TWENTY

Kaia was sleeping by the fire in the great room instead of her own room, mostly because her own room always felt much colder. She was sleeping in her wolf form for once, so her ears perked up immediately when she heard the doors creak open. Everyone was already home, there was no one else to just let themselves into their property unless they were attempting it by force. She didn’t know who would be attempting to break into their house, but she knew a Stoneborn and a Fireborn who would do something about it. She shifted immediately and started to yell. “Taimon! Daiva!”

A few of the guards of the household burst out of their quarters along with a scramble of movement from farther away in the expansive estate. Taimon came down the stairs first from his tower room, but Hassir and Daiva weren’t far behind him, all of them in wolf form for speed after the panic in her tone.

All of them followed her look to see the doors beginning to open, though whoever was on the other side of them was having to exert quite an effort to get through them, heavy as they were. Taimon went immediately to Kaia’s side protectively, but Hassir and Daiva crept up closer to the door cautiously, growling at the prospect of an unexpected and unwanted guest.

Finally, the board on the door snapped under the strength of the intruder, and both doors swung open wide, letting in a blast of cold air that set everyone in the room besides Hassir immediately shivering. The snow outside swirled in front of the single figure who had appeared at first, but once he’d regained his balance, every flake that had drifted into the house retreated back outside, leaving him framed against the flurry of whiteness headed into the darkness.

Destin put up a hand to brush his hair back out of his face and looked over everyone in the room with a sly smile. “You should really start sealing that door with stone at night. That board can’t even keep an Oceanborn out.”

“Destin!” Kaia shot across the room, having pulled on a robe hastily while they watched the door. She jumped onto her brother and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. “You’re alive! You’re alive!”

He grinned at her embrace and growled as he returned the hug, lifting his smaller sister off the floor in the process. Taimon wasn’t far behind and joined in on the hug without waiting his turn, but it only made Destin laugh even harder. He kissed both on the cheek before he let them go to look them both over, reassuring himself that they were truly alright.

“You got taller.” He had to tilt his face upward to look at Taimon without letting go of Kaia.

“Well, you were dead. What was I supposed to do, stay shorter than you?” Taimon shrugged as if growing had been the logical thing to do.

Daiva stepped away from Hassir for a moment as she went to her brother, and Kaia dropped down and stepped back, as did Taimon. Only when her other siblings had stepped away did a single tear fall down Daiva’s cheek as she stared at her brother. “I am so glad I was wrong.”

Destin couldn’t stop smiling, but there were tears freely streaming down his face as he stepped up and pulled his sister into an embrace as well, even if she wasn’t generally the type. “I’ll try not to force you to admit that too often in the days to come. I’ve missed you, sister.”

Daiva embraced him and held onto him longer than she normally would allow before she stepped back. “I’ve missed you too. I did not know, for a while, how we would go on without you.” She looked back at Taimon and Kaia before she looked back at Hassir. “Some things have changed in your absence.”

The smile was gone from his face for a moment as she said so, and he followed her look to the Fireborn, who wrapped a piece of dark red cloth around his hips brought to him by one of the household servants. Destin’s eyes narrowed on the wolf, but Hassir wasn’t moving to attack or escape.

“Lord Hassir.” He said to acknowledge the man, still clearly unsettled by his presence. “Things have changed quite a bit if he is our guest. Not that he’s ever been unwelcome here, of course.” He treaded carefully, since he didn’t know what the situation was at the moment, but his words only got a grin from the Fireborn.

Kaia hadn’t been allowed to say anything to anyone, and now that she had someone she could tell, no one could stop her. “They’re going to be mated. You got home just in time for the show.”

Destin’s eyes went wide at that, but he looked back and forth between Hassir and Daiva to examine the expression on their faces. Seeing no denial from either of them, his eyes rested on Daiva, but he thought for a while before he spoke. “You’re certain?”

“Yes.” She went to Hassir again. “We are a good match together and we work well together. I could not find a better match, and I am not going to go looking. Hassir is who I have chosen, and he has chosen me.”

Destin had considered many different scenarios to which he might have come home. He considered what the world would have been like if he had come back and been alone, his family and Adriana all gone somehow. He had considered Daiva having died in the battle against the Genovin, leaving Taimon to try and keep the family and its friends together. Or Kaia doing so in the absence of all others.

