Page 24 of Power's Fall

Dahlia gave him a small smile. “What does she watch?”

Montana grinned widely, and Vadisk appreciated the deft way his husband was distracting Dahlia from her sadness.

“UsuallyThe NotebookorReturn to Me.”

“Return to Me?” Dahlia asked. Vadisk wasn’t familiar with that film either.

“A romantic comedy with David Duchovny that’s at least twenty years old. Mama says it’s stupid and the heroine’s dumb, but Mom swears it’s one of the best movies ever made and she’s always crying within ten minutes of hitting play. Of course, Mom also lovesOverboardandTwister, so you might want to take her movie recs with a grain of salt.”

Dahlia laughed. “I’ll have to look it up.”

“You want to talk about it?” Montana asked, drawing knuckles along one cheek to wipe away the last of the tears.

“It’s just…” She paused, drawing in a deep breath before looking away.

“Just what?” Montana prompted.

“I was looking forward to getting married.”

Montana’s brow creased in confusion, but Vadisk understood exactly what she meant.His gut ached, hating that he’d made her cry.

Rubbing the back of his neck wearily, Montana asked, “Are you unhappy?”

“No,” Dahlia replied quickly, reaching out to grip Montana’s forearm. “No. Not with you.”

Montana nodded slowly. “With Vadisk?”

Dahlia sighed. “No. Not with him either.”

Vadisk felt a fleeting moment of relief, until she continued.

“But he’s clearly angry and… How do we make this work if he never accepts the marriage or us?”

Her response went through Vadisk like a dagger. His first impression had been way worse than he’d thought. Again, he was tempted to walk downstairs and pull Dahlia into his arms. To apologize to her for his shitty attitude and for making her think he was unhappy with them.

At first, he’d been shaken by the idea of leaving his home, his country, his job. Even now when he considered those things, a heavy lead weight settled in his stomach.

But none of that was their fault.

The problem was this mission, and Montana and Dahlia’s insistence that they present themselves as a couple traveling with their translator. It left Vadisk on the outside, with no way to touch them or talk to them the way he needed—no,wantedto.

Montana rubbed his jaw as he considered her question. “You and I are legacies, so we’ve had a lifetime to think about and prepare ourselves for when we would be called to the altar. I suspect that you, like me, approached the day we would be assigned our trinities with excitement, secure in the knowledge that we were embarking on something truly incredible.”

Dahlia nodded. She’d already admitted as much when she’d told Montana how much she’d been looking forward to getting married.

Montana reached out and took her hand in his. “Vadisk isn’t a legacy, so he didn’t grow up in the same environment. He’s coming at this union from a completely different perspective. He probably would have been stressed out meeting his trinity no matter what. And the way we’ve all been jammed together and sent off on a dangerous mission means his stress level is probably through the roof.”

Vadisk was grateful to Montana for generously offering a kind explanation for his poor behavior today.

“You and I also had the added benefit of not being complete strangers, since we’ve been working together to plan the trip. You weren’t a stranger to me when the Grand Master said you would be my wife. The same didn’t hold true for Vadisk. As far as he was concerned, he was placed in some unexpected, inaugural cross-society union with two strangers, assigned a dangerous mission, and then told he might have to immigrate to the U.S. at the end of it.”

“You’re right. That is a lot,” Dahlia agreed.

“So it makes sense that he’s struggling with this.”

Dahlia considered that, nodding just once. “Of course, right on the heels of being introduced to each other, we were all essentially plopped down in the middle of occupied territory that could easily become a war zone. We don’t really have the time to talk about what comes next for our marriage.” She shuddered when she said war zone, that reaction the first indication Vadisk had seen that she was uneasy in Crimea. She appeared so calm and collected, even after those intense hours being questioned in customs.

Montana released her hand and pulled Dahlia into his arms, the way Vadisk wished he could. “We’re going to be okay, Dahlia. We’re smart, capable, and none of us are reckless. We’ll get the information we’re here to find and then, once we’re home, we’ll figure out the rest.”

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