20. Rhys
RHYS
I didn’t want her praise. I didn’t want her looking at me with understanding or gratitude. I didn’t want any of it.
Whispers began building all around me. Confusion.
Pax moved to my side. “What do you need?”
I tried to read the room, to see if we’d need to battle our way out. But I’d never be able to leave Rae. It would be impossible. Not with this curse the gods had tied to me.
My gaze flicked to Ayden. He stood in the back, leaning against a pillar. His stance was deceptive. He wanted the world to think he didn’t give a damn. But he cared. Too much.
Yet I knew he wouldn’t lend me a hand. Not unless it served him.
As things stood, if the Luminaries beheaded me, he’d get the House of Firelight.
And he wanted that more than anything. He would probably lie and say he wanted to defeat the Luminaries.
But he would take power in his realm over justice anywhere else.
I muttered a curse.
“I’ve got your back,” Pax said in a whisper only I could hear.
“I know,” I uttered gruffly. That was our bond of friendship, of trust. I knew I could count on Pax—more than my own damn blood.
Rae struggled to push herself into a sitting position. Her face had gone unnaturally pale, making that scattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks stand out all the more.
“What the hades is going on?” Queen Daphne demanded.
Olympia moved closer to the dais. “I had a vision. A series of them, actually. I knew I had to get Rae to safety. There was no option but the human realm because the Demon King was coming for her.”
My gut twisted at the memory: The skeletal mask he wore to disguise his identity would give children nightmares. I rolled my shoulder back, still feeling where his shadow magic had wounded me.
It had taken me months to recover. If I hadn’t stumbled upon a wolf shifter in the human realm who’d been willing to help me, I likely wouldn’t have recovered at all. I owed Ender my life. But I’d paid part of my debt by bringing his mate back from certain death.
Life was a series of checks and balances, an invisible scale that constantly teetered back and forth. Debts and payments. Over and over.
Mikel let out a derisive sound. “As if he would help our kind. Our family.”
My fangs pressed against my gums, trying to break free. I wanted to rip out the man’s jugular and feast on his life force. Even that wouldn’t be justice enough, but it would be a start.
The only problem was that, in the Fates’ sanctuary, we were all their willing prisoners. And while they might do nothing about violence and bloodshed in Lumaria, they wouldn’t stand for it here.
“She speaks the truth,” the Fate named Serene said. “Rhys of Firelight took Soraya to safety.”
My skin began to itch, as if I’d bathed in salt water and sat by a crackling fire for hours. I could feel the invisible hourglass spilling its sand.
“Lies,” Mikel spat.
“Here, here,” Queen Daphne agreed. “That child was stolen from our lands. From her promised. From my son.”
That was Daphne’s problem. In her mind, Rae belonged to her. And no one took from the almighty Luminary Queen.
Rae struggled to stand, a frown tugging at lips that were just beginning to regain their berry color. She walked on fawn-like legs toward me.
I had to battle every instinct I had to go to her, to reach out and steady her. The mating bond was riding me hard. My fangs pressed against my gums again but for an entirely different reason this time.
She was so damn beautiful. Hair so pale a blond it was nearly silver. Captivating gray eyes that reminded me of a stormy sea. Porcelain skin that my fingers ached to touch.
Even in those ridiculous pajamas, every part of me wanted her. And that terrified me.
Because Morningstar blood ran through her veins. The blood that had caused untold pain. That had ripped innocence and goodness from this land. From my home.
And now, my body betrayed me, too.
Rae’s frown deepened, worry etching itself into lines that should never grace her face. “You saved me.”
I didn’t say a word. It was a special kind of hades to be bound to her. To have been forced to make the choice to save her because she was innocent but also because her life would always be tethered to mine.
She stopped right in front of me, so close I could feel her heat and hear her blood taunting me. And that scent. Black currant and jasmine. A whimsical earthiness I wanted to be one with.
Rae lifted a hand so slowly it was almost painful. It landed right on my chest. My blood sang, and a jolt of power swept through me, bringing a rightness along with it.
My body was riddled with scars—centuries of life had graced me with my share of enemies. Rae was touching the worst of them through my shirt as she remembered. “The monster,” she whispered. “It almost killed you.”
Mikel surged forward, but one of the Fates stopped him in his tracks. “Do not touch that filth, Soraya. You will bring shame upon our house.”
A fresh wave of confusion transformed her face. “He saved my life.”
“He probably put your life in danger in the first place,” Mikel snarled. “All he wants is revenge.”
Rae’s frown deepened. “Why?”
I stared down at my mate, the one whose life would be forever tied to mine. “Because your father killed mine. My little sister, too. He slaughtered them in cold blood with zero provocation.”