“I am of the understanding there was many a battle she sent you to win to keep your people safe, and you rarely failed her, or your people.”

Well, there was that.

“Do you lament not being named queen?” he asked.

She tipped her head back to look up at him. “I have no patience for foolishness, stupidity or weakness. I also do not like my time wasted. I’d make a terrible queen.”

His lips quirked.

“I lament she died disappointed in me.”

“You simply lament, Serena, that she died.”

She pressed her lips tightly together, for he was correct.

The air did not feel right, knowing her mother was not somewhere, breathing it.

He took his arm from around her to run his fingers along her jaw.

And doing thus, he murmured, “I have missed you.”

She tucked her face back in his throat.

“Pride,” he said over her head, his fingers gliding down her neck, over her shoulder, down her back, and he was holding her again. “It was torture, knowing you worked the Shanty without me at your side. I worried for you, day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute, held back from returning to you by my pride.” She felt his lips at her hair. “We must be aware of this, my maiden warrior. We both have much of it so we must guard against giving in to our pride.”

“As you know, I am no maiden.”

“Thank all the gods.”

She found to her surprise she was grinning at his throat.

“I quite like hellcat,” she muttered.

His humor was not audible, but his body shook with it.

Serena closed her eyes tight and took a chance telling him something that made her vulnerable, but that he should know.

“She would have liked you. She would have found you most interesting. She would have enjoyed listening to the fables you carried to this land from your own. She would have admired your beauty and your skills. She would have…she would have been pleased for me with you.”

“She was a great ruler and a good mother so I would have liked her too.”

At his reaction, Serena took another chance with something that made her even more vulnerable, but he definitely should know.

“I would have liked to give you a good mother.”

Chu’s reaction to that was to squeeze the breath out of her with his arms.

She allowed this and it lasted long, almost to the point her need for air meant she could no longer allow it, before he relaxed and replied, “I will take her through your sharing of memories.”

Serena turned her head to press her cheek to the base of his throat.

“Serena?” he called.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Thank you for forgiving me.”

And she closed her eyes yet again.

Her reply, “And thank you, Chu, for forgiving me.”