Her arms dropped away from her chest as she shifted toward him. He tried—and failed—to keep his gaze on her face. “How does it feel? The magic?”
Lorcan thought for a moment. “It just feels...right. Like the blood in my veins and the air in my lungs. In truth, it’s hard to remember how it felt to live so long without it.”
She nodded. “You could have told me, you know. It was a shock, but it isn’t as though I don’t understand what it feels like to be apart from everyone else.”
“I couldn’t have, Reyna,” he said. “It was too big of a risk. Prince Thane does know where I came from, but no one else does, especially not the High Queen. She wouldn’t be as understanding as her son. She is venomous toward shadow fae, and for good reason. The courtiers would call for my head, and Sloane, that old bastard...” He shook his head. “He’s the worst of them.”
“The worst of them?” