Meg looked back towa
rd Cian and reached her hand out to bring
him into the circle. Beck worried that he would refuse, but after a
moment’s hesitation he threaded his fingers through Meg’s.
“You didn’t kill him because you had to save me,” Cian said
quietly. “He was right there. It wouldn’t have taken long.”
“If I had taken even a moment, the secondary front would have
been on me,” Beck tried to explain. He knew Cian would be upset that
he’d let their parents’ and sister’s killer live when he could have slain
him. “I would have been too late. It was selfish.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Meg disagreed.
“By saving Cian, I saved myself,” Beck replied simply.
“No, brother,” Cian said, emotion thick in his voice. “I don’t
believe it. I was there, just as Meg was. You didn’t want to lose all
that was me. You value the person I am. Goddess, Beck, I never knew
how bloody hard it is to be you.”
Bound
249
“You valued Ci over your father, revenge, and your own nature,”
Meg explained. “Don’t expect us to turn away from you for making
that choice.”
“I always trusted you, Beck,” Cian vowed. He pushed his chest
against their wife’s back. “Nothing I felt tonight changes that. It just
makes me proud to be your brother.” He grew very serious. “You
don’t want to go back, do you?”
Beck swallowed once, and then again. Of all the things it was hard
to admit, this was the hardest. “I don’t want to be king. I never wanted
to be king, not really. I want to be your brother and Meg’s husband
and father to our children, but I’m not sure that’s possible. There’s a
whole plane out there that will pressure me to go back and fulfill my