Page 116 of Fae Champion

I tugged him toward me by his neck, but, with our noses touching, he stopped me.

“No,” he whispered. “You have to listen to me.”

He pulled away far enough that I could focus on his face. His eyes, those stunning moonlight eyes, were so conflicted and stormy that I wouldn’t have been surprised to see lightning arc across them.

As if we’d been lovers for an age instead of mere days, he leaned his head into my touch, his breathing as heavy and excited as mine.

“No matter what happens, no matter what anyone tells you, I need you to trust me. To trustthis,” heuttered, softly enough that our observers, whom I scarcely recalled, wouldn’t easily overhear.

He squeezed my hand where it rested against him, his tattoos flaring in combined emphasis. “This.” He released my hand to press his against the exposed skin above my bodice, sending tingles racing down my spine to pool in my core as if his very touch were electric.

My attention dropped to his lips—plump, swollen, glistening, and intensely pink amid the shadow of stubble. I inched forward, desperate to taste them again.

He shook his head, one of the many slim braids in his hair sliding forward. He didn’t tuck it back, all his attention on me.

“I love you, El.”

Blinking away my arousal, heavy lidded, I stared at him.

“Did you register that?I love you.”

I just looked at him.

“I get that it might be hard to believe given how long we’ve known each other, but time doesn’t matter. When you’ve lived as long as I have, you just know. And Iknow. You remember everything I told you earlier?”

I shrugged and gazed once more at his lips.

“Everything I’ve ever told you is true. If you find yourself doubting this … us … me … trust your heart, not your mind. Trustmyheart. Okay?”

I stared at him, hearing what he said, but his words slid across my heated skin like a cooling breeze. I was here, but also not here. I was with him, and yet not.

Did Braque cast a spell on me?I was in the middle of wondering when Rush pressed the most tender of kisses against my mouth, so soft and light it was already a specter, a fleeting memory.

“Always remember that I love you, El. I’m so fucking sorry it has to be this way, so incredibly sorry,” he mumbled against my lips, his voice breaking, and I felt the vibration of his words against the sensitive swell of my mouth—before I felt the pain.

The searing agony.

The unbearable burning that stole my breath before it abandoned me entirely.

My heart thudded, wobbled, and then … went quiet, completely still, unable even to shatter.

Disbelieving, I peered downward?—

And found Rush’s dagger plunged into my chest all the way to its shiny, ornate hilt.

I hadn’t even noticed he’d picked it up again…

A crimson so bright it could only be blood that gave—and stole—life bloomed in a rapidly spreading circle around the hilt, transforming the periwinkle blue of my dress into something both hauntingly horrific and mesmerizingly beautiful.

The whooshing pulse in my head silenced into an eerie, surreal vacuum.

While I stared down at the hole in my chest and tried to breathe, Rush’s fingers fluttered around the wound, shaking like a frightened dragonling, like Saffron, whom I remembered I was supposed to beprotecting.

“Oh my … oh my … oh my Etherlands,” Rush stuttered. “What … what have I done?”

His fingers wrapped around the handle of his dagger as if considering withdrawing it.

But it was too late.

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