Page 12 of Fae Exile

“She’s right, ya know,” Roan said as I picked at the snake meat. “Rush is probably hurting as much as you are right now.”

I snorted. “I highly doubt that. Stabber, stabbee.” I pointed to my heart. “There’s a big difference there.”

“Not all hurt is physical,” Roan offered. “Not all suffering is of the body.”

I frowned. He sounded too much like Zako.

“Rush wouldn’t’a done it if there’d been another way,” the dwarf added. “I’d bet my life on it.”

“Not sure I’d make that bet if I were you. You weren’t even there.”

“Nah, I wasn’t. But I know Rush. I been knowin’ the lad for longer than you been alive. If he says you’re his mate, then he woulda never done nothin’ to hurt you.”

I barked a bitter laugh. “That’sexactlywhat he did though!”

Roan shook his head and tore into a bite, chewed, swallowed. “It’s not like that, lassie. He told me what happened. It was either he kill ya or the queen kill ya. He’s your mate. He says there’s some mate magic that only the ancients know about, not the queen. It was the only way to save ya.”

I chuckled darkly. “Stabbing me in the fuckingheartcouldnothave been the only way to save me, Roan.”

“The queen woulda had ya killed in such a way that there wouldn’t’a been no coming back from.”

“She would’ve had you sliced up into little pieces probably,” Reed chimed in. I gulped involuntarily. “Though she would’ve probably kept your head and put it on a pike for everyone to see, next to the dragons.”

“True,” Roan agreed. “After all the public rebellin’ you been doin’, she woulda wanted to make a statement outta ya.” He licked his fingers. “Rush saved ya from all that. Kept ya alive the only way he knew how.”

“Roan…” I shifted atop the log to face him. “Rush stared me in the eyes, told me he loved me, then slid a knife through my heart.”

He nodded somberly. “Yah, lassie, we know.He knows. Ain’t a one of us taking that lightly. But it was either that or you endin’ up deader than a dragon. And at least here, bein’ Rush’s mate and all, ya had a decent chance o’ livin’. I mean, look at ya now.”

A piece of snake dangling from his fingers, he waved along the length of me. “Ya hurt, sure, and I bet it ain’t just from that wound ya got that won’t heal up for ya. But least ya don’t gotta let the queen use your body whatever way she wants for the rest of time.” He shuddered. “Can ya imagine it? Havin’ to,ugch,joinwith thequeen?”

“I’d be afraid my dick would fall off. She’s gotta be even nastier on the inside,” Reed commented, adding, “Sorry for the crassness, Elowyn, but it’s true.”

“I’d be worried I’d puke all over her and then she’d kill me for that with my dick still out,” Roan added with another shiver.

I felt my brow furrow, my shoulders hike up toward my ears. “What do you mean, he has to do that? What about his future wife, the new crown princess?”

But Xeno’s sudden call prevented an answer.

From the treetops he yelled, “On alert. Incoming!”

I had no idea what might be incoming, only that there was zero chance it would be good. Despite my general stiffness, I jumped to my feet, my plate toppling, and drew my throwing knives from my weapons belt—by dragonfire, finally back where it belonged.

I caught a flash of Pru guiding Saffron onto her back to free up her hands when I heard the first arrow whoosh toward its target an instant before a snarl froze my blood.

6.NOT-SO-RIGHTEOUS RETRIBUTION

~ RUSH ~

Even though West had planted the suggestion of a new suspect in Saturn’s murder hastily, the illusion held. It might have been because the queen wasn’t seeking to discredit this new potential, rather she embraced it with her signature ruthless ferocity. She more than made up for her initial faltering stumble in her grieving-mother act with the zeal with which she later hunted this supposed killer.

The day following West’s suggestion had tangibly pulsated with her courtiers’ fear. It cloyed thickly to the air like the scent of blood, tangy and unmistakable.

No member of the nobility was allowed to depart from the palace without her explicit permission; we all knew that. It was yet another way she kept a chokehold over all of us.

Immediately after a tense luncheon during which the queen glared at all of us from the head of an endless table, she called her entire court to the throne room. As was usual lately, the king was absent, taking even his meals now in his private chambers.

There were a few hundred of us, and yet she commanded each of us to walk before her, one by one, while she examined us for signs of suspicion.

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