Chapter 281

It was a struggle for Lucien to keep his eyes open. He was thoroughly exhausted, beyond anything he could actually remember. He'd been pretty damn exhausted when he had fled the Autumn Court all those years ago, his brothers stalking him as he'd tried to get away. If Tamlin hadn't found him, Lucien was pretty sure that he would have ended up collapsing and then he would have been dead. This was worse. Not in any way that threatened his life, although he would fully acknowledge that if he hadn't been able to hold the shield he would have been killed, as would everyone else.

Turning his head to look at Elain, Lucien watched her pick up a small piece of bread and take a bite. She was listening to something Rhys was saying, and he took a moment to just watch his mate. She was safe now. He had kept her safe, and he knew that it had been his need to do that which had forced him to hold that shield. She had asked him to protect her. The memory flashed quickly through his mind and Lucien narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. He knew that she had done that deliberately, to focus him and to calm him down. Elain turned her head then, meeting his eyes and smiling at him and Lucien knew that she was well aware of what he had just thought.

"Conniving mate." He purred and her smile grew even wider.

"You love me." She replied, her hand sliding into his beneath the table. He squeezed her hand a little and nodded.

"I do." He said.

"You needed a focus."

"I did." He agreed. "Though, I would have done that anyway."

"Yes…" Elain leaned into him, her face tilted upward toward him, and Lucien bent his head to press a kiss to her lips. He felt her smile into the kiss, and he did the same. That smile grew even wider when he lifted his head and saw the moment that Elain realised that half the table was watching them. She blushed then, like she always had whenever someone had seen them do something like that. He liked that she hadn't lost that reaction. It was endearing and he tightened his grip on her hand as she looked back down at the table.

When the others around them returned their own attention to their previous conversations, Lucien leaned into Elain once more, bringing his lips to her ear. "Thank you." He breathed, pressing a kiss to her ear and causing her to shudder a little. "For sharing your energy with me earlier. I wouldn't have been able to keep the shield up without that."

She turned her head and smiled gently at him. She didn't say anything and didn't move, but Lucien saw down the bond. He saw her reach a hand out and stroke his cheek with her fingers, following his scar as she looked at him. He blinked and the vision vanished and Elain was still smiling at him. Wondering when she had figured out how to do that, he smiled back at her, watching as she looked back to her plate and picked up her fork.

The wind changed direction then, and a moment later the smell of smoke hit them. Heads turned to look up the hill and, even in the moonlight, Lucien could see that the huge plumes of smoke were being lifted and brought toward them.

"Oh, no…" Elain breathed, and she looked at Rhys. "Maybe it would have been better to bury them." She said, "It would have been a lot of work to dig pits big enough for them all, but then the smoke wouldn't have been all anyone would be breathing for days…"

"We don't bury our dead." Rhys replied, and Lucien saw Elain tilt her head. The High Lord of the Night Court looked at her and went on. "The Illyrians are of the air not the earth." He told her, "When Illyrians die, they are returned to the air…" he gestured at the sky and the smoke, "It would be unthinkable to throw them under the cold damp dirt… even if they were a bunch of bastards."

Lucien thought then about what he had seen after Hybern had been killed and they had returned to their camps. As the killing fields had been cleared, the Illyrians had gathered all of their dead and heaped them on pyres. He glanced at Elain, wondering if she had seen the same thing, but this had been right after her father had died, and he supposed that she hadn't seen a thing while trapped within that pain.

"I…" Elain picked up her cup, swirling the liquid within. "I hadn't thought of it like that." Rhys smiled and nodded.

"It may smell for a few days," he said, leaning back in his hair, "But it's also a good warning for anyone else looking this way. This village is not unprotected."

Elain's back stiffened at those words, and Lucien knew exactly where her mind had gone because his went to the same place. "And the other camps?" he asked, "Other villages?"

"Mm." Rhys nodded, spearing a piece of meat with his fork. "Likely their males all haven't up and left and they have some protection of their own, but Cassian will do the rounds and check tomorrow."

Elain relaxed visibly at that and Lucien ran a hand over her back, rubbing soothingly. It would have been horrible news indeed if they had returned home only to later hear that other camps and villages had been attacked after they had gone through so much to defend this one. Rhys might have been acting as if this were a simple problem, and one that wasn't much worth worrying about, but Lucien knew that it was an act the High Lord of the Night Court was putting on. He was so very good at playing games, and Lucien could see that this was one of them. It might have been for Elain, to put her at ease, or the other Illyrians around the table, but it was an act all the same. It was clear to Lucien that this was not something that Rhysand was going to tolerate. Anyone who thought to try and take advantage of others like those who lived here was going to regret pissing off the High Lord of the Night Court.