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“Don’t we all have plans? We all have hopes and ambitions. It doesn’t make us terrible. I wanted to find the woman who belonged to my brothers. I wanted to unite our tribes.”
“You wanted power.”
“Of course I wanted power. I still do. You know what it means to be a woman. Without power we have to rely on our men or our king and Torin proves that this is not a good idea. Goddess, even my own father uses me as a bargaining tool and I know for sure he loves me.”
Bron had seen the way the vampire mercenary and his lieutenant had stared at Gillian all the long trek through the woods. “It’s not so different is it? You did the same to me. You walked into my father’s palace with the intention of either purchasing me or selling yourself.”
“Damn it, Bronwyn. Why do you have to put it that way? It’s not the same. Not at all. I went to negotiate a marriage between the crowns. You knew you wouldn’t just be allowed to marry as you liked, didn’t you? And my current situation is not at all like yours.”
“I don’t see how.”
“Because you’ve known them all of your life and they all of yours. I did not consider it buying or selling you. I thought I was bringing you home.” Gillian reached out for a moment and then seemed to think better of it. She pulled back into herself. “Since my brothers could speak, they talked about their princess. I felt as though I knew you as a sister before I ever set foot in the White Palace.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
Gillian shook her head, staring into the river. “Because you were so lost afterward and then you said something about the connection being broken. You cried out at night that you couldn’t feel them, that your Dark Ones were gone. I thought my brothers were dead.”
Gillian had thought Lach and Shim were dead? Bron searched her memory and remembered those first few months. She’d been dead inside. She’d searched for the connection but nothing had come as though a black space had opened in the center of her being and something that had always been filled was now empty. Bron had walked around, a simple body moving without any more purpose than to be alive.
What had Gillian gone through? Cut off from her family and everything she knew, she’d been the one who had forced Bron to survive, finding tutors so they could both learn the skills they needed. It would have been so much easier to find her way off the plane alone.
“Why did you stay?” Bron asked.
“Because I wasn’t sure at first,” Gillian replied after a long pause. “I thought perhaps that the magic I had used cut the connection. I used a white spell that drew energy from someone who cared about you. I gave you a bit of my own life force. I’ll be honest, I was surprised it worked. I was desperate. I didn’t know what else to do. After a while, when the connection didn’t return, I had to assume they were gone or something terrible had happened. Then I decided I would honor my brothers. They would have wanted you taken care of. And then somewhere between years two and three, I simply loved you as a sister and would have done anything to protect you.”
“You certainly reverted to form the minute you realized your brothers were alive.”
“I am not proud of that. I was so happy and felt so powerful. I had succeeded. Bron, I had done the impossible. I had survived and all I wanted was to celebrate that fact. You belong with them. You have to know it.” Gillian spoke with the fervor of a true believer.
“I don’t know them. You don’t understand what it’s been like, Gillian. You seem to think that I went into these dreams and Lach and Shim and I exchanged all sorts of information. We didn’t. They were dreams. I didn’t even know their names. I didn’t even understand they were real.”
“No, I don’t understand the connection. I don’t know how it works. The way they explained it to me, they could hear and feel you clearly, but they didn’t think you always could hear them. That’s why you need the full bond. You’re strong, Bron. You’re a strong bondmate. Roan says you glow more brightly than any consort he’s ever seen. Maybe that means your powers to bridge them are stronger, too. So strong that they could feel you, be pulled to you even across the planes. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that they know you. They love you. You’re married. Accept it.”
Bitterness welled despite the fact that she was already deeply involved with them. “Yes, you should take your own advice. Accept it. You’re practically married.”
Gillian frowned and a weariness came over her. “It’s not even close to the same. They don’t know me. They simply want a consort to strengthen them and elongate their life. I mean nothing to them. And I doubt I shall be able to get away. I thought about trying to run.”
“Why don’t you?” If she was truly miserable at the thought, then Gillian could run. She surely knew how to survive. She knew the plane and had lived here for a long time.
Gillian looked back at the tree line. “I will never get the chance.”
Bron followed the line of her sight and there he was. Tall and dark, with broad shoulders and a brooding stare. He was larger than his partner, though he was the subordinate soldier. Harr
y Riley stood watch over his treasure. No. Gillian wasn’t getting away. Not if Harry had anything to do with it.
“I heard them talking.” Gillian’s voice sounded hollow. “They intend to take shifts and the other vampires have their orders. I am not to be allowed privacy. They must keep their eyes on me at all times. Roan told me he won’t touch me until my father blesses the union, but he insists that it will happen. I am going to ask my father to find another consort. Surely there will be more once the plane is open. If your brothers do their jobs, I can be free. Unseelies who can bond are rare. They would be happier with a Seelie mate.”
But the look on Harry’s face told Bron he was already invested in the one he had. He wouldn’t listen to her pleas. He would simply take her.
As Lach and Shim had taken Bron. “Well, then, sister, if you manage to talk your father out of selling your body for his convenience, then you’ll be better off than me. I have no father to look out for me and I doubt your father made a deal with my brothers that didn’t include my marriage.”
“Gillian. It’s time to go back.” Roan came out of the woods, a frown on his face. “We have a long day tomorrow. Come back to bed.”
“Bastard,” Gillian muttered under his breath. “We’ll see who has the upper hand when we return to my kingdom.” She turned. “I wish you would forgive me, but I know you won’t. Please don’t take it out on my brothers. They’ve waited all their lives for you. They don’t know anything else.”
Gillian shuffled back, seeming determined to take her time and Roan seemed equally determined to be patient. The vampire followed her when she walked past him, giving his lieutenant a nod. The lieutenant nodded back and then his eyes were on someone different—Bron.
“He won’t leave.”
