Page 68 of Fae Exile

I wasn’t convinced I could speak for the guys, mostly since I didn’t actually know any of them all that well—not even my supposed mate—but if they weren’t willing to protect the dragons, then I’d just have to set them on fire myself.

Anyone who wanted to hurt one of these magnificent creatures would have to go through me first.

The dragon only canted her head to one side but otherwise didn’t answer—duh, she was adragon, after all.

“I don’t know how you came to be here.” I scoffed. “I don’t even know howIcame to be here. But I can guess that we both probably have a common enemy. The queen’s no friend of mine.”

The blue dragon hissed.

Azariah squeaked from the other side of the room. “Oh my. Oh my. We’re going to die. I’m not ready. I should have gotten my hair done already if this is how I’m to walk the Etherlands forevermore.”

“I thought you couldn’t die,” Ryder whisper-shouted in his direction. “Aren’t you immortal?”

“Uh, yeah. Yes. Of course I am. But these aredragons. I haven’t seen a live one before. Maybe they can kill me.”

“Not now, Azariah,” I told him gently. I couldn’t imagine his panic was helping anything.

After guiding Saffron around to cling to my back instead of my chest, I took several more steps toward the throne, doing my best to ignore that just over there, to the left, leaning against the wall that had once been lined with glass, and now was dotted with empty windows, I’d gazed into Rush’s mesmerizing eyes when he’d stabbed me.

I shook my head to clear the memory and sucked in a deep inhale. I had to focus. I could do this, whatever the hellthiswas.

“Can we be allies?” I asked the she-dragon.

She dragged a stare across me and the little dragon at my back yet another time. It felt as if it sliced through my body to examine my insides. Finally, she angled her head in the opposite direction, as if that were some kind of response.

“What am I supposed to do here?” I called out to the guys and Azariah, mindful to keep my mounting alarm from being too obvious.

“How the fuck should we know?” West answered right away, and this time I was sure it was him, with his usual thick sarcasm that flirted with open disdain. “Up until today, we thought all the dragons were long dead.”

At that, the blue dragon whipped her head up to glare at him, her breath coming in loud pants through her wide nostrils.

I heard West gulp all the way back by the double doors.

“We didn’t kill any dragons,” he hurried to clarify. “We never would’ve. We even tried to save the ones down beneath the palace earlier today but couldn’t get them out.”

My hand pressed to Saffron’s arms as they wrapped across my chest, I spun to look at him. “What dragons beneath the palace? What are you talking about? I thought there weren’t anylive ones left in Embermere, what with King Erasmus and all that bloodshed.”

Rush, on his feet, apparently unscathed beyond some singed locks of his long silver hair and a few burn holes in his clothing, approached me with his hands up, his surrender directed at the dragon who tracked his every step. He stopped a few feet from me, and I had to actually clamp my fingers into fists to keep from reaching for him.

After flicking to the dragon, his stare settled on mine. His tattoos flared to life, illuminated vines twisting and spreading across the bare skin of his neck, face, and hands. I wanted to trace my fingers along them, to follow their path beneath his tunic and breeches.

“El.”

It was a gentle whisper I experienced like a caress across my heated flesh.

He seemed to say so much in so little. My still injured heart leapt at the unspoken promises that danced across the nickname he’d given me.

Too soon, though, he sighed in a lament I acutely shared, then said, “Earlier today, the queen summoned us all here. I asked for help...” He shook his head. “Never mind. What matters is that we heard some really loud roaring and the entire palace was shaking. Or maybe not the whole place since the throne room seems to have gotten the worst of the damage, but it felt that way. As soon as the queen evacuated, the guys and I headed downstairs to investigate.”

“What we found was awful,” Hiroshi added, cautiously weaving his way between the other dragons to eventually reach us. He also held his hands up to communicate he meant them no harm. “So horribly awful.”

Rush frowned, his beautiful face sagging at whatever truth they were about to reveal. “What we found...” He shook his head,dragging his teeth across his bottom lip. Though it was a gesture of anguish, desire to follow their path with my tongue bloomed inside me.

“Deep beneath the palace,” Rush continued, “beyond even the fae dungeon, in a dark pit that feels like the end of the world…”

“It absolutely does,” Hiroshi interjected.

“…the queen’s been holding dragons captive,” Rush said. “And it gets worse. Not only does she have them chained and caged”—my breath stuttered in my chest as I waited for what could possibly be worse than that—“but she’s been torturing them. Maybe even experimenting on them.”

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