But the possibility that Daiva would have chosen a mate had never even occurred to him. The reality of it standing in front of him, and the look of absolute assurance on Daiva’s face, was enough to set his whole world spinning all over again. When he was certain no one was joking about such a serious matter, he looked to Hassir again. If Daiva was going to take him as her mate, then Destin was sure the man knew what they were planning. “You and the Reef are with us, then?”

Hassir nodded, glad that the Oceanborn caught on as quickly as his reputation had described him. “As soon as we are mated. Many of my people have been waiting nearby for weeks, as have your own. We will move against Melyssa before the next Fulness.”

Destin was impressed, but he couldn’t stop himself from smiling just a little at the obvious eagerness in the man’s glowing red eyes. “Good. So long as you’re aware that if anything happens to my sister, you will drown in your own blood.”

Hassir only seemed amused, and he nodded. “I expect no less a fate.”

“That’s it?” Kaia mumbled to Taimon, since she wanted and expected that Destin would talk some kind of sense into their sister. Hassir was crazy.

Destin smirked as he overheard the comment, looking over at his younger sister as he folded his arms across his chest. “Yes, that’s it, Kaia. Daiva knows what she’s doing. I trust she’ll fill me in on her reasons a little more specifically later on,” he said with a pointed look at Daiva that called for a more private conversation at some point in the future, “but I also trust that she wouldn’t make this kind of a decision without giving it the weight it deserves.”

“I don’t think you would be saying that if I brought home somebody to mate. Somebody like…Lamson. Or Jared.” Both Earthborn that Kaia had spent her time with, but that no one seemed to like.

“No, you’re absolutely right. I wouldn’t be saying that.” Destin agreed completely, receiving a nod from Taimon to second his opinion. “I may have been away for the most of a year, but you haven’t aged that much. You’re still young, and it will be several more years before I want to hear the word ‘mate’ even mentioned with regard to you. Or our brother.”

Daiva nodded in agreement before she looked around carefully and gratefully at her family. It was a miracle that Destin had returned to them, and she was so very grateful to have him back. “The ceremony will take place tomorrow. I still need someone to stand as my witness and protector.” She said to Destin, since she didn’t truly trust anyone else to save her life if Hassir left her to die. She wasn’t really concerned about that, but it was still part of the ritual.

Everyone could see the anxiety on Destin’s face as he nodded his agreement, still glaring at Hassir to make sure his point was made. “Who is witnessing for you?”

“My sister Asira was notified just after the last Fulness. If she appears, she will stand for me. If not, then no one will.” He shrugged, appearing unconcerned about his own life and the very real possibility of his death at Daiva’s hands the following day.

“No one?” Daiva replied with a note of surprise, since she did not expect him to trust her so much already, but it made her happy to hear he did. It was just further proof that she had chosen the correct wolf to be her mate.

“No one. Even Asira’s presence is more of a formality than an actual safeguard.” He smiled over at Daiva, and while the expression might have been actually sweet coming from another wolf, from Hassir it seemed like just another kind of malice, even if it was an exceptionally intimate one. “If you wished me dead or thought you had something to gain from killing me, you’d have done it already. You’ve clearly had the opportunity.”

”I would rather keep you alive.” Daiva responded with her own kind of smirk. It was enough to make the rest of them uncomfortable to watch, even though wolves were never known for their privacy.

“Ew! Stop!” Kaia backed away. “You two don’t even know how to be romantic and it still is disgusting to watch.” She shook her head as she covered her eyes with one hand. “I guess it’s my job to fix the door now?” Kaia rushed to the broken wood doors, though she wasn’t sure what she could manage, since it was dead wood.

Taimon went to help get the doors back into place, while Destin went to greet some of the servants and the guards of the household that appeared at Kaia’s original cry of panic. All of them knew him, and some of them shed tears along with the rest of the family at his reappearance. Once the door was fixed, the guards returned to their posts and the servants returned to their beds, leaving only the family members themselves to catch up in the great room.

He was interrupted incessantly by both Kaia and Taimon as he recounted the events of the past months from his perspective, but eventually he managed to give them the entire story. Hassir seemed particularly interested in the location of the Free Isle, until Destin caught on to his reasons and assured him that it was well outside the farthest reaches of the Reef. Once that was established, the rest of his account went quickly, though his brother and sisters were just as incredulous as he had been at the existence of an entirely human society.

