“There must be something you can do. Some way around this—”
“Just drop it, Beth.” He got to his feet, his head turning in the vague direction of the throne. “Let’s move ahead—”
“We can’t.”
“Fuck that.”
“It’s one thing if you resigned, or abdicated or whatever the hell it’s called. That’s free choice. But you don’t do well taking orders from other people.” She tacked on dryly, “We’ve discussed this before.”
“Beth, you gotta let this go—”
“Think about the future, a year from now, two years from now … do you mean to say you’re not going to resent me for this?”
“Of course not! You can’t change who you are. It’s not your fault.”
“You say that at this moment, and I believe you—but a decade from now, when you look your son or daughter in the face, you think you won’t resent me a little for cheating them out of—”
“Getting shot at? Criticized by all comers? Placed on a pedestal you don’t want to be on? Hell, no! All that shit is part of the reason I didn’t want a goddamn kid!”
Beth shook her head again. “I’m not so sure about that.”
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered, locking his hands on his hips. “Do me a favor and don’t make up my own fucking mind for me, okay.”
“We can’t ignore the possibility—”
“I’m sorry, did I miss something? Did some fortune-teller slip you a crystal ball or some shit? Because no offense, you can’t look into the future any more than I can.”
“Exactly.”
Wrath threw up his hands and started in with the stomping. “You don’t get it, you just don’t fucking get it. This is done, it’s zipped up. The vote of no confidence passed—I’m castrated as a ruler, I have no power or authority. So even if there was anything I could do from a legal standpoint? I’m not the person who can change things anymore.”
“So who is?”
“A distant cousin of mine. Real peach of a guy.”
Her hellren’s tone suggested peach of a guy was a euphemism for total fucking douche.
Beth crossed her arms over her chest. “I want to see the proclamation or document—there had to be one, right? I don’t think they’d just leave you a voice mail.”
“Oh, my God, Beth, will you leave this alone—”
“Does Saxton have it? Or did they send it to Rehv—”
“Will you be fucking normal!” he hollered at her. “You just went through your needing! Most females are in bed for a week, why can’t that be you? You want a young, go lie goddamn down—that’s what you’re supposed to do. I’m surprised with all that time you spent with goddamn Layla she didn’t tell you…”
As he went on and on, she knew this was just steam being released through vocabulary. But they didn’t have time for him to keep it up indefinitely.
Getting up from her seat, she walked over to him and—
Slap.
As Beth followed through with her palm, the sharp cracking sound faded in the room and her beloved mate shut up.
Staring at him calmly, she said, “And now that I have your attention and you’re not ranting and raving like a lunatic, I’d appreciate your telling me where I can find whatever they sent us.”
Wrath let his head fall back as if he were utterly exhausted. “Why are you doing this.”
Abruptly, she thought of what he’d said to her when her needing had hit and he’d found her trying to get at the drugs.
In a voice that cracked, she replied, “Because I love you. And you either don’t want to acknowledge it, or you can’t see that far into the future, but this really, totally matters to you. I’m telling you, Wrath, this is the kind of stuff that people never get over. And like I said, you want to quit? Fine. That’s your choice. But I’ll be good and goddamned if I’m going to let someone take it away from you.”
He brought his jaw back to level. “You don’t get it, leelan. It’s over.”
“Not if I have anything to do with it.”
There was a long moment … and then he reached out and crushed her to him, holding her so tightly she could feel her very bones bend.
“I’m not strong enough for this,” he whispered in her ear—like he didn’t want anyone to hear that coming out of his mouth. Ever.
Running her hands up his powerful back, she held him just as hard. “But I am.”
It was forever.
Wrath waited in the hidden room that smelled like earth and spice for forever. In the blackness, his thoughts were loud as screams, vivid as lightning, indelible as an inscription in stone.