Page 149 of The Shadow Fae Rhapsody
Red should have really stopped talking seconds ago. This guy can’t even stand still without finding a way to piss me off.
He grins with a crinkle of mischief in his eyes. “That rumble in your throat tells me that you like her, too.”
I don’t just like her. She’s my everything.
“Snuck right past your defenses, did she?” he asks, his mouth kicking up at the corners with a smile. “I told you in the beginning, remember? The queen will have your heart.”
Red’s gaze lowers to where Rhianelle had stabbed me. “One way or the other,” he adds with a shrug.
I don’t laugh at his unfunny jest. But the thought of my thieving fawn brings me warmth.
“Rhia—” I bite my tongue from uttering her name. Something so sacred shouldn’t grace the mouth of something as infernal as me. “Where is she?”
“She was inspecting the west wing dungeon, checking on the dwarven prisoners when I left her,” he replies tightly.
I rein in the insurmountable urge to rush to her.
After what I’ve seen today, I know Rhianelle can take care of herself from any danger. But I picture her traveling through the dark tunnels of the underground prison, seeing the horrors of the torture chambers, imagining the worse that could happento her friend. I want to be by her side to hold her hand through that. I could have, had I not been so weak to fall victim to a cursed dagger.
The dread must have been obvious on my face because Red suddenly says, “Hey, Aelfric is with her. She’ll be all right.”
And speak of the devil…
Eyepatch appears in his silver armor that has somehow remained sparkling clean compared to Red’s. He studies the aftermath of my onslaught from days ago. I had buried four orcs deep in the northern wall.
“The Queen did not authorize this butchery,” he mutters briefly.
Great.
I’m spoiling for a fight and Eyepatch is the perfect opponent.
“Why are you here?” I hiss in a breath.
His glacial eyes harden as they gaze into mine. “Queen’s order.”
All the venomous things I want to spit to Eyepatch suddenly fail to articulate on my tongue. I swallow the hot coal burning in my parched throat.
The elven knight is here to deliver my judgement.
I’ll accept any punishment willingly. They can execute me however many times they want. But if they’ve chosen to banish me…
My heart tears itself to fucking pieces. I can’t bear the thought.
Don’t take her away from me.
“Some of these are friendly,” Red muses while tossing an arrow aside. He doesn’t read the darkening atmosphere as Eyepatch approaches.
The guy enters the prison cell like the reaper himself. His sharp eyes flick to the worse of my injuries on the right collarbone, then down to my chest where Rhianelle had plantedher dagger. He continues his silent scrutiny for a long moment before grabbing the axe buried in my chest with both hands. His face yields nothing as he places his boot on my shoulder to extract the weapon from my sternum. Eyepatch doesn’t carry the same finesse as Garrett as he attempts to pull it free. I swear he’s tearing a new wound open.
“That prayer she gave you before battle… Do you know what it means?” Eyepatch asks.
I meet the bastard’s ice cold glare with my own.
“It says, ‘Let the arrows find me instead of him. Let the blades cut through me instead of him. Let the fire burn me instead of him. Let death take me instead of him,’” he says, splitting my heart right down the middle. “It’s what an elf would pray whenever their spouse is about to undergo a dangerous task.”
My insides coil into suffocating knots at his words.
That’s the worst blow any creature had given me on the battlefield today. Eyepatch knows how to hit me where it hurts the most. He might as well just bury that axe in my chest again and end me from my misery.
