Lily tried to pull him down in the seat by her but he pulled away. He needed space from her right now. He stood in front of the group and crossed his arms.

“I'm going to overthrow Alrik from the throne.” His eyes caught Lily's expression and he frowned. She looked sad or disappointed. Isn't this what she'd wanted? Why she'd supported him?

“Share the details,” Tyrian said.

“Since we have no choice but to drop in announced we can't use stealth to our advantage. They're going to see us. I believe since Alrik has sent assassins after us he may even be expecting an attack.”

“I and the Warriors will back you,” Tyrian said. His mate gasped and squeezed his hand in a tight grip. Telal looked away from the emotional sight.

“So will my men.” Lyonis' mate didn't look scared but nodded slowly as if she was ready to take arms and go down there with him. He almost laughed. The Bellum family was so diverse yet similar it rattled his mind.

“We'll go late at night so most of the royalty will be asleep. I don't want innocents dying if we can avoid it. We'll storm the castle. But Alrik's mine.” His eyes met the understanding nods of the group. Seeing their acceptance actually helped him to resolve to do this, he realized. He felt better after getting their agreement, like he wasn't doing this alone.

“When do we start?” Lily's curious question, met with her soft beseeching gaze, made his chest pull tight.

“Just so we understand each other, you're not going. None of the women are.”

Anger darkened her face and she stood, her voice almost a yell. “What? You need us down there. Me especially and what about Rosa? She can help with any healing if it's necessary.”

Telal didn't voice the fact that whether Rosa wanted to go, even if he'd allow, should be her decision because he honestly didn't want to fight with her. He cared for her and whether or not he made it out of the rift as king, he wanted her to be safe in Tyrian's castle.

“You are not going. None of the women are. Rosa will stay here and help the injured after it's done.” He paused. “Besides, we can't take a legion of men with us. Only a small group.”

“Why?” Chloe said.

“Because I can only port in as many people as I can touch. It'd take hours to port in even half the Atal Warriors, and that will only exhaust my powers. I'll need them to go up against Alrik.”

Tyrian nodded. “He's right. Even with Henry, Draven, and Rayn helping to port people in. Sitting around while waiting for more help to arrive isn't going to help the surprise attack.”

“I'll make a detailed list of who's going, though if you don't want to you don't have to go. It's entirely up to you. I'll get the list out by the end of today. We'll attack four days from today.”

Lily's eyes widened. Had she realized that he'd planned the attack around her new moon? He did. He wanted to be here for this, to be with her for his final days. Hopefully by then his powers will be back in full force.

“That's all for now.” The room cleared out except for Lily who came at him with a pointed finger and hard steps.

“I'm going with you dammit. I haven't sat around this whole time planning to help you just to sit here twiddling my thumbs while you could get hurt.”

“It'd bother you if I got hurt?” he said softly. The notion gave him a peculiar feeling in his chest, something like happiness.

He thought she might explode from her reaction. “Bother me? My god I—”

She stopped and the silence that followed was deafening. It felt as though the floor just dropped out from under his feet and he was free-falling in the air with his arms and legs kicking nothing but air around him. Then he landed with a crush that jarred him back to reality.

“You love me?” His body felt strained and tense, torn between wanting to flee and squeeze the life out of her.

She crossed her arms and looked away, a bright blush covering her cheeks. “I do not.” Her stiff words brought a smile to his face and a joy in his heart that he'd never felt before.

“Don't lie to me, Lily.”

She gawked at him. “Don't use the imperial voice on me. We've had sex.”

“What does that have to do with it?” He hadn’t realized he liked her switches between mood and until now. She was just so...cute. God, now he was going to blush.

Her mouth opened and closed several times. “That means you can't order me to do anything.”

He couldn't help himself. He stepped forward, lowered his voice. “If I told you to take off your clothes for me you would.”

Her eyelids drooped but then shot right back open. “Nope. Nope. Don't turn this around like that. I'm going with you and you can't stop me.”

“I couldn't take it if you went with me.” He hadn't meant to say something so blatantly true but she'd broken down something inside him, and he didn't want to lie to her. She deserved better than that.

Her expression softened. He couldn't keep from touching her anymore so he threaded his fingers in her hair. Her eyes narrowed on his, bright and clear. “You love me.”

His hand fell from her hair, his lips dropping into a flat line. “No.” Those eyes, he swore, were trying to see inside him. He took a step back, ready to leave. He didn't need this foolishness from her, not now.

“Stop.” It wasn't the command but the plea in her voice that kept his feet from moving. She flattened her hands against his chest and he stretched out his neck to loosen the muscles before looking away. He couldn't look at her like this, pleading. It made him feel raw inside. Scratched with vicious nails from the inside out. It reminded him of being a child in the rift and his brother Alrik begging him to take him into the fields to play. He had the same plea, the same eagerness, and the same wide eyes. God, his heart felt crushed.

“You do, don't you?”

“This isn't about me,” he said after a minute.

She took a deep breath and it came out shaky. “Okay then. Let me tell you something.” He stiffened, but something strange happened, his heart started pounding. Not the pounding of arousal or fear but the hard slow steady thump of anticipation, building and building inside him until the beat of it resonated in his ears. He wanted to hear what she said. Had to hear it.

“Telal, I love you. I wasn't going to tell you yet but I don't think I have much more time.” Her voice faltered, thickened with sorrow. He barely managed to refrain from ordering her not to cry and pulling her into his arms. The only reason he managed not to grab her was because her words had rooted him in place like a statue. He was frozen, slowly trying to absorb her words. He just learned that it was one thing to assume Lily loved him and another to hear the words from her mouth.

“If you go and... don't come back. What am I supposed to do?” Her clear eyes wobbled then tears spilled down her cheeks. The sight of them crushed his heart in a brutal fist. He felt humbled. No one had ever loved him like that, said those words to him and meant it like she did. He felt so undeserving. Like a dirty old fool.

“Then you understand why you can't come with me, Lily.” He pulled her into his arms if only so he didn't have to see her tears anymore, which were really droplets meant to crush a man's soul.

They held each other for what felt like a long time. She was the first to pull away. He hesitated to let her go. Her face had dried of tears and he felt his shirt wet from where she'd laid her head. A part of him was actually proud, happy in fact, that he'd been able to help her stop from crying in some way.

He looked down at her and caught her smile; it curled from a grin into a full-blow smile that melted his heart. “You do love me.” Then she stood up on her toes, kissed him, and left the room with a certain bounce to her step.

Telal stood there, baffled, confused, and elated for some time. He swallowed over his dry throat and raised his hand to stop her, but he didn't know what to say. It might take him some time to work through all his emotions and everything that had just happened, but he did know one thing. He loved Lily Bellum.