Four long, exhausting hours later, Jaida was seated next to Seth’s bed. Both her hands were wrapped around one of his as she desperately tried to fight back the tears. He was in recovery after a round of surgery during which she’d done nothing but pace up and down the corridor, wringing her hands.

What was with her? She never behaved that way. What would be would be, and the Goddess would decide the outcome of most situations. Even so, she’d prayed like she’d never prayed before.

Seth had to live.

He had to because, without him, her life had no meaning anymore.

Stroking her thumb over the back of his hand she studied his face. Even in sleep he was gorgeous. A dark angel at rest. His skin wasn’t so pale now; the color had started to come back when he’d come out of surgery, but it was still pale compared to the raven hair across the pillow. She reached out and smoothed nonexistent strands back from his brow.

“Well now, isn’t this cute?”

Jaida tensed. The malicious, oily tones were familiar, ones she’d hoped she’d never hear again. Turning, she glanced to the door. There, framed in the doorway, was Seth’s manservant, Warin. With just one look at his face, she was catapulted back five years…

He held out the red bundle in his hands, urging her to take it. “His Highness left these for me to give to you.” His voice was level but the malevolence in his eyes took her back. She pulled the sheet tighter around herself. A heated flush raced over her skin at the thought of this man watching her while she slept. How long had he been in here?

She looked at the bundle in confusion. They were a whore’s silks. Why was he giving her those? Horror filled her as her gaze shot back to Warin’s face. No, it couldn’t be. Seth loved her…he wouldn’t…would he?

“No. We’re going to—”

“Get married?” Warin’s eyebrow climbed into his hairline. He chuckled. “Oh, grow up, my lady. You’re good enough to fuck but not to wed. No man buys the cake when he’s eaten half. Take the silks. Let’s be honest, it’s the best offer you’ll get.”

Her heart shattered as tears welled up, hot and immediate, in her eyes. Seth had never intended to marry her…

She shook herself out of the memory and fixed Warin with a steely glare. Her hand hovered over the alarm button but she had no cause to press it just yet. The instant she did, troopers would pile into the room. Then they’d want to know why and “because I think he’s an ass” wasn’t exactly a valid reason.

“What do you want?”

Her voice was cold enough to freeze deep-space tri-steel. She didn’t care. She hated Warin with a passion, one that had only deepened over time. Sure, she knew he’d been following orders but the glee with which he had carried his duty out had created a deep and abiding hatred in her.

He’d been following Seth’s orders.

The same man who had chased her over the galaxy so that didn’t make sense. What man chased a woman so hard if she was only good enough to fuck? Time slowed to a crawl, then ground to a stop.

Jaida’s heartbeat clanged like a bell in her ears. The universe turned, the fog cleared as she looked through the murky crap of her life…all the usual clichés sprang to mind as, in one blinding moment of pure clarity, she realized the truth.

“He didn’t give you those robes.”

Seth came to by slow degrees, roused back to consciousness by the sound of voices in the room with him. The thing was…the conversation wasn’t making much sense to him. It sounded like Jaida was arguing with…Warin? What was his manservant doing here?

Eyes still closed, Seth frowned. What robes? He had no clue what she was talking about, but the pain in her voice was enough to make his heart wrench. No woman should ever have that tone in her voice.

“Oh, give the girl a fucking medal! Of course he didn’t. Stupid cunt was obsessed with you, had been ranting on about getting married since the first time he saw you. Why do you think I had to get rid of you?”

Warin’s voice wasn’t the low, calming, subservient one Seth was used to. Instead it was bitter and filled with hatred. Why did Warin hate Jaida so much? As far as Seth knew, the two had barely met. Warin had only come into his service around the time she had fled.

“He wouldn’t look at me. Ever. Not once…and if he married you then I would have lost him for good.”

Cog’s fired in Seth’s brain and his body started to burn whatever they’d given him out of his system. Dimly he recalled Jaida screaming at him, pistol in hand, and then something slamming into his side before it all went blank. He’d been shot. There was no other explanation for what he was doing in bed and sedated.

“He’s mine and a little whore like you will never be good enough…”

Rage surged through Seth as he fought back to consciousness. Warin was…had been a trusted servant, but no one called Jaida a whore. Ever.

“I’ll have to kill you.”

The universe stopped. If Seth thought he was angry before it was nothing compared to the sheer fury that surged through his veins at Warin’s threat. It started in the center of his chest, was pumped around his body by the powerful muscle of his heart, and galvanized every cell. This bastard had threatened the life of the woman he loved.

