Drostan groaned and flung off his clothing on his way over to me.
Chapter Fourteen
I'm not sure what woke me. Probably the sound of footsteps, or maybe my brain had registered the breathing of another person in the room. Whatever it was, I blinked my eyes open and sleepily surveyed the darkness. There was a swath of moonlight coming in through the crack between the curtains, and it gave just enough light for me to see a shadow moving toward the bed. I frowned as I tried to process what was happening, and then I saw the glint of steel. The blade rose as the shadow crept forward, and I held my breath.
The dark shape stopped beside Drostan, and I knew I had moments to react. I grabbed Drostan and rolled with him toward the other side of the bed. I kept rolling until we fell over the edge. Drostan came awake with a grunt. At first, he appeared angry, but then he saw the terror in my eyes. He pushed up and flung a hand out; illuminating the room with a blast of light. A cloaked person was in the process of fleeing, but he stopped and looked over his shoulder. His dark eyes widened on the swirling energy circling the ceiling just before it rocketed at him.
The intruder fell backward; his knife rolling free of his grip. Drostan ran over to him and grabbed him by the tunic. He lifted the man and shook him.
“Why?” Drostan growled in the fairy's face.
The fairy's eyes remained wide with shock, and they were fixed on Drostan.
“Who are you?” The man whispered just before he died.
“Damn this fucked up court!” Drostan snarled as he shoved the man away.
I noted the charred hole in the assassin's tunic, and the bleeding wound in the chest beneath. Whatever it was that Drostan had done, it had proven fatal. I kept staring at the fairy's face; his shocked face. Why had he asked who Drostan was? Did he creep into the wrong room? Was it all a case of mistaken identity? But how could that be? No one mistook the King of Unseelie for another man.
Drostan went to the door, opened it, and shouted for his guards. Then he turned and saw me standing nearby.
“Riley?” Drostan's hands went to my face. “Are you all right, sweetheart? It's okay now; he's dead.”
“I'm fine,” I whispered.
He didn't look reassured.
“Come back to bed,” Drostan said gently. “The guards will be here at any moment, and you're naked.”
“I am?” I looked down at myself, then over at him. “So are you.”
“Yes, but I don't mind my soldiers seeing me like this.” Drostan gave me a gentle smile. “However, I do mind them seeing you. Come here, Aja.”
Drostan lifted me and carried me back to bed; tucking me in just as a group of those large men with the bleeding caps ran through the door.
“Sire?” One of the men gaped at the dead assassin and then at Drostan. “What the fuck happened?”
“Someone tried to kill me,” Drostan said simply as he shrugged into a robe. “And my concubine saved my life. She's worth more than all of you Redcaps put together!”
Had I done that? Did I save Drostan's life?
The men (Redcaps evidently; what a creative name) looked deeply unsettled. They hurried forward and picked up the corpse.
“We'll increase security, Your Majesty,” one of them said. “Our humblest apologies.”
“Get this trash out of my presence and then do exactly that!” Drostan shouted. “I want the guard doubled as of now. And I want spies put into place; we need to discover if this is Tana's doing or if my own people are against me.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
The Redcaps tromped out of the room, and Drostan slammed the door behind them. He glanced over and saw me watching him, and his expression softened. After closing the door to the antechamber, he strode over, shrugged out of his robe, and slipped into the bed beside me.
“It seems that it's impossible for me to keep my promises to you,” Drostan whispered as he pulled me close. “Not only do I find myself in the uncomfortable position of apologizing once more, but I'm also in your debt. Thank you, Riley.”
“You're welcome,” I whispered into his chest.
Drostan eased me back so that he could see my face.
“You saved my life,” he said tenderly. “No one has ever risked themselves for me.”
