Page 37 of Fae Champion

If I didn’t turn, perhaps I could pretend the drake of Encarantos wasn’t getting an unimpeded view of my naked ass sitting astride his friend.

In a harsh snarl, West accused, “What in dragon’s veins are you thinking, Rush?”

While still impaled on Rush, I glared at him from over my shoulder, suddenly uncaring that he’d get an eyeful of boobage. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I snapped.

But West didn’t meet the anger brimming in my stare. He looked only at Rush.

“What about Larissa?” His tone grew sharper, more condemning. “Or Ramana? D’you forget about them?”

“I never forget about them,” Rush answered with a deadly calm. “Everything I do’s for them.”

“Apparently not everything.” Then, West did trail his gaze across me, but it seemed more to make a point than to leer.

“Fuck off, West,” I said. “Leave and close the door.”

“I’d love to. But your lover there, against my better judgment, talked me into helping you escape, and there’s been a complication.”

“What kind of complication?” Rush asked, and just like that I knew my first time was over before it hardly began.

Rush had the foresight to bring me fresh clothes along with the food. But since women at court only wore dresses, and he surely hadn’t had opportunity to ask Pru for the tunics and britches she’d earlier secured for me, the pants and shirt were ill-fitting. They had to have belonged to a small man, as they hung loosely beneath my armor. But at least they didn’t smell of a four-day stay in a musty dungeon. I was spotting thanks to the loss of my “innocence” and Rush’s sizable girth, but it wasn’t enough for anyone else to notice, and britches were essential for an easier escape.

I reclined on the chaise lounge, devouring the fruit, cheese, and bread Rush had brought me while he, West, Hiroshi, and Ryder either stood or paced Saturn’s bedchamber. Roan and Reed kept watch somewhere beyond this room. No one had mentioned Finnian.

West had refused to reveal the “complication” until Rush and I were out of the tub and dressed, and by then the others had arrived. Without so much as a greeting first, West had told them in which compromising position he’d found Rush and me. But he was the only one to continually cast condemning looks at us, and Rush was his main target.

When the four of them appeared intent to speak amongst each other in hushed, hurried tones and leave me out of it, I grabbed a fruit I had no name for, which was juicy and wonderfully sweet, and walked over to them. As one, they turned to face me.

“I realize we’re probably in a hurry, but thank you all for helping me,” I said.

“Rush didn’t give us much choice,” West bit out, when he’d never been rude to me before today.

Hiroshitskedand swung his way, bringing my attention to how one of his sleeves wasn’t quite full. My eyes widened, but he was already saying, “Knock it off, West. Rush gave you the choice and you made it all on your own, just like the rest of us.”

“Yeah,” Ryder said. His pale hair hung in a single thick braid along his back. “And don’t act like you and Ramana didn’t go at it often enough to risk getting stuck together.”

West’s cheeks colored, framed beneath short dark hair. “That’s different. We intended to forge a life together.”

“And how do you know Rush and Elowyn won’t?” Ryder asked.

West scowled. “Because it’s not fucking possible, now is it? Don’t play dumb with me. I know better. Not a one of you’s stupid enough to believe the two of them have any chance of being together. Elowyn’s a dead woman and you all know it.”

The bite I’d been chewing lost its flavor. I swallowed awkwardly and forced my chin higher as I asked Hiroshi, “Your arm … what happened?” When even West looked at me, I added, “If we have time for bickering, we have time for me to ask how he’s doing when he’s been hurt. Are you … gonna be all right?”

“He’ll be fine,” West answered for him. “He’ll regrow it.”

“Really?” I asked, making sure to look at Hiroshi instead of West so the intended man would answer my question this time.

“Yeah.” Hiroshi shrugged, one of many lavender braids sliding over his shoulder to rest against his chest. He flicked it back. “I’m not gonna lie and say it was fun?—”

Ryder snorted. “I imagine not.”

“But I’m glad it happened to me and not any of these jerks, or they’d be permanently out an arm.”

My eyes were wide. “You can really regrow it?”

“Yep, and it’s a damn lucky thing too. That bastard Breccan sliced it clean off in our fight. He took it off just below the shoulder. Fucking lucky strike,” he grumbled.

I must have looked shocked because he added, “My power allows me to affect the physical forms of living things. It’s how I was able to give Braque a well-deserved beak and chicken legs, and it’s how I’ll regrow my arm before the week’s up.”

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