Chapter 66
ROARK
Raine’s door has been locked for the last twenty-four hours, but she’s not in there. I’ve heard her sneaking around the old servant passageways. The door to the collection is locked too.
I give it a good solid knock. I can hear her moving around in there. “Raine? Please let me talk to you.”
Kieren and Evander have taken Aisling back to Crest Wing. Even though Aisling begged to see Raine. She was pretty upset. But then, she’s young and believes in love. Aisling still believes that everything always works out in the end. Something I know isn’t true.
“Raine?”
There’s a thud of a cabinet door inside the room. There’s also an echo of footfalls coming down the south corridor. Leopold with a tray of food. He stares at me. “If you would like mademoiselle to eat, it would be best if you weren’t in the hallway.”
“Yes, of course,” I say to him and round the corner, stopping out of sight.
“All the way, Mr. Lang,” Leopold says, clearing his throat.
“Yes, of course.” I trudge down the main corridor to the sound of the side courtyard bells ringing. It’s not often that someone rings the door at Cloud Rift.
Long steps take me through the castle, past the dragon’s eye foyer and down the corridor past the circular stone stairs to the side door.
There are three young women, all wearing uniforms, like the one Wren wore when she showed up, with tied ascots and name tags declaring them Ellen, Kate, and Chanda.
“Holy shit. You’re tall,” Ellen says.
“She means we’re here to fetch Raine,” Kate corrects her.
“What they said.” Chanda tries to smile through her red lipstick. She gives her head a little shake and then crosses her arms over her waist. “I mean—Raine is leaving with us. Show us to her.”
“Better do what she says, tall man,” Ellen says. “She’s giving you her badly behaving passenger stance. You should be scared, very scared.”
“I am,” I reply, and I’m not entirely lying. I believe this tiny human would stand up to me even in my dragon form. “Before you take Raine away, I request to speak with her.”
“No,” Chanda says.
“Not even if it’s to tell her I love her and I don’t care that she’s not our fated thunder mate, I want her to stay?”
“Oh—” the three women say at the same time.
“You love her?” Ellen asks.
“That’s wonderful,” Chanda adds.
Only Kate is giving me the eye. “You told us you love her before you told her. Not cool, man.”
“Only because she has locked herself in the collection area.” I cross my arms like Chanda.
“Come on, Kate, the guy wants to confess his love. We can’t take her back to New York before he does that. Aren’t you a romantic?” Ellen sighs.
Chanda smacks Ellen on the back. “Have you forgotten about Kate’s last five months of dates? She hasn’t found a Prince Charming yet.”
Kate glares at Chanda and then Ellen.
“But she will. You will so find your Prince Charming,” Ellen adds.
“Can we talk to Raine? Please,” Kate says.
I look them over. They clearly aren’t going to go away. And Raine has obviously called them to come get her. “Follow me.”
I walk the three flight attendants through the castle. They’re screeching at every detail, even the stone walls.
“Look at the texture of the grout!” Ellen says. The others turn to her. “What? I like architecture.”
We turn the corner and make our way to the dragon’s head foyer. Their oohing and aahing leaves no doubt that Raine will open the door.
“Wren wasn’t kidding. This is a real castle.”
“I thought she was joking too. Like it was just a nice house but bigger.”
“Or a manor house, even.”
“Ooh, a manor house. What’s the difference between a castle and a manor house?” one of them asks.
I have no idea who is saying what, and it doesn’t matter to me at this point. They are a way to get the door open and get inside. Yes, I could unlock it. Or break it down. But I’ve come to know my Duchess well enough to know that wouldn’t win me her affection.
I need to tell Raine how I feel. I should have done it weeks ago.
But we all agreed it might cause more pressure and make the lightning not happen.
That’s the last thing I want. The last thing we need.
But now I think this is exactly what we need.
She needs to know how we feel. How we’re thinking.
I need her more than I need the other realm.
I am fucking tired of Kieren’s parents. They’re using their children to get what they want.
What they think they need. They sent Aisling through the Thessari because they knew it would get Kieren to come back with her, make sure she made it back to the castle with the portals acting weird.
It hasn’t happened that many times, but portals have attached to the wrong place, sending someone to the other side of the realm, and now with the Firested portal closed, could our Thessari attach to theirs instead?
Which side was closed? The Earth side, the realm side, or both?
Aisling didn’t have the answers. The king and queen might be in the dark about it, or they might not have told Aisling, knowing Kieren would bring his younger sister home.
Evander went too. If the portal does connect to the wrong location, Aisling would need someone to ride on.
Which makes it hard to defend against an attacker.
So Evander went too, leaving me here alone with Raine.
When we should all be with her as much as possible.
Something I’m sure the royals of Crest Wing are aware of.
A small part of me is glad that she hasn’t had the lightning.
Because the Crest Wing assholes aren’t good enough to have her for their queen.
I’m content living here for the rest of my life with her.
Hell, if they want to claim we have no right to Cloud Rift, I’d be happy enough to live someplace warm.
Not in Firested territory on Earth, but Elderglen’s portal is in Southern California.
I wonder if Raine would like it there. Is that better or worse for the paintings?
“Oh, shoot. Look at that, Ellen!” one of them exclaims.
They’ve dropped behind me. “Ladies, Raine is this way. Please keep up.”
“Right,” Chanda jogs behind me.
I turn the corner. Leopold’s nowhere in sight. “Raine.” I knock on the door.
She doesn’t answer.
“Raine? Your friends are here. But I’d like to talk to you first. Please.”
“Oh, he said please,” Ellen says.
“Please isn’t good enough. I need—I mean, Raine needs—a good grovel. Do you know how to grovel, sir?”
If I wasn’t scared of them before, maybe I should be now. “Raine?” I knock again.
“Roark.” There’s a light thud on the other side of the door, like she’s resting her head against it. “Don’t make this harder on me. I need to go. It’s for the best.”
“It’s not for the best. It’s the absolute worst thing.”
“Aw,” one of the women says.
I turn and glare, smoke coming out of my nose and mouth. The three of them back up.
Kate puts her hands on the shoulders of the other two. “We’re going to wait over there.” She steers the other two flight attendants down the corridor.
“Raine, Duchess . . .”
The lock clicks open, and I slide through the door.