Page 21 of Conquering the King of Storms

“Later. After we’ve looked for Ivy and Flame for a bit,” I said quickly.

“I haven’t found them yet, but I know where Flood and his human are. We’ll head toward them. Assuming Flame figures out a way to teach Ivy how to use her magic, that’s where they’ll head as well.”

Oh.

Well, that was even easier, I guessed.

Sirus held out a hand, and I took it. He pulled me to my feet, and slid his fingers between mine.

The grip was becoming more normal for me than I had expected it to, and much faster than I had expected as well. He always used to hold on to my wrist in his short moments of sanity, and I much preferred the hand-holding.

“It’ll take two or three weeks if we go your pace, depending on how fast you can swim and how many monsters we come across,” Sirus explained to me, as we began walking. The rocks beneath my feet were warm and slick, with random sharp bits. One of the thin, crappy makeshift shoes I’d had on back in the city seemed to have fallen off when I felt like I was drowning, so that foot kept slipping and getting cut.

“Damn.” I grimaced. “What if we moved at your pace?”

“Four days. Maybe five. I would have to hold you for that, though, and that would make you uncomfortable, so it’s not an option.”

Well, I could take a little discomfort to save myself two weeks of walking.

And honestly, I didn’t think I’d be uncomfortable in his arms.

“We’ll go at your pace, it won’t make me uncomfortable. You won’t do anything to me that I don’t want you to?”

He scowled. “Of course not.”

Right.

That was a touchy subject with him.

“I just have to ask, because of my past,” I reminded him. “It’s not because I don’t trust you.”

“But youdon’ttrust me.” He stopped walking, and gestured toward me in a silent question as to whether or not he couldpick me up. I nodded, and he carefully lifted me. It was strange, having those massively-strong arms against the backs of my legs and shoulder blades.

“Well, I don’t really know you. And trust takes time.” I didn’t add that I could count the number of people I’d ever really trusted on one hand, or that they’d all left me or broken my trust in the end. My life wasn’t a sob story—I had done my best, and for the most part, I wasn’t miserable.

But people had treated me shitty anyway.

Maybe that was my fault, somehow.

If it was, I didn’t really want to know why or how.

“That’s fair.” He began to jog.

How he could do so on the slippery stone was beyond me. Tough fae feet and wind magic, I guess.

“Elemental fae don’t tend to have many children,” he told me. “It’s a cultural thing, I suppose. There are many plants here that interfere with fertility, and some of them taste quite good. We don’t value large families the way some of the other fae lands do; we prefer small ones, where everyone gets the time and love that they need. My friendship with the other kings turned us into a large family, and despite my people’s culture, it has been far better for Dissiri than I imagined.”

“Okay…” I wasn’t sure why he was telling me this.

He was picking up speed, moving at a full-out run at that point, but still not breathing hard somehow.

“You said you didn’t know me, Sway. I’m helping you get to know me.” His lips curved upward slightly. “I explain about ourculture so you can understand my childhood. My parents, my sister, and myself were very close. Children don’t have magic of their own until they’re ready for it—the parent they’re connected to will feel a drain on their magic when the elements have decided the child is old enough. It usually doesn’t happen until a fae is fourteen or fifteen, but for me, it happened when I was eight.”

He continued, “The previous queen found out about my magic and saw me as a threat, so we had to leave, and ended up moving around constantly. I didn’t have many friends, but I saw most of the elemental lands. I would’ve been content to stay away and let the queen rule through my lifetime, but she finally hunted me down when I was seventeen, and killed my mother in her sleep while my father and I fought her people. Mated fae’s lives are tied together, so they live or die as one, and he died with her.”

They did?

Fuck.

---