“Come on,” she says.
“Wait. Tusk. Did you make amends with Rath? Did you do anything I asked? Or did you just wait four weeks, drink until there was nothing left inside your head but stupid ideas, then rampage through the city looking for me?”
“This is a dangerous city; you are at risk of being harmed. Look at the company you are keeping. That is a wild scum female if ever I saw one.”
“Scum is considered an offensive term under Krush,” Tix says. “You should really try to moderate your language. A lot has changed, old man.”
“OLD MAN!”
“We’re taking you away now, sir,” the authorities declare. They seem awkward. They know who Tusk is. Tusk’s reputation, authority, and gravitas are… well, being significantly eroded as we speak.
“I’m sorry, Tusk. But we can’t be together now. Not like this. This isn’t what I want.”
I wish I could tell him what I really want to say. That I have missed him, that he is the only creature in the universe that makes me feel safe, and that I want nothing more for him to be my mate. But I have to hold my ground. I’ve only just found it. I’m not relinquishing it.
Fifteen
Tusk
There is nothing like a stone bed to bring one to one’s senses after twelve hours of drying out. I wake in the morning to discover myself behind bars in a small cell in the middle of Megaris. I did not even get the benefit of a royal dungeon. I am imprisoned in the same place humans are kept in what might be the ultimate humiliation, if not for all the other humiliations.
“Well, hello there.”
I open my eyes to see a broad purple chest. My son never wears a shirt. It is as though he is allergic to them.
“Rath,” I say.
“I really never thought I’d be picking you up in disgrace,” Rath says. “Especially not from a Megarean station.”
And just like that, my humiliation is nearly complete. Rath is looking particularly smug, and why not? I have fallen from grace as spectacularly as it is possible to do without letting the king be murdered on my watch.
“I’ll take him,” he tells someone standing out of view. He talks about me like a pet, or a random stray.
“You must be so pleased, boy.”
“This is the most I’ve ever liked you,” he says as the jailer opens the cell.
“Really. As a chaotic drunk I suddenly become likable to you? That is what you want in a father?”
“As someone who has feelings, you become likable. All of this over a human woman. I tried to warn you. They’re addictive.”
He is being far more forgiving and doing much less gloating than I expected. Perhaps this is the time to do that which I have avoided doing for at least a year.
“Margaret will not agree to be my mate unless you and I make amends.” I come directly to the point.
Rath looks at me with those augmented eyes. He used to have eyes like his mother. They were torn from him when he failed and betrayed those he loved and those he swore to serve. I wonder if he knows the sorrow I felt when he was so badly wounded, and how many favors I turned in to keep him alive. I doubt it.
“Amends?” Rath seems puzzled.
“Let me begin. You are my son, and I have always loved you. Then you failed Megaris, and…”
“This is not a very good apology,” Rath interrupts. “I don’t have time for this. Lyric and I are undergoing a new fertility treatment Haut is working on. He’s used samples from Christopher’s hair DNA to work out how the mating happened naturally, and he’s going to replicate it.”
“How nice. Another grandchild I never see. I’ve lost count of how many are out there.” I have not lost count. The number is twenty-three. My bloodline is proud, strong, and emotionally distant.
Rath folds his arms over his chest. “You chose this path, father. You chose pride and coldness. You chose to drive us all away so you could control Megaris. I barely remember you from when I was younger. I hardly ever saw you, because you were out with the king, puppeteering the world.”
“Rath!” I snap his name, knowing I need to say this very quickly, or I will not be able to say it at all. “I am sorry I failed you as a father. I am sorry the path of your life has been painful and marked by betrayal. I am sorry I shunned you.”
He stares at me, his augmented eyes quite stunned.
“I truly never thought I would ever hear you say that,” he says. “You must really want Margaret.”
“She’s pregnant. She needs me. I will do what I have to.”
Rath snorts, and his snort sounds much like mine. “It’s not the best apology, and it’s not the most heartfelt, but I’ll take it. Margaret is a sweet woman. I hope you two are happy together.”