“Yes,” I mumbled.

His lips quirked again before he bent and touched his mouth to mine.

Lifting away, he shared, “Having you at my side, I do not know how I ever did this alone.”

Immediately, I melted underneath him.

“Aramus,” I whispered.

“Now, no less important is that we are in accord about what will come next for the both of us.”

He was too clever by half, my husband.

“And thus, after a rotten day, we will rest easy,” he finished.

Yes.

Too clever by half.

“Before we go, I must ask for you to give me some time, as much as I may have, with the Sisterhood of the Beast,” I requested.

His brows drew together. “The Sisterhood of the Beast?”

“Silence, Farah, Elena and I,” I educated him.

“Yes, I could put that together, my wife, but you’ve…named yourselves?”

His body felt like it was shaking.

With laughter.

This meant my brows drew together. “I don’t know why it’s amusing. For the Beast brought we sisters together, and together, we sisters will defeat the Beast. The name is fitting.”

“It is. Right on the nose,” he muttered, his words also shaking.

I decided to ignore his continuing humor.

“I wish to tell them my command of the seas and my kinship with its beasts.”

Aramus did not find that particular morsel amusing.

“No,” he denied.

“Aramus—”

“No.”

“Your men know,” I pointed out, for they did. We’d told them (and I’d shown them, covertly) along our journey to Notting Thicket.

“My men are my men. I know them to their bones. I barely know Silence, Farah and Elena.”

“Well, I know them.”

“Barely.”

“Aramus—”

“Ha-Lah, no,” he stated implacably. “I forbid it.”

By the seas.

He did not just forbid something.

I stared at him.

He withstood it for such an admirable amount of time, it was I who broke the silence.

“We must know our own powers. We must know our own strengths. We must know the weapons we can wield. And in knowing, understand our weaknesses.”

“This is not a weapon you will wield,” he retorted. “It is a gift you have that you will not share…with anybody save those that already know, who are those I know I can trust.”

“Aramus, you, the king of the seas, me, harnessing the powers of them, you must understand this is why we’re destined to save Triton from the Beast.”

“And should that need ever come about, and as days wear into weeks that are currently wearing into months, it seems it won’t, if things deteriorate to a point of concern where they’re needed, then we will unleash your powers and thus share them. Not before.”

“What I wish to say is, Elena, Farah and Silence might have similar powers. Elena does not hide hers, but there might be more we do not know. And you saw yourself what Farah could do today. That was formidable.”

“And the powers you don’t know about, I can assure you,” he pressed deeply into me, “absolutely assure you, my queen, their men have forbidden them to share for the exact purpose I do the same.”