Rhone told himself he was prepared for the inevitable fallout when Kali woke up. That he was willing to accept her fury or heartache so long as she was alive to do so. He told himself he would even accept if she refused to acknowledge their mate bond. He would never chain her to him if she no longer wanted him-though he had no intention of accepting that decision without a fight.

Every night spent cradling her to him as nightmare after nightmare assaulted her poor broken body, all the soft whispers and promises he'd made to her sleeping form had felt like an eternity of torture. A bone deep loneliness that made it impossible for him to eat or sleep beyond what was necessary to watch over Kali more effectively. He'd pushed away Stryker and the others in favor of continuing his silent watch and thinking of ways to tell her the truth.

She was his mate. His only, now and forever.

But he found all of his plans disappearing in the wake of her wide, terrified eyes and the wash of a cold emotion that he'd only felt once before from her.

Betrayal.

It sank like a stone to the pit of his stomach, rendering all of his careful explanations moot. Twisted like a knife in his lungs until it was a struggle to breathe against the wild emotions that made the air around them hang like chains, cementing them to the earth.

Rhone felt her pain like it was his own. He'd done the right thing, the only thing that would save her from the agony of dying in that gods forsaken pit they created for her. His chest tightened painfully and his throat ached with a litany of useless words that would do nothing to take this pain from her. He thought he could bear losing her as long as he knew she was still alive, but he couldn't handle being the one that hurt her so badly.

He watched her lips form the words that would destroy the relief and joy that her open eyes created.

"You gave her the book."

Kali's eyes were wide, pupils dilated with the evidence of the drugs still lingering in her system and her voice shook. It felt like the walls of the tent should be shifting and expanding with the force of her terror and dread.

He gave her the truth. "Yes."

Slowly, she pushed herself away from him, clutching the thin green blanket he'd tucked around her like a shield. He let his nerveless fingers release their hold on her arms, giving her the space she so desperately needed to regain her composure. He remained on his knees beside her cot, clenching his hands on the edge of it to keep from reaching out to her again.

How did things go so wrong between them?

The fabric at the entrance of the tent pushed open and, in the corner of his eyes, he saw Stryker and Aria step inside. Kali didn't look away from Rhone and he thought he heard a note of pleading in her voice, begging him to tell her the worst hadn't already occurred. "Did she do it?" she whispered.

"Kali…" he began but she made a rough sound that drew him up short.

"Did she bring her back?" she demanded and he heard Stryker suck in a surprised breath.

Rhone felt last bit of hope freeze into the same numbness that had been his companion since the moment Kali left him. Let it settle into him like a brittle shield against the condemnation he now faced. He would give her the truth even if it damned him.

"Yes."

The word triggered a burst of that wild agony from Kali-too complex for him to interpret-and a curse from Aria. She gasped in a ragged lungful of air and he watched a tear dripped free from her eye. The sensation of it was like a dam breaking and Kali pressed her fists to her eyes, trying to stop the silent sobs that made her shoulders shake.

"Kali, please," Rhone tried again, but she only shook her head, grey eyes wild.

"I told you-I warned you that she couldn't have it!" Kali's voice rose and he felt the warmth of the anger she used to cloak her internal agony, "Everything I did, everything I sacrificed was to keep Amarantha in the ground! And you just walked in and gave it to her. I thought-" She cut herself off with a near hysterical laugh, "Get out."

"I only wanted-"

"What? To help your mate?" Kali's voice was vicious, lashing out in an attempt to dodge the pain that made her hands shake around her flimsy shield. "Delorea made it clear exactly how long you've been meeting with her behind my back."

"I never helped Delorea!"

"Look, you did your job. You can go back Under the Mountain and tell all your little buddies how you royally screwed me over." She shook her head, pale hair sliding over her bare shoulders. "I can't believe I fell for every word you said. Be proud of yourself-you even got some sex out of the deal."

"That's not the way it was!"

"That's exactly the way it was. Delorea was your mate all along and I was the idiot who trusted you with everything I had. Even after finding out, even after all the proof that you were part of her scheme, I still gave you the damned book. I still thought you'd do the right thing," Kali's voice broke and he flinched when she buried her face into the blanket, trying and failing to muffle the sounds of her weeping.

Rhone stared at her and felt the weight of his guilt settle in deep in his core. She was right. He'd damned all the consequences the moment his fingers closed around the note in Thrace's room.

The only way to make this right was to kill Amarantha.

