you draw breath, you can fight for your future.”
“This from a woman who did not even know the proper way to draw a dirk when I met her?” Sabrine had been fighting when Verica was still being coddled as a child in her mother’s household.
Verica crossed her arms and glared, not giving an inch. “There is more than one way to fight.”
“Is that what your mother told you?”
“Aye.”
“And it worked so well for her.” It might be a cruel thing to say, but the truth could not be ignored.
“I think so. She had years with her sacred mate. They had children and she loved us both so much. She was happy; though it was wrong that happiness was cut short by Rowland’s evil, she still had it.”
“That evil still lives in this clan.”
“Wirp is dead.”
“He was not the only one.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Do you think I am wrong?”
Verica’s look said it all. No, she did not believe Sabrine was wrong. No doubt she would continue to hide her Éan nature.
“You know I am right.” Though it gave her no pleasure to say so. “Yesterday, before Wirp attacked me, someone else shot at Barr and I with arrows.”
“It was Wirp.”
“No.”
“You cannot be certain.”
“I am. He could not have gotten past Barr to reach me in the forest.”
“He was masking his scent.”
“His Chrechte scent, yes, but his body odor? No, the man was rank with hatred. And he wasn’t moving stealthily. He would have left tracks if he had come from the direction of the arrows.”
“Maybe Barr missed them.”
“You think?”
“But . . .”
“I didn’t see him; for him to have gotten to me, he had to be coming from the other direction.”
Verica’s eyes filled with fear. “Who would try to kill Barr?”
“Those arrows were meant for us both.”
“But not necessarily because you are Éan.”
“You think someone is so angry with Barr’s leadership, they have tried to kill him?”
“I haven’t noticed anyone but the elders with that kind of hatred and even most of them have settled into his way of doing things,” Verica admitted. “No one grieved Rowland’s or Wirp’s death with strong emotion.”
Sabrine agreed and that led to one conclusion for her. “While no one truly grieved their passing, that does not mean others did not share the two’s unreasonable hatred of the Éan.”
“You cannot abandon your mate because you’re afraid.” Verica’s shock and disbelief were a palpable presence between them. “You are no coward.”
Barr thought she was and mayhap he was right.
“I will not be the reason Barr is assassinated by one of his own clan members.”
“Like my mother, you mean?”
“No. Rowland was power hungry. He used your mother’s heritage as an excuse for his evil actions.” But someone in this clan wanted Barr dead and she did not believe that person was driven by anything more than a deep and abiding hatred of their brethren with a bird heritage.
“You think it would be different with you and Barr?”
“Barr is bringing this clan to a better place; I cannot get in the way of that.”
“You are part of that.”
For a brief moment, Sabrine admitted to herself that she wanted to be. So, so much. “I have made him hate me.”
“You’ve made him angry. You are an intelligent woman; you can change that.”
“I have never found appeasement one of my strengths,” it was her turn to admit.
A mischievous smile shone on Verica’s lovely face. “Lure him to bed and then tell him the truth.”
“The truths are not mine to tell.” Always, she ran up against that immovable wall.
“They are if you trust Barr not to betray your secrets.”
Her heart was desperate to believe that, but her training fought with the desires of her woman’s soul. “What if he tries to force a reconciliation between our people and leads our enemies to us?”
“You really think I would do that?”
Sabrine spun, not caring that he had once again come upon her completely undetected. This time, when she saw her mate, she allowed her deepest inner instincts to lead her. She rushed across the room and grabbed both his arms, as if she could hold him there.
“I am not going anywhere.” He was not smiling, but something in his beautiful gray eyes said he knew the fear leaping in her chest.
“I don’t want to, either, but I have no ch . . .” She stopped, unable to utter the claim again.
Were the words even true? Verica’s earlier challenge demanded Sabrine rethink her defeated attitude.
She was no meek maiden to accept a path that