Page 44 of Fae Exile

“The others?” I prodded when my friend didn’t immediately answer.

He turned to face me. “No. Roan, Reed, and Pru looked angry enough to kill him themselves at first, but then I guess they saw what I did.”

My heart thumped some more. “Which was?”

He stretched his legs out again and appeared to be studying the sky, clear blue with fluffy clouds that didn’t match the danger that hid in the Sorumbra. “Rush was broken by what he did to you.”

“Then he shouldn’t’ve done it,” I quipped automatically.

“The way Rush told it, he didn’t have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice,” I insisted, an echo of what I’d said earlier.

“Yeah…” But he trailed off, still not meeting my expectant stare. “I thought the same.”

A full minute passed, and Saffron finally spotted me. Free of Pru’s hold, he half scrambled, half flew to get to me, cutting a path straight across the embers of the fire, spattering muck and ash all over himself and everyone around him—though we could hardly get much filthier. When I finally got to take a bath, I was betting it might feel better even than an ethercrest, even one instigated by Rush.

Saffron hopped onto my lap, dug his claws in so that I winced, then launched himself into my open arms. He thudded against my chest.

“Oomph.” I wheezed.

Xeno chuckled. “He’s sure grown attached to you.”

“I’m the one who fed him in Nightguard.”

“It’s more than that. Helovesyou.”

I shrugged, though I extricated an arm from around Saffron’s back to bop him on the nose. He immediately tried to snag my finger, which I yanked out of his reach. He was playing, but he was still a dragon with teeth already sharp enough to be wary of.

“I’m fucking lovable, X.”

He laughed as Pru padded over, her dragon feet squelching with every step.

“Sorry, Mistress.” She wasn’t clasping her hands in front of her nor lowering her head submissively—progress. “I tried to distract him.”

Saffron licked my neck with his sandpaper tongue, and I nudged him away. “Don’t eat that, Saff. It’s gross.” Granted, the dragonling was a fan of raw meat of all sorts, so this might be a treat to him. “It’s okay, Pru. I feel well enough to hold him.”

“I didn’t want him close to Mistress when she was still glowing.”

I gasped. “Shit! I forgot about that. When did I stop glowing?”

“When the umbracs went away with the sunrise,” Xeno said.

“In my sleep?”

“Yup.”

“So I kept glowing even while I slept?”

“Un-huh.”

I scoffed. “How’s that even possible? Wait. I guess I should back up to the main question. How’s it even possible that I’d glow in the first place?”

“I don’t know,” Xeno said, “but there’s no denying it happened. You’ve got powers, Wyn, something strong, big.” He canted his head to one side. “Hey, have your ears gotten pointier?”

I balanced Saffron on my lap and whipped both hands to my ears, running along their edges. When I reached the peak of each, I froze for several beats.

“They’re definitely pointier.”

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