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Elreth did roll her eyes at her brother and shoved him aside to face Harth without his bulk hanging between them.

“Here’s the thing, Harth… no matter what’s happened up to this point, right now we’re walking a really fine line, right?”

“I’d say so,” Harth muttered.

Elreth sighed. “I need your help. And I understand why you might not want to give it to me. But… I’m not just asking for me. I’m asking for you, and your people, and mine, and… and Tarkyn and… even Zev. I think I understand what’s driving him. I know what I’ve done to contribute to that. And I know I missed my window to solve this with him. So now, I’m asking… asking for your help to create an opportunity that I should have taken advantage of before. I take responsibility for that. So I’m asking… not ordering.” She said the words like they hurt her, but Harth had to admire that she didn’t try to use her alpha authority. Harth suspected it was powerful.

“What exactly are you asking?” she asked carefully. “Be specific, please.”

Elreth and Gar shared a look, then the Queen met Harth’s gaze, and Harth was reminded why she’d found this woman intimidating. Young, she might be. But she possessed a spine of steel, and a gaze that seemed to slice through Harth like a blade.

“I want to reach out to Zev and offer a peace treaty—one Alpha to another. Give him a chance to speak his peace without being… under my control. I will answer his charges as well as present my own. I want to see if we can negotiate so none of our people are hurt. Not a single one.”

“You’re asking him to come meet you at an agreed place… when you outnumber him and possess the better knowledge of the land and—”

.....

“I’ll meet where he would choose. I’ll agree to terms that make us even in our numbers if he wants. I’ll give him an official truce.”

“But he has to believe that you’d actually keep your word.”

“Yes, he will. I believe I’ve demonstrated that I would do that already—I may have been slow, but I have done what I’ve said I would do. And if he prefers to speak directly with someone who isn’t me, I’ll consider letting him deal with someone else. Tarkyn. Or Aaryn. Gar. But I’m guessing—”

“He isn’t afraid of you, Elreth. He’ll want to face you directly. I can almost guarantee it.”

Elreth nodded. “Just as I would if I were in his shoes. So… the help I need from you is to go back to your people and to bring this proposition to him in a way that you believe he might actually hear it. And to take a message to Sasha for me.”

Harth sucked in a breath. Return to her people with no conflict with Elreth? It was almost too good to be true. Except…

“Will you do it?” Elreth asked.

“Yes, I will,” Harth said. “On one condition.”

Elreth’s jaw tightened. “Which is?”

“Let me take Tarkyn with me.”

Elreth either wasn’t surprised, or was very good at hiding it. She did fold her arms, though. “I need my Captain. In the event that these talks are unsuccessful—”

“Your talks have a far better likelihood of succeeding if Tarkyn is a part of them,” Harth muttered. “He already has Zev’s reluctant respect—and he knows how to talk to… people like Zev. I don’t. There’s something different about warriors. He’s helping me see that. Sometimes… sometimes the only one a fighter will listen to is someone who’s walked the same road. That sounds simple to me, but Tarkyn’s showing me… it’s not simple for these males and females who have dedicated their lives to this kind of conflict.

“I trust my mate—and you do too, I think?” Harth said, letting the edge of challenge creep into her tone. “He’s the right male for the job. I’d go so far as to say if he doesn’t come with me, I think you can kiss your peace treaty goodbye.”

Gar was nodding along as she spoke, which was gratifying. But Harth was under no deception that Elreth was the one calling the shots.

“I did tell you I think he’ll make a great Emissary,” Gar said to her quietly. For a moment Harth was surprised he hadn’t spoken it through a link—until she realized that they didn’t have one. That they couldn’t talk silently, out of the hearing of other sharp ears.

Her respect for the Anima leaders reluctantly rose. They did all this without being able to speak secretly. How?

“And if we lose him?” Elreth said bluntly to her brother, turning away from Harth entirely. “Then, not only do we lose what he brings, but his blood is on my hands as well.”

Harth snorted her contempt at that.

Elreth turned to look at her, one eyebrow up, her eyes fierce. “You have something to say?”

“His blood is already on your hands if this goes wrong on any level. They all are. We told you we weren’t the enemy. You wouldn’t listen.”

“I’m aware,” Elreth said, but then she stepped right up, toe-to-toe with Harth. Elreth topped her by a few inches and was clearly stronger, but Harth knew she held the higher moral position and didn’t give ground. “I’m also aware that until you have carried an entire people through invasion and war, then been faced with the enemy you thought you’d routed, you will not judge me,” she hissed. “I may recognize my faults—but you do not recognize my strengths.”

“Maybe not,” Harth said with a casual shrug she didn’t feel. “But Tarkyn does. He’s been standing in your defense. I wonder if you deserve it, honestly. Is it because he’s so good that he thinks you are too? Or does that just make him a more reliable judge of your character?”

Elreth blinked, but didn’t back away either. “I pray it’s the latter,” she said through her teeth.

They stood there, almost nose-to-nose, for several seconds, neither of them giving ground, until finally Gar cleared his throat. “I think we all agree that Tarkyn is a… very good male,” he said dryly. “The question is, is he of more powerful use to his people as an Emissary, or as our Captain?”

To Harth’s surprise, Elreth took a deep breath, then was the one to take a step back and give Harth more room—a form of submission that put her at a disadvantage if Harth chose to press it.

“Yes,” she said flatly. “That’s exactly the question.” Then she looked away from Harth and to her brother. “What do you think?”

Gar looked like he wanted to hug her, but he didn’t move. “I think that we can’t win without risking loss,” he said very gently, which confused Harth, until he added. “Dad taught us that.”

Elreth looked suddenly stricken and turned completely away, giving both of them her back, putting her hands on her hips and dropping her head. Clearly fighting some kind of internal battle.

Harth didn’t know whether to feel bad for her, or pleased that the woman wasn’t walking through this unscathed.

She looked up at Gar, but he was watching his sister, his brow furrowed and his mouth turned down—in grief, or frustration, she wasn’t sure. His scent was a confusing mix she couldn’t untangle, even this close.

What must he be thinking to create such a knot of emotions?

Harth wasn’t sure… but she was grateful that things were far clearer for her. So, alongside the male who seemed twisted up from the inside out, she waited silently for Elreth to make a decision.