Because he did love her. He’d always loved her. From the moment he’d seen her at her debutante ball, he’d been hooked.

She was nothing like any deb he’d ever met, and within five minutes of meeting her, Seth had fallen for her. So, of course he’d done what every young male would do. He’d acted like a complete fucking ass, driven her away, then spent the next five years paying for his idiocy.

To hear Warin threaten her like that brought out a violence, and a depth of fury in him that Seth had never known he possessed.

He was going to rip Warin apart. Slowly. And he was going to enjoy doing it.

“You didn’t intend for me to take the robes. You wanted to hurt me enough to make me run.” The pain in Jaida’s voice was heartbreaking.

Rather than give into the rage surging through him, Seth focused on freeing his fingers from the numbing lethargy. The tips of his fingers twitched and brushed slightly against the bedclothes. Triumph surged through him. That was it. Just a little more.

“I wanted you gone, by whatever means. When you ran, I told him you’d turned your pretty little nose up at his betrothal bracelet. Saying it wasn’t good enough…He swallowed it hook, line and sinker. Must be used to spoiled little blue-blooded bitches. Another reason he’s better off with me…I know how to take care of my men.” Warin’s voice was triumphant, lording his victory over Jaida, and his manipulation of Seth.

The fury in Seth’s body turned arctic. He was an idiot. For five years he’d been a fucking idiot. He’d left his betrothal bracelet for Jaida but when Warin had told him she’d refused it, he hadn’t even bloody questioned the man.

Move. Damn it, move! Furiously he willed his fingers to move, demanding with every fiber of his being. Just a few inches further and he could trigger the emergency button. The instant that went off in his room, the place would be crammed with troopers.

Sweat pouring from him; he turned his head on the pillow and tried to get a bead on where Warin and Jaida were. The room swam and then started spinning like he’d been on an all-night bender. He blinked and forced himself to focus on the broad expanse of Warin’s back. Towering over Jaida he resembled a giant. Even with her innate strength of character and the surprising skills she appeared to have developed during her time on the run, she didn’t stand a chance against him.

The room whirled in a gut-churning dance. Seth gripped the bedclothes and squeezed his eyes shut.

“Nowhere left to run, bitch. Oh boy, I’m really gonna enjoy this.”

Scuffles and the sound of choking filled the room. Gritting his teeth, Seth pushed the panic aside and locked it away. He visualized what he needed to do.

Open eyes, locate switch, grab, press. Simple.

Cold sweat rolled down his skin. It was Jaida’s only chance. If he fucked this up, Warin would kill her. In his mind’s eye, Seth watched helplessly as she struggled, her face going red as she scratched at Warin’s hands. Petite and slender, she had no chance against her attacker. Her struggles started to weaken, the scuffling from the corner growing quieter.

Just hold on, beautiful. I’m coming; I promise I won’t let him do this.

With all his strength he focused, bringing the seldom-used psychic power of his Imperial blood to bear, and forced the sedatives from his system. His breath hissed between his teeth as stinging cold ran down his skin in icy streams. The drugs Sedj had pumped into him oozed from his pores. Roaring, he sat up and slammed his hand down on the emergency button in an explosion of movement.

Cla-a-a-ng!

A metallic sound echoed around the room. Seth winced. Without the sedative muffling everything, his senses were hypersensitive, as if the world’s volume had been turned way up. Twisting violently, Seth lurched off the bed, falling onto the floor in a tangle of limbs in his haste to get to Jaida and stop Warin from hurting her.

Pushing the hair out of his eyes, Seth looked up. Dread coiled in his chest as he expected to see Jaida slumped unconscious—or worse, dead—Warin standing over her body. His lip curled back into a snarl. He was going to kill the bastard.

What he expected to see, and what he did see though, were completely the opposite.

Rather than Warin standing over Jaida, it was Jaida standing over Warin’s unconscious form. The metal tray in her hands, the obvious source of the sound he’d heard, was still quivering. Blood dripped from the corner of it as she looked down at the man at her feet.

She lifted her beautiful dark gaze to meet Seth’s. His heart ached at the fear and panic in her eyes. Damn his weakness. He wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her it was all going to be okay.

“He’s…”

Before Seth could say anything, the door was kicked open. Within seconds the room was filled with armed troopers. The red points of laser sights centered on Jaida as the only viable threat in the room. She squeaked and dropped the tray with a clang, throwing herself into Seth’s arms. He rocked back as he caught her, his arms wrapping around her slender form as she buried her face into his neck. A mixture of tenderness and triumph filled him. She’d sought his embrace instinctively, turning to him for comfort when she needed it rather than running from him.

