“Seems I’m always saving your life, Alabath,” he panted.
I looked pointedly at the post he’d been chained to. “Yes, that’s clearly what’s happening here, Vincienzo.”
“So ungrateful…” he mused, shaking his head. “You can thank me later.” He gave me a roguish wink, and I fought the smile that bloomed across my face.
Cradling my injured arm, I retrieved Angelborn. When I turned back to Tol, he was holding my dagger. Without dropping his gaze from mine, he slid the blade home. His hand lingered on my thigh, burning into me.
“You’re okay?” he asked, fingers curling into my skin above the sheath like he’d never let go.
“I’m okay.” My arm was already healing, another proud scar for my collection. “And you?”
“I’m fine now.”
“The warriors who came with you…”
“Gone.” His lips pulled into a line. That explained the blood Kakias and Aird had delivered to us, using whatever power the queen was manipulating to freeze it.
I scowled at the Mindshaper on the floor, considering ending his life now for his crimes against Mystiques, but Tol twisted my fingers between his. “It could incite more problems.”
He was right. Though Aird was complicit in Tol’s kidnapping and the murder of our warriors, killing a chancellor now could turn clans against us. But I did stomp over to him and punch him squarely in the face, his nose crunching under my knuckles.
Turning back to Tol, his eyes weren’t on mine, but my necklace. “What’s this?” He touched the new charm from Lancaster.
“I—um—” I stumbled, realizing how foolish I was about to sound.
“Alabath?”
“Do you remember the fae who attacked Rina?” Spirits, he was going to think I was careless.
“Yes…”
My next words were rushed. “He found me on my way here and offered a bargain in order to help me get you out, so I took it.”
Tol’s face went blank. “You made a deal with a faerie in order to rescue me?”
“An indefinite bargain.” I supposed I would tell him everything now. “We can each call on the other when needed, so long as it doesn’t harm anyone I care about. The camp was heavily guarded. It didn’t seem like I’d be able to get in any other way. I was careful with my parameters, though.”
I looked at my boots, awaiting the anger that would meet my reckless decision.
But Tol slipped a hand beneath my chin, lifting my gaze.
“You did that to rescue me?”
I nodded.
“You shouldn’t have…” A beautiful, crooked smile bloomed across his face. “But thank you.”
“What?” I tilted my head.
“I know that you wouldn’t have wanted to do that, to hand overa piece of control in that way, but you did it for me. Thank you.” Cuffed hands slipped around me, pulling me close, one cradling the back of my head against his chest. Bemused, I wrapped my arms around him. Because I’d barely been thinking of myself or what it might mean when I made that deal?—
I’d thought of Tol, and what it would feel like to lose him.
“You have to kiss the fae to seal a bargain, don’t you?” Tol asked, his voice rumbling in his chest beneath my ear.
I looked up at him. “Am I the only one who was unaware of that?”
“You kissed him?” His smile didn’t falter—he was laughing.
