Page 43 of A Baron of Bonds
They both stopped mid-sentence, the tension palpable between them.
“Do you mind if we sit, Your Majesty?” I gestured to the puffy violet-cuffed chairs near the table. “We’re absolutely famished this morning.”
I kept my face straight as Karus turned to me in irritation, and the Queen slid her lower jaw to the side, gathering patience to deal with anything I said to her.
She gave a short nod, and I led Karus to a chair, handing her a plate and picking up my own.
We’d only had time to share the apple this morning, and I was well aware part of Karus’s anger was from hunger.
I bit my lips inward trying not to laugh as she hastily began piling her plate with small pies filled with sausage and gravy.
I plucked some sort of egg pastry from the tray and sat back into my chair.
The Queen joined us, taking nothing for herself. “I have more questions for you, Karus.” She paused and glanced my way. “You as well, Baron Revich.”
I nodded and began chewing. If anything, I was presenting myself in the worst possible way. But I was angry, too. And this show of indifference would get under her skin the quickest.
“Is it true, then?” Queen Rina glanced down to Karus’s left wrist.
She held it up, so the Queen could see the unblemished underside, no longer holding the curvedlfrom aliberummark.
“How could you complete a companion ceremony without a conduit to conduct it?”
Karus ate furiously, swallowing and swiping her thumb across her lip. “We had my magic. We had Baron magic. We did not need a third.”
The Queen narrowed her eyes on me as if I had forced her into it. I was cool and collected in my next words. “What is it you think I have done to your ward, Your Majesty? She sits before you now, whole and happy, and yet you still question my intentions?” I placed my plate on the table and leaned forward. “What did you expect when you let Heimlen take her? Did you think she would not change? Did you think she would not grow? Did you think the same woman who left would be the same one to return to you?”
She struggled to hide it—the effect my questions had on her—but I noticed the shiver that worked its way through her body as I voiced the very things she refused to consider.
“I could have helped her. Prince Philius, Geyrand—we loved her, and we could have helped her. You didn’t even let ustry, and now my son spends his days drinking and starting fights in taverns.”
“So that’s why you’re angry.” I nodded slowly, falling back into the puffed chair. “That’s why you put on this sham of a trial?For what? For protecting the woman I love from never returning to me?”
“What have you told her, Rev?” Karus set her plate on the table and turned to me. “How much of this story does she know?”
“Enough.”
“You didn’t tell her then. You didn’t tell her what I did to cause the loss of myself.”
I gritted my teeth. I hoped I wouldn’t have to.
Karus laughed in realization, pointing my way. “That man protects me even now, Queen Rina. Even at the sake of himself, he chooses to protect me from any potential harm.” She reached across the chair, offering her hand.
I took it.
The Queen watched us, her wrinkles plainer on her face, the bags under her eyes, swollen with sleepless nights, more obvious. I wondered who the woman was that Karus once knew because I was convinced this woman was not her.
Karus cleared her throat and swallowed. “I hope you’ve set aside some time, Your Majesty, because I have some things to tell you.”
I watchedKarus as she told her story,ourstory, leaving out some of the best details in my opinion.
But perhaps we shouldn’t push any more buttons.
I glanced at the Queen occasionally, to see how she was taking in all of what had happened to Karus after she left. But really, I just wanted to watch Karus retell her life. I had recited this very story to her not too long ago, and it had been emotionally draining.
But the love of my life sat straight, her long torso held high, towering over the Queen’s. What I could feel from her was…resilience.
When Karus spoke of what I had done to bring her back—all the searching for the rhyzolm, staying away from her to give her time to adjust to life with Moira, the questions in the study—I shifted in my seat, reliving that time with each word she spoke.
