Page 75 of Fae Exile

“Scaled? What...?” I mumbled up at Rush as if I were waking from a deep slumber.

“Worse than being scaled,” West added, “she’s also glowing. No way are we going anywhere without everyone noticing, and that’s after we take into account our little invisible friends.”

Blinking repeatedly, I pushed up onto Rush’s lap and glanced over at where West, Ryder, and Hiroshi crouched in front of a backdrop of dragons. While the creatures didn’t exactly look friendly, their postures were relaxed.

Hiroshi placed a gentle hand on Rush’s shoulder, startling Saffron, who hugged my legs harder. I brought an automatic hand to his back to assure him.

“Once Elowyn’s more alert, she’ll be glad we moved. So long as we’re in the palace, she’s at risk.Your mate’s at risk, Rush,” he added, as if that would definitely get through to his friend.

Rush looked up at him, and at once I yearned for the moonlight of his eyes as if it had been dark for years without it.

“Okay,” Rush said. “Yeah, okay. I know one thing that’ll rouse her.”

Before I had time to analyze whether his grin was more wolfish than remorseful, more desperation than hopeful, his lips—those lips I’d been dreaming of despite my resistance—slammed down onto mine.

Like the dragon advised, I didn’t bother to think.Scaled? Glowing?Whatever.

I recognized the kind of moment in life worth showing up for—and showed the fuck up for it.

I kissed him back as if he hadn’t stabbed me in the heart. As if a wicked queen didn’t want to murder us both. As if prisoners didn’t need our help. As if atalking dragonhadn’t just dumped on my lap next to the squirming dragonling a motherfreakingdestinyI didn’t realize I had.

When my tongue slid across his, entangling us, I extricated an arm from around Saffron to hang both around Rush’s neck, and leaned into him as a zing, the second in so little time, whipped up and down my body to pool along the length of my torso, leaving my core clenching with need.

“Come on,” West interrupted.

It sounded as if falling water distanced us from him.

“Rush, this isn’t like you. We have duties, important ones. You know, like saving the entire fucking place? Saving the dragons?”

West squatted beside us so we couldn’t ignore him. “Come on, man. You can feast on her later.”

Rush kissed me so hard and so completely that I could do nothing but submit to the passion of it.

Then, with a lick of his tongue across my lower lip, he pulled back his head, his arms still gripping me firmly to him, the dragonling wedged to the side of our embrace.

His tattoos glowed across his entire face, vines blooming with thorns and the buds of flowers I’d never noticed among them before. But his eyes glowed even brighter, his eyelids hooded across their light.

“I will most definitely be feasting on you later,mate,” he growled.

My starving core clenched again.

His eyes smoldered—or was it mine that did?

Eventually, when one of the guys cleared his throat, Rush guided me and Saffron up. When he rose next to us, he kissed me again. This time, the kiss was there and gone too quickly.

“Let’s go save some dragons,” he announced before his attention snapped to the others. “Azariah and West, you know what to do.”

“Wait,” I said urgently. “What are they doing?”

“I’ll tell you later. You were out for a while. They’re right, we’re out of time.”

“Ry, Hiro, you guys are with us.” To West, Azariah, and even to the other dragons in the throne room: “We fight as one in the light. We fall divided in the darkness.”

More serious than I’d perhaps ever seen him, West’s lips pressed into a grave line. “We fight as one in the darkness too. We’ll see each other again, my brothers.”

“We’d better,” Ryder grunted.

Azariah squeaked, then said, “Let’s go, dragons. Follow me. Before the magic of the Fae Heir Trials decides to keep us here.”

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