Page 77 of Fae Exile

Loving Rush for being the man who did want to protect me, I smiled at his back before stepping out from around the wall of muscle he’d so purposefully planted between me and my greatest threat. In a room filled with dragons, apparently the queen was still the apex predator.

It made no sense, and it definitely wasn’t right.

Despite the distance between us, I tipped my chin up at the queen. “The only nasty, filthy creature here is you.”

From behind me, Azariah squeaked a high-pitched whinny. Like even now, after all she’d done, he still couldn’t believe I dared to insult her.

The queen chuckled. “I see you’re just as disrespectful and annoying as ever.”

Rush sidled closer, but didn’t step in front of me again.

I harrumphed. “You don’t know the half of it.”

The queen spread her ruby red lips and bared her teeth at me. They appeared too sharp for a normal fae female. Then again, the queen was far from normal. “I know so much more than you think.”

She glanced from me to Rush, then toward the back of the room, where I imagined she was glaring at the others as well.

While she postured, I closed my eyes for a few moments and reached out to the blue she-dragon.

But I felt nothing, no connection, no heat or zing or other proof I’d ever spoken with her. She had told me she’d be the one to call on me, not the other way around. Regardless, I directed my thoughts her way.

What are you waiting for? Why don’t you attack?

Nothing.

I opened my eyes and stared hard at the back of the dragon’s head. At least she hadn’t stopped glaring at the queen.

Set her on fire!I tried again.What’s going on? She’s the shadow you were referring to. Take her out and together we can save the fuerin.

Finally, the she-dragon again hissed at the queen, this time growling as well. Curled around the throne, she bunched into her haunches, preparing to attack. Her barbed tail thumped loudly on the floor behind her.

Yes. Yes! Kill her!

Yet again, the queen rolled her eyes as if the threat of an imminentdragonattack was insubstantial.

She sighed as if she were the one to carry a great burden instead of all of us who had to pick ourselves up and piece ourselves together no matter how many times she tried to destroy us.

Almost lazily, she flicked both hands to either side.

The she-dragon, with her many rippling muscles, deadly teeth and claws, and so much magic and magnificence simply ... vanished.

I gasped, when I wished I hadn’t done a thing to reveal my shock.

The queen’s stare seized mine as she laughed.

Mostly to avoid those sky-blue eyes that should have been warm but were icier than the tundra of the Nightguard Mountains, I spun to check on the other dragons.

They, too, were gone. Not a single trace of them remained amid the destruction of the once grand room.

Slowly, with dread prickling along my skin, I faced the queen.

Her lips puckered in distaste, she was studying her throne as if the dragon had somehow tainted it. An irony when the magical creatures were themselves carved into the wood of the throne, their claws curving along the armrests. Even the royal crest of Embermere was two standing dragons mirroring each other.

The only one who taints things here is you. This time, however, I swallowed the insult. Things weren’t adding up. I couldn’t figure out all I was missing, only that I was most definitely not putting all the pieces together.

After some deliberation, the queen eventually sat on her throne, but didn’t sink into it, as if it were still unclean. The skimpiness of her negligee left much of her skin exposed to the carved throne.

I realized my breath was coming too fast and I made myself slow it down. Clutching Saffron more tightly to me—thank the Ethers she hadn’t disappeared him too!—I ran the usualsoothing hand along his back between his wings. At this rate, the poor little guy would never get to begin recovering from all the trauma this asshole had put him through.

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