Page 33 of The Shadow Fae Rhapsody
The change in his expression makes me reconsider finishing that sentence. There’s a gentle crease between his brows. “Why would you risk yourself like that?”
“I can’t simply stand by while innocent people are dying.” I exhale softly. “You can’t get mad at me for that.”
He draws back slightly to look at me.
“That’s just who I am.” I throw his words back to him. Now it’s his turn to accept me.
His face still screams with dissatisfaction. “You should have at least told me you were hunting demons in the sewer in the middle of the night.”
“You would have gone with me?” I ask.
One side of his lips tips up. “I would have done it for you. There is no length I will not go for you.”
My heart trips like I’ve been thrown from a cliff into free fall. Raw emotion floods through me over his words.
For me…
“Why?” I feign ignorance.
I already have the answer. He said it all in his confession last night. But I want to hear it again. I need him to utter those words right now in broad daylight to make sure it wasn’t a dream.
You’re my everything.
I need to hear him say it again like I need to draw breath.
“Because I will do anything to stay by your side,” he mutters underneath his breath. That is even better than the confession from last night…
The butterflies in my stomach have somehow transformed into wyverns, wrecking chaos and setting my insides aflame.
“I fucked up my chances with you in the past,” he says, more quietly this time. “I know I’ve hurt you, broken your trust once. I will do anything to have it back.”
The gods have decided to favor me today…
“Let me make it up to you,” he says, his voice gruff. “I’ll start by finding the elven sorcerer for you. If he’s not dead yet.”
I’m sure he’s dead. Svenn tore half of his body and smashed his heart, but wait—
“The sorcerer is an elf?” I quirk an eyebrow.
Perhaps Svenn is mistaken… The guy who calls himself the Shadow Fae must be a fae, right…?
His face slackens for a heartbeat. “I recognize it because it’s the same presence I felt when I put a hole through the messenger’s chest.”
It feels like someone pulled a rug from under me, then hit me in the head.
I stop breathing at his answer. Knowing the sorcerer is an elf is one thing, but knowing that it is our own Elders… Air may never return to my lungs.
“The Aeonians?” I ask with a tremble.
He nods curtly.
Disbelief courses through me for a moment, but something tugs at the recesses of my memories. Back when I was a child, I punched the Shadow Fae in the face… yes, I remember the shock I felt back then when I saw him.
He’s an elf.
“Nel?” Svenn nudges me. “You’re quiet.”
“I’m just shocked…” I exhale with a small smile. Svenn doesn’t know the enormity of his revelation.