Once he was finished, it was Daiva’s turn to bring him up to date on all the happenings in the Isles while he’d been presumed dead. He listened quietly until she was finished, his mind spinning with everything that Daiva had coordinated in his absence, but he didn’t second-guess or contradict a single move she’d made. “So I assume Leander will be in attendance tomorrow? Along with all the other captains?”

“Yes. They will all be there.” She confirmed with a nod. “Leander is mostly supposed to keep Chiara from ruining anything, if they get wind of it beforehand. It has been kept very private, however, we intend to announce it publicly once it is over. We want to distract Melyssa in every possible way.”

Daiva was always thinking about how their plan would play out, but foremost in her mind at the moment was her mating ceremony. She knew that if her parents were still alive it would be something else entirely, a celebration, but she also knew they would have concerns about letting her mate with Hassir. Even though she missed them, she was proud of the decision she had made. “With the Reef’s assistance, this will end in our victory, Destin. I know it.”

“So long as the tide stays with us.” He sat back in his chair and sighed at the expanse of what was in front of them. “And so long as everyone does their part. Which includes Melyssa and her family playing into our expectations.”

”There is only so much planning that can be done.” Daiva looked confident, regardless. “We have planned as much as can be planned. Now it is time to fight.”

Kaia was sitting closest to Destin, and she looked up at him from where she sat on the floor next to his chair. No one had asked, but she was curious. “I visited Adriana until the winter came. Is she alright?”

Destin reached over and ran his fingers through Kaia’s hair briefly before pulling her in to kiss her forehead. Trust Kaia to be the only one who thought to ask about Adriana. “She seems to be well enough. She should be delivering soon, the way she’s talking. The boy she was paired with has been treating her well, by her own admission. I visited with her briefly on my way here.”

Kaia could tell that Daiva did not like the fact that Destin went to see a human before coming home to his family, but Kaia just smiled after Destin kissed her forehead. “I like seeing how much you love her. I hope I have that someday. Except probably not with a human.” She chuckled and shrugged. Maybe her brother liked being with a human, but she was much too wild for human men. “We’ll get her out before her baby comes, right?”

“That depends, I suppose.” He looked back over at Daiva, since her plan had a very specific timetable, and very little about it had factored in the humans at all. “On how quickly everything unfolds once it’s begun.”

“They won’t wait long.” Hassir finally chimed in. “If it were just myself and Daiva, our mating would have been enough to provoke them into action on its own. But once they also see that you are still alive, they won’t waste time.”

“Then neither will we.” Destin stated simply, since Daiva was right, it was time to fight, whatever form that took. So long as their people had gathered, as Daiva reported, to witness her mating ceremony, there was no longer any reason to postpone what needed to happen. “Tomorrow at sunset, then.”

* * * * *

Life in Chainhome taught Shian to wake up at the smallest disturbance, just as a means of self-preservation. More than once, one of the guards decided to let the slaves sleep as long as they liked, and savagely beat those who didn’t wake up when they should have. So when he heard a woman screaming in pain far away, he immediately jolted awake. He clutched the blanket and looked around hazily to find out what was wrong, especially when he didn’t immediately feel Adriana nearby.

Adriana was already awake and tucked away in the corner of their cell. Her back was against a wall and her legs were against the bars of their cage. She looked over at him when he woke up, but she felt like she was disconnected from her body. Adriana couldn’t say anything, all she could do was stare at him as the screams echoed around them.

“Ana?” He asked hazily, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he sat up on the pallet. “What’s going on? Who is that?”

“Someone is having a baby.” She replied softly as she rested her head on one of the bars. “I can’t tell who it is.” There were so many slaves that Adriana knew she probably wouldn’t even know the woman. “I keep waiting to hear the cry.”

It certainly didn’t sound like things were going well for the woman, whoever she was. Shian had only heard a few women laboring before, and those had been under much more comfortable circumstances. The sound was haunting, drifting down through stone and iron until it was like the distant wail of the wind rather than a human woman.

He got up and took the blanket over to Adriana and wrapped it around her shoulders and legs to keep her warm. A few months before he would have yelled at her for not taking the blanket with her when she got up, but he had since learned how futile it was to do so.

