Page 49 of Fae Reckoning

“Are you … by warming sunlight, Az, are you the last of your kind?”

His eyes blurred by his grief, he waited a moment. “I don’t know. My kind do not thrive in this much darkness. Some may have fled into the Sorumbra to escape her. But I-I really don’t know. It’s possible I may truly be the last one.”

Unable to find helpful words, I held him closely. And while he mourned, I also did.

For the extent of his pain and the magnitude of his loss.

For every creature who had suffered as deeply as he.

For whomever the queen would yet hurt before we found the way to end her once and for all.

For all the pointless devastation that could have been avoided save for the horrid ambitions of a singular woman.

To the gentle support of Bertram’s intermittentwaawaas, Azariah and I cried and cried.

15.EAT YOU UP, LICK BY LONG LICK

ELOWYN

I recognized the instant Azariah decided to overcome his lament to join the battle against the queen. He straightened from Bertram’s side and extricated himself from my embrace. He shook out his mane and stretched his wings, pulling them loosely against his sides. His long tongue laved the rainbow streaks that had dried around his mouth, making him look like an animal when he so rarely did. His coat was magically back to being a shiny, pure white. The hair of his tail was glossy once more. When his eyes finally met mine, they brimmed with resolve.

“Well,” I said. “Hello there. You look stunning.”

A sudden grin dissolved the stoicism that had elongated his face. “Why, thank you, Elowyn. I do try.”

I chuckled. “Your tail especially was looking pretty sad. I worried it was going to mat on you. Maybe even dread.”

He gasped, his aghast eyes going comically wide. “No. Say it wasn’t so.”

I didn’t have the heart to keep up the ruse he obviously found far less playful than I did. “No, it wasn’t so. At most, your tail looked limp.”

He gasped again. I imagined if he had hands they would have jumped to his chest in his horror. “Limp?” he squeaked. “My tail waslimp?”

Yeah, and your mane and wings too.

I forced a peppy smile onto my face. “Never mind that. You look glorious now.”

But he frowned, appearing troubled. Before melancholy could claim him again, I said, “So. Az. I need to ask you some questions. You up for it?”

What felt like a hot breeze trailed across my body. When I glanced up, I found Rush staring at me from the other side of the clearing like I was cool, crisp, crystalline water and he was dying of thirst. The beast inside me I’d believed calmed after reuniting with Rush woke and thrashed against its cage, demanding to be released, to have at him already.

But no. Not yet. Not until we were safe.Or the queen finally kills us, a pesky voice of doubt suggested. I might die without ever making love with him again, and that would be an awful tragedy.

To one side of Einar’s massive legs, I met his stormy moonlit eyes and smiled sadly. Neither of us had asked for the responsibility of keeping the others safe, but it had landed with us regardless. His responding smile was just as regretful and filled with a haunting longing.Next he scowled, tugged at a rope, and Ivar stumbled behind him as my mate led the queen’s most trusted advisor into what was left of the cabin. Hiroshi, Ryder, and Roan, who clutched the handle of his battleax with a ferociously determined pinch of his lips, followed closely behind.

“Elowyn, did you hear me?” Azariah was saying.

I blinked at him. “What? Sorry, I, uh, got a little distracted.”

Despite having the head of a horse, Azariah managed to arch his brow at me as pointedly as if he were a person. “I’d get distracted too if someone as fine as Drake Rush Vega looked at me the way he does you. He looks like he wants to eat you.” The unisus frowned, wagged his mouth to either side in an affectation that made it difficult to remember he wasn’t a man. “I guess I shouldn’t say that anymore. Not when the…” He gulped, his big throat bobbing. “…queen actuallyateparts of my parents.”

My shoulders were already sagging when he shook off the somberness. He smiled, if a bit forced. “I meant, the drake looks like he wants to eat you up, lick by long lick, as with a delicious, creamy dessert.”

I was assaulted by the imagery of myself with my legs spread and Rush kneeling between them. His grin was wolfish, his moonlit eyes swirling, as he lowered to feast.

I swallowed as heat swept along the entirety of my body, sensing Rush’s attention on me again. When I looked over, he’d stopped moving, his captive andfriends piling up behind him while he studied me, a mixture of curiosity and hunger written across his face as plainly as words.

I shook my head in anever mindand made myself look back at Azariah. Though Rush’s stare lingered, I didn’t glance at him again. I could make do without his touch, lips, tongue, and bejeweled wand a bit longer.I just didn’t fucking want to.

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