Bonded

Chapter Sixty Seven

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Ronin

...

"Y... You go... I... I need to stay. Make sure he remains safe." it takes only a moment to understand that my husband and I may be separate people of the same mind more than I already had assumed...

The words slip so quietly from his ears that I strain to hear them over the hushed tones of India and Jian shuffling about inside of their shared bedchamber right after we deposit them into the room that birthed them this evening and the nearly silent steps of Master Qiao as he escaped back down his own corridor away from his pupils and future wife...

The words are damn near silent but cause my ears to ring with how relieved I am to have my husband want to guard my wife... Because with both of them in the same place, I no longer have to choose...

For it truly would be an impossible choice.

With Kavya, I have such an established bond, and we've sworn to always have each other's back...

But in regards to the wife we both have such tender feelings for... I know Kavya would prefer I save India over himself, just as I would... Because our future worldly scholar is still so meek and timid... So very sheltered in his book Learning and Education that it was shared with us so softly that he was unsure if romantic love was real or just an idea that poets try to capture on paper.

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Kavya

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"I'll not be leaving my only husband to guard my only wife when they both need me... I'll be staying right here. Next to you. Where I should be." Ronin's voice is raw as he addresses me, his eyes avoiding mine even though I can hear the thickness in his throat and see the glimmer of tears trying to trace their way down his stubbled cheek.

"Because youre a wonderful, and protective man... Thank you." it takes effort not to join him in crying... But I need to give him a chance to release some of the pent-up stress that I know we are all carrying now, each of us... He needs his chance to let out his emotions, and this time I can manage to give him that before taking time myself... Full well aware of the fact that my Ronin has done the same for me more times than I can count throughout our shared timeline in life.

But just as I try and figure out a way to stand comfortably while containing myself and still keeping a vigilant eye around all of the corridors, I find that my sweet stoic Ronin has found it within him to reach out and vampire my hand with his own so that we may silently stay joined...

A United front while standing watch over the keeper of our shared heart so that India might read undisturbed and unimpeded by the worry that he might get snatched up by a worrisome king with troublesome claws for hearing something we never should have been privy to... Over something that should have never been such a worry in the first place.

...

India

...

I cannot help but feel unsettled as soon as the door closes behind Jian and myself.

Nothing in the room has changed... No one even woke up or stirred when we let ourselves back into the room...

But something still doesn't feel entirely at peace in here, and I can not figure out why the tiny hairs t the naps of my neck will not call themselves and lay flat.

It feels as if I should either be in here completely alone... Or not at all. And I cannot fathom why I cannot shake the odd disturbance in the back of my mind that something other than the obvious situation at hand has gone amiss.

It is strange, and almost as unsettling as knowing that somehow without meaning to, I've committed treason against the crown... Something that makes me wonder if Prince Emrys will frown over my almost inevitable punishment.

But it seems as though I cannot let either problem occupy my mental facilities for very long, for without my permission and against my refusal... My eyelids simply grow too heavy to keep open and sleep overtake me.