Page 4 of Fae Reckoning

Ramana, who was also Rush’s sister, hadn’t yet opened her eyes. Neither had the four other fae in the room with her, all equally frail, all unable to respond toour prompts. They looked dead but for the steady rise and fall of their emaciated chests.

“Everyone’s almost ready for the meeting,” Xeno announced from behind us.

I turned to smile at him. My smiles were exhausted and strained, but he deserved them, so I tried anyway. “Thanks, X.”

Saffron wasn’t with him, which meant the dragonling had to be with Pru or Hiroshi. Since he would stay with any of the three of them so long as I wasn’t within view, they took turns to give me occasional breaks from his constant attentions. Saffron’s attachment issues had only grown more extreme since I’d had to leave him for the Nuptialis Probatio.

“Have any of them woken up?” I asked Xeno even though Roan and I hadn’t been gone more than fifteen minutes.

None of us entertained the idea that the five “sleeping” fae we’d discovered wouldn’t wake up, although surely it was a distinct possibility. Who knew what the horrid queen had done to them?

Xeno rubbed a hand across his neck. As soon as he’d seen that we were in no immediate danger, he’d bathed in the brook. His hair was several shades lighter now that it was clean.

“Nope,” he said. “Same as before. But Hiro and Ry got West off Ramana’s bed, so that’s progress.”

There hadn’t yet been the opportunity for all the updates the lot of us needed to exchange. In addition to apparently being able to command arbosauruses, Roancould also hover the bodies of the fae as the healers in the Gladius Probatio had, so the sleeping fae could travel with us.

“I’m coming, then,” Roan said, tilting his face to the sky. The sun was behind the trees but close to breaching their tops, signaling it was mid to late morning. “Time to get a move-on.”

“Definitely,” Xeno said, his gaze heating my skin. Since we’d been reunited, his attention was scarcely pointed elsewhere.

When Roan stood, so did I. The dwarf stalked off toward the building we’d landed in, which had turned out to be a two-room dilapidated cottage with a bathroom and kitchen that both appeared largely unused. The bedridden fae were in some kind of trance that denied the usual needs of their bodies.

As Xeno and I watched Roan vanish behind a copse of trees with low branches and wide leaves, I placed a hand on his shoulder and asked, “How are you doing?” It was the first moment of privacy we’d had.

Careful not to dislodge my hand, he faced me. His broad, muscled chest inflated with a big inhale while he studied me. Eventually, he answered, “So much better now that I’m with you.” His eyes shone.

I swallowed and parted my lips to say … something, but he spoke first.

“I thought…” He shook his head. “I worried you might be dead, Wyn.” His words were soft though his sentiment was not. “You were there one second, gone the next. Like, no warning at all. Poof, just gone. I had nofucking idea where you’d gone or what happened to you.”

“I know. I’m so sorry.”

His shoulder tensed beneath my touch. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. It’s that woman. That cunt. That fucking?—”

“I know it is. But I’m still sorry you had to go through that. I wish there’d been some way to get word to you that I was okay.”

He snorted. “You weren’t okay. You were very far from fucking okay. The queen was trying tokillyou the entire time.”

And she’d nearly succeeded, too.

“Fair enough.” I let my hand fall, and Xeno shifted toward me ever so slightly, as if already yearning for my touch. I pretended not to notice. “I just know if roles had been reversed, I would’ve been totally freaked out.”

“I was totally freaked out.”

“I know,” I repeated. “As it was, I feared you might not’ve survived the Sorumbra.”

He rubbed his neck again, dipped his gaze to the ground. “There were some close calls. A few times I wasn’t sure we would make it out of there. And that was with Pru zooming us ahead as often as she could.”

I’d been starting toward our friends, but at that I stopped and turned back to face him. My eyebrows were arched. “She did?”

He nodded.

“Wow. I didn’t expect that. She told me the goblinsaren’t allowed to do any kind of magic that hasn’t been preapproved.” By Her Dark Majesty, of course.

He shrugged. “She didn’t seem too bothered by that. She was worried about you too.”

“But enough to reveal goblin secrets?” I shook my head in dismay. “Just … that’s awesome of her.” Beyond a brief hug, I hadn’t had a chance to speak with Pru either. After verifying we were all well enough, a bone-deep weariness had quickly sunk its claws into the lot of us.

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