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Essos steps behind me and places steadying hands on my shoulders. How he knew I needed the strength to remain upright impresses me.
“These are your new bodyguards,” Essos says for me. It’s good, because the ability to speak is beyond me. Even trying to open my mouth is getting to be too much. “Try to kill them, and we’ll know about it. That is not gold star behavior.”
“You don’t need to talk to me like I’m a child.”
Helene scoffs. “You insist on acting like one, baby brother. Of course, we’re going to treat you like one.”
Essos’s hand slides possessively across my chest, pulling me against him so my back is flush with his torso. It looks like the tender touch of a husband, but I know it for what it is—support when my knees want to give out.
“Enough bickering,” Xavier hisses, turning away from Cat for the first time. Her small hand is still wrapped in his, and she lets him lead her back to where we all stand.
“Do you have a cell for me as well?” Galen growls, looking at the united front before him.
“That can be arranged.” My voice wavers too much, and his focus narrows back on me.
“If you behave, you won’t need one,” Essos tells him coldly. “Tomorrow, we will discuss what you know of Posey and how we can defeat her. For now, I’m sure Octavia would love to dote on her favorite.” Essos lets the comment hang like it’s a kindness, but we all know what it is, a thinly veiled threat. Octavia might love him best, but that doesn’t mean her love isn’t smothering.
I step away from Essos’s grip, needing to show to Galen that I can stand on my own. “I suggest you go to your room.” I don’t know where the strength comes from, but I don’t question it.
Galen steps into my space. He raises one hand slowly, not to strike, but it looks like to stroke against my cheek.
Essos grabs Galen’s arm and twists it so it’s bent at awkward angle before he punches the back of his elbow.
Galen cries out, glaring at his brother. “I didn’t touch her!” he shouts, cradling his arm.
Essos threads his fingers through Galen’s hair and lifts his head so he has to look at me. I can see the strain of the position in Galen’s throat. His Adam’s apple bobs as he finally looks at my face. There’s a flicker of fear there.
“That bruise on my wife’s arm says otherwise.”
I lift my arm to see what Essos is talking about. Where Galen grabbed me earlier, there’s a dark bruise in the shape of a handprint. I didn’t think he grabbed me that roughly, but I must have been wrong.
In all the years I’ve been with Essos, I’ve never seen him like this, and I’m not afraid to admit how turned on that makes me.
“Take him to his room,” Essos says to my vine guards. “Quit crying, Galen. You’ll heal.” He lets go of Galen, shoving him forward a little. The guards each grab one of Galen’s arms and drag him from the room. Once he’s cleared of the doorway, Essos runs his hands through his hair before turning to me.
With the exact opposite treatment of his brother, he takes my elbow and lifts my arm so he can get a better look at the bruise.
“Are you all right?” Essos asks, his finger brushing the bruised flesh. It fades immediately, but that doesn’t seem to be good enough for him.
“Fine. Confused? Shaken?” I voice my thoughts, but I don’t know how loud I am. Essos pulls me to his chest and kisses my forehead. I turn my head slightly to better fit against him and see our family awkwardly standing around us.
“Why don’t we all sit outside?” Cat suggests, gesturing to the back door. My dining room table is in splinters, so there’s really nowhere for us to sit anyway. I let myself be led, trying to puzzle over what happened.
When we’re mostly seated and everyone has food, Essos hovers over me. I’m still too frazzled by what happened to be hungry, but I take a bite of a flaky croissant just to please him. There’s so much pent-up tension in his body that he can’t sit, and I don’t blame him. If I wasn’t exhausted from making those creatures, I would still be standing too.
“How is he back?” I ask, looking up at Essos. I feel fragile.
“The dagger was misplaced during the ritual to reopen the Underworld,” Xavier supplies.
“Misplaced?” Essos snaps, eyes blazing with fury. He slams his already bruised and bleeding fist on the table, cracking it. “How thefuckwas it misplaced, and why am I finding that out after Galen has come back and accostedmy wife?”
“There are a lot of reasons, Essos, and you need to calm down,” Xavier tells him, getting to his feet.
“When in the history of ever has telling someone to calm downactuallyled them to calm down? The man who murdered my wife was just alone with her and could have killed her again with the very weapon that is currentlymissing. Donottell me to calm the fuck down, because I can’t. You wouldn’t be calm if it was Cat in that situation! You know what it’s like, brother, to hold the person you care most about in the world as she bleeds out. I don’t understand how you can stand there and expect me to just relax like it’s a fucking day at the beach!”
Essos is screaming now, and we’re joined by Kai from the water and Dion from the house.
To his credit, Xavier does manage to stay calm, but the mention of Cat’s death seems to subdue him. “There was a lot going on. The Fates thought we had it; we thought the Fates had it. Remember: we had to carry both of you from the throne room. Then Finn was injured. It was an oversight, one we never should have made, but there is no going back.”
