Phoebus blinks up at me. “Really?”
“Yes, really.”
He rolls himself into a sitting position and rubs his palms. “Oh, the favor Syb will owe me.”
“Favor?”
“She bet me you’d never come out of hiding.”
“I’m not hiding.”
“Right, you’re sulking.”
“I’m not sulking.”
Phoebus grins.
“Shall I remind you that friends don’t take pleasure in their friend’s melancholy?”
He scoots off the bed and plods over to my side, extending his hand. “You do realize that your man-faced harpy is not evil incarnate.”
“Don’t you dare take his side! He locked me up. He lied to me. Heusedme.” I leave out the part of me using the Crow King first. I’ve yet to explain the prophecy I gobbled up to my friends.
If it doesn’t come up, why share it?
Thinking about the Fae Prince I made king simmers my insides. I may presently loathe the Sky King more than the Earth King, but I’m no fan of Dante Regio who, after everything I did for him, abandoned me.
Dante doesn’t deserve a gram of my respect. As for my love, he lost that the day he called me a traitor and looked upon me as though I were some demon spawn hungering for Fae blood.
I clap Phoebus’s hand with a little more vigor than necessary. “I hate men.” At his dramatic gasp, I add, “Except you.”
He pretends to wipe his brow on his apple-green shirtsleeve. “You had me worried there for a minute.”
“As long as you don’t lock me in a stone palace or leave me behind, I will love you forever.”
His throat dips. “You know that if I could, I’d take you with me.”
I steal my hand from his. “Please, Pheebs. I beg you, don’t leave me here.Please.” My voice breaks even though my eyes stay dry.
He sighs, before gathering me into a hug. “Fine. I won’t. I’ll stay as long as you stay.”
“That’s not—”
“—what you want. I know. But it’s the best I can do if I care to keep my limbs attached to my body, which I do.”
“They’d regenerate.”
“Not if an iron beak or talon pries them off.”
I pull away, spine arching to peer up into his face. “Did Lorcan or some other Crow threaten you?”
“Not me, specifically.”
I grit my teeth.
“Look, I think you’d be doing yourself a great disservice by leaving. I hear there’s much unrest in the capital. Most Fae are unhappy that Marco’s dead and that the Crows have returned.”
I flick my gaze toward the windows that give onto the ocean and the island of Shabbe beyond. I’ve no doubt making me face the pink rock is part of Lorcan’s punishment, the same way keeping me in the room contiguous to his is.
