Page 2 of Fae Exile

If the queen discovered it was why I’d insisted on such specific terms to our agreement, she’d hunt Elowyn to the ends of the mirror world and beyond. And if she found out that I’d sent Elowyn away with a group of protectors to the Wilds instead of Nightguard as I’d told her, then not even the terrible and ancient creatures that roamed its shadowed depths would be sufficient to keep her forces away.

I had to defend Elowyn at all costs. But any action on my part, or message I might attempt to send, could betray the very secrecy that was paramount I protect.

I sensed the queen’s icy blue stare on me again before realizing I’d zoned out, lost to my troubles as I so often had been over the last several weeks. Blinking to clear thoughts of Elowyn lest she read them across my features, I dragged my lips upward, pushing them until they might pass as a genuine smile. To allay the suspicion I could all but feel blooming on her own face, I winked back at her.

She held my gaze for a beat, discerning, examining, likely observing too much, before laughing breathily at some comment by the Dowager Countess Dayana Tempest. When both women glanced at me, I understood it must be about Dayana’s daughter, Natania, and the dowager countess’ endless scheming to marry her off to me.

With Dayana as her rapt audience, along with dozens of other courtiers who followed the game of court life as astutely as circling birds of prey, I grinned rakishly at the queen, openly suggesting the amorous liaison she kept threatening me with.

Her painted blood-red lips stretched with delight as she flicked a passing look at the empty throne beside and, as usual, slightly behind hers. After Elowyn’s “death,” the king had used his convalescence from his poisoning as a reason for his absence from the queen’s events.

She hadn’t once bothered to pretend she missed him.

Subtly, when little the queen ever did was that, she nodded in my direction before pinning her attention on Dayana and the many other courtiers jockeying for her favor.

Ryder ducked his head toward mine from one side of me. Ever aware of the many spies invisible in our midst who tracked our every move, he tucked a loose strand of pale hair behind an ear and whispered, “I don’t know how you do it, man. Just looking at her gives me the runs lately.” His pale eyes were earnest as they bore into mine.

“You know it’s not ’cause he wants to,” answered West from my left, frowning. “It’s ’cause he’s got no choice.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Ryder said. “But still.” He shuddered and looked at me. “Better hope she doesn’t crook a finger at you and make you”—he stepped even closer until, along with Hiroshi, we were a tight huddle—“come into her bed chambers.”

In unison, the three of them gulped loudly enough that my eyes were drawn to their bobbing throats above the constant hum of chatter and background music. The queen hadn’t yet deemed it time for dancing.

West flicked a glance from me to her and back again, his brown eyes burdened. “What’ll you do if she asks you to ... you know?”

Hiroshi shook his head sharply, the overhead orbs skimming his lavender hair with their light, making it glint. “Don’t even go there, West.”

“Why not?” West ran both hands through his short hair, leaving it standing up in the front before remembering to pat it down. “Rush’s gonna have to be prepared so he doesn’t”—another searching inspection of our surroundings, where any of the severed eyeballs, ears, or mouths Elowyn had mentioned might hide—“freak out on her. If he does...” West shook his head grimly.

“If he does, she’ll know he’s been faking it all this time, even more than she probably suspects, and Rush is fucked,” Ryder supplied. “We’re all fucked. Everything’s fucked.”

“Wow, asshole, way to be a downer and make things even harder on him,” West admonished.

Ryder snorted. “I’mnot the one making anything harder. I’m just trying to help.”

“We all are,” Hiroshi interjected. “We’re trying to make a good situation out of?—”

“The most putrid, rotten, sludgy cesspool ever,” I completed, surprising myself by somehow sounding calm and collected. Since I’d been forced to stab Elowyn, I hardly felt anything at all.

“Exactly,” Hiroshi said.

“Yeah,” Ryder added to West, “and don’t forget you’re the one who gave you-know-who a hard time just for loving on our man here.”

Whenever we were within range of the queen’s spies, which was pretty much always unless we found an excuse to leave palace grounds, we purposefully didn’t mention Elowyn’s name in case it might be a trigger for her invisible observers.

West, usually the first to rise to Ryder’s ribbing, huffed instead, somber. “I know. I know, dammit. Don’t you think if I’dknown that was their last chance together I’d’ve shut the fuck up?”

“Hey, West,” I said. “It’s all right, man. Don’t beat yourself up about it. There’s no need.”

“But there is.” He ran another hand through his hair, this time unconcerned that it stood straight up while we were at court. “I was a dick to her.”

“She probably hardly remembers,” Hiroshi offered on a soft chuckle. “She was much more focused on Rush’s dick.”

The three men snickered, but Hiroshi’s attempt to lighten the mood fell flat, and their laughter petered out rapidly.

“What the hell are we gonna do?” Ryder grunted. “We’ve gotta do something.”

“But what?” West asked. “Anything we do might make things worse.”

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