Eleanor’s Reviews > The Traitor Queen > Status Update

"I swore to fight by your side, to defend you to my dying breath, to cherish your body and none other, and to be loyal to you as long as I live." Picking up her knives, she slid them into their sheaths with twin thunks. "And that means where you go, I go, too."
"As you say, Your Grace." Offering his arm, Aren bent low, his breath arm against her ear. "There's no one in the world like you, you know."

"There were hundreds of them. And Ahnna said the biggest swam right up next to you, looked, then swam away. Over and over again.
They killed every single soldier in the water, but not you. And no one is calling you the traitor queen any longer."

"Ahnna saw. Taryn saw. Aster, God bless his superstitious soul, saw you jump off that ship and then swim, bleeding and thrashing, through shark-infested waters, and not one of them touched you."

"Do you know how we try traitors in Ithicana?"
"You feed them to the sharks."
"We suspend the accused traitor in the sea, then chum the waters. If the sharks kill the person, it means the charges were deserved, as was the punishment. But if the sharks leave the person be, that means the person isn't a traitor. I’ve never seen the sharks do anything but feast. Never heard of it. Until now."

"As soon as I'm well enough to walk, I'll leave."
Aren was silent for a moment. "If that's vour decision. I won't stop you.”
"Decision implies a choice, Aren. And in this there is no choice. I'm not wanted here."
He hesitated, his Adam's apple moving as he swallowed once. Twice. "I want you here, if you're willing to stay. If you want to stay."

"I can't."
"You can." He kissed her hard. "I've never once seen fear make a decision for you."
Lara shook her head. This was too much.
"I need you." His breath was hot against her lips. "And I need you to keep fighting."

Reaching through the bars, she caught hold of his face. "Look at me. Listen to me."
He resisted. Like he knew what she was going to say. But then he met her gaze.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for all the hurt that I caused you. All the hurt I caused Ithicana. And I need you to know that I'd die a thousand times over if there were a way to undo it."

"I've got you." He tugged her higher until their heads were just beneath the ceiling of the cave. "I won't let you go."
Vaguely she was aware that there were others behind him, but all she saw was him. And all she felt was the most profound sense of gratitude to God or fate or luck for allowing her to see him one last time before the Tempest Seas took her.

His lips a hair's breadth from hers, he whispered, "Awake or asleep, all I see is your face. All I hear is your voice. All I feel is you in my arms. All I want is you."

Exhaling a shuddering breath, Lara nodded into his chest, waiting for him to step away from her and go back to the others. But Aren didn't drop his hands. Didn't turn his back on her. Instead he pulled her closer, his fingers sliding under the hem of her ruined camisole, stroking the small of her back.