“He was there for her. I’m glad.”
“Are you?”
I think he nods. Or shakes his head. I hear some kind of movement. I could open my eyes to very narrow slits. They might not notice. They might not be looking at me at all.
“Staying away from her was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Oh, come on, Aren.” Lena’s voice is gently scolding. “You didn’t stay away from her.”
“I didn’t talk to her for three weeks.”
“So you never once fissured to her apartment or to the library to check in on her?”
Silence. My ears strain to hear another nod or a shake of his head, something to indicate his response.
“Her friend is here,” Lena says after a moment. “She’s offered to watch her for a while.”
My friend? Paige? That has to be who she’s talking about.
“I already told you I’m not—”
“You are,” she cuts him off. “You’re going to eat and sleep and live. Get out of here now, or I’ll have you removed.”
I hear Aren sigh, hear him standing, moving away. My thoughts aren’t completely centered on him, though. There’s a tightness in my chest. I’m not sure if it’s mine or an echo of someone else’s.
The door clicks shut.
Cautiously, I open my eyes, focus on the ceiling, then—
“If he doesn’t fight for you, he’s a fool.”
“You’re awake, too!” I accuse, turning my head and lightly punching Kyol’s arm. A smile curves my lips. He’s looking at me. I’ve never seem him so pale and weak, but his gaze is sane. His magic might be fried from the Taser, but it will return. He hasn’t turned tor’um.
God, he could have turned tor’um. He could have died.
My body is under my control again. I roll on top of him, ignore his oomph, and hug him tight.
“That was too close,” I say.
He wraps his arms around me. “I agree.”
Chaos lusters careen across me. They’re heating his skin, but I don’t pull away. He’s cold. I saw what happened when I Tasered Cardak. The life-bond is the only reason he’s alive.
I move back just a little, lifting myself up enough to look in his silver eyes. “You’re okay?”
He reaches up and touches my cheek. The gesture is tender, but it holds no little amount of sorrow. I close my eyes, that emotion cutting through me. I want so much to make him happy.
“I will be okay,” he assures me, sensing the pain within me. “I was content during the ten years we worked together. I can be content again.”
Oh, Kyol. Don’t you know I can feel your lie?
I sit up, help him do the same. He’s so much weaker than I am right now. The electrical current that was pumped into him . . . I’m thankful he survived it, but I wish it would have severed the bond. I don’t think he’d hurt as much if it were gone. Sure, he would be broken-hearted, but he could take his mind off me more easily.
I have to find a way to sever the bond. Kelia and Naito might have tried everything she could think of to end hers with Lorn, but that was a fae-to-fae connection. Mine is human-to-fae. Surely, that makes it weaker. I’ll try everything I can to break it. For now, though, we have to be okay.
“It’ll be easier once you move on and find someone else.” I’m not sure if my words are meant to assure me or him. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t look at me, but I can feel the doubt circling through him.
“You will find someone else, Kyol. I’m not the only girl for you.”
He doesn’t believe me. Not yet, at least.
“Jacia’s pretty,” I say, attempting to lighten the mood.
His gaze slides my way. “McKenzie.”
“So is Lena, but that would be a conflict of interest, I think. Plus, we hate each other.”
“McKenzie,” he scolds again, but my words have helped. There’s a smile in his stormy silver eyes. “We should tell them we’re awake.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “Probably.”
The door to our room opens. Paige steps inside, then does a double take when she sees us.
“They said you weren’t awake.” She grins and rushes forward, throwing her arms around me. Her hair is down, cut into sharp layers, and it’s bleached blond except for the ends, which have been dyed red, purple, blue, green. Basically, all the colors of the rainbow.
She grabs my shoulders, putting distance between us. “You are the absolute hardest person I’ve ever known to get in touch with.”
“It’s good to see you, too,” I tell her. “You’re doing okay?”
“Yeah,” she says, but her voice takes on an odd note. “I’m fine.”
“You know about the Sight serum? That it might not be fatal?”
“It’s not,” she says. “At least, not the serum I was injected with.”
I tilt my head to the side, studying her. “Lee?”
She shakes her head.
Damn. I don’t have much love for Lee, but I don’t want him to drop dead. And I don’t want anyone else who injected the serum to either.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her.
“He deserves it,” she says. It sounds like she’s forcing herself to believe that.
“Where is he?”
“At Naito’s. He and Lee are going through some information the vigilantes gave them. Harper and the others captured some fae a while back. They won’t say if they’re still alive or where they’re holding them, but Naito and Lee will figure it out.”
“They’ve captured fae?” Kyol asks.
Paige turns to him, smiles as if she’s glad to see him. That’s a change. She’s never liked Kyol. She always said it was because he strung me along.
“Yeah,” she says, then she nods toward me. “Thanks for taking care of her.”
“She’s taken care of me.” He squeezes my hand and stands. “I’ll go speak with Lena.”
“Good luck with that,” Paige says. At Kyol’s questioning look, she adds, “Her schedule is beyond full. Nobles and potential nobles and merchants and I don’t even know who are lined up and knocking on the palace doors.”
I frown. “How long were we out?”
“Just two weeks, but we killed and chased off the elari, and Hison immediately put Lena on the throne.”
“She’s queen?” Kyol asks at the same time I say, “Who’s ‘we’?”
“Yes,” she answers Kyol. “And ‘we’ is Caelar, Tylan, me, and the rest of the remnants.”
I look at Kyol. “We missed a lot.”
“Yep,” Paige says. “All the pomp and circumstance.”
Kyol’s presence suddenly softens, and a tension I didn’t realize was there eases out of the life-bond. It’s startling how different he feels. All that stress and responsibility he’s been carrying around, it impacted me despite the wall he tried to build between us. With it gone . . .
A gentle, contented smile spreads across Kyol’s normally stony face.
“She’s queen,” he says, and for the first time in months, there’s optimism in his voice.