My voice dropped lower.
“So don’t tell me about what love makes us do like I don’t understand it, like I haven’t thought about it every second since I woke up.”
“Tristan…” Athena said, and her voice broke on my name in a way that made my chest ache.
I shook my head sharply. “I can’t do this right now, I can’t stand here and argue about something that’s already done, something we can’t change! matter how much I wish we could.”
I moved toward the stairs, needing space, needing air, needing anything but this room full of people staring at me.
Orion stepped into my path and I almost ran into him.
‘Don’t walk away from her,” he said quietly, his voice carrying a warning. “Don’t let your anger make you do something you’ll regret.”
‘I’m not walking away from her,” I said, meeting his eyes and making sure he could see I meant it. “I’m walking away from this conversation before something I actually will regret, there’s a difference.”
He studied my face for what felt like hours, his eyes searching mine for something, then finally he nodded once and stepped aside.
I made it halfway up the stairs before I heard her voice behind me.
“Tristan wait,” Athena called, and I could hear the tears thick in her throat.
I stopped but didn’t turn around, couldn’t turn around because if I saw her crying I knew I would go back down those stairs and pull her into my arm
and tell her everything was okay even though it wasn’t, even though nothing about this situation was okay.
‘I’m sorry,” she said, and now I could definitely hear her crying, could picture the tears streaming down her face. “I’m sorry I scared you, I’m sorry!
didn’t think about the consequences, I’m sorry I put the babies at risk.”
Her voice caught.
‘I’m just sorry for all of it.”
I closed my eyes and gripped the banister hard enough to make the wood creak under my fingers, hard enough that I felt the grain digging into my
palms.
‘I know you are,” I said without looking at her, without trusting myself to turn around. “But right now I need space, I need time to process everything that happened, can you give me that?”
Silence stretched between us and I could feel her hesitation hanging in the air, could sense her desire to push and demand that we work through this now, tonight, before the sun came up.
“Okay,” she finally said softly. “Okay I can give you that.”
I continued up the stairs and into one of the guest rooms, closing the door behind me and leaning against it.
My whole body was shaking and I couldn’t tell if it was from anger or fear or relief or some twisted combination of all three that left me feeling raw and
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exposed and turned inside out.
She was safe.
The babies were safe.
I was healed.
Everything had worked out exactly like it was supposed to, like some fairy tale where the princess saves the prince with true love’s kiss and they all In happily ever after.
So why did I feel like my world was shattering into pieces around me?
I moved to the window and looked out at the dark street below, watching a car pass by with its headlights cutting through the darkness, replaying
everything that had happened in my head.
Everything I’d said.
Every word that had come out of my mouth.
My anger surged again with each memory.
How could they have been so careless?
How could Orion have let her use her powers when he knew the risks, when he knew she was pregnant and vulnerable and that we had no idea what he healing ability might do to her or the babies?
How could Athena have put herself in danger like that without even considering the consequences, without thinking about what it would do to me if I
lost her?
But underneath the anger was something else, something deeper and more complicated that I didn’t want to examine too closely because it made everything harder.
Gratitude.
She’d saved my life.
She’d risked everything, her own safety and our children’s future, to heal me when I was broken and bleeding and unconscious on that hospital bed.
She’d done it without hesitation, without thinking about the cost to herself, because she loved me enough to take that risk.
That had to mean something.
It meant everything.
But I was too angry and too scared to figure out exactly what, too overwhelmed by everything that had happened to process the emotions churning
inside me like a storm.
A knock on the door made me tense.
“Tristan,” Orion’s voice came through the wood. “Can
come in?”
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Chapter 343
“No,‘ I said shortly, not moving from the window.
“I’m coming in anyway,” he said, and I heard the door open behind me.
I didn’t turn around, just kept staring out the window at nothing and everything.
“You have every right to be angry,” Orion said, and I heard him close the door behind him. “But you need to understand something.”
He paused and I could feel him choosing his words carefully.
“As much as I’m trying to understand you, trying to see this from your perspective, you need to know I didn’t appreciate the way you spoke to her down
there.”
That made me turn around.
“I don’t want to interfere in your disagreement,” Orion continued, holding my gaze. “But I don’t appreciate it at all, the tone you used, the way you
looked at her.”
I opened my mouth to defend myself but he held up his hands.
“Yes, she made a decision,” he said. “But she’s fine, the babies are fine, you’re fine, this isn’t the time for being rude or harsh or whatever you want to
call what just happened down there.”
He took a step closer.
“This is the time for appreciating her, for understanding that she risked her life and the life of her unborn children for you.”
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
