Page 51 of Fae Reckoning

was all he said before craning his neck back toward the sky.

I was going to take that as ayes. “I don’t even know where we’d go with all of them,” I told Azariah. “Is there even anywhere safe fromherin all the Mirror World?”

“Hmmm. In the Sorumbra. Maybe.”

“So what do we do?”

His only answer was to waggle his horse lips some more.

“What we do is wefight,” I replied for both of us. “We get prepared as quickly and as completely as possible. And then we bring the fight to her. We stop waiting for her to hunt us down. We hunther.”

Azariah’s eyes widened to equal parts terrified and determined. Without losing any of that panicked look, he nodded, swallowed, cleared his throat. “W-we do.”

“Waawaa.”

“Glad you’re on board too, Bertram,” I said, fancying myself a ranucu interpreter. Anotherwaawaasuggested I was on the right track.

Already steeling myself for all the preparation we’d need to complete before we could take on the adversary who’d bested us at every turn, I faced the clearing. Rounding Einar’s tree-stump-sized legs stalked Xeno. My friend was buck naked, save for the boots and shirt he carried in each hand—not bothering to cover the goods on full display.

16.SOMEWHERE BEYOND THE REALMS OF PHYSICAL POSSIBILITY

ELOWYN

In Nightguard I’d been all but invisible to most of the shifters there. To them I’d been a hard-working servant whom they could trust with the care of their youngest dragons—valuable to a certain extent, but only insomuch as I could serve them. The need to prove myself had driven me for as long as I could remember, a personal barbed whip lashing unrelentingly at my back, forcing me onward when I would have otherwise staggered.

As the youngest of all dragon protectors, Xeno had been propelled by a similar motivation. He’d trained even harder than I had—since he’d been afforded the privilege of training pretty much whenever he wanted, unlike me, who’d had to squeeze exercises into the dark hours of predawn or the late night so as not to skip them entirely.

Through his perseverance and dedication, Xeno had become a formidable warrior, and his physiquereflected every bit of his efforts. His back and shoulders were broad and strong, his thighs thick and bulging. His body was a puzzle of lean, marked muscles, where every piece fit perfectly alongside its neighbor. With his every step across the edge of the clearing, his muscles rippled—and his cock bounced, bumping against his thighs.

Now, I’d been raised among shifters who had to undress before transforming or shred whatever they were wearing. The protectors shifted often, which meant they walked to and from their piles of clothing completely naked on the regular. Raised among them, I’d known no different. As a child I’d been content to frolic in the nude with them—or as much as anyone would be inclined to frolic in the frozen tundra that was the foothills of the Nightguard Mountains—until Zako had started with his talks of securing my maidenhood in my preadolescence.

I’d seen Xeno naked dozens, more likely hundreds of times. But that had been before he’d made it clear he wanted me as more than friends, before we’d kissed.

“Oh my,” uttered Azariah.

I glanced at him to find his horse face agog, his mouth hanging slightly open, his soft beard fluttering in a breeze that appeared to affect only him.

“He’s magnificent too, isn’t he?” Azariah said.

It was a rhetorical question, I thought, returning my attention to Xeno, who was closer now. His wide shoulders tapered into a trim waist, and a pronounced V between his hips pointed at his dick like an arrow withperfect aim. Gulping, I forced my eyes above his waist—not an easy feat when he was such a beautiful man—and stalked forward to meet him.

Eyes pinned on his, which were more green than blue with so much foliage around to draw it out, I called out before we reached each other, “Hey.”

“Hey,” he said with a self-assured smile. We met at the side of the clearing with the unconscious fae gathered a few body lengths from us.

I smiled too. “I take it you lost your pants in the shift?” I’d seen his torn pants. But I hadn’t thought of anything better to say, and I really had to keep my focus. Rush’s body was just as beautiful, if not more so because Rush was my mate, as perfect as a male could get for me. But I was a hot-blooded woman and Xeno was gorgeous. I had perfectly sharp eyesight that didn’t miss a single dip of his muscled ridges. By sunshine, how many sculpted muscles could a man have?

Stare darting back up to his face—hey, at least I hadn’t accidentally checked out his dick again—my smile widened to cover for my discomfort. “Thanks for helping with Ivar.”

He drew closer so that a mere foot-and-a-half separated us. “Of course. You know I’ll do anything to protect you, Wyn. Besides, we need him. He might have intel that’ll help us murder the queen bitch, and I can’t have her getting her hands on you again.”

“True.”

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