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Maria reached out, her hand wrapping loosely around my wrist. She looked at me steadily, her large, dark eyes glowing with warmth.
“Beau, I would be happy to teach you some of what I know. If you like it, perhaps you could become my apprentice. It can be hard to find your place on a totally new planet, but that’s why we have to stick together. Help each other out. Honestly, I’d love to show you some of what I know.”
My heart was definitely going to jump out of my chest at any second. I blew out a breath and went right back to grinning at her, trying to smooth out the nervy edge of tension I got from asking her for too much.
“I would really love that. So much.”
She nodded, squeezing my wrist gently to let me know she understood. “Absolutely. When you’re settled and ready, come by my shop and we’ll get started, okay?”
“Okay,” I rasped.
“It was nice to meet you, Vorian,” she said to him.
“I have enjoyed this as well.” When he stood, he wrapped the blanket around his waist and came to stand behind me. His hand settled on my shoulder. “I look forward to the next occasion we meet.”
Maria’s lips twitched, but I got the sense she was used to Thorzi warrior propriety, and Vorian was the most serious of the lot.
She hefted the clothes I wasn’t keeping on her arm and left us behind.
“Was that okay?” I asked as soon as she was gone.
Vorian’s eyebrow arched. “What do you mean?”
I chewed my lip. There was plenty for me to be anxious about. I wasn’t used to luxury, and this wasn’t just opulence, but someone giving something to me. Whole outfits. An entire wardrobe. Sure, I assumed Queen Rochelle had it worked out with the palace coffers, or, hell, maybe that capitalism wasn’t a concern here, but it still felt likeso much. And it was going to take me a good long while to come to terms with the fact that these people were showing me generosity, not because I’d earned it, but because they were kind and I existed. And needed the help. Obviously.
But that wasn’t what I was struggling with here.
“I mean, like, if I work with her. That’s okay with you?”
He turned me toward him, and his hands settled on the tops of my arms. Tenderly, he brushed them down to my elbows and back up.
“Of course. I would be pleased for you to find purpose here.”
I bit my lip. “Right. I just, you know, didn’t know if there were some kind of stay-at-home-mom type situation where you’d prefer I stay home with the kid, or, I don’t know. I’m never going to be a warrior.” And I wasn’t a mage.
Something crossed his face then, but he didn’t say anything. I just had to hope it wasn’t disappointment.
“Warriors do not fight often. I would be available to care for our child if there were a skill you wished to pursue.”
Right. Duh. Because all Thorzi, before they lost their ability to have children naturally, could have children. It made complete sense that both parents would take a hand in raising their kids.
Eagerly, I nodded. “Yeah. And I really want to find my place here. And um—” I reached up to comb my fingers through his black hair, moving it back from his square jaw and behind his ear. “And you too. I mean, if you tell me we have to go back to Crux’s lab or want to take off into the jungle, just the two of us, I’m there for that. But if I get a choice? I—I’d really like people around. Humans, but Thorzi too. I want freedom. Is that... something you want?”
The muscles in Vorian’s jaw flexed. It wasn’t that easy. There was plenty in his life that he’d wanted and it’d all been denied to him.
But after a second, he inclined his head. It almost wasn’t a nod at all, but only because I thought he was afraid to admit to wanting anything too directly, for fear that wanting would only ensure that it was taken from him.
I pressed my palm against his cheek. “Yeah. See, this only works for me if you have a place here too. So, um, when you’re ready, I think we’ve got to clear the air. Talk to Kaelum.”
Vorian’s breath caught. His eyes fluttered shut, his lids faintly blue. But when he opened them again, his strange irises searched my face for a moment. This time, there was no mistaking his nod.
“If this is the place you prefer, then you are right. It is time for me to make my peace with the king’s court.”
CHAPTER26
VORIAN
How could I tell Beau that my state of contention with the court had never been my own choice? That I would do anything, literally anything at all, to keep him in such luxury as the palace offered, but that I belonged nowhere, and with no one, and my own room in Crux’s home was little better than the cell he had spent the last weeks living in?
