“I wouldn’t be here if not for you,” Carys said. “The Order came just in the nick of time, all thanks to you.”
“That’s not quite the way I would explain it,” Brynne demurred. “And from what your mother told me, you handled things rather impressively on your own. Maybe that talk we had about you joining the Order wasn’t all that crazy, eh?”
Carys grinned, her pride beaming from her sharp blue gaze. “As much as I love working at the museum with Jordana here, I actually have been considering a career change.”
Jordana snorted, shattering the illusion of the unearthly goddess. “You won’t if Rune has anything to say about that.”
“We’re negotiating,” Carys said with a waggle of her brows. “He knew what he was getting into when he blood bonded to me.”
Her friend laughed and shook her head. “Hello,” she said to Brynne. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Jordana.”
“We were just talking about you,” Tavia said gently. “We were about to explain to Brynne that Zael knew your father.”
“Oh.” Her face lit up, but there was a trace of sadness in her eyes. “They were best friends. They served together as soldiers.”
“In Selene’s legion,” Tavia added. “They both fled the realm years ago.”
Brynne couldn’t pretend the news didn’t shock her. “He was a soldier?”
“One of the best,” Jordana said. “After my father was killed recently in Boston, Zael kept me safe from the queen’s guards who came to find me and bring back me to her. He protected me with his life.”
Zael, the smooth-talking player, was not only a warrior of note to the Atlanteans but a savior to his fallen comrade’s child as well? It wasn’t easy to reconcile the two conflicting views of him, but Brynne’s mind was struggling to process something else Jordana had said as well.
“I’m sorry about your father, Jordana. But… I’m not sure I follow. Why would the queen’s guards be looking for you?”
Carys wrapped her arm around her friend. “Because Jordana is her granddaughter. Her sole heir.”
“Oh, my.” Brynne’s mouth went slack. “Heir to the Atlantean queen. As in, the royal line?”
Tavia gave her a confirming nod. “We’ve been keeping Jordana’s identity a secret for her own safety.”
“My mother was Selene’s only child,” Jordana explained. “She and my father fell in love, even though it was forbidden. My father broke the law when he made her his mate.”
“There is no law strong enough to forbid love,” Gabrielle said.
“No, there isn’t.” Jordana smiled ruefully and shook her head. “After I was born, there were problems…consequences to be paid. Selene separated my parents. My mother grew despondent, then eventually, she took her own life. And so my father stole me away. He hid me with people he trusted on the outside, then he stepped out of my life to protect me and to give me freedoms I’d never have inside the realm. My grandmother put a price on his head. It took her guards twenty-five years to find him, but they did.”
Brynne didn’t know what to say. Torn between amazement and abhorrence for what she’d just heard, she stood mutely, aching for what Jordana—and her doomed parents—had gone through. “And Zael helped, you say?”
Jordana nodded. “When Selene’s guards came to Boston and killed my father, Zael took me someplace safe. He even battled some of his former comrades to protect me. Without him, I wouldn’t be standing here today.”
Jordana’s fondness for Zael was obvious. Given what he’d apparently done on the young woman’s behalf, her affection was understandable. But Jordana seemed to be describing a different man than the one Zael presented to the outside world.
To Brynne as well.
This Zael was a courageous man. A noble one, the kind who would risk everything to protect the child of a dead friend from an enemy with cold, far-reaching power. Jordana had described a hero—not the first word that leaped to Brynne’s mind when she thought of him.
She didn’t know what to do with this new information.
She also didn’t know what to do with the softening of her regard for the man she so desperately wanted to despise.
“Our lives would all be emptier if you weren’t part of them,” Tavia said as she tenderly squeezed Jordana’s hand.
“It’s true,” Carys agreed. “And we also wouldn’t have the Atlantean crystal your father hid away from Selene all these years.”
The odd reference pulled Brynne out of her unwanted musings about Zale and that troubling kiss they’d shared.
“What do you mean, a crystal? What are you talking about, Carys?”