Page 71 of Brutal Fae King
“Well…” She says. “I couldn’t just leave you out there.”
“How did you cause lightning from the secure room?” I ask. “I had no idea you could summon lightning that far away.”
But her eyes duck down, and I get a sinking feeling.
“Ebelor?”
“Um… we never made it to the secure room,” she answers.
That hollow feeling gets even worse.
“What do you mean?”
“Dralis found us first,” she replies.
My heart jolts when I hear it.
“B-but you never left the castle?!” I exclaim. “Dralis teleported inside the castle?!”
“He did,” she murmurs. “And h-he took me to a tent outside the castle. H-he…” She drops her gaze. “He had me in some kind of illusion and—”
She chokes a little and trails off. I rub her shoulder, but that just makes her flinch.
“He kissed me,” she whispers. “And… I’m not sure I didn’t kiss him back. I’m so sorry.”
I just nod. She rubs her mouth with her hands, tears filling her eyes.
After a pause, she begs:
“Say something, please!”
“It doesn’t surprise me,” I answer. “That sounds exactly like the type of thing Dralis would do—try to get his hands on the lost heir… I didn’t think he’d try to dothat,though.”
“Are… you not angry that I kissed him?” she asks.
“If you’d truly betrayed me in that way, then the bond would have killed us both,” I answer. “You said you were kept in an illusion, and Dralis’s expertise is to make someone think something is real when it’s not. Including kissing, if he wanted. I’m just sorry I underestimated him—I genuinely didn’t know he could teleport into the castle.”
I put a hand on her sweet face, and she leans her face against my hand, still crying lightly. When a tear gets close to my thumb, I sweep it across, taking the salt water with it.
“You know what surprises me?” I chuckle. “It’s the fact that you’re so upset that you possibly betrayed our marriage like that. I didn’t even know you cared.”
Ebelor opens and closes her mouth, then shrugs lightly.
I run my hand up and down her face.
“Thank you, Ebelor,” I say. “Thank you for saving my life and thank you for caring. That makes me happier than you could ever know.”
She smiles tearfully. I lean up and embrace her softly. She pulls herself into me and nestles her sweet lips into my neck. A delightful chill runs down me. Finally, she laughs a little.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Whilst you’re thanking me,” Ebelor says, leaning back with a cheeky smile, “youalsoneed to thank me for casting a ring of lightning around the castle and scaring Dralis’s army away. Oh, and spending a year of my life to get the witch to bring you back to the castle when you were injured.”
I flinch.
“What?!” I shout. “You spent a year of your life?! Why would you do that?!”
“To save your life,” she answers.
