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“My lady,” Demos said gently, as if I were an injured animal. In a way, I was.
Crying softly, I curled into myself. “Go away. Please. I just want to be alone.”
“I know you’re confused,” he said, his voice coming closer. “I will try to make everything clear. Shh, please don’t cry.” He touched my hip, and my bottom lip quivered. He was killing me.
“Go away,” I whispered.
But he wouldn’t. He scooped me up and cradled me against him. My nose was filled with his scent, and I cried harder. I didn’t want to wanthim!
Now feeling furious, I placed my hands on his shoulders, trying to push him away. He held me tightly, not allowing me to escape.
“Stop. You are still too weak.” He grabbed my wrists and held them against my chest. “Look at me.”
I couldn’t. I refused to let him see how much I hurt.
“Look at me, Sierra.” He made a sound, a purring sound. My body recognized it. Like an animal’s call, it woke up and I found myself looking into those sky-blue eyes.
“All of this is a lot to take in, I know,” he said, “but whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably not true. Will you listen to what I have to say?”
“Do that again.”
He frowned. “Do what again?”
“That sound. You made a sound just now. Do it again.”
His jaw tightened. Something shone in his eyes but was gone before I could make it out.
I struggled against him.
“Sierra, be still. Listen to me. Like Auria told you back there, you are Omega. And yes, I knew. I had a feeling that was what you were, that morning you and I walked in your father’s gardens. So I tested it. I gave you something that night of the festival. It was why you felt so strange.”
I tried to picture in my head what that night had been like. I had been tired and cold. He had placed a woolen cloak around me. And I’d drank something. Yes, from his flask.
“You poisoned me?”
He shook his head, his eyes sweeping over my face. “No. It was something only an omega would respond to, the way you did. It was perfectly harmless. It confirmed what I thought. I gave you the counter remedy once I brought you inside.”
I shook my head, confused. “Why does it matter to you, though? Or is that what the Owl does when choosing a Fealty Bride? But wait, I had already been chosen before you even arrived! So again, why did you care? Are you even a Servant?”
He was so quiet I thought maybe he wouldn’t answer. With a frustrated grunt, I wriggled as hard as I could. I wanted out of his hold, tired of this game.
“Be still,” he said. “I can’t tell you why. And it isn’t important right now. What is important is that you get your strength back up. We need to leave.” All of this was said with such serene indifference I wanted to scream.
How was he so calm about this?
“Leave? Where to now? Let me guess. Some other friend’s cabin?” I said with as much bite as I could muster.
“To the Basilica. The arrangement has been made with Lysander Trajan. He will meet us there, and from there, take you home. To the Mor.”
The fight went out of me with those words. “So, I take it he still wants me.”
He let out a harsh breath. “Of course he wants you! You have no idea how important you are, Sierra.”
“You’re right. I don’t.” All I knew was that I wasn’t important enough to him.
Auria’s words echoed in my bones. Don’t confuse lust with love, my dear. They are two different things.
I was tired, so very tired. I just wanted to crawl into a hole and sleep for a thousand years. I was tired of the subject. Tired of the politics, all of it. Titus could take them and be well with it. Leave me out of it.
