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“Shhh I want you” I pressed a kiss to her forehead “We’ll figure out everything else later”
She shook her head and pulled back slightly “I’m expected to take a consort, not a mate Consorts don’t rule beside us, they sit behind us, and you don’t exactly strike uy ould walk a step behind if you knohat I’”
I opened
“You’re too strong to be a consort And while your abilities are incredible and don’t exist anywhere else in the world, my people won’t see it that way They’ll see you as an interloper, or worse—”
“A threat,” I finished, already having had this conversation in my head a dozen times since I saw the mark on her arm
She nodded “And I don’t even want the stupid throne Not really I’m better suited to be a weapon than a diplomat, but my mother won’t care” Panic rose, and so did the lavender strands of her hair “God, what if my mother moves to have you killed, but leaves me—”
I took her face inthe floords with ue It was fast, hard, and deep, and when I lifted my head, her hair had settled and her breath steadied
“You can’t just kissbetter,” she muttered
“Oh, that never stops,” Lyric commented
I leaned ure this out”
“We’ll all figure it out,” Alek corrected, his voice hard with resolve “I won’t let them kill you,” he promised “It’s not like there’s a choice to beyou, Jocelyn…”
We both turned to face Alek
“You will always have a home here The mates of the Order are family, and we defend our family You don’t only have the protection of your ed at his lips “Though Benedict doesn’t exactly need any help defending you, and I’d bet you’re pretty deadly on your own, otherwise yourthis mission in the first place”
Jocelyn nodded She didn’t need to brag, not e’d all seen just hoerful she was
“So what do they do?” Lyric asked “Keep it a secret?”
Alek sighed “The Order will know They’ll be able to sense it on you,” he told me with a tilt of his head “As for Conclave, if you and Julian will dig into the history texts to find out there’s any hint of this happening before, I’d appreciate it,” he said to Lyric