Page 61 of Fae Champion

Already allowing his warmth and the deliciousness of his caresses to tug me back toward ease, I murmured, “Something woke me up. Not sure what. Must’ve been nothing.” Truly, those vipers of trepidation were dispersing, the hazy darkness of the room swallowing them up.

But Rush had already tensed behind me and craned his head up to examine the room himself. “What did you feel? Tell me exactly.”

“It was nothing, really.”

“El, I’ve seen you fight.” His words rustled my loose hair. “Both as yourself and in a glamor that changed the proportions of your body, which couldn’t have been easy. Even if Embermere tells you that as a female you shouldn’t, you have the instincts of a warrior.”

He pushed up to an elbow, and I instantly missed being cocooned in him. “You should never ignore your instincts. Tell me precisely what woke you.”

I sighed. Zako had warned me to listen closely to my instincts and intuition perhaps a thousand times over the years.

Rush sat up in bed, the covers falling until theybarely covered his hips and that sacred bejeweled wand that had lived up to its nickname. I wanted to run my hands along his muscled chest, those firm arms, to touch him in all the ways I hadn’t gotten to. After the Gladius Probatio, I might never have the chance to trace the lines of his artful tattoos that glowed softly in the night.

But the drake who’d been such an eager lover had been replaced by the man tasked with my protection. He scanned the room, eyeing his blade atop the bedside table.

“There’s nothing in the room,” I said, “or you and I would’ve felt it by now.”

“Whatdidyou feel? What woke you up?”

“Nothing. Can’t a lady wake up from sleep without an important reason?”

I’d hoped to see Rush’s brows arch, perhaps his lush lips to quirk up in playfulness…

“Not when that lady’s a fine warrior and when I gave her sufficient ethercrests to erase every worry.” His features were tight, serious.

“Ethercrests?”

“You don’t have that word in Nightguard either?”

“No. Tell me.”

“You’re supposed to be the one telling me.”

“I will, I promise.” This close to him, my head against his chest, my misgiving had slithered far from my thoughts. “After you explain.”

He held my gaze as I looked up at him; his silvereyes were brightening along with his tattoos. “When that sexual energy builds inside you, and you climax, reaching the elation of the Etherlands while still in this life … youcrestinto theether.”

“Ah. Makes perfect sense.”

He tapped my shoulder, his finger remaining there, swirling small, tickling circles across my exposed skin.

“I really don’t know what woke me,” I said, “but whatever it was pulled me out of a deep sleep.” I grinned up at him. “And yes, you’re right, you gave me enough ethercrests to make sure I slept through the night and was crisp as a freshly blooming rose for our fight tomorrow.”

His eyes dimmed at the reminder. “No one can know about this—us.”

Without logical reason, my heart squeezed uncomfortably. From the first moment I’d learned his role in my continued imprisonment, I’d known he and I would never be. Nothing had changed.

Liar.

“Yeah, of course,” I breathed through the squeeze, avoiding his eyes.

He tipped my chin up until I met them again. “Courtiers gossip too much as it is. They’re hateful, vicious fae. I don’t want their attention on you any more than it already is. The less any of them think about you, the better.”

“They do seem pretty vicious…”

“You have no idea how bad it really is. Everyone’sout for themselves. They’ll sooner stab you in the back while calling you their friend than sacrifice a single step of their positioning on the board. You should never trust any of them, no matter what they say.”

“What about Hiroshi, West, Ryder, and Roan?”

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