What on earth?
He looked back at me and ordered tersely, “Rise, wife, and come to me.”
I didn’t want to, mainly because he looked pissed, but I did. I gave Ghost’s head a rub, straightened and walked to him.
I stopped a few inches away.
“Put your hands on me,” he commanded and I felt it prudent in the face of his continued anger to keep quiet and do what he said so I lifted my hands and rested them on his chest.
The minute they touched, his hands came up and, as they did earlier, they clamped on either side of my jaw but this time he pulled me roughly in and up so I was on my toes as he bent toward me.
“No one,” he ground out, his eyes an inch from my own, “no one touches my queen.”
“Okay, baby,” I whispered.
“No one threatens her with steel.” He kept grinding out his words between his teeth.
My hands drifted up to his neck. “All right,” I said softly.
“No one betrays her,” he kept going. “No one and especially not one she’s shown generosity and kindness, who has felt her golden touch.”
I nodded as best I could with his hands on me. “Yes, honey.”
He scowled into my face. Then he asked, “You have no words for the collaborator?”
“I…” I started, shook my head, again as best I could with his hands on me, then went on. “Honey, I promised you before you left that I wouldn’t again question who you are and what you do and I’m keeping that promise.” His burning eyes didn’t leave mine and I continued. “It’s hard, of course, because, you know me, I have something to say about every –”
I didn’t finish. His hands left my jaw, his arms locked around me, one hand at the back of my head, he tilted it to the side, slanted his the other way and his mouth crushed down on mine.
I held onto his neck as his mouth and tongue took their fill and then he tore his lips from mine. Then he shoved my face in his chest, I turned it so my cheek was pressed there and I pushed my hands under his arms and wrapped them around him.
“You came home early,” I noted (a little breathlessly) in order to take our conversation to the mundane.
“Zahnin says you felled a Maroo,” Lahn returned, not, obviously, in the mood for mundane.
“Tee…” I hesitated then went on cautiously, “she knew the attack was imminent and left my dagger that Bohtan gave me out for me. I had a moment to prepare.”
“That kut* did not save your life, Circe, Zahnin, Bain, Ghost and you did,” he growled on a squeeze of his arms. “I’ll listen to no talk of her giving you a moment to prepare.”
“Uh… okay,” I whispered.
Another mental note, don’t mention Teetru around Lahn either.
He was silent. This lasted awhile.
Then he said quietly, “I give thanks to my god you are warrior.”
I nodded. I gave it to mine too, on several occasions the last few hours. I had no idea I had it in me but I sure as hell was glad I did.
Then he went on. “And I give more thanks you hold magic. As you were battling, your lightning filled the sky. Warriors and everyone in the Daxshee knew the lightning storm was not natural but something to do with their queen. This gave warning and meant the traitor did not escape and other Maroo warriors lying in wait for the return of their brethren were also captured.”
Whoa.
Wow.
I didn’t know that. Any of it.
“Yes, magic is good,” I agreed, the light pressure he was exerting on my head relaxed and I tilted it back to look at him. Then I changed the subject. “Why are you home early?”
“Early this morning, we had a messenger from Keenhak. Keenhak spies close to the Maroo king heard of the plot and came to me. This decision was smart. They build alliances while Maroo seeks to end the Golden Dynasty. Keenhak will be rewarded for this act.” I nodded and he finished. “We rode hard to return to the Daxshee but we were too late.”
“I’m okay,” I said quietly.
“All day, I rode blind, the only thing I saw, visions of my golden queen covered in blood.”
Oh God. That had to suck.
“I’m okay,” I repeated.
“And I ride into the Daxshee only to see you covered in blood.”
My arms gave him a squeeze. “Honey, I’m okay.”
“I can see that and feel it, my doe, but I do not care. Vengeance –”
I pulled an arm from around him and lifted my hand to touch my fingers to his mouth.
“I know, Lahn. Rivers of blood. I know. It freaks me out and scares me and I don’t want you or anyone to be hurt but I know. This is what you must do. So you will do it but now can I ask a favor and can you be quiet for just long enough so that I can give you a welcome home kiss to add to your, ‘thank God my golden queen is all right’ kiss? Then you can rant all you want about vengeance.”
He stared down at me. Then he said against my fingers, “Remove your fingers, Circe, you can hardly kiss me with your hand over my mouth.”
I smiled up at him as my body relaxed in his arms and I moved my hand. Then I went up on tiptoe, he bent his neck and I gave my husband a welcome home kiss that was, I was guessing, pretty damned good. I guessed this because he lifted me up in the middle of it, my legs wrapped around his hips and he strode to the bed and I went down, him on top of me.
Ghost growled with irritation and jumped off her perch.
Eventually, Lahn’s mouth left mine and he buried his face in my neck as my limbs tightened around him.
There he was. So big. So strong. My husband. There with me. In our bed.
Then it hit me and I couldn’t hold it back so my breath hitched.
His head came up and his eyes found mine. When they did, his warmed.
“Baby,” he whispered and my breath hitched again.
“I killed one and a half men today,” I whispered back, a tear sliding out of the side of my eye.
His head twitched and he asked, “A half?”
“Bain cut his head off but I’d already sliced through his innards, a wound he survived right then but he wouldn’t survive it for long.”
I watched Lahn’s jaw get hard and I didn’t know if it was to bite back laughter or a roar of fury.
Then he informed me quietly (and scarily), “I am glad you did for if you had not, they would have killed you. The plot was to capture you, take you outside the Daxshee but murder you close and leave your body for us to find. Instead, they encountered a warrior queen, her extraordinary pet and guards with good instincts. As things did not go as they had planned, they would have needed to execute their plan as best they could and instead would have killed you in our cham.”
I knew this to be true. The first man had grabbed me and done it unarmed, probably underestimating me. The last had not done the same and came at me with a knife.
That scared the shit out of me but I sucked it up as best I could and nodded.
Then another tear slid out of my left eye followed by one from my right and I felt my nostrils quiver.
“She betrayed me,” I whispered and Lahn’s face went soft, his hand lifted to cup the side of my head, his thumb moving through the wetness at my temple. “Why would she do that?”
“I do not know,” Lahn answered in his own whisper.
I sucked in a breath that broke twice on the way in. “And since she did, why would she put out my dagger… warn me?”
“I do not know that either, my golden doe.”
I didn’t either.
I thought of Teetru’s face looking at mine after I gave her the bangle.
“She was my girl,” I said so softly it was barely audible, my breath hitched and my vision melted as my body started shaking with sobs.
“My Circe,” Lahn murmured, rolling off me but pulling me tight and cradling me close as I cried into his chest.
Lahn didn’t get the chance to rant about vengeance. It could be said that I had a tough day so I pretty much passed out right in the middle of bawling. I didn’t know what he did.