an event tonight, and he suggested that you attend with him. I thought it was a good idea, so I stopped by to see if you were free.”
“Who is this Leshing?” Braxis growled.
“No.” I pointed at him. “You don't get to growl like that over me.”
Braxis's jaw clenched, his eyes twitching angrily, and something snapped in me. Maybe it was the strain of waiting for him to return. Maybe it was my fear of what I could feel for him. But I found myself snarling at him as I had with Everan.
“You are not my mvarro, Braxis. You are not even my dvarro,” I went on. “You are here because I agreed to get to know you better. But I want to make it very clear that you have no claim on me. I don't belong to you!”
The room went still. Utterly silent. A muscle ticked in Braxis's jaw. The newest Duke of Hell got to his feet and stepped over to me slowly, as if afraid he might startle me into bolting again. With his gaze locked on mine, he knelt.
I gave a little gasp, my hard expression falling, but stood my ground.
“I don't know what I've done to offend you, Amaranthine, but I beg your forgiveness.” Braxis held a fist over his heart. “You're right, I'm here as a friend only. An ally. With the hope of becoming more. But I don't have any claim on you. It's the opposite. You own me. My heart belongs to you. My every thought is yours. My body, yours. My sword is ever at your disposal. Command me, and it will be done, Princess.”
I let out a shaky breath as a tear trickled down my cheek.
“That is why I growl at the mention of another man's name,” he went on mercilessly. “Because I am yours, but you are not mine. I will strive not to show my fear and jealousy if you will allow me to stay. But if you wish it, I will leave now and never again stain your light with my darkness.”
“Fuck me,” Cyprian whispered in awe. “The warrior's a poet.”
I made a whimpering sob as I stepped forward and pulled him into an embrace. He was so large that his head rested on my chest, even with him kneeling and me standing. I wrapped one arm around his broad shoulders and stroked his hair with my other hand as I laid my cheek atop his head.
“Damn you,” I whispered. “You couldn't have simply told me to go fuck myself?”
Braxis laughed, a rich deep sound that vibrated through my chest, and lifted his stare to mine. “Now what would that have won me? Definitely not an embrace.”
I laid a hand on his cheek and said softly, “Welcome back, Braxis. You may stay.”
“Thank you, pretty pixie.” He winked at me as he stood. Then he looked at Alex. “Now, who is Leshing?”
I rolled my eyes. Braxis had just rolled over my fear and anger with his courtly words, won my approval, then went right back to behaving as if I was his. I went over to kiss the Rians hello, giving up on the current battle. I'd win the war later.
“He's a man currently assisting F.E.A.R.,” Alex started to explain to Braxis.
I tuned them out as I reached my Triari consort.
“That was interesting,” Kyrian said before he kissed me.
“More than interesting.” Cyprian pulled me away from Kyrian and into his arms. He bent me backward and made a show of kissing me. When he set me on my feet again, he added, “That man is dangerous in more ways than I'd thought.”
“Are you upset?” I whispered, turning my body to block Braxis, who was now interrogating Alex.
“No, Se Esaria, I trust my goddess. She brought us together, and I have faith that she will continue to guide us. If Braxis is meant to be ours, he will be.”
I lifted my brow at the “ours.” But that was how Cyprian thought of us. Not in a sexually possessive way, but a claim that went deeper than family. That's what our fusion was to him. As Ruar, he was entitled to be possessive over his fellow kishanos. They were his, as all of them were mine.
“I missed you, Ruar,” I murmured in his ear.
“And I missed you, Se Esaria.”
Se Esaria was his special endearment for me. The words were Faulin for “my eternal flower” and were a play on my name and my immortality. From the first time Cyprian had used