Page 48 of Fae Exile

“We can’t get any of the dragons out. Not up that narrow staircase, no way. They’re huge. The only way out for them is to fly up to the wall illusion, and have you seen this one’s wings? Even if we managed to get one of our top healers down here, and I have no idea how we’d manage that, the dragon would take a good long while to heal from all that damage. And I think we can assume she hasn’t been keeping all her other ‘pets’ in cages just to take perfect care of them.”

With each reason to abandon the creatures, my heart sank farther and farther, until it thumped through my heels, urging me to run while we still could, betraying my true desires.

“Besides, this dragon’s being cool with us, but who’s to say the others will be? They’ve been locked up and, let’s be real,almost certainly tortured. They’ll be savage. They could lash out at us, and probably will. We’d be dragon food, and then who’ll save the realm? Sure, Roan would survive, and maybe Gadiel’ll get out on his own someday”—he snorted at the unlikelihood of that—“but what chance does Roan stand all on his own against her?

“And have you forgotten about Larissa, Rush? If you’re not there to kiss the queen’s ass, you really think she’ll keep sending Braque with his potions to keep her going? Larissa’ll be dead.”

Instinctively, I growled, and the injured dragon near us shifted. I had to be more careful.

“You want to ever see Elowyn again?” Ryder pressed. “If you want a single fucking chance of that, we’ve got to play this smarter. We’re the only ones willing to give everything to save this fucking awful place. What we need to do is … we need to run, and we need to do it right the fuck now.”

When Hiroshi, West, and I didn’t take a single step back toward the stairwell, he added more gently, “Look, guys, my skin’s crawling too. If we could right now, in a heartbeat, I’d set all the dragons free. But if we’re going to be of any use to anybody, we need to move.Now. We’ve already been playing with fire. The queen might be upstairs right now, ready to slice off our balls and munch on them for a tasty snack.”

“Really, Ry?” West whined. “Could ya not give me that visual?” He adjusted himself with a noisy rustle of fabric and leather. “My balls are already pissed at me for all the idiotic shit we’ve been doing lately.”

“Idiotic shit,” Ryder repeated, “yes, if we stay here, we’ll deserve to die for our idiocy, and we won’t have saved a single fae or creature.”

My jaw clenched hard enough to crack stone, but I managed to grit out a reluctant, “Fine. But as soon as we get up there, I’mheading out to find Elowyn. I’m done waiting and plotting. The dragons need her.”

“Yeah, yeah, thedragonsneed her.Right. Come on, Rush. You’re maybe the smartest one of all of us.”

“Hey,” West protested right away, but then he shrugged sheepishly, something he rarely did. “What about Hiro?”

“By dragonfire, West! Stop being a whiny bitch.” Ryder’s glare then pinned me. “Of all of us, you’re the most important. You’ve got the queen’s eye.”

I grimaced. “How could I ever forget?”

“And you’re still in the Fae Heir Trials. The magic of the trials should still be on you. You need to compete in the Nuptialis Probatio, finish out the trials, get yourself a wife and become king already.Now, are we gonna keep standing around with our heads up our asses, or are we gonna give ourselves a fighting chance?”

“Damn you, Ry,” West grumbled. It was as close of an admission that Ryder was right as he’d get from West.

Hands up once more, dodging charred pygmy ogre and dragon parts, I sauntered slowly toward the dragon, again mindful to have my lumoon keep pace with me so my face wouldn’t appear menacing.

“What are you doing?” West asked with a happy lilt that suggested he was once more wary of the dragon’s reactions.

“Just gonna do some reassuring,” I answered evenly.

“Well, do it from here, man!” To the others, he muttered: “It’s like he’s doing it to give me a heart attack.”

Obviously I wasn’t, but his point was valid enough. I drew to a stop halfway between my friends and the wounded beast.

“Hey,” I started, pretending I was talking to Bolt. As feisty and strong-willed as the stallion was, I knew he’d never hurt me. When I’d sent him on the journey with Elowyn, I’d asked him to look out for her as well as he did me.

“We want to help you”—I flicked a look toward the occupied cells—“and the others too. Wewillhelp you. We’ll get you all out of here. But we can’t yet. We have to leave now so we can figure out how to do it.”

The dragon merely stared back at me. Deep, dense shadows completely concealed its dark eyes. Not even a glimmer revealed whether or not it absorbed my words.

“Do you understand me?”

“Of course it doesn’t understand you. It’s a beast,” West grumbled. “A killer beast, at that. Can we go, already?”

“Rush,” Ryder added. “We gotta run.”

But even feeling their urgency, knowing the risks only increased the longer we delayed, I waited. My tattoos flared to light with the pressing need to have he or she comprehend we weren’t abandoning them to this hideous fate. They weren’t alone anymore. However long it took us, we’d return for them.

“I give you my word of honor,” I persisted, maybe stupidly. “If it’s within my power to return and set you free, I will. I promise.”

Finally, the creature inhaled deeply, and Ryder, West, and even Hiroshi yelled at me to run.

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