with all barrels blazing. Jackson realized that was in some ways a very good quality in a ruler. He was not very tolerant of the many human protocols that interfered with doing the best or the right thing. In this way they agreed that the right thing deserved to be done, but they were almost polar opposites when it came to how to execute it properly. Menes would have gone after Marissa without wasting time … or rather, without wasting life. How funny, Jackson thought, that this nearly immortal being was so much more appreciative of the shortness and preciousness of life than perhaps Jackson himself was. Perhaps because Jackson had always thought there would be time later to do certain things. Now, having tangoed so closely with death, he felt quite www.ballantinebooks.comofihlyan understanding for Menes’s straightforwardness.
“Dusk then,” Jackson said, realizing after a long moment that they were waiting for his release. That was going to take a little getting used to. Not that he didn’t know how to take command. Training Sargent and his predecessor had taught him a lot about that, much in the same way the Academy did. All things being equal, however, he had never shouldered a massive responsibility like the one he currently held as Politic ruler. Not many men would have. There were not very many monarchies anymore, and those that did exist rarely took place in a crucible of war and power of this magnitude.
“What about Kamenwati,” Ram asked him once the others had moved out of earshot. “Docia said you were entertaining some idea that he might want to defect to our side? Do you know how insane that sounds?”
“When has any of this ever sounded sane? It’s no more far-fetched than Tameri herself defecting. The niece of Odjit? I would never have believed it. I’m amazed that you did when she finally told you who she was.”
“It was difficult,” Ram said slowly. “But by then …”
“You’d already lost your heart to her?”
Ram smiled at that, very clearly enjoying a memory about the incident. “Something like that. It could easily have been a trap and I could just as easily be dead right now, a knife in my chest while I slept. But, as you know, your sister is very special and well worth the risk involved.” Ram smiledg.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Jackson was out of his mind. Or that’s what he thought. Crazy and probably hallucinating that he was holding Marissa in his hands, the soft coppery strands of her hair streaming between his fingers like magnificent red waterfalls, gleaming with a touch of gold. Her warmth was emanating into him—he’d never known such enticing warmth before. Pervasive. Steady. Patient. Waiting for him to recognize it. Waiting for him to take charge of his damn life and go about the business of living. Everything was in flux, everything was changing. His home. His job. Himself. Hell, even his sister had changed. Nothing was the same as it had been three weeks ago.
Nothing but Marissa. And even there Menes’s proposal was to change her. To use her as a means to an end. A goal that meant far more to him than resolving this war, and he took that priority very seriously.
“I’m sorry I ever suggested …” he blurted out, trying to find some way of reassuring her that she wasn’t anything insignificant in her own life or just exactly how she was.
“No. Don’t be sorry. I … I’m actually flattered, I think. It sounds a lot like … oh Jackson, in a way it’s expression on his facebecauseibig incredibly romantic. Don’t you think? Two people born dynasties apart … and then this thing, this magical thing happens and they get to meet and create, literally, a love for the ages. Imagine. It’s as if you were Romeo asking me to become Juliet. Although perhaps that’s a bad choice as a metaphor because they—” She broke off suddenly, her breath catching in her throat.
“They die.” He finished it for her, not afraid of the stark truth of it. “Imagine,” he said back to her, “if death were only the beginning for those lovers. Imagine if they knew that the other would always, always be there for them when next they were reborn.” He touched a thumb to her lower lip, tracing the lushness of it. “What strength of purpose that can give them. What pain will come when one of them has to leave the other once more.” He sighed softly, his breath stirring her