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The breath rushed from my lungs and I leaned in, wrapping my arms around his back. "I'm so sorry," I mumbled.
"You never left," he said, his voice a rumble in his attempt to be quiet. "I should've trusted you."
"No, you should've protected them," I said, "and you did."
"This isn't fair!" Tishlie whined.
I looked over to see Talin handing both Ela and Nari damp cloths. Their clothes were hanging from his arms, and neither seemed to care that Wraythe was here with me. We also ignored Tishlie's pathetic complaints.
"You good with them?" I asked Wraythe.
He nodded. "Yep. I'd just prefer Tishlie's not here when Ela's glow wears off." He lifted a brow pointedly.
"Get up," I snapped at her, turning to grab her arm and drag her to her feet. "Either you put that dress back on or I haul you through the temple like this."
"Asshole," she grumbled.
"Really?" I shot back. "You just made it clear to everyone in this room that you're a conniving little bitch, and you thinkI'mthe asshole? Maybe you need to rethink that a bit. How much of this do you think Ciella would like to hear?" I gestured for her to move faster. "I'm not even kidding, Tish."
Huffing in annoyance, she pulled the dress on, talking through the cloth. "I'm going to fail your friends."
"And I'm going to make your life a living nightmare if you do. The next session you have, I'll forget and not show. The first person who decides to truly beat you? I'll say you never gave me a sign. Oh, and the next time you hit me? I'm fucking well hitting back. Now, move!"
"It doesn't matter if she fails me," Nari called over.
"Matters to me," I told her.
Thankfully, Tish had her clothes on well enough for me to haul her ass out of there. Wraythe unlocked the door, I shoved my idiot of a ward through it, and then I heard it lock again behind us. Without caring, I turned Tish toward the initiate rooms and forced her to keep up with my stride.
I couldn't believe that she'd lied to me. Oh, I'd never thought she was some kind of pillar of virtue or anything, but this? She'd set up that mess in the bathing rooms? She'd actually been friendly with Ciella even back then? Had she been there when Eladehl had been burned with the wax? Had she known about it?
I wasn't going to ask, because I was so pissed off that I had no idea what I might do. Instead, I simply dragged her back to her room. Back then, I'd been so hurt that Nari would treat me like that. We'd fallen apart so fast, and every attempt I'd made to fix it had been thwarted, but it hadallbeen Tish. She'd set it all up and then manipulatedbothof us! It had been my fucking ward destroying the best thing in my life, and I'd beenpairedwith her? This was what Grath had been so mad at Zeal about. Had he known?
So, as soon as I shoved Tishlie into her room, I turned for my supposed mentor's. Using the heel of my hand, I banged against the wood, but there was no answer. I did it again. After a little too long, a door opened, but it wasn't the one I was standing at. It was across the hall.
"Anver?" Grath asked.
I turned to see him standing with a beautiful, dark-skinned girl. "Did you know?" I demanded.
"Know what?" he countered.
"That Tishlie has been lying to me. That she ruined my friendship with them. That..." I threw up my hands. "I don't even know."
Grath looked down at the tiny little woman. "Val, I need to handle this. You good?"
"Always," she promised, reaching up to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Let me know if you need anything, ok?"
"Just time," he promised her, then waved toward his room. "It's open, Anver. I even have something to drink in there."
I stepped into his place, and he was right behind me. Inside, it was nothing like mine. There were little personal items placed on the dressers, pictures hung on the walls, and the bedding was not the standard issue. I let my eyes roam for a moment, then pulled up one of the chairs at his small table.
"What's going on?" he asked. "Thought you were working a session tonight?"
"Yeah, Tish was with Nari and Ela for Sexual Orientation. Pain play."
"Oh," Grath groaned. "That couldn't have gone well."
"They didn't kill her," I offered. "But they got her to talk, and..." I paused.
