Having Lena back in my care brought with it a measure of relief I could not have imagined, and I was unable to control myself. Day after day, one week after the other, I had wanted her more and more until I felt like I was going to burst. Now, knowing she was safe, all restraint had left me, and I was going to have her.

Until the knock.

Lena and I stared at each other for a beat, our bodies still heated and gasping and our eyes still hooded with desire. Then, as a second knock brought reality crashing back down upon us, I stepped back from her and snatched her shirt from the ground. “Put this on,” I whispered.

We were in the living room against the fireplace wall, and the window looking out over the Capital was wide open, but I could not stop myself from hoping we had not been seen. I was not embarrassed to be with Lena by any means, but the only people who would be visiting me at this hour were people of importance, and it was not a situation I would have preferred them to have witnessed. Lena hurriedly threw the top over her head and straightened it over her belly, and I strode to the door.

It was Sevani on my doorstep. He did not wait for me to invite him in before stepping over the threshold, and he did not wait for me to greet him to state the purpose for his visit.

“I hope you have an explanation for this evening, Khrel,” he said with barely-contained anger.

“Yes, Wise One,” I said apologetically, “though I fear it is not a satisfactory one.”

He swept past me with a disdainful look, rounding into the living room where Lena had slipped onto the couch and forced an innocent expression onto her face. Even as I faced potentially severe consequences from my Elder for the events of the night, I could not help admiring her beauty. Her gold hair was tousled around in whimsical disarray, her clothes were mussed and wrinkled, and there was an abundance of dirt on her fair skin I had not noticed before. Sticky streaks of dried tears still lined her cheeks, which were pinkened with the aftermath of our interrupted tryst, but she looked radiant. Why I had tried so hard to deny my feelings for her over the past few weeks, I did not know.

“You were told to remain here with Khrel,” Sevani said without preface to Lena.

She shrank slightly beneath his glower and looked at me for help. I stepped forward behind him. “Elder Sevani, she is not to blame. I was tasked with ensuring her safety, and it is my fault that her safety was compromised.”

“You are correct,” he agreed irritably, turning slightly so he could see both Lena and me at the same time. “But the human is an intelligent being who chose to make a very unintelligent choice that could have risked everything we are working toward.”

Though I had referred to Lena as “the human” many times before, it sounded different this time. It was offensive somehow, diminishing her personality into a simple category that lacked complexity and individuality. She was no longer the ward I was saddled with for a seemingly useless reason; she was a creature of beauty and intelligence and compassion. No matter how foolish her actions had been tonight, she had done them with the most honorable intentions of rescuing her friend from a perceived threat, and that had to be admired regardless of what the consequences may be. To hear Sevani call her “the human,” in English, no less, so she could understand him, sent a prickle of defensiveness through me.

“I know you said Isabelle is safe,” Lena said, interrupting my musings and addressing Sevani, “but I was worried. I wanted to bring her back here so that I would know she was safe.”

“Your peace of mind is worth the peace of my kingdom? It is worth the safety of my people?” Sevani demanded harshly.

I took another step forward. “The Novai had no intentions of harming her or anyone else, Wise One,” I said. “They merely wanted to keep her until the others were returned to them.”

“Even if that is what they said, we cannot be assured that is the truth, Khrel.”

“They would not have let her go if they had mortal intentions,” I insisted.

He steepled his fingers together in front of his midsection, his sleeves falling over his hands a moment later. “I need to know what happened.”

I recounted the events of the evening, beginning with awakening to find Lena gone from her bed. She chimed in, again telling him that she wanted to bring Isabelle here to stay with us, but Sevani silenced her with a sharp look and asked me to continue. When I spoke of entering the camp to find Lena in a cage, he turned from me to her.

“Now,” he said sagely. He had calmed significantly. It was evident he was in his pensive Elder state, absorbing everything to later pass on to the rest of the Council. “Tell me what happened until Khrel found you.”

“I took a boat from the boardwalk because I thought it would be the fastest way to the Polder Quarter,” she explained at once. “But I didn’t know how to get there, so I was just going in whichever direction felt right. Two Novai jumped from the trees and tried to grab me. The commotion turned the boat over, and I hit my head. When I came to, I was in the cage.”

“You do not know where you were captured?”

“No,” she admitted. “I was lost. But, when I came to, I realized I was in the Novai camp. They were dancing or…something around their fire. Oh, which had a weird white ball in the middle of it. I didn’t know what that was.”

Sevani glanced at me, and I confirmed the fact with a slight inclination of my head. He looked back to Lena.

“Continue.”

“Some of the Novai realized I woke up and were pointing at me, and I started begging them to tell me what they wanted. I thought they might’ve had Isabelle at some point, too, because there was blood in the cage next to me, and I started to panic. I tried to break the cage or knock it over, and the Novai started to run at me to stop me, and that’s when Khrel showed up.”

She met my gaze over Sevani’s shoulder. Her eyes were wide and a little fearful, though whether it was from the memory or from fear of repercussions, I did not know. I offered her a very small smile of comfort just before Sevani rounded to me again.

“I was told you assaulted one of the Novai,” he said sternly.

My brows knitted together as I remembered the rage that had coursed through me upon hearing Lena’s terrified cries and seeing the Novai careening toward her. “Yes,” I said, bitterness coating my tongue. “I was angry.”

“Anger does not justify violence, Khrel, particularly when we are attempting to build a case against the Novai,” he scolded.

“I know, Wise One.”

“What happened after the assault?”

I cleared my throat and revisited my memory. “The leader came forward and told me they were keeping Lena until we gave them the two missing Novai. I told him we did not have them, but he continued to insist he would not release Lena until their return, so I informed him they were dead.”

Sevani’s eyes darkened into swirling orbs of angry disapproval, and he hissed, “The Novai were not to know until the Council decided the time was right.”

“I needed to get her out of there,” I retorted stubbornly. “I was not going to let them hold her hostage until the Council made up their minds. Besides, she could not have given testimony from the cage…Wise One.”

It was the first time in all my years serving under Sevani that I had neglected to show him his due respect. We both realized it at once, and the climate between us shifted. I felt rebellion throbbing hard and fast through my veins as his face changed from severity to incensed scorn. To my surprise, I felt no guilt. I felt only righteousness.

“They released her, then?” Sevani asked finally.

“Yes.”

“Why? What did you have to do to secure her release?”

“Nothing,” I said stiffly. “Their leader said they had no intention on keeping her hostage now that they knew the whereabouts of their brothers.”

Sevani’s eyebrows lifted toward his hairline in surprise. Lena, too, appeared startled by this, and her mouth dropped open a little. I tried to keep my gaze trained on my Elder, though I wanted to admire the way Lena’s slightly-curved eyes became circles when she was stunned.

“That was all? They wanted no ransom, had no demands?” he asked in awe.

“That was all,” I reiterated. My voice was rather colder than I wanted it to be, but I could not ignore the fact that, had I remained true to the Council’s orders and refrained from freeing Lena by any means necessary, she may still have been locked in that crate-wood cage. I fixed my icy gaze on Sevani’s and added, “Perhaps it is not the Novai who are a danger to innocent people after all.”

His expression hardened as he processed the meaning of my words, and he lifted his chin. “A possibility that remains to be seen,” he said, speaking with enough chill to match me. “The Council will have much to consider, including the consequences to your actions. I am afraid two murders and an assault against our colonists could bear a rich punishment, Khrel. You may be rid of your human-watching duties sooner than you expected.”