Shifting back, he held his arm across my throat. “Enough.”
I stilled under the command, all the fight draining out of me, leaving me panting up at him, limp.
“Shift back,” he murmured, letting go of me and sitting back on the ground.
I did, but rather than join him, I stayed on my back looking up at the sky, which was a lot darker than when we’d come out here.
I didn’t apologise because I wasn’t sorry.
He wouldn’t expect me to either. He knew what I needed. It was why he’d brought me out here in the first place.
“He has a plan,” Rys said after a while.
I tensed, but it was easier this time to keep my temper, exhausted as I was. “I doubt it’ll make me feel better.”
Rys huffed. “Probably not. But I’m telling you anyway because we need to be ready.”
“I’m listening.”
So Rys explained in detail how Axel planned to lure Vai Zh’alek out of hiding, assuming he was the one Syl had sensed watching in the forest. Rys said Dathal thought he was, and I knew he had some fae sixth sense about that sort of stuff, so I believed him. In theory it wasn’t a bad idea if the stones worked the way Rys said they did, but I still hated it.
“He has my number on speed dial,” Rys said. “The second that stone glows blue, he’ll call me and we’ll go.”
I glanced at him, sat naked on the grass, his clothes in ruins around us, and immediately sat up looking around. “Where’s your phone now?” I scanned the ground, fuck it could be anywhere.
Rys’s hand landed on my arm. “Syl has it.”
“What?”
“I gave my phone to Syl when I heard you get up. I don’t plan on going far for the next week or so, but my phone will remain here with someone at all times.”
With me.
I planned on sitting by Rys’s phone and never moving until Axel’s name lit up the screen.
Rys snorted like he’d read my mind, and that got me thinking. “Did he tell you everything?”
“Axel?”
I nodded.
“Yes.”
I tipped my head back, gazing up at the sky and trying not to get angry all over again. “I want to kill Zh’alek.”
“Me too.” Rys nudged me with his shoulder. “Can we go back inside now, or do you want to go again?”
I huffed. “I’m good for now.” Not sure how long that would last. The prospect of staying here all night while Axel was alone in that house wasn’t a pleasant one. I didn’t care that he had Nick’s glowing stone.
I want to be there.
“Come on.” Rys stood and held out a hand for me. “I need to fill the others in when they wake up.”
* * *
Rys’s order tostay at the house that night was the only thing that kept me from tearing through the forest to check on Axel.
I barely slept, waiting for Axel to ring Rys’s phone.
