can either accept and honor her by doing so or decline and leave her to her shame.”
Taylor looks at me, her gaze questioning. But this is a decision she must make on her own. I am her king, but she is strong in her own right and grows more so each day. She seems to realize that and returns to Para.
“Your pledge is honored. Bladanon thronin.” She holds her hand out again, and this time, Para takes it.
10
Taylor
We travel for what feels like a day in the unending stone world. Over bridges and through tunnels, we find abandoned mining equipment and mushrooms that bloom wide and translucent along the walls. Water is plentiful—so different from the dry, dusty landscape above. It makes me wonder if there is some way to pull the water from underground and recreate a farming oasis on the plains, restore it to its former state.
Too often, my thoughts wander to Delantis’s death. It has weighed on me each moment as we trudge along, the horses following behind. Even more than that, Vanara haunts me—the way she looked when the darkness crawled up her arm. I wince when I remember it. The darkness that came from me. Leander has given me so much comfort, but I haven’t been able to shake the feeling that something is wrong with me, and taking a life has made it even worse.
“We can camp here for a bit,” Para says as we enter a medium-sized cave covered with glowing crystals overhead. “We’re making excellent time. I didn’t intend to reach this crystal cavern so soon. After this point, we should be able to ride the horses. The ceilings are much higher.”
“Are you all right?” Leander keeps a steady hold on my hand. He’s offered to carry me about a dozen times, but I’m fine. At least I am, physically speaking.
“It’ll be nice to have a rest.” I squeeze his fingers.
He drops a kiss on my hair and strides to Kyrin, unloading our supplies with unnatural speed. Before I’ve even had time to stretch, he’s got a fur pallet set up for me.
Beth plops down on it and pats the spot next to her.
Leander frowns, but doesn’t order her away. “I’ll be back, little one.” He gives Beth a hard look. “And you will be gone so I can attend to my mate.”
“If ‘attend to’ means ‘mate with,’ I’m all for it.” She gives him a thumbs up.
I snicker despite myself. I must be tired.
He stalks off to Gareth, who’s unloading Sabre.
“Why do I always miss the good stuff?” She kicks her feet out and lies back. “Come on. Tell me what happened. Begin at the beginning.”
I lie next to her and close my eyes. Somehow, telling her about the council, the crops, Delantis, and Vanara lifts a weight from me. I suppose her exclamations of “you’re so smart” and “Delantis knew you were special” and “that bitch Vanara got what was coming to her” helped a bit. I hold back on the details about the blackness that destroyed Vanara, the way it seemed to come from somewhere inside me.
“What am I?”
“Huh?” She turns to look at me.
“Didn’t mean to say that out loud.” I sigh and snuggle deeper into the fur. Leander arranged it so I don’t even feel the stone floor beneath us.
“I know what you are.”
My eyes pop open. “What?”
“A cock block.”
I snort. “Not this again.”
“I want to see the mating.” She sighs dreamily. “Is that so wrong?”
“It kind of is, yes.”
“I bet it’ll be like, pretty much the most amazing sex ever.”
“How many men have you been with?” I blurt.
She arches a brow. “We’re going to have that conversation, are we?”
“I just.” I shrug. “You know.” I shrug again. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“Are we talking the males I slept with on purpose or the ones who …” She tries to keep her tone light, but I sense the pain beneath it. She’s such a deep river of history and layers. Maybe I’ll never get to know all of her, but it won’t stop me from trying.
I take her hand. “I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“Eh, it was a long time ago. Besides, I was more prone to getting beatings than anything else.”
My throat constricts. “I know what that’s like.”
“You do?”
“I had a stepfather.” My skin crawls just talking about him. “He was kind at first. Or, at least I thought he was. But then he changed. And he would …”
“Bastard.” She says it so low it verges on