Chapter 140: No One Messes with an Angry Lion
ELIA
Her heart was pounding the entire trip back to Gahrye's. She kept checking behind them, half-expecting find Reth descending from between the trees like some kind of Avenging Angel with a serious case of the rages. But there was nothing.
Had he decided she could make these decisions for herself? She hoped so. Still, she wasn't looking forward to the conversation back at the cave tonight. She'd have to do her best to distract him from—
"Elia!" Gahrye hissed. "We need to climb!"
She froze. She'd been so distracted, she'd almost followed the path right up to Gahrye's tree. The guards might have seen her, then she'd have all of them freaking out.
She'd learned in the past few weeks not to react to everything with her voice—to keep quiet when stealth was needed. But she shuddered as she turned off the path to follow Gahrye through the trees. They had to climb a tree three doors down from Gahrye's and leap across, dropping into the top of his and taking the roof-door down the stairs inside, so her guards wouldn't catch her on their patrols of the house.
The empty house they guarded for at least a couple of hours a day while she and the others snuck off to train. She hadn't felt bad about it before. But now… she was going to answer for that to Reth, she knew.
Oh well. She rolled her shoulders back. The training was working. She was nowhere near as skilled as the soldiers, but she was getting fitter and stronger, and she and the disformed that sometimes joined her and Gahrye were turning her into a fighter. She'd had more bruises in the past weeks than she'd ever had in her life. Explaining them to Reth had been tricky. Luckily, the Anima were so physical, having scars and marks wasn't really remarkable to them. He'd barely questioned her at all, though she'd hated lying to him.
At least that wouldn't be necessary anymore.
As they weaved silently between the trees—something else Elia was getting better at—she put a hand to Gahrye's shoulder. He gave her a questioning look. "Any advice for how I can… deal with my mate?" she murmured.
Gahrye snorted. "Stay submissive," he whispered back, then chuckled. She gave him a flat look. She'd made the mistake of encouraging him to help her understand when she was acting in ways the Anima would see as resisting Reth's dominance.
It had been a rough few days.
As they grew closer to the tree, they stopped speaking completely so the guards wouldn't hear them. Gahrye reached the climbing tree first and tugged at the vines to make sure they were still solid, before holding them for Elia to use. He always pinned it to the ground for her, because walking up the outside of the tree was hard enough, but when the vine was loose, well… More than one of those bruises had been due to uncomfortable tumbles from the vine in the early days.
She grabbed it and took a couple deep breaths. This was the hardest part. "See you up there," she breathed. Gahrye nodded, and she started to climb.
She was only a few feet up the trunk when a twig snapped behind her, and suddenly the rope lost its tension, as if Gahrye had stopped holding it to the ground. "Gahrye!" she hissed. "I told you—"
"Elia," Gahrye said at normal volume, his voice very tight, "I think you're needed here."
Struggling against the wavering vine, Elia struggled to look over her shoulder, but when she did she saw a massive lion prowling out from between the undergrowth, his head down and his eyes fixed on Gahrye.
"Reth, no!" she squeaked and let go, dropping to the dirt and almost falling, scrambling back up to put herself between Gahrye and Reth, breaking their eye-contact. "Stop! It wasn't Gahrye's fault. It was my choice!"
"Elia," Gahrye said nervously. "I don't think he can understand you—"
"He understands me fine. He's just stubborn as an ox. Reth!" she said through her teeth. "Stop stalking him. It wasn't his choice. It was mine!"
Suddenly, more feet sounded, pounding across the forest floor and Elia's two guards appeared to her right, breaking through the nearby trees. The leader exclaimed, "Elia?! How did you—" then his eyes caught on the lion behind her before going wide, and both guards froze.
Elia rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "Why are you being so dramatic—?"
A roar of rage shook the entire forest and they all half-crouched as a flock of small birds startled from the branches above them.
Elia swallowed as Reth's golden eyes fixed on hers. But before she could open her mouth and in a moment she'd never witnessed before, the Lion in front of her seemed to very suddenly suck in on itself—on Reth—until he was standing in front of her, his feet shoulder-width apart, chest heaving, and his hands open at his sides, obviously poised to grip something and snap it clean in two. Elia blinked. Only his eyes remained part of the beast, golden and blazing in the near-dark.
The guards and Gahrye both dropped to one knee. With a sinking stomach, Elia let her shoulders roll forward and dropped her eyes the way she knew she should—especially in front of the guards.
No one said anything for several seconds, then Reth drew in a deep breath. When he spoke, his voice was half-beast, half-human, and all quiet fury. He spoke to the guards first.
"You will find Behryn immediately, and report that you have failed in your duty to keep the Queen safe," he growled.
"Yes, Sire!" they both called, then scrambled backwards, their knees still in the dirt, until they were on the path, when they stood and ran, never meeting Reth's eyes. Elia glanced at Gahrye who had gone wide-eyed.
"And you," he said to Gahrye, his voice tumbling gravel. "It is only because I consider the Queen fully capable and responsible for her own choices—no matter how utterly stupid it may be to evade her guards—that you will not be receiving the same treatment as the guards. I will not interfere between a ruler and her Cohort. But you will remember that you are a citizen of my Kingdom also. And if the Queen is ever harmed in your presence… You. Will. Pay. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Sire," Gahrye said, breathlessly, not meeting Reth's eyes.
"Leave us."
"I will, Sire. Do you want me to call for more guards to accompany you to..." he trailed off, his eyes going wider because Reth's had.
"Do you believe your King is incapable of protecting his mate?" he snarled.
"No, Sire! No! I was… I only asked who would be guarding you. I wished respect."
"Leave us. Now."
"Yes, Sire." Gahrye turned on his heel, looking relieved, but gave Elia a sympathetic look as he passed. She was shaking with the will it took to keep her mouth shut and not to be seen to resist Reth.
Her lips thinned. She waited, but Reth was watching Gahrye walk away, his face a mask of anger and tension.
As soon as he began to turn to her, Elia opened her mouth. But then Reth's eyes locked on hers and every word she'd had prepared died in her throat.
In that moment she realized she'd never seen him truly angry before. She swallowed and forced herself to hold his gaze. She could feel the blood draining out of her face. It was an effort not to drop to one knee as she'd seen the men do so many times.
She now understood the urge.
"We're going back to the cave," he said in the lowest voice she'd ever heard him use, the last word rolling into a growl.
"Reth—"
"NOW!" he roared.
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