J. Ward - Lover Avenged

Ehlena lifted her chin and stared across the study at a trained killer. “I want to know everything, and you are going to tell me.”

Xhex spoke for a half hour straight, and she was surprised by how good it felt. Surprised also by how much she approved of Rehv’s choice of female. The entire time she was rolling out the horrors, Ehlena sat on one of the silk sofas all calm and steady-even though there were a lot of bombs.

“So the female who came to my door,” Ehlena said, “that’s the one who’s blackmailing him?”

“Yes. It’s his half sister. She’s married to his uncle.”

“God, how much money did she take him for over the past twenty years? No wonder he needed to keep the club open.”

“It wasn’t just money she was after.” Xhex looked straight into Ehlena’s face. “She made a whore out of him.”

Ehlena’s cheeks drained of color. “What do you mean?”

“What do you think I mean.” Xhex cursed and started to pace again, going around the fringes of the gorgeous room for the hundredth time. “Look…twenty-five years ago I fucked up, and to protect me, Rehv struck a deal with the princess. Every month he went up north and paid her the money…and had sex with her. He hated it and despised her. Plus, she made him sick, literally-she poisoned him when he did what he had to, which was why he needed that antivenin. But, you know…even though it cost him a lot, he kept on making that trip so she wouldn’t blow our covers. He’s been paying for my mistake month after month, year after year.”

Ehlena shook her head slowly. “Good…his half sister…”

“Don’t you dare harsh on him for that. There are very few symphaths left anymore, so inbreeding happens a lot, but more than that, he didn’t have a choice, because I put him in the position of being trapped. If you think for one second he would have volunteered for that shit you’re out of your fucking mind.”

Ehlena raised a hand up as if to calm things down. “I understand. I just…I feel badly for you and for him.”

“Don’t waste that on me.”

“Don’t tell me how to feel.”

Xhex had to laugh. “You know, under different circumstances, I could like you.”

“Funny, I feel the same way.” The female smiled, but it was the sad kind. “The princess has him, then?”

“Yes.” Xhex turned away from the couch, because she wasn’t sharing what was no doubt in her eyes. “The princess was the one who blew his cover, not Montrag.”

“But Montrag was going to come forward with that affidavit, wasn’t he? Which was why you killed him.”

“That was only part of what he was going to do. The rest of his plans are not my story to tell, but let’s just say Rehv wasn’t even the bigger part of it.”

Ehlena frowned and leaned back in the cushions. She’d been fiddling with her ponytail, and wisps had come free of the scrunchie she pulled it back in-so that as she sat on the silk couch in front of a lamp, she had a halo around her.

“Must the world always be so harsh, I wonder,” she murmured.

“In my experience, yup.”

“Why didn’t you go after him?” the female asked quietly. “And this is not a criticism-it truly isn’t. It just seems out of character for you.”

The fact that the question was phrased like that made Xhex slightly less defensive. “He made me take a vow not to. He even put it in writing. If I go back on my word, two of his best friends are going to die-because they’re going to come after me.” With an awkward shrug, Xhex took the goddamn letter out of the pocket of her leathers. “I have to keep this with me because it’s the only thing that helps me stay put. Otherwise, I’d be up at that fucking colony this morning.”

Ehlena’s eyes clung to the folded envelope. “May…may I please see it?” Her lovely hand shook as she reached out. “Please.”

The female’s emotional grid was a tangled mess, strips of desolation and fear bound in ropes of sadness. She had been through the wringer these last four weeks, and she was in extremis, stretched beyond her limit and then some…but at the core, at the center, at the heart of her…love burned.

Love burned deeply.

Xhex put the letter against Ehlena’s palm and held on to it for a brief moment. In a choked voice, she said, “Rehvenge…has been my hero for years. He’s a good male in spite of his symphath side, and he’s worthy of what you feel for him. He deserves so much better than he’s gotten out of life…and to be honest, I can’t imagine what that female is doing to him right now.”

As Xhex released the envelope, Ehlena blinked quickly, as if she were trying to keep tears from spilling.

Xhex couldn’t bear to look at the female, so she went over to stand before the oil painting that depicted a beautiful sun setting over a calm sea. The colors chosen were so warm and lovely, it was as if the seascape actually projected a glowing heat you could feel upon your face and shoulders.

“He deserved a real life,” Xhex murmured. “With a shellan who loved him and a couple of young and…instead he’s going to be abused and tortured for-”

That was as far as she could go, her throat closing up so hard she found it difficult to breathe. Standing in front of the glowing sunset, Xhex almost broke down and wept: The internal pressure of keeping all of the past and the present and the future inside of her rose to such a foaming, sizzling combustion that she looked down at her arms and hands to see if they had expanded.

But no, they were the same as always.

Locked into the skin she was in.

There was a soft rustle of paper, the letter sliding back into its envelope.

“Well, there’s only one thing to do,” Ehlena said.

Xhex focused on the burning sun in the center of the painting and forced herself to pull back from the brink. “And that is.”

“We’re going to go up and get him out.”

Xhex shot a glare over her shoulder. “At the risk of sounding like we’re in an action movie…there’s no way you and I can go up against a shitload of symphaths. Besides, you read the letter. You know what I agreed to.”

Ehlena tapped the envelope on her knee. “But it says you can’t go on his behalf, right? So…what if I asked you to head up there with me. Then it would be on my behalf, right? If you’re a symphath, surely you must appreciate that loophole.”

Xhex’s brain churned over the implications and she smiled briefly. “Quick thinking. But no offense, you’re a civilian. I’m going to need a lot more backup than you.”

Ehlena rose from the sofa. “I know how to shoot, and I’m trained as a triage nurse, so I can deal with field injuries. Besides, you need me if you’re going to get around that vow you’re stuck with. So what do you say?”

Xhex was all for the guns-blazing shit, but if she got Ehlena killed in the process of letting Rehv out, that wasn’t going to go over well.

“Fine, I’m going alone,” Ehlena said, tossing the letter down on the sofa. “I’ll find him and I’ll-”

“Hold up, hard-ass.” Xhex took a deep breath, picked up Rehv’s last missive, and allowed herself to be open to the possibilities. What if there were a way to…

From out of nowhere, purpose poured into her, her veins firing up with something other than pain. Yes, she thought. She could see how to work this.

“I know who we can go to.” She started to beam. “I know how we can do this.”

“Who?”

She put her palm out to Ehlena. “If you want to go up there, I’m in, but we do it my way.”

Rehv’s nurse glanced down before leveling toffee-colored eyes on Xhex’s face. “I go with you. That’s my one condition. I. Go.”

Xhex nodded slowly. “I understand. But everything else is up to me.”