“Check that piece of shit.”

Seth nodded toward the prone form of his former manservant as he pulled his love into his lap and cradled her close. She was shivering, and the warm wetness against his skin told him she was crying. He rubbed his hand across her back, the motion soothing as he rocked her gently. “If he’s still breathing, get that wound dressed and take him to the brig. We’ll be having a chat later.”

He didn’t bother to keep the bitterness out of his voice. His arms tightened reflexively around Jaida as he realized how close he’d come to losing her.

He’d pulled underhand tricks and cut off her access to any support network, thinking that if she had nowhere to run, she’d give in and turn to him. She hadn’t. Under that alluring, feminine appearance, she had a backbone of steel. Rather than turn to him, she’d led him on a merry chase until Severnas Three.

A chase that could have been avoided if he’d stayed that morning and spoken to her himself. But no, he’d been too eager to prove himself to the council, sure he’d had that day’s debate and his opponent nailed.

All the time he hadn’t seen what a snake in the grass Warin was.

A small part of his mind tried to be rational and tell him that there was no way he could have known. Until today Seth had considered Warin to be a stalwart of his household, dependable, obedient, loyal. The kind of servant any noble would think themselves lucky to have around.

He snorted. Bitterness welled up and threatened to choke him. The trust he’d had in the man had been the reason he’d given him the most important duty he’d ever entrusted a servant with…to tell the woman he loved he wanted to marry her.

Idiot, idiot, idiot. What kind of man left someone else to tell a woman that? No, not just a woman. His woman

One of the troopers leaned over and pressed two fingers into Warin’s throat. Within a second he nodded. “He’s got a pulse. Okay, you and you, get him out of here. Get him checked out with medical then cart him off to a cell. Do not take your eyes off him; do not leave him alone. He’s an Imperial prisoner and will be treated as such.”

“Hear that sweetheart?” Seth brushed his lips against Jaida’s brow as the troopers filed out. He ignored their curious looks. This was his and Jaida’s business and no one else’s.

Shivers still racked her body. She refused to look, shaking her head when he tried to lift her chin. Seth suspected her eyes were squeezed closed. He pulled her chin up with gentle force. Reveling in the tender moment, he pressed a kiss onto each closed lid and then against the up-turned button of her nose.

Her lashes fluttered against her cheeks and then slowly rose. Her silver and sapphire eyes were dark with pain, worry, and something else. Seth blinked, unsure at the emotion he was seeing reflected.

“He’s not dead, sweetheart. It’s okay, you didn’t kill him.”

Her lips compressed, anger flaring to replace the emotion he wasn’t sure he’d seen and didn’t want to name in case he was deluding himself. “I didn’t?” She shook her head. “Damn it, I wanted to. I wanted to knock his freaking head clean off!”

Amusement hit him hard and fast; that was his Jaida all over. Shivering with emotion one moment, and then ferocious as a tiger the next.

“I think you gave it a good shot. He’ll be waking up with a headache, that’s for sure.” Seth tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Already dark bruises were forming on her throat and her eyes were red with blood from burst vessels. He gritted his teeth. When he got down to the brig, Warin would get a damn sight worse than a headache.

“My little warrioress,” he murmured, knowing his face was soft with emotion and not caring. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. For everything.”

A frown graced her brow and she searched his eyes for a long moment. “Everything…everything? Or just everything?”

The forlorn note in her voice plucked at his heartstrings again. He’d wanted to give her the universe, but he’d ended up crushing her instead. “Everything everything.”

Smoothing his hands down her arms, he pushed her away from him and stood. Sitting on a medical room floor was no place to have this conversation.

He knew what he had to do now. He’d chased her and she’d run, slipping through his fingers like a will-o’-the-wisp.

What was the old saying? If you loved something, let it go. If it returned to you, it was yours to keep…

He had to let her go.

“I love you, always have. Always will. Whatever Warin told you…it was a lie. I left my betrothal bracelet for you, not red silks.”

She didn’t move, didn’t answer, and Seth’s heart sank.

“I’m going to get a medic to come check you out,” he said over his shoulder. “I’ll arrange rooms for you aboard until we can get you back to your family.” Seth paused at the door, his head bowed as his heart cracked in his chest.

“For what it’s worth, I really am sorry.”