Ghleanna instantly saw the benefit of that. The thought of moving up the Northern Coasts and striking at the Lightnings almost made her tingle.
“That seems reasonable.”
“I am a peacemaker, Ghleanna. Not a miracle worker. Rhiannon will never agree to a truce with Helena. Never.”
Ghleanna winced. “Because of that wide ass comment? When Rhiannon took the throne?”
“It was said Helena’s exact words were, ‘I can’t believe that wide-ass cow now rules the Southlands.’”
“And after Rhiannon heard that, Bercelak’s, ‘I love your wide ass’ . . . not really helpful.” Ghleanna waved all that away. “No matter. Simply tell Helena no.”
Bram didn’t move. He didn’t speak. And yet Ghleanna could feel him recoil. Not from her, but from everything else.
Ghleanna pushed the fur off and got to her knees beside Bram. “What aren’t you telling me, Bram?”
“Nothing you need to know.”
“Are you protecting me?”
“You’re still healing. You need rest—not tales of the past.”
Fed up and worried for her friend—she didn’t remember ever seeing him like this before—Ghleanna straddled Bram’s lap.
He blinked hard, brought quickly back into the moment. “What are you doing?”
Ghleanna tugged off the cotton material that held down her arm and had covered her br**sts.
“Ghleanna—”
“Look at me, Bram.”
He smiled a little. “I can hardly look away.”
“I meant look at my eyes, you pervy bastard.” She laughed and said, “Now hear me well. I am no weak female who cannot handle hard news. I am a Cadwaladr.” And her back automatically straightened, her chin lifted. “And we are in this together, you and I. For good and bad. So tell me what you’ve been hiding from me.”
Bram closed his eyes, his breathing deepened. The walls of this place were closing in on him as they’d done to her.
Ghleanna lifted Bram’s hand and pressed it to the wound on her chest.
“We’re bound together, Bram. Nothing can ever change that. Nothing ever will.”
“Understand, it is not shame that stops me from telling you the truth, Ghleanna. It’s fear . . .”
His words faded out, his gaze on hers, and Ghleanna’s brow peaked. “You fear what I might do.”
“As you said . . . you are a Cadwaladr.”
She appeared so insulted, Bram almost felt bad for what he’d said. But she always demanded honesty. So honesty was what she would get.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he argued. “It’s not as if I’m pulling this concern out of my ass.”
She gave a little snort. “You might have a point.”
“I just need to know—”
“I won’t touch her. The Empress. At least not without orders from you or someone who outranks me. There. Happy?”
“Fair enough.” Bram took in a breath, watched his forefinger ease across the scar of her recent injury. He focused on that so he could let the words flow.
“Many years ago. I was lured here.”
“By the Empress,” Ghleanna guessed.
“She wasn’t the Empress then, but yes. By Helena. I was young and she was . . . beautiful, and it never occurred to me that I was being used. Once I was here, they sent word to Adienna that they had one of her royals and they wanted her to return the Fin who had gone past the port towns and been captured by Adienna’s troops.”
“Adienna didn’t bargain.”
“No. She didn’t.”
“Then why did we not hear of this? This is the sort of thing the Cadwaladrs excel at. We should have been sent to fetch you.”
“It was Adienna’s decision to do nothing.”
Ghleanna leaned back, her scowl dark and dangerous, her voice flat. “She left you here?”
“Aye.”
“So what did you do?”
“I bargained my own way out. It wasn’t easy. I learned to enjoy fish. All kinds of fish. And, in time, they eventually let me go.”
“It couldn’t have been that easy.”
“It wasn’t.”
Ghleanna cupped his jaw in her hand. “They hurt you.”
“Yes. Some scales were removed to send to the queen. But that didn’t help.”
“But there was more, wasn’t there?”
“The Emperor’s chancellor decided to make me his personal project. I’m still not sure why.”
“He enjoyed your pain. I’ve known blokes like that. They’re never for the quick kill. Not if they don’t have to.”
“Chancellor Kleitos does like his pain. And he enjoyed mine.”
“But you got out.”
“I did. The Fin Adienna had in her dungeons was Helena’s lover. When Adienna wouldn’t release him, Helena came to me.”
“Because she thought her hostage would help?”
Bram chuckled. “No. She came to me to complain. I’m in chains, missing scales—bleeding quite profusely. And she’s complaining.”
“How’s that funny?”
“You had to be there.” He shrugged. “She complained and I listened, pretended I cared, pretended I empathized.”
“Then you manipulated her?”
“No. I persuaded. And promised I could get her lover out.”
“And she released you?”
“She had no choice. Her father would no longer help and Adienna wouldn’t bargain. Killing me would only ensure her lover’s death.”
“So she let you go.”
“She let me go.”
“And, of course, you returned home and called for revenge.”
“No. I secured the release of her lover.”
“Why, Bram?”
“Because I’d given my word.”
“I’d call you a fool except that I’m sure it is the very reason you’re now the most trusted dragon in the Southlands. Which I’m sure is why she’s asking you to get this truce for her now. You helped her before . . .”
“More fool I.”
“You survived, Bram. Without anyone’s help.” Ghleanna’s head tipped to the side and she studied him. “It couldn’t have been easy for you to come back here.” When Bram only stared at her, “And yet you did. You came here to save me.”
“It was the only place I could think of at the time.”
She stroked his cheek. “Gods, I owe you more than I realized.”
“No. You owe me nothing.”
“Bram—”
“Haven’t you realized yet?” he asked, frustrated. Because the gods knew he didn’t want her pity. “I’d do anything to keep you safe? Anything at all?”
“I was to be protecting you, royal.”
“We’d run out of options.”
Ghleanna framed Bram’s face with both her hands, her dark eyes focused on his mouth. He didn’t know what he’d said to prompt this, but he watched her lean in, his breath halting in his lungs as her lips neared his.
But then there was that damn knock at the door.
Bram closed his eyes. Why? Why were the gods torturing him?
“What?” he snarled.
Kleitos in human form walked in. “I am sorry to interrupt, Lord Bram. But the Empress has requested your presence at the Senate.”
“Of course she does,” he muttered.
“Sorry, my Lord?”
“I said I’ll be there in a minute. Now go.”
“Of course, my Lord. I’ll be right outside.”
Kleitos slinked away, closing the door behind him.
“That was him, wasn’t it?” Ghleanna demanded after a moment.
“That was who?”
“The one who tortured you. The one who hurt you.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because you’re never rude to anyone. Even my idiot brothers. Not only that but I could feel it in your body. The way you tensed. It was him.”
“Ghleanna—”
Ghleanna scrambled off Bram’s lap nak*d, and stalked across the room. She yanked the door open and Kleitos quickly pulled back.
“Really, Kleitos?” Bram asked, slipping off the bed. “Listening at the door? Isn’t that beneath even you?”
“Oh, no, my Lord. I was doing nothing of the kind. Surely you—owwww!”
Ghleanna had rammed her head into Kleitos’s with all the force she could muster.
“You barbarian whore!”
That’s when Ghleanna hauled back and punched the Fin, most likely re-breaking his nose.
Kleitos scurried away and Ghleanna followed.
“I’m going to enjoy removing your skin, lizard.”
Bram caught Ghleanna around the waist before she could get her hands around Kleitos’s throat. He picked her up and carried her back into their room, slamming the door with his foot.
“You promised!” he roared, shoving her away.
“I promised I wouldn’t touch the Empress. Didn’t say anything about him!”
And damn her, but she was right.
Ghleanna itched to go back outside and finish what she’d started.
Imagining Bram as a young dragon, not even a full-grown adult, trapped in a dungeon and at the mercy of that slithering pond scum had her blood boiling.
She’d been alone like that before, but her kin had come quick enough. And she knew they would. She knew that none of her kin would leave her to die. But they were warriors, trackers, blacksmiths, pit fighters. Bram’s kin were cultured royals who relied on their queen for protection—and she’d failed them. Adienna had left their son and her loyal subject to the whims of the enemy.
And no one had suffered for it. Not Adienna. Not the Empress nor her father. And not Bram’s torturer. Unsurprisingly that stuck in her craw most of all.
“You’re right. You did only promise to leave Helena be. But now I’m asking you to do the same for Kleitos.”
“I’ll not make that promise, peacemaker.”
“He’s chancellor, Ghleanna.”
“I don’t care.”
“Do you wish to get out of here alive?”
“Of course I—”
“Then I want you to leave him be. Do you understand?”
She looked off.
“Ghleanna . . .”
“Yes,” she hissed. “I understand.”
“Good. I need to go.” He frowned at her chest. “Your wound is irritated.”
“It’ll be fine.”
“Yes, but—”
“It’ll be fine!”
Bram stepped back, raised his hands, palms out. “I’ll see you later then.”
He turned but Ghleanna caught his arm.
“Ghleanna, I have to go.”
“I know. It’s just . . .”
“Just what?”
Ghleanna raised herself onto her toes and pressed her mouth against his, her hands sliding into his hair, fingers digging into his scalp.
Bram caught hold of her waist and she thought he meant to push her away. But he pulled her close, held her tight, and slipped his tongue into her mouth.