Page 21 of Fae Reckoning

“With my clothes on,” she clarified. “I reach my hand under my leathers, crazy man.” But her eyes glittered as they took me in, and I suspected she was picturing precisely what we’d been doing when the map first manifested.

A growl rumbled up my chest as I imagined claiming her right here, right this instant, no matter the consequences.

“Oh-kay,” Ryder said, stepping closer. “Obviously you guys have got some pent-up tension going on.”

“They probably need a mating ceremony to settle it,” Roan interjected. When I looked at him with a question in my eyes, he shrugged. “It’s what I’ve heard.”

“Anyway,” Ryder said pointedly. “More urgent matters and all. Rush, you’re just gonna have to keep your pants on for now. We need to get all of us out of here alive.”

“And there area lotof us now,” Hiro said, glancing back toward the darkness that housed the innumerable cells.

“Okay. Right,” Elowyn said, squaring her shoulders against our invisible enemy: the queen, always the motherfucking queen. She dropped her hand from my chest. Instantly, I needed to touch her again.

Right. Keep it in your pants, Rush.Though my hands seemed to want to stretch toward her all on their own, I stuffed them into my pockets and forced them to stay there.

Focus. Life before love.

Elowyn hitched Saffron higher onto her back, where the dragonling clung to her like I wanted to, and glanced at a large, angry, hungry-looking dragon that had arrived with them.

“Maybe I can get him to help me talk to them. We can’t leave the other dragons behind,” Elowyn was saying. “We’ve gotta try to all get out of here now.”

“That’s a fine plan,” Hiro said. “But, El?—”

I tensed at his use of my endearment for her.

“There are a whole lot of dragons, and they’re in really bad shape. Rush and I got a decent look at them last time we were down here. We might have to accept that we’ll have to come back for them later.”

She scowled. “And what if there is no later? What if?—?”

“Our focus now has to be on gettingyouout of here safely,” I said hurriedly, before having the self-awareness to add, “Since you seem to be the only one the queen’s actually worried about. Our only true chance at bringing her down and saving the kingdom. You’re the true heir.”

By the Ethers, what was happening to me? Did I have to sound like such an asshole, dammit? Like I only cared about her, when every single person and creature I loved in the entire Mirror World was here, save maybe my parents.

Fuck, Rush. Get your shit together!

Roan rubbed his beard and hummed. “Rush is right. Elowyn must come before the dragons. Before any of us. Without her, we’re all doomed anyway.”

“I’m no savior. Really,” Elowyn protested right away with a nervous laugh. “It’s not like that, guys.”

“Aye, it pretty much is from what we’ve seen, lassie,” Roan said. “We gotta leave the dragons for now.”

She was already shaking her head. “No. I won’t leave them. They need our help.”

“That, they most definitely do,” Hiro said. “But we’ll return for them.”

“And if we can’t?” Elowyn insisted, looking at me with big, imploring eyes I couldn’t resist. “I can’t condemn them to more of whatever she’s doing to them down here.I can’t.”

My heart squeezed at how noble and selfless she was. “Hiro and I vowed to free them, and we take our vows seriously.”

“Very,” Hiro interjected somberly.

“Wewillfind a way to come back for them, whatever it takes,” I told her. “But we have to get you … and anyone else we can take … out now.”

She examined the deep shadows that hid themyriad cells. As if sensing her attention, several dragons whined and moaned from their depths. Then she studied the green dragon, barely visible from where he hunkered against the wall. Next she looked at the rest of us, slowing on Xeno, who started toward us with grim determination tightening his face. And finally, her attention landed on a pair of goblins, who huddled together. The male goblin was older than most seen at the palace, and when he nodded at her—his encouragement or approval, I couldn’t tell—she nodded back with her own fierce resolve.

She faced me. “Fine. I agree.” She held up a hand. “But … first I have to at least try.”

“There’s no time,” Ryder said at once.

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