How could he have allowed Sumi to be harmed? Gods, it was so unfair that she should die like this.
Because of him.
Cairistiona stopped by his side to brush his tear away with a kind touch that made him hate her even more. “Since you were a child, Dancer of the Warring Blood Clan of Hauk, you have been a great friend to my son. When no one else could spare a kind word to him, you, alone, befriended him and stood at his back to protect him at great personal risk and cost to yourself. You’ve been a blessed protector of my grandchildren and daughter-in-law, and have bled countless times for them all. For that alone, there is nothing I wouldn’t do for you. And I mean that with every ounce of honor that flows through my eton Anatole blood.” She smiled and patted his cheek. “Now, if you don’t mind, I shall leave you with my daughter to discuss your futures.”
Hauk frowned as she gathered her guards and exited the room. Nykyrian didn’t have a sister.
Was the queen insane?
A slight, hooded woman entered the room as the last guard left. The door slid shut behind her. Her royal scarlet robes shimmered in the dim light as she approached him.
His scowl deepened as he watched her move. She had a slow, seductive gait he knew intimately.
No… it couldn’t be.
“Sumi?”
She lowered the hood to show him the smiling face he craved most. One that had been painted with the scrolling marks of the royal Andarion blood clan. “Hi.”
Still on his knees, he pulled her into his arms and held her close as relief flooded him. He absolutely shook with the weight of it.
“Can’t. Breathe. Dancer!”
He loosened his hold as he kept his face pressed against her stomach and inhaled the sweetest scent he’d ever known. “Please tell me this isn’t a dream.”
“It’s not a dream, sweetie.” She brushed the braids back from his face before she cradled his head to her. “When your mother demanded my life, Nykyrian and Cairistiona said that the only way to save me would be if I were a member of the royal house. No one can demand the life of an eton Anatole. They said she could challenge me to the ring, but she couldn’t require an actual death sentence.”
He still couldn’t believe what he was hearing. What Nykyrian and his mother had done for him… it went far beyond friendship.
Hauk took her bandaged hand into his. It was Andarion custom that whenever a child was adopted by a mother, the hand of both was cut and their blood combined to seal the union. Now that he thought about it, Cairistiona’s left hand had been bandaged, too. “The queen adopted you?”
She nodded. “Is that okay?”
Rising to his feet, he kissed her with everything he had.
Until someone cleared his throat.
Hauk pulled back to find Nykyrian staring at him with an arched brow.
“That’s my unmarried little sister you’re mauling, Hauk. Want to put some distance between the two of you?”
Still furious, he narrowed his gaze on Nykyrian. “Don’t push me. I’m barely refraining from planting my foot up your ass for not telling me about this.”
“Didn’t have time. We had to move fast and pretend we didn’t get your mother’s last transmission – she’s a tenacious one. You have Chayden to thank for that subversion, by the way. Never heard anyone fake static so well in my life. He’s quite impressive.”
Sumi touched her nose to Dancer’s. “I was on my way to the infirmary to tell you about it when I met Syn in the hallway. He said that when you woke up and I wasn’t there, all he could get out was that I’d been arrested before you started tearing everything out of your body and you stormed out to confront the queen.”
“And he should still be in bed,” Syn chided as he joined them.
Hauk pulled Nykyrian against him into a brotherly hug. “Thank you.”
“Told you I’d keep her safe. You didn’t really doubt me, did you?”
“Maybe a little.”
Nykyrian clutched his hand in Hauk’s braids. “You’re such an asshole.”
“Learned from the best.”
Jerking at his hair, Nykyrian draped Hauk’s arm over his shoulder and walked him back to his infirmary bed, where Nykyrian was less than gentle in removing Hauk’s sword and tucking him in.
Nykyrian handed the sword to Sumi. “Can you please keep his sorry ass in there, this time?”
“I will do my best.”
Syn was also a bit rough as he hooked up Hauk’s monitors. “Don’t make me do this again. The next set I’m shoving where the sun doesn’t shine, buddy.”
Hauk started to say something truly insulting, but the sound of an excited little voice made him bite his tongue.
“Uncle Hauk!” Devyn came running into the room and jumped on the bed before he threw himself over Hauk’s chest and hugged him tight.
This tiny being was the only reason he hadn’t killed Syn yet. “Hey, Devy. How’s my boy?”
Eyes wide, he gave Hauk a huge smile as he sat on his stomach. Right where he was injured.
Hauk ground his teeth and forced himself not to curse at the pain.
“Guess what? Guess what?” Devyn asked in an excited tone. “I grew a monkey, Uncle Hauk!”
Hauk frowned at the impossibility as he looked from Devyn to Syn, who was laughing about it. “A monkey?”
“E-e-e o-o-o ew ew,” a monkey said drily as it joined them in the room and sat down on the bed next to them. “Not that I haven’t been the sacred embryo’s monkey from birth, but this is a little ridiculous. Don’t you agree?”
Hauk was aghast as he recognized that acerbic tone. “Vik?”
The metallic monkey sighed so heavily, even his shoulders slumped. “Who else would the bonebag torture this badly? I would be more upset about it, but look.” With a large, creepy smile, he held up his hands for Hauk to see. “Opposable thumbs!” He wiggled them for emphasis. “Lot to be said for these. Makes me want to look up my old girlfriend.”
“Why?”
Vik wagged his eyebrows. “Cause now I can really turn her on.”
Hauk made a sound of irritation at the bad pun before he explained it to Sumi. “His old girlfriend was a lamp who, and I am using his words, lit up his entire world.”
She pressed her lips together. “Ah… okay.”
Devyn grabbed Vik into a choke hold. “I planted monkey seeds in a garden and I grew him! So he’s all mine!”
Vik stuck his tongue out like he was dying. “Help! I’m being oppressed and licked by a toddler! Stop sliming me, Dev. I’m going to rust!”
Sighing, Syn picked up the monkey and set it on the floor. “See what happens when your significant other can’t find a babysitter and refuses to let you go save your friend without her?”
Hauk scoffed at his annoyed protest. “You love every minute of it.”
Syn picked up his son and cradled him to his chest. “Yeah, I do.” He inclined his head to Sumi. “Hauk, you need to take a look at your transmitter I dug out of you. Fain thinks it’s Andarion. I’ve tried to get a lead on it, but this is more your expertise than mine.”
Sumi pulled it out of her pocket and handed him the small vial.
Hauk frowned as he held it up to the light to study the circuitry. “Yeah, it’s Andarion. But this is old-school stuff… kind of thing I first played with as a kid.”
“Jullien?”
He shook his head at Syn’s suggestion. “Jullien could afford better than this. He wouldn’t waste his time with something so primitive and old. I need it under a mag to see more of it.”
Sighing, Vik climbed back up the bed and took it into his hand. He opened the vial and placed the chip in his palm then turned to the wall and projected an enlarged image of it. “How big do you want me to go?”