Reign the Earth (The Elementae #1)(108)

Shaking my head, I went and sat on the bed with a sigh.

Slowly, Galen came and sat, his body almost a foot from mine. His hand was beside his knee, not near me, but after hearing those words, after all the horrors of the past few days, I wanted to touch him. I slowly reached across the space, edging my fingers over his.

He looked up at me and sucked in a breath as he turned his palm over, lacing our fingers together. “You’re sure this is all right?” he whispered.

“Holding hands?” I asked.

He looked down, his throat working. “If you don’t want to be touched, I’d understand. I’d respect that.”

I curled my fingers tighter on his.

“How is Danae?” I asked.

A muscle in his jaw flared. “She’s still asleep. I don’t even understand how Calix could have done this to her.”

“The blood,” I said softly. “He probably tried it more than once—he tried draining a girl of all her blood, and that must not have worked. I don’t know how he got it to work, but a girl—Dara, that girl from the communes, the one I thought—” I shook my head. “She died. And then Danae had her power.”

His fingers squeezed mine. “I know what he’s done in those experiments, Shalia,” he whispered, his voice rough. “I’ve been imagining—” He stopped his words abruptly.

I slid closer to him. “No,” I breathed, and even that called up tears. “He thought it would be more effective to hurt people and make me watch.”

His arm let go of my fingers to curl around me, pulling me against him, holding me so tight that every time we breathed we inched apart, only to be brought close again when we exhaled. “Kata said your baby’s alive?” he asked.

I nodded, and tears slipped down my cheeks. “My miracle girl.”

His hand moved down my side, coming between us to touch my stomach. “You’re the miracle, Shalia.”

I covered his hand with my own. “What happens next?” I asked, trying to swallow all the things I felt with his big hand covering my tiny, hidden child.

“We have to get you out of the Trifectate’s reach,” he said.

I shook my head. “We need to go to the desert first. I need to make sure my people are safe.”

“You broke the land bridge,” he told me. “We can’t cross into the desert.”

“Calix will think that,” I said. “But I’m sure I can find a way.”

He nodded.

“What will we do about Calix?” I asked.

“It is time he was deposed,” he said, looking to me. “And you are carrying his child.”

I pulled back. “You want my daughter to be queen? An infant who hasn’t even been born?”

He nodded. “With you as the regent. Yes. If we want there to be as little bloodshed as possible, we have to install a legitimate heir to replace Calix.”

“We would still need an army,” I said.

“Yes,” he said, his hand stroking my back.

I looked at him. “You could be king, couldn’t you?”

“No,” he said. “It’s either a legitimate heir or the crown reverts to the vestai.”

“I will consider it,” I told him. I took his hand from my cheek and clasped it in both of mine. “My family—the bodies—” I stopped, shaking my head.

“Burned,” he whispered, holding me tight. “According to desert custom, yes?”

I nodded, pulling back. “Which you know, because you’ve known my brother. For years.”

He sighed. “Yes.”

I stood from the bed. “So even when we met in the desert—you knew him. You knew about me.” My breath caught. “Did you know about the veil?” I asked.

He stood, frowning. “No,” he said. “Of course not. And I knew you existed, but truly, does it seem like Rian gave me any opportunity to know you? Of course he didn’t.”

I rubbed my forehead. “Then what were you doing? The whole time—did you follow me in Jitra? Did you—all those times you defended me, you were doing it for him. I can only imagine he made you promise to protect me.” My hand slipped to my chest, covering my heart, trying to keep something safe in there.

To my surprise, he chuckled, and I looked to him, his green eyes bright, his face unamused. “You think I could know you, touch you,” he said, his voice slowing, “kiss you, and have any of those things be about your brother?”

Beneath my fingers, my heart sped up again. “Earlier, you said …” My words left me.

His head tilted, but then he smiled, a rare, precious smile. “That I love you,” he said. “That I’m in love with you.”

I nodded.

“I thought you knew that already,” he said, his voice soft against my skin.

Slowly, I shook my head.

He came closer to me, pulling me into his arms. “That’s despite your brother. And mine,” he said. “Not because of them. I couldn’t help loving you.”

Releasing a deep breath, I felt my body melt against his. Tight, and close, and sheltered, just feeling each breath fill my chest and leave again. “I love you too,” I whispered to him.

He went still against me. I looked into his face, and his throat was working wildly, but the rest of him was frozen and wide-eyed. “You do?” he asked.