“Anyway, I’m not hurt, so that right there should prove something,” she says before dragging her blue eyes over me. “You, however, are an absolutemess.”
Glancing down, I only see a few minor scrapes and slices on my bare arms. “I’m good.”
“You’re notgood. You’re covered in dirt and sweat and blood.”
“It’s really very normal for him, love,” Judd says, sidling up beside us.
“Don’t call herlove,” I growl.
“Yeah, don’t call melove,” she snips, giving him a look of disgust that instantly makes me feel even better thangood.
Judd grins. “Wow. You two are made for each other.”
“Of course we are,” we both say in our own irritated tones.
Then we share a look, and now that my adrenaline is calming and telling me she’s okay, all this rushing blood and hormones want to do something else.
Judd clears his throat, looking between us. “Uh, right. Before this takes a turn…I just wanted to warn you that Queen Kaila and her brother Manu are here.”
My head snaps over to him. “What?”
He points at me. “But you can’t kill him. Slade gave them a pardon, remember?”
“You see Slade here?” I retort with an angry growl. “It’s their fault Rissa almost died. So I’ll kill them if she fucking wants me to.”
I look down at her expectantly. I told her to give me a name, so I wait for her to part those pretty lips and say it so I can fuckingendthem—
She shrugs. “All is forgiven.”
I have to do a double take. “Ex-fucking-scuse me?”
Rissa gives me a scathing look. “We’re in the middle of a war,Captain. Stop threatening people on my behalf, because we don’t have time for that. The queen is obviously here to help. Even I know we have to be politically sensitive about these things. Correct?” she asks, and Judd nods in confirmation. “There. See?”
“No, I don’t fucking see,” I bite out. “I want to kill them for what they did to you.”
She rolls her eyes. It makes me hard as a rock because that’s what this infuriating woman does to me.
“Well, too bad. You can’t,” she says.
I’m going to have to talk to her about letting me kill people for her. Later.
After I fuck her in whatever building still stands.
Someone cries out, pulling our attention away. We look over just as one of Queen Kaila’s guards dumps an injured fae soldier off the back of his timberwing. He screams from the impact, trying to roll upright in the snow.
The three of us exchange a look before we make our way over. Ryatt steps closer and looms over the fae and says something I don’t catch.
The fae shakes his head. “You think this will stop us?”
“I think wedidstop you,” Ryatt tells him.
The fae’s laugh is raspy. “This won’t stop the fae from taking Orea. The Stone King has been planning this foryears. He’ll make sure this world is ours, and your species is too weak to stop him. This isn’t a victory. It’s just a setback.”
“Look at where you are, and look at where I am,” Ryatt snarls. “Oreans aren’t weak. Our land was rid of you once, and we’ll make sure we rid you again like the infestation you are.”
The fae laughs again, but this time, blood bubbles up from his throat. He chokes on it, and then his eyes bug and he tips over onto the ground, his sputtered breath cutting off as he dies.
Rissa presses herself against me, and I put my arm around her protectively.
