Checkmate

Flight Square

For a moment, I could only stare at him.

He was in my chambers.

Not in the forest. But here. 

There it had felt private, intimate, our own world. Here it was another kind of intimate. Intense. Charged.

As if he'd made a move and taken a deliberate step into my life.

He was really standing there, his face tight, expression remote, those eyes almost emerald and fixed on me. 

"Don't worry." He said harshly. "I wasn't seen." 

There was a thick silence, his anger palpable in the air in the room. 

"I met Tetis this afternoon." He said, tightly. "She happened to mention in passing that the Enardan male who had helped one of ours had informed her he was leaving tomorrow." 

Ah. I should have known.

"I was coming to look for you." I said quietly. "I've been recalled. I only found out this afternoon."

"And yet you didn't come to the lake in the evening." His eyes gleamed green in the shadowy darkness.

I didn't say anything, glancing away, unable to refute the unspoken implication.

"When?" He demanded abruptly. 

I looked at him.

"First light." 

His eyes sparked then, I could scent the flare in his scent, the room grew thick with it.

"So you were coming to look for me when, ten minutes before you left?" He asked, his voice dangerous and low.

"If you hadn't come here, we would be having this conversation in your chambers right now." I said simply. 

He came away from the balcony, further into the room then.

"You haven't told them." His eyes bore into me, sharp and narrowed.

I shook my head. 

"Why?" He demanded. 

"They're my Clan." I said quietly.

He folded his arms and just looked at me. 

"I know." I said, my voice even. "That changed with the bond. This will be my Clan going forward. But I owe them. For the life they have given me, I owe them."

He was silent a moment.

"What are you asking me?" He asked quietly. "Say it. Let's be very clear."

I took a deep breath, because I knew the next words I said were going to be difficult.

"I need time to deal with this. I have to wrap things up."

"You want me to let you go." He stated, going straight to the point.

"Yes."

"Without declaring you to my Clan."

"Yes."

"Without Claiming you."

"Yes."

I confirmed his every statement meeting that green gaze, growing ever greener, head on.

"There are two investigations I'm involved with. Let me complete them. It will be a few months at the most." I said. "That will give me time to fulfil my oaths to them, to end things well."

"And you will not tell your Clan." It was a statement not a question. 

"If I tell them now, you know what will happen. They will not let me go back to them." I said.