Page 20 of Fae Reckoning

Larissa sidled up next to West. “How is this even possible?” Her question was a whisper when she’d been screaming before. She shook her head, her shock stark. “How is she alive?”

“We found her,” West said. “Following Elowyn’s map.”

My gaze jerked to my mate.

She said, “I activated it by connecting to you. Did you feel me?”

“Yes,” I answered. I hadn’t understood what sensing her had meant at the time, but oh how I’d felt her.

“Don’t touch her,” West warned urgently, and I snapped my attention back to him.

Larissa was frozen in place, the back of her hand a few inches from alighting on Ramana’s face.

“Why not?” I asked sharply. “What’s going on?”

“Ramana is alive, aye. Or at least I think she is. I fucking hope she is.” Grief swept across his face in a wave, pinching his eyes and mouth before it retreated. “But she’s taken over by something.”

“The queen’s magic, we think,” Ryder added, moving to stand beside West.

“There are four others like her,” West said, but when I looked I couldn’t decide to whom he might be referring. There were too many of them, of all shapes and sizes, and it was too dark.

“The others are asleep,” Ryder explained. “Only Ramana’s woken up. Kind of. We think it’s ‘cause of her connection to West. But when she was awake…” Ryder shifted nervously on his feet, something he rarely did. “Bro, her eyes were red. Like, not-good red. And you could see her veins under her skin, like a black blood-red.”

West kissed the top of Ramana’s filthy head. “It was really creepy,” Ryder continued. “She just sat there, not moving, not saying anything, staring off atnothing.”

I took a step closer, bringing Elowyn along with me. No way was I letting go of her anytime soon.

“How come you can touch her?” I asked West. “‘Cause you’re her mate?”

His eyes darted to mine; surprise arched his brows. Among ourselves, we’d never referred to his connection with Ramana that way. But now that I’d found what I was certain was my own mate, I couldn’t help but identify their bond as similar to my own.

His gaze back on Ramana, West eventually nodded. “I think so.”

Hiroshi joined us. “No one but West has touched her so far.” He rubbed his arm, the one Breccan cut off during the Gladius Probatio. Although Hiro had regrown the limb, and it appeared identical to the one he’d had before, I could tell it bothered him. He fretted over it when he was uneasy. “One of us had to touch the others to make sure they came with us, and thank the Ethers that didn’t cause any problems, but we shouldn’t take unnecessary risks. There’s something going on with all of them that we don’t understand, and the queen’s almost certainly behind it. Who knows what she’s capable of at this point…”

“Aye,” said Roan’s gruff voice before the dwarf sauntered into sight, scratching his beard. His tunic was torn at the shoulder, and blood soaked its edges. From the amount of blood, he was hurt, but not too badly.

“We gotta put a pause on the reunions and explanations,” Roan went on, staring up at the group of usintently. “The queen’s got a hard-on for our Elowyn here?—”

Rationally, I was fully aware that Roan meant no threat by saying “our Elowyn.” At another time, when I hadn’t only just been reunited with my mate after believing she might be dead or horribly maimed, I would have probably appreciated that my friends had grown fond of the woman with whom I intended to share a lifetime. But as it was, a growl ripped through me that I struggled to recognize as mine.

I felt every set of eyes land on me, even those peering out from the darkness. I grimaced at Roan in what I’d meant to be an apology but ended up being a baring of teeth.

But the dwarf only laughed good-naturedly and took a step back with his hands up, a gesture meant for the wild beast inside me, I thought, not the man.

“As I was sayin’,” he continued, lowering his hands to pat his ax, which hung heavily from his weapons belt. I hadn’t seen him without it since he was a teenager, when he’d first learned what kind of kingdom we really lived in. “We gotta move. Now that West has warned ya, let’s go. The queen’s gonna be on our asses as soon as she gets Az to tell ‘er where we landed. We’re on borrowed time.”

“Aren’t we always?” I grumbled in irritation.

Roan harrumphed. “So how we gonna get all of us out o’ here?” His neck was craned back, addressing Elowyn. “Can ya take us all to another place on yer map, there?”

I pressed closer to Elowyn. “He’s seen your map?”

Shetsked. “Easy, there. Yeah, he has. So has everyone else. But not like you think.”

What I was thinking was how I’d been as deep inside her as I could get when the glowing lines had erupted along her body—her very beautiful, very naked, veryminebody.

She placed a hand on my chest. Automatically, I leaned into her touch.

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