Talia shoved through the clustered group at the door with an impatient snort, interrupting his line of thought. "Out, all of you," she snapped, making a shooing motion at Stryker and Aria. "She is still weak and I won't have you hulking warriors ruining all my hard work." When Rhone remained still on his knees beside the cot, the healer leveled a hard stare on him. "That includes you, High Lord."

Kali sucked in a surprised breath at the title, but didn't protest. It stung more than it should have.

Slowly, he stood and walked to the doorway, looking back once to see his mate staring silently down at her hands, the smooth, scarless skin of her back looking foreign in the sunlight. He pushed the ragged edges of his mind that wanted to beg her to forgive him, to understand deep into his psyche and stepped out into the open sea air.

Juno and Freya raced forward with joyful yips that faded at his obvious distress. Their dark noses twitched as they scented him and he watched Juno slip between the folds of the tent entrance to check on Kali. Good.

He made it two steps before a hard hand latched onto his arm and forced him to turn and look at the wild green eyes of his spymaster.

"When were you planning to tell us about Amarantha?" Stryker demanded, his chest rising and falling in a ragged rhythm.

Rhone raked his fingers through his short hair, trying to force his mind away from the tent behind him to focus on the long list of problems he faced. "I wasn't sure you would help us if you knew."

Stryker looked like he'd struck him. "You're my family-of course I would have helped you."

Aria stepped closer, laying a hand on Stryker's arm in the first voluntary touch he'd seen between the two. Then her eyes were on Rhone, "How is this possible?"

"Delorea used Amarantha's spell book to raise what was left of her back, but it wasn't enough to piece together her body," he explained wearily, "So she took over Delorea's."

Stryker hissed and broke away from Aria to pace over the sands. Aria watched him move without expression. "It won't take long for the survivors of the king's army to see this as an opportunity to win back everything they lost," she speculated, "Amarantha successfully held Prythian and its High Lord's in her grip for fifty years-fae will be eager to see if she can do it again."

"Yes," Rhone said quietly.

Stryker whirled on him, "Stop bloody saying yes!"

"I won't make excuses," he growled, his temper flickering weakly under the weight of his exhaustion. "I knew Delorea had something planned with the book that Kali was willing to die to prevent. I just wasn't willing to let her."

"Damn it," Stryker cursed, looked at him, then cursed again.

"Is she fully returned?" Aria asked and he watched her make a quick gesture that had the Illyrian leaping off the cliff and heading into the tent to help Talia.

"I don't know…" He said, weary down to his very bones. Freya leaned against his leg, her familiar weight like an anchor. "I took off before she could do more than just speak."

"Do you still have connections in Hybern?" Stryker abruptly asked Aria. At her nod, he continued, "See how far the news has spread and what kind of manpower she's gathered."

Aria moved away, heading towards Kai and Stryker returned his attention to Rhone. "We need more allies. The Winter Court is in shambles-I don't know how many soldiers we can muster."

"Send a messenger to Rhysand-he'll be eager to help put Amarantha back in the ground." The memory of his thief quietly weeping in the arms of the daemati High Lord made him glance back at the tent as though he would be able to see Kali there. No sound emerged from the thick canvas and he dragged another breath of air into his lungs.

Focus.

Amarantha needed to die for Kali to feel safe again. He would do this for her, even if it killed him.

"Have you heard anything from Tarquin?" He asked Stryker.

The Summer High Lord was a wild card. Summer traditionally remained neutral in conflicts between the other Courts, but Rhone was hopefully the news of his lost sister and the return of Amarantha would be enough to bring his army to their aid.

"Not yet," Stryker mutter, eyes distant as he considered their options. "We need to move quickly-before she has a chance to gather any allies."

"Any word from my mother?"

Stryker shook his head, "Last I heard, she was still locked away in her rooms while Phinn worked to keep everything under control."

"Send him a message about what has happened and tell him to gather as many loyal soldiers as possible to march on the Mountain."

Stryker gave him a grim smile, "I'll see what kind of monsters of our own I can drum up for our forces." He paused, reaching out a gentle hand to once again wrap around Rhone's arm, "You can't disappear like that on us again. We can't afford to have a High Lord who is distracted-even if she is your mate."

Rhone forced himself to focus on the fight ahead of them instead of the tent at his back. "I'm here now. I won't stop until Amarantha is dead."

Well, the fall out from Rhone's decisions Under the Mountain has finally arrived. Sorry if it wasn't the reunion you were hoping for-it'll be a while before Kali can get over Amarantha's return. Let me know what you think!