“Is it always like that?” He sat down near her, listening for the baby’s cries along with her. “I mean, it’s getting close to spring and a lot of you are getting close to delivering. Is it going to be like this a lot pretty soon?”

“Yes.” She looked as though she was about to burst into tears when he moved to sit next to her. Adriana leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder instead of the bars. “It sounds like that a lot of the time. It also depends on the birth. Some are worse than others.”

“Do yours normally go quickly? I mean, have they, before?”

“The first one took a terribly long time. At first I thought I could handle it, but halfway through I was calling out for Piers. He actually came and stayed with me. Not very many men do that.” She explained quietly as she looked up at Shian. “You do not have to do that.”

“I’ll be there if you want me to be. You know that.” He had assumed he would be there with her if he was permitted to be, just to encourage her and be there for their baby. “The guards already know I’m not going to be much good for working when that happens, I’ll be too worried about you.”

Adriana was quiet at first, but she nodded slowly. “You should be there for our baby.” She took a deep breath before she moved a hand down and entwined her fingers with Shian’s. “I need to tell you something.”

He thought from the screaming in the background that she was worried about her own delivery coming up, but it felt like something more in her tone. He squeezed her hand tightly and held it in both of his to warm her fingers. “Tell me what? Is something wrong?”

She moved just enough so she could whisper into his ear, since she was afraid someone else might hear her. “Destin is alive. He came here to see me.” She was trembling as she admitted Destin came into Chainhome, but her grip on Shian’s hand remained strong. Just as she had been afraid that Destin would not want to hear about how she cared for Shian, she also didn’t want Shian to pull away from her either. They were going to have a baby together. They cared for each other, loved and supported each other. She couldn’t bear to think of losing him either.

Shian felt like the entire world turned upside down with that simple phrase, and even though his mind reeled at the possibility that her lover was alive after more than half a year missing, he trusted her word. If she said she saw him, he believed her.

“That’s…” he was torn with too many conflicting emotions to even respond at first, and he shook his head in disbelief. “That’s incredible.” It was the only thing he could think to say, but his thoughts raced. Destin’s survival changed everything between them. Would alter everything about their relationship. She felt his grip tighten slightly as a new possibility moved through him, that her Oceanborn wolf would kill Shian for having been with his female in his absence. But nothing about Adriana’s description of the wolf had given Shian the impression that he was dangerous. At least not to his friends. “Where has he been this whole time?”

“He wasn’t able to talk to me very long, but after the battle with the Genovin, he was lost at sea for a long time.” She pulled back to look into Shian’s bright eyes for a moment before she leaned in and started whispering again. “He found an island of humans. Humans who are free.”

Destin surviving at sea for months was believable. He was an Oceanborn, and Shian had heard some slaves and even a few of the guards theorizing that Destin would return someday when it suited him, to rain havoc down on Melyssa and her family. He had taken on almost legendary status for having actually been good to Adriana and a good captain. But an island filled with free humans? That was beyond belief. “That’s just a children’s story, Ana. People have gone looking for it for generations. They never return. There’s nowhere wolves can’t touch.”

“Why would he lie about that? Especially to me?” She shook her head and turned so she was facing him as she gripped both of his hands. “He’s going to get us out of here, Shian, and take us there.” Adriana moved his hands so they rested on the sides of her protruding belly. “And we can have our baby there.”

“Us?” Even if a place like she was describing existed, and he had his doubts, he certainly didn’t think Destin would want him there. “You, certainly, but why would he help me?”

She squeezed his hands, but her eyebrows furrowed, since she didn’t like the way he was thinking. “I am not going anywhere without you, Shian.” Adriana let go of one of his hands so she could put her finger under his chin. She wanted to look him in the eye. “This baby is our baby. Your baby. I want you with me.”

He didn’t tell her what first came to his mind, but just nodded instead, accepting what she said, since he knew she meant it. Being with her, though, was greatly complicated if her lover was alive. “Then I’m with you. It’s like I told you before, I’m on your side, whatever happens.”

Adriana leaned in and hugged him tightly, even though it was awkward because of the giant belly between them. “I know it is complicated. But I still care for you, and I want us to be free and happy. The rest will work out when we get to the human island. It has to.”