Page 91 of Fae Exile

She cast her gaze to the ceiling. “I really hope they’re all right. The monsters out there are no joke.”

“No, they aren’t. And yet it’s the only place I thought you’d be safe. That says a lot.”

“Yeah, about the queen.”

“Yeah,” I whispered, the one word leaden with my regret. “And what about ... Xeno?”

Her stare returned to mine. “What about him?”

I shrugged, feigning a nonchalance I doubted I was pulling off. Still, I had to know. “Did ... anything happen between you two?”

She shrugged. “Sure, lots of things did.”

My heart spasmed. “I mean, did anything ... romantic … happen between you two?” Was I awful for asking when I’d been the one to put her in the danger of that forest? I could demand no claim to her when I’d just stabbed her through the heart...

She laughed. “I know that, you doofus. I’m not that dense, you know. I was just egging you on.”

But then she quieted. My heart thumped a full ten torturous times before she eventually said, “No, nothing happened between us. Stupid me, I was all into the man who’d fucking done his best to kill me.”

I gasped as if struck before forcing myself to silence. She was allowed to blame me as much as she wanted. In fact, she should be blaming me all the damn time.

She leaned her forehead against mine, her breath hot on my lips. “That’s not fair, Rush. I’m sorry. I understand why you did it.”

“No, that’s where you’re wrong, El. Itisfair. It’s incredibly fair. Hit me with whatever you want. I’ll take it.”

“But you shouldn’t have to. And you sure as shit shouldn’t have to disrespect yourself by fucking the queen. That’s about as wrong as it gets.”

I didn’t say anything, resigned already to the likelihood that I’d have no better choice.

“Rush, I mean it. You can’t do it.”

I felt the acceptance and sadness in my eyes, knew they’d be swirling with the emotions, my tattoos likely not far behind them.

“You can’t,” she begged.

To avoid looking into her eyes, I pulled her chest against mine and rested my chin against her crown. “I hope I never will—more than you’ll ever know—but even if I do have to, please always remember, it’s just my body. It’s not me. I belong to you. You’re the only one who’ll ever have my heart. And I’ll do anything, absolutely anything, to protect you.”

She tried to wiggle out of my arms but I held her there, kissed the top of her head. “Let it go for now. Please. We need to talk about how to keep you safe.”

She disengaged from my embrace anyway. Her face dropped as she no doubt registered all the pain evident across mine.

“It’s just as important to keep you safe,” she insisted.

“Not for me it isn’t.”

“Well too bad,Drake, ’cause it is for me.”

To change the subject, I said, “As much as we’d like to prioritize freeing the dragons right now, we won’t be able to. For one, we can’t risk Saffron.”

“We?”

“Damn right. He’s important to you. That means he’s important to me.”

Slowly, she nodded. “But we can’t leave the other dragons to whatever she’s doing to them. Where did she send the ones in the throne room? Where’d they even come from?”

“Not sure, though obviously magic’s involved. She might’ve sent the ones from the throne room down into the dungeons with the others.”

“We can’t abandon them there.”

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