The Warrior King (Inferno Rising) by Owen, Abigail (reading a book txt) 📕

said to Rune. “And you don’t know me. But my mother trusted you.” She glanced at Tyrek and back to him. “My uncle trusts you. My sister trusts you.”

Sam straightened beside her. “Based on what I’ve seen, I think we could be stronger together than apart. Don’t you?”

Exactly what she’d been thinking. She inched her hand into his and squeezed. The warmth of his emotions hit her right in the solar plexus, spreading deliciously outward from there. All coming from Sam. Realization sneaked inside her with it. She wasn’t scared of his emotions. Not anymore.

What was going on inside her? What was driving this sudden change? The empathy? Had opening herself up flipped some kind of switch?

Regardless, some piece of her, unknown to her until this moment, was sure that they were the same in that way. Both of them felt like outsiders. Both buried their emotions deep down and did what had to be done. They were…the same. Or two parts of a whole. Like a lock and a key.

Meanwhile, Rune crossed his arms, considering both of them. “I’m not coming back into the fold only to find another dictator rising up in Pytheios’s place. I’ve been pretty fucking alone cutting off the heads of hydras with nothing to show for it except more heads.” He held up his hand, missing the mark of his king, his bitterness a stark sizzle around him.

“Until now,” Aidan said quietly.

Meira locked gazes with Rune, needing him to hear her. “You think my sisters or I want another monster to lead?”

When he said nothing, she spread her hands wide. “You’ve met Skylar.”

Beside her Samael gave a small snort that might’ve been a laugh but only served to remind her how she was still holding his hand. Slowly, she inched away, hers turning colder at the loss, the wood of the table rougher against her skin.

“What are you suggesting?” Rune asked with narrowed eyes. That tiny spark of hope inside him pulsed.

Meira rose from the table. Extra confidence was helpful, but she was facing down a powerful shifter. “I suggest we start trusting each other.”

Silence. But she could feel a subtle shift in him, as though he was considering all the pros and cons.

She raised her eyebrows at Rune.

After a second he dropped his defensive stance, hands falling to his sides, resolution rising to the top of the emotions filtering through to her. “It means you fill us in on what’s happening with the clans.” Rune was dead serious.

“Don’t you know?” Samael asked.

Rune shook his head, frustration beating at her. “The Alliance is the main group that gets any direct communication from the clans. Obviously, I don’t talk to them, but our team of enforcers do, and they still aren’t sure what information to trust.”

“That would be frustrating.” She gave voice to the emotion rolling off him even stronger now.

Rune gave a jerking shrug.

Samael regarded them in silence. Seeing what?

Finally, he glanced her way and gave a small tilt to his head, as though seeking her permission. He was asking if they’d share everything. Including Angelika. Trust couldn’t be forced, but the truth was a good way to earn it. Again, that sensation of being in sync with someone, both foreign and oddly familiar, the way she was with her sisters sometimes, struck her hard.

You are his queen, she reminded herself. He needs your permission.

She nodded.

“We will tell you of the clans—all of it—on one condition,” Samael said.

Rune crossed his arms. “That would be?”

“That you give us your side of the events here. Because I sense this group isn’t the only one involved.”

Rune and Aidan both had once been part of that enforcer team—men dedicated to protecting the interests of the clans and kings within the colonies, appointed directly by the kings. They looked at each other, communicating in that way people only could if they’d been through years and battles together.

Relief was the last thing she expected to feel from the man, but that’s what hit her hardest. With a sigh of satisfaction, Meira shored her empathic shields back up. Reading all those emotions might be easier now—not a tidal wave, but it wasn’t restful, either.

“Fair enough,” Rune said finally. “Who wants to start?”

…

Samael’s internal clock told him they were well into the middle of the night. They’d hunkered down in that massive kitchen and talked. For hours. At least three different times, he’d tried to send Meira to bed. She should be resting, recovering her powers and her strength. But she’d blown off the suggestion with a scowl that reminded him of a feisty kitten.

A fact that only added to the tension building inside him all night. Tension that needed to be bled off either by releasing his dragon and taking to the skies or claiming his mate…

Now, as they were finally dispersing and heading to their beds, he leaned over where she still sat beside him, body humming at her nearness, her heat, her light. She’d been understanding, dealing with Rune, and suddenly so self-assured it had made his heart soar to witness the transformation. No flames like a phoenix, but certainly the soul of one. As well as clear vision, as though she could see to the heart of what Rune needed. Information and trust. Way more understanding than Samael would have thought to be. Seemed that the soft touch she had, that big heart, could reach people. Maybe he’d been wrong about her strays after all.

She’d make a wonderful queen. But then…she wouldn’t be his.

Unless we don’t find Gorgon, because then I’m the king.

Bile burned up his throat at the disloyal thought. Everything that made him was being torn to shreds, pulled in two competing directions, and he didn’t know what the fuck to do about it.

“Do me a favor.” The words came out gruffer than he intended as he tried to throttle his tangled emotions back. “Stay with your uncle in his chambers tonight.”

Meira frowned up at him. “You’re going to do something ill-advised, aren’t you?”

“Just do it.”