“But eventually, I could have found her.”

“Oh, Cass,” she whispered, her fingers moving under his to stroke his jaw.

“I also failed her,” he stated.

She appeared perplexed. “How?”

“I wanted no part of him, of my birth, of that castle, of his reign. I removed myself from it as much as I could when I could not actually remove myself. I watched my brother turn into him, and I did nothing to stop it. And I knew women all over my realm faced the same and I did nothing to stop that either.”

“You were the second son. This is a precarious position, Cassius, I know that. You knew it better than me for you lived it.”

“I still did nothing to stop it.”

“You’re doing something now.”

“Do not think this will be easy, Elena. There will be a revolt. It’s inevitable.”

“And you’ll best it.”

“I want to kill him.”

She pressed closer at his declaration.

“I have to remove myself from that too, from the feelings I have,” he told her. “I have to close them down, freeze them out. If I do not, if I let free that rein, I will murder my father.”

“You do know this is not an unreasonable reaction,” she replied, and he let out a bark of disgusted laughter. “It isn’t, Cass,” she pushed.

“The lifelong urge to commit patricide?” he asked disbelievingly. “What kind of man does that make me?”

“You’re asking the wrong question.”

“What is the right one?”

“What kind of son does that make you?”

Was she mad?

“That I want to kill my father?”

“That you want to avenge your mother.”

He closed his mouth.

“And you will do that, by freeing those like her from similar tyranny,” she declared. “She will not witness it, but do you not think she is in the beyond, watching you and proud of you and knowing that she made you? Knowing that, through you, part of her will liberate her sisters? How beautiful a legacy is that, Cassius? What beauty she has created, my warrior. What a precious gift she has given our world.”

Gods damn it, he had to have her.

He could no longer hold his need at bay.

He didn’t want her.

He needed her.

Now.

So he took her, starting with her mouth.

He also took her down to the blanket, with him over her.

And feeling her under him, Cass was as he expected he would be.

Lost to her.

He simply couldn’t get enough.

Her lips and tongue, his hands on her body.

She responded eagerly, hungrily, spurring him on.

He pulled at her tunic.

She tugged at his leathers.

He yanked off her moccasins.

She wrenched off his boots.