Warrior of the Moon

36

Tarin had spent his day sitting in the sand, praying to the heavens to keep her safe. To keep all of them safe, but his queen especially.

He had also asked Ambrose to tell him stories of their time in the human world. What it was like in Serena's other home. If she seemed to have mended the relationship with her sister in the underwater city below them. If she had clearly wanted to come back.

Amidst those stories, he learned how she had truly returned to this Realm.

Not through the planned Portal Muiress had prepared for them at all. But through a violent kidnapping that could have killed her, and a subsequent chase that could have resulted in things just as unforgivable.

At his wild, raging reaction at that, Ambrose had told him that the men responsible had been killed, and Tarin reigned his temper in enough to listen as his Wolf continued telling him how impatient Serena had been to return. To her kingdom, her home. To him, though she knew she would not be able to go to him right away. A deception that would continue to annoy him, even if he was back in her presence once more, if not allowed at her side.

Never had he sat out of a battle this way. He felt like a useless coward, though it was not by his own will that he sat on this shore, watching the suns set and darkness begin to sweep over the sky.

It was in that dusk that Serena and her entourage appeared, all of them sopping wet from their travels through the water but the water nymphs themselves, as if whoever had transported them from the White Channel, it must have been, to here had barely enough magic left in their systems to do so.

Ambrose jogged down the beach toward them, looking hugely relieved. Tarin supposed that meant their numbers were intact. He had no idea how many had gone in the first place, so he would not have known. His eyes were trained on his queen anyway as she took off her mask and simply dropped it in the sand at her feet. Ambrose said something to her, but she did not answer him. The look in her face was haunted, and her shoulders were slumped as if her body was hardly even holding her up. Her cloak was covered with blood, but it was not nearly as concerning to him as the eyes that were filled with tears as she rose her gaze to meet his.

Something caved in in his chest as she started running for him. He was only able to take three steps of his own before she crashed into him, her arms wrapping around him tightly as her body shuddered with horrible sobs. He held her through his surprise even as he looked up toward his Wolves, trying to understand what had happened to her. Vice just shook her head. They didn't know.

"Princess," he whispered, aware that they were all watching them closely. "What is it, Princess? Did somebody hurt you?"

"No," she murmured back, against his chest. "I hurt all of them, Tarin. I hurt so many people..."

"Infernals?"

She nodded against him, another sob escaping her throat. He clutched her closer to him.

"You know," he began thoughtfully, his voice soft enough that the others would never be able to hear, "After my first battle, I never wanted to go out on the field again. The fact that those around me were cheering, drinking, relaying the stories of the deaths they had caused... it all disgusted me. I didn't understand it, the merriment. All I could think about were those dead bodies."

Serena hiccuped against him, and he began stroking her hair without thinking, noticing that it had come free of its braid and again fell in those long, dark waves.

"But nobody with a good heart likes causing that death, Princess. They do it because they must; because they are fighting for the kingdom they love, for their families. They do it so that others don't have to, so that their precious children don't have to grow up and do it instead. They do it so that there can be peace once they're done. So when people seem unaffected by it, it's because their love for what they're fighting for is so great that they can forgive themselves for the acts they believe they are committing against nature."