Page 50 of Fae Champion

Fat chance of that.

Eyes trailed me from every direction, and as the guys caught up, their heat warming my bare back, I noticed Roan. The dwarf stood atop a stool with shiny silver legs and a plush gray cushion, conversing with a gaggle of preening women who didn’t appear to mind his stature the way the queen did.

In recognition of our connection, he met my waiting gaze for a full three seconds, but then that was it. He didn’t smile, acknowledge what perhaps was a burgeoning friendship, or how much was at stake. He merely stroked his thick beard and pretended to be engrossed by whatever a woman with hair colored in the vivid gradients of sunset was saying.

It was as the men had planned. Rush, Ryder, Hiroshi, and West had become friends before puberty, when their stations brought them together across territories regularly enough that they struck a bond in their shared circumstances strong enough to last all these years. But Roan was a count, not a drake, and as much as was reasonable, in public, the four drakes kept him at arm’s length—a future secret weapon, a stalwart rook to deploy on the chess board that was the court.

Next, I spotted Lennox. With his creamy brown skin and starkly contrasting copper hair, he was easy to find. He wore a ridiculous shirt with an array of colors checkered across it that didn’t usually go together. But despite his ludicrous attire, the glower he cut me couldn’t have been more serious. If I had to name the hue of his eyes, I’d call itmurder.

Scanning his body, and noticing the way he cradled an arm, I smiled at the lingering evidence that Rush had kicked his ass. Even though Lennox no doubt availed himself of fae healing enchantments and salves, he hadn’t finished recovering. I hoped he never did.

Two women and one man surrounded him in a cluster: his mother, Jolanda, with matching copper hair,his half-brother, Conroy—and Millicent, no longer in bully buttercream or relegated to the stables. Her smile was both pretty and hideous at once. Again, the foul nature of her insides tainted the rest of her.

“This is whom I was telling you about,” Jolanda announced to the huddle loudly enough that I would hear.

From behind me, Rush pressed a hand to my waist. But I didn’t need the reminder of what we were here to do. Even with all the distractions, I felt the pull of the queen’s judgment from where she sat on her fancy throne atop a dais, currently concealed by throngs of eager gawkers.

I gave Millicent and Lennox and family a smile and finger wave that made the four of them grimace.

I walked on, still hoping for an easy weapon to swipe, and whispered over my shoulder to Rush, “What’d Millicent do to be set free of the stables?”

“Surely nothing good,” he grumbled, and the proximity of his lips to the shell of my ear caused a clench of my insides.

As if he sensed my reaction to him, he pressed to my side, guiding my arm across the crook of his elbow. Ryder, West, and Hiroshi formed a wall behind us as we advanced, each step drawing us closer to what had every chance of being my final doom.

Rush nodded at the aristos we passed as we meandered between small groupings of them. His eyes continually scanning the crowd, softly enough that his friends wouldn’t hear above the mounting din, he said, “I … we…” He sighed, his breath tickling my bare neck; a shiver raced down my spine. “We were interrupted at the worst possible time.”

He didn’t need to clarify. My thoughts had barely strayed from the vision of me on top of him, my hands pressed to his muscular chest, the feel of him penetrating not just my body but my emotions and defenses.

I should have been curled up in his arms in a lover’s embrace now, not plotting how to survive the next hour.

“No argument there,” I answered, returning an authentic smile to a pair of nearly identical faces, a young man and woman, with long, curly hair the color of a blush rose. To comply with the queen’s orders, the female wore a braided updo that erupted in a riot of curled puffs all over her head, like pockets of pale pink flames blasting heat from underground.

“Who are they?” I whispered to Rush, who glanced over his shoulder with a nod at them as we walked.

“Twins. Octavia Lily Rose and Octavio Linden Oak, scaless and scale of Potesantos. New to court. They remain untainted by it, but they stand to inherit the titles of visdrakess and visdrake, so moves will be made to influence them before long. Roan does his best to look out for them.”

“That’s nice of him,” I whispered back, still searching amid the garish clothing for a weapon that would be both easily concealed and wielded.

Rush barked a hoarse laugh. “I wouldn’t, under any circumstances, describe Roan as ‘nice.’ But back towhat I was saying. We don’t have long, and I want to make sure I get to say it before…”

Before he turned me in for my traitorous escape and condemned me to the queen’s bloody whims.

He slowed his pace, drawing out the time left to us by a fraction. “I … fuck, Elowyn, there’s so much I want to still say to you … to do with you … to you. I don’t think I can turn you in.”

An ear that had been floating above a nearby group of fae abandoned them to bob two feet from my face. My fingers clenched as I warred with the instinct to bat it out of my way.

Jaw hard, I elbowed Rush in the ribs, cleared my throat, then tugged on my earlobe. The earring of crystal and pearl Pru had selected for me jangled while I hoped he got my meaning.

His attention skimmed my ear, my neck, my collarbones, and then around to my lips, where it remained.

Again, I cleared my throat, tugged on my ear, then jerked my chin in the direction of the severed organ that kept pace with us.

His eyes widened before anger flared in the moonlight of his irises.

“I know,” I told him softly. It wasn’t fair that we should have so little privacy … so little time together. That we should be pitted against each other from the start by an evil woman with more power than was good for anyone.

“I don’t care,” he whispered harshly, glaring toward the ear that was invisible to him.

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