."
"You don't have to leave. Tell them you're immortal."
"And when they question why my eyes don't glow? And why I have no Evergreen magic in me?"
I could put a bit of Evergreen magic in you.I leave that one firmly in my thoughts. “Then stop taking the potion."
"Then how would I explain the fact that I have the powers of a sorceress?"
My chest aches for her. It’s a horrible position to be in; to hide who you are or come clean and risk your life. "Have you ever let them come forward?"
"No, and I don't intend to. I'll be captured, tortured, and traded before I can blink an eye."
"Sorceresses are not so different from powerful Evergreens. Once you have your magic under control, you won't be very noticeable, especially given your ears.” I say, but she’s disengaged. She’s not willing to try. “So you leave. And then what? You start up a whole new life as a peasant or a housewife, stay there for seven or eight years, and then just vanish?"
"That's my plan. It's all I have."
The idea of Renna living as someone else's wife sparks a fury in my soul. Not just because I want to be the only one to touch her, but because it's so…not her. She'd be moulding herself to fit in a box that was not made for her. It’s not happening.
"And Onyx will follow you willingly," I say, pushing on her weaknesses. It's what I do.
"I don't ask him to!"
"But he will, Renna. Own who you are. Stop hiding from what you are. Stay here as Commander, and I'll ensure you're safe. Fuck your one, two, and three-month contracts, I'll give you a ten-year contract. Then Onyx can live as he chooses."
"How can you say that when there were wars over sorceresses?” She says, shouting now, her face wrought in emotion. “The enemy finds out I am one, and they'll stop at nothing. You'd put the lives of your entire army at stake to protect some woman you fuck? Because that doesn't sound like good leadership to me."
She shakes her head and sighs as if she is giving up. "Look, Rex, I don't want to keep ruining Onyx's life. I mean it when I say that nothing would make me happier than him living out his dreams, but I have tried and tried to get him to give up protecting me but he won't. He's scared, I think, of what he'll become if he isn't his sister’s bodyguard. It's all he's ever been."
"I could open him up to the idea of work as a guard here."
"You'd do that? You hate him."
"We don't get on when it comes to you, but he's what I look for in my guards. Nothing fazes him, he's strong and trained in battle. If he'd learn to read and write I'd consider hiring him."
"Really? You could talk to him about it?" She asks, a bright spark in her eyes; it's hope. Hope that she could see her brother happy. I'd have done this a while ago if I'd known it'd make her face light up like that.
Shit, I'd find a way to rearrange the constellations in the sky if she asked me to.
I'm a lost cause.
Chapter24
Bad Journalism (Rexxan)
