“I’ve committed myself once again to their leadership and teachings and choose to follow them. I will no longer let evil rule in my heart nor will I let it reign in the hearts of any of our elves, light or dark. A time of cleansing is coming and they will wipe from our realm any that do not choose the correct path. Change is painful, and change for the good is sometimes more than painful because it requires death so that new life can grow.” Trik’s eyes met Leer’s and then he met the stare of each dark-elf captive. “You have a chance to do something good, something selfless; don’t let this chance pass you by.”

He turned then to Tamsin. “If they pledge loyalty release them immediately; if not then bring them back to the castle and I will deal with them.”

“You don’t have to do it alone,” Tamsin told him.

Trik met his eyes. “I have set their death sentence. I should be the one to carry it out.” He heard Cassie’s intake of breath and knew that she would argue against it, but he knew it was the right thing to do. “Cassie and I will continue to seek out survivors, and Syndra will use her healing ability on the wounded.” He looked up at the rest of the light-elf warriors still waiting on orders. “Be vigilant as you search the ruins, and if you can keep from killing then please do. We will take as many alive as possible and give them the opportunity to choose their own fate.”

“Why do you think you have to be the one to kill them?” Cassie asked as soon as they were away from the others.

“Are we really going discuss this now?” Trik asked her.

“Well we can always wait and discuss the fact that you think you have to be the one to deal out the death sentences later, when we’re alone, in the room we now share because we’re married.” Cassie knew she wasn’t playing fair, but then she was married to an assassin. The way she saw it he probably didn’t even know what playing fair looked like.

“That’s just wrong, Cassandra,” Trik nearly growled at her.

She shrugged nonchalantly. “I’m sure there’s nothing else you’d rather be doing later anyways, so you are totally right; there’s no need to talk about it right now.”

“Cassie,” Trik warned.

“Can’t hear you,” she sung as she continued to look for injured dark elves, all the while a secret smile danced on her lips. She shouldn’t manipulate him, but as she looked back over her shoulder at the frustrated, now huffy king, she couldn’t help the slight amount of satisfaction she found in it. Okay, so maybe she wasn’t quite as pure and gentle as they thought.

Chapter 16

“Life is happening all around us. War, bloodshed, loyalties being given and taken away and yet there is still us. At the end of the day you are the one who I share my hurts, my worries, my fears and my hopes with. You are the one who sees me fall apart when I’ve been holding it together in front of everyone else. When everything else is falling apart, you are the one who continually holds me together.” ~Cassie

Cassie drug herself into the room she had now called home for more days than she could remember. She didn’t even know if she could recall what her bedroom at her parents’ house looked like, and that thought nearly dropped her to her knees. She was so tired—the kind of tired that seeped into your bones and didn’t let go until you had given into it and slept for days, but she knew that wouldn’t be happening. After searching the rubble and then traveling across the realm back to the light-elf castle, they now had close to fifty dark-elf captives to deal with. Of course her mate thought he had to handle it all himself. Little did he know that she was about to put her foot down and he was going to listen.

She went ahead and showered quickly, needing to get the dust out of her hair and used the time to gather her thoughts. She had been building her argument all day, knowing that it would take some pretty good convincing to get Trik to change his mind. By the time she was clean, dressed in a simple nightgown, and working on the tangles in her hair Trik walked into her, well their room now. He looked so tired and yet when his eyes landed on her he seemed to fill up with life, like a balloon being re-inflated.

“Hey, Beautiful,” he said smiling despite his obvious weariness.

“Why don’t you get a shower,” Cassie suggested before he could come wrap his dirty arms around her.

Trik looked down at himself, his clothes covered in ash and dust, and then looked back up at her. “So you don’t like your men dirty?” he asked with a wink.

Cassie felt her heart stutter at the inhumanly handsome elf before her. Trik was gorgeous on a good day, but when he flirted he took it to a whole other level. She didn’t want to be affected by him at the moment and so she did her best to frown at him, but she could tell he wasn’t buying it.

“Relax, Cassie, I’ll go take a shower so you can continue to work on your argument against my killing the captives.” He laughed when her frown turned to a scowl. As the door closed she heard him call out, “And don’t think that the discussion is going to postpone any other activities that need to happen and will happen.”

The door clicked closed before she could respond to that comment. She glared at the door as if it were the one that had made the incredibly conceded statement. If she wasn’t so embarrassed at possibly seeing Trik in all his glory, she would have opened the offensive door and given him a piece of her mind, though that’s not the piece of her she knew he wanted. She nearly laughed to herself at her own cheekiness. Man, I wish Elora was here to appreciate my humor, she thought wistfully.