Page 84 of The Fae Lord

She collapses backwards, lying face up, arms at her sides.

I scramble over to her and shake her shoulders. She looks exhausted, and pale. Slowly, she turns her head towards me and smiles. “Did it work?” she asks quietly. “Did I help?”

I lie down beside her and cradle her beneath my wing. Her body is cold, and clammy. She is breathing unevenly.

Whatever she just did was dangerous for her.

“Alana, you mustn’t do that again,” I tell her.

“But it worked?” she asks.

“Yes, it worked.” I press my palm to my chest, searching for the sadness that was so profound only a few moments ago.

It has gone.

But when I sit up, and stare out at the lake, I do not feel glad of it; I feel like a traitor to my husband’s memory.

And when Alana slips her small hand into mine, I do not feel glad of her, either. I feel terrified. Because she enjoyed what she did.

And I have no idea whether it’s because she wanted to help me or because she enjoyed having power over me.

For the first time since she was born, watching her skip away into the forest and call for her brother and her friends, I am truly afraid of what we have living in our midst.

And of what she will become.

THIRTY-FIVE

Eldrion

“Do not leave with him.” I grab Alana’s elbow and pull her towards me. “You know I have been telling you the truth, Alana. This is where you belong.”

She meets my eyes. A few short minutes ago, I thought I had got through to her. But the confusion is back.

She grips the sides of her head and storms away from me.

“I can’t think,” she says, shaking her arms out at her sides as if it will remove the tension that is swirling through her body. “I need to think.”

Footsteps sound on the staircase. They are drawing closer.

“I won’t stop you.” I stand back and lower my arms to my sides. “If you choose to go, I won’t stop you or fight you.”

She frowns at me and shakes her head. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I am trying to prove that you can trust me.”

A laugh bursts from her lips, but it is not the happy laugh that I coaxed from her when we were fucking. It is an exasperated laugh. “I cannot even trust my own mind,” she says. “I just fucked the man who killed my best friend. I came here to end you, and instead I –”

“Doesn’t that tell you something?” I stride towards her, anger flaring in my eyes.

“It tells me I need this to be over,” she says, scraping her fingers through her hair.

The footsteps have reached the door, now. Finn bursts onto the roof. He looks different. More self-assured now. And I know in an instant that his concern for Alana is an act.

How does she not see it? I turn to warn her, but she is already rushing towards him. He pulls her into his arms, then stands in front of her, motioning for her to leave.

Briony is with him and . . . “Garratt?”

The elf meets my gaze and shrugs. “Apologies, my lord,” he says. “I’m sure you understand. Business is business.”

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