“Keko . . .” He ran a hand below his jaw and glanced out toward the ocean. “I can—”
“No, Griffin. Don’t even say it. I’m not taking your money. I’m not letting you step in and do this for me. I just can’t. And it has nothing to do with being Queen or whatever. You understand that, right?”
He did, because she saw it in the warmth of his eyes and the easy bob of his head. “Okay, so what are you thinking? Why did you really bring me here?”
She took a deep breath, felt the reassuring fire within. “To tell you that I want to come with you. To San Francisco.”
His eyes brightened, widened. “Yes. Yes. Absolutely come with me.”
She pressed a hand to the wet shirt on his chest. “Not solely to be with you. Like you, I have to be here for my people, so my going to the mainland can’t be forever.”
“I get that, sure. So what do you want to do?”
“I’m thinking”—she licked her lips and tasted the delicious water of her island, the stuff that would always, always remind her of Griffin and their days spent slugging through it—“that I want to ask for the Ofarians’ help.”
He opened his mouth, made some sort of odd sound, then finally got out, “What do you mean?”
“I am Chimeran Queen. I assumed and accepted the name only if I knew I could bring change for the better. You know how my people have been living. It is poverty. In this day and age, it is nothing more, and the clans on the other islands are the same way, maybe even worse off. Why does it have to be like that? I’m not saying we have to be rich and live in oceanfront condos on the Kohala Coast, but we have no prospects and no skills applicable to the real world. Ofarians do.”
He drew a sharp breath in realization, but she went on.
“I’ve been thinking about this ever since Aya brought me back from Within. How I was the first Secondary other than their own kind to see that realm. How Cat and now you have been the only Ofarians to visit the Chimeran valley. How no one knows anything about the Airs, or Sean and Michael, those spirit elementals who were with me in Colorado. How is this good? How can we possibly help each other if we’re peering at each other through teeny tiny holes?”
“Wow.” He sank onto the bumper of the Jeep. “I guess I never thought of it like that. I was too set with the whole Primary/Secondary thing, trying to figure out ways for us to fit in better to their world.”
“But that’s the thing. You already have such a leg up on that. Ofarians know so much and Chimerans know nothing except what we’ve been looking at for centuries. Education and technology and the ways of business—I want your people to teach my people all of that. I don’t even know how to turn on a damn computer. No Chimeran does. You can help us.”
He nodded enthusiastically. “We can. Absolutely we can.”
“And that could just be the beginning. We could start to organize diplomatic tours between all the races, learn as much about each other as possible—”
He snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her into him. “We?”
His hair was wet and shiny and silky between her fingers. “We. You and me. Start a whole new thing. ‘Fuck the Senatus,’ if I can steal your words. You said yourself you’re going to have a fight on your hands when you get back. Let me stand next to you when you face them. Let me help you tell them all that you’ve done. Let me help you present something new and wonderful, this collaboration, that they could help birth. Give them ownership, you know?”
“Fuck the Senatus,” he whispered. “Oh God, Keko.”
And then she was crushed in his embrace. Water, water everywhere.
“You can help us, too,” he said into her skin.
She peeled herself away and raised an eyebrow at him. “We can?”
“Henry would just about kill to learn some of the fighting maneuvers I saw your warriors do out on the field the other day. So would most Ofarian kids.”
“Bring in the newer generations,” she said. “I like it.”
His expression turned grim. “I should warn you, not everyone will. It’s been the story of my life for the past five years.”
Didn’t he get it yet? “Battles are virtuous only when there’s a prize worth fighting for.”
He framed her face in his hands. “This is just a thought so feel free to shoot it down, but we have this doctor, Kelsey Evans. She’s brilliant and eager and has done so much for us. What would you say to her and her staff coming to take a look at your people who contracted the wasting disease?”
Hope and love soared within her, making her nearly buoyant. “You think she could find a cause?”
Griffin shrugged. “Don’t know, but it’s worth a shot, don’t you think? I know she’d be up to the task and her husband, David, would jump at the chance for a free trip to Hawaii.”
He kissed her neck, the lick of him mixing with the moisture from the sky, and she shivered even with the Source thundering through her body. Then her mouth found his, and the kiss drowned her in a flood that no longer scared her.
“And guess what?” she said against his lips. “You’re not kapu anymore. That’s my first declaration as Queen.” She struck a fist on his chest. “There. Done.”
He sighed, but it came out like a shudder. She thought he might kiss her again, but instead his liquid brown eyes stared into hers as he said, “I am never going to be able to hold you tight enough. I will never get tired of the feel of you. I will never take you for granted. And I will fight for you until the end of my days.”
“Good.” She drew back, planted fists on her hips in an echo of her trademark defiant stance, and smiled mischievously. “Because it’s going to be one wonderful war.”