Chapter Thirty-Nine

Silas

Fast as I was, my wings beating a furious tempo away from Caine's house and the carnage we'd wreaked, the rain was faster. It caught us halfway, the first few drops our only notice before the skies opened up.

"This is not the right outfit for this type of travel," Chloe mumbled in my ear as the first chill ran through her body. "I'm going to freeze before we get wherever we're going."

"To the palace," I said, letting heat and fire flow through my body, warming the skin, transferring as much as I could to Chloe.

"The palace."

I clenched my jaw. "Chloe, I want nothing more than to hold you in my arms and fly off into the wilderness where no one will find us. Claim you as my mate for real and raise a brood of mountain-wild children. But I will not go in such a way as to leave you in any sort of danger. Having to look over our shoulder constantly, worry about you, or worry about our children? I can't. I must settle this. Here. Now. Then I'll have you. If you'll have me."

"I believe you," she whispered, the wind pulling at the words, nearly rendering them impossible to hear. But I did.

Holding her tight, I hurried on as fast as I could to the palace. I wanted to get it over with.

A quartet of guards approached us as we landed. Upon sighting just who I held in my hands, they moved to encircle us.

"Take us to the sovereign," I demanded before any of them could say a thing. "We must talk."

The guards fell in around us, escorting us to her office. We approached her desk and paused, waiting.

"Jair, please wait outside," she said, motioning to the captain of her private guard.

"My Sovereign," the protector pleaded. "Please."

"I am perfectly safe here," she said. "Thank you."

Jair glared daggers at me as he walked past, and I tried to reassure him with only my eyes his liege was safe, but there was no point. He wouldn't be satisfied unless she was in a protective cocoon twenty-four-seven.

"You're back," she said once the door closed, leaving the three of us alone.

"Yes," I said.

"I was talking to Chloe," she said wryly.

"Uh, yes, ma'am," my mate said awkwardly, forcefully unwrapping herself from my side. "I am."

"What happened to you?"

Chloe shrugged. "Not much you don't already know, I'm sure. Seth and his friends broke into the palace and kidnapped me. They were using me as bait to lure Silas and the rest of his family into an ambush to eliminate them all in one fell swoop."

"And?"

"It failed," Chloe said harshly. "Seth is dead. Your son will be bringing his head back. The house is in disarray, I would assume. Silas mentioned something about killing Caine already. So, that tracks. And so, I'm back here."

"Indeed, you are."

My gaze flicked back and forth between the two women as they spoke. I was but a spectator. The question was, though, to what?

"I wish to make a request," I said, interjecting as the silence lingered.

"What sort of request?"

"I wish for Chloe to be remanded to my care," I said. "To stay with me."

"To serve her punishment with you?" the sovereign asked, her emerald eyes sharp and focused.

"No," I said firmly. "To spend her life with me. Free."

"She's a spy," the sovereign pointed out.

I crossed my arms defiantly. "Is she?"

Chloe shifted uncomfortably. "She's not wrong, Silas. You don't have to do this."

"I don't care what you were," I told her, my attention focused solely on a separate pair of green eyes now. The ones of the woman my dragon and I couldn't get enough of. The woman I wanted to spend eternity with. After having her in my life, I never wanted a moment without her in it. Ever.

"She just admitted to spying on us for her government," the sovereign said calmly. "I can't let that pass."

"She's not telling us everything," I argued stubbornly. "She still had this knife I gave her in her possession at Caine's house. Seth found it on her."

I tossed the knife on the table for the sovereign to pick up.

"Tell me," I continued as she turned it over, "if she really was a spy, why would she not give that up? I did wrong by this woman once already when I assumed she was guilty. I'm not making that same mistake again!"

My chest was heaving by the end.

The sovereign looked at the knife, then at Chloe. "Why would you not give this to them?" she asked. "You do indeed work for the CIA, do you not?"

Chloe looked at the sovereign, then the knife, then me, and back again. "Did," she said bitterly, shaking her head. "I did work for them."

"Why don't you anymore?" I asked, my heart soaring with fresh hope.

"Because of you!" she shouted. "Because I love you, and I couldn't do it. I just couldn't give you up. I tried. But then I kept imagining them making weapons from that damn knife and using them on you. I dreamed of coming across your body on a battlefield somewhere and knowing your death was on my hands. I couldn't do that. So, I told them tiny details, like how your government is arranged, things like that. But I couldn't give them more, Silas. I couldn't. So, they sent me back and said don't risk contact again unless I have something worthwhile. I was exiled. For you! It's crazy! I'm insane."

"You're not insane," I said, grabbing her hands as she started to wring them repeatedly.

"You're in love," the sovereign said.

"I gave it all up," she whispered. "All of it. My entire life left behind."

"Then let me help you make a new one," I said, wrapping her up in a hug. "Here. With me."

She broke, finally, flinging her arms around me as she soaked my shirt with her tears. I held her, stroking her hair and back, whispering sweet nothings into her ear, telling her it would be okay.

At some point. the sovereign left, leaving us alone in her office. It was a tacit approval Chloe could stay. But in my care. If she did something again, revealed she was still acting even now and betrayed us, then I would suffer as well.

But I had no fears about that. Chloe was mine now, and I was hers. The only thing left to do was to make the bond official.

I couldn't wait.