Page 2 of Claiming Sarah

“I am aBateen,” Silence uncharacteristically interrupted me. “The daughter of the ruler, Justice Bateen. That fact alone is enough for half the ghosts on Halla to want to murder me, and that is thebestscenario I could hope for.”

I blinked, trying to figure it out. “I don’t understand. How is that thebestscenario?”

“Because if they wanted to make me suffer first, they could possess my body and make me murder my children, before they murdered me.”

Horrified by the thought, I tried to wrap my mind around it all. “So, Valor, you unite Silence with the son who was engaged to her, and you say it’snota love match?”

Valor nodded solemnly. “Yes. I asked Deacon to do so because I trust him.”

Wave folded her arms and in a grumpy tone the historian said, “It is true, Sarah. Prior to the ceremony, there had been extensive talk of how to get around the after-union pomp. I had to perform considerable research on how to maneuver around such a thing. It took nearly an entirehourto perform the research, and I cannot tell you the last time anything took me that long.”

I looked up to Deacon, searching his handsome face. “This wasn’t because you two had been engaged before?”

He shook his head, sadness gleaming in his eyes. “No, Consort. Not at all. While it is true I had loved Silence for many years—”

“You might want to skip that part of things,” I said, not wanting to hear about his love for another woman, even if it was in the past. “I don’t need to think about any of that, while I’m trying to sort this all out.”

He gave a short smile and finally released my arm. “Understood. This truly was only to protect Silence and my half brother and sister from the ghosts here on Halla. My heart is not with her. It is with you. And with Jac.”

My eyes burned for a better reason this time around, and my throat tightened with emotion. “Do you mean that?”

He slowly nodded and smiled. “With every part of me.”

“Does that mean we are united again?” I asked hopefully. “I don’t know how Ladrian law works with all of this stuff.”

Wave chimed in. “As you were united to Deacon first, you have a claim on him and anything he does, despite the annulment. Do you object to the union of Deacon and Silence?”

“Yes,” I said without hesitation. “But what about protection for Silence?”

“We will figure that out,” Deacon said. “But it isyouthat I want.”

“Very well,” Wave said before I could respond to Deacon, and pressed the pendant on her uniform to record her words. “The union of Deacon Amroll-Bellket Ladrang and the Princess Silence Reticent Bateen is officially annulled.” She pressed it again, I assumed to turn it off. “Now you are free to unite with whomever you wish,” she said to Deacon, before glancing back at me. “However, your union is still dissolved, as you abandoned him.”

“I did not—”

“You did,” Deacon interjected before I could argue. But he didn’t seem upset to say it.

“I…” I stared up at Deacon, trying to find the right words to make him understand why I’d left him, and Jac, behind. “I just…I saw Jac in danger because of me, and I panicked and couldn’t stay, but when I got to Earth—”

Deacon lifted his hand to stop me from speaking. “You do not need to explain your reasons to me. All that matters is that now you are back, and we can be united once more.”

I glanced around at the audience we had, before meeting Deacon’s gaze again. “Can we go somewhere private to talk about that?”

“Of course.” He turned to everyone else. “Please excuse us.”

He opened the heavy backyard gate for me, and I followed him to the front of his father’s property.

The blue wildflowers bloomed brightly beneath our feet. Valor’s home on Halla was a quaint cottage compared toDeacon’s mother’s luxury glass home that could have doubled as a hotel. I had not seen anything that ostentatious on Halla, and I doubted anything like it existed on this micro-planet.

We walked in silence, every footstep a heavy reminder of what I had done. I had left him behind, yes, but in the state of mind I’d been in, I had to. Even now, I still didn’t know how to process anything that had happened during the fight with the conduits, and I wasn’t sure how I would deal with anything going forward, either. The battle had been bloody and brutal, and I had almost died. But I couldn’tnotbe with Deacon and Jac. The whole situation left me with knots in my stomach and fear in my heart.

Deacon’s ship,Allegiant, sat just beyond the front yard. A sleek exterior with frosted gray metal and many windows, his ship was more comparable to his mother’s home. High-end, polished. The door opened with a whoosh, and we walked through the brightly illuminated halls to his quarters. Deacon’s room was just as clean and crisp as the rest of the ship, but larger than most of the other rooms on board.

The moment the door shut behind us, I grabbed his uniform and pulled him down to me for a kiss. It was a cautious thing—just a peck, really—but I needed that contact with him. His warmth filled me from my lips down the rest of my body like a wildfire.

I sighed, releasing his lips from mine but I didn’t move away from him, or release his uniform. “Mm, thank you for that.”

He smiled down at me. “As I said, Sarah, anything you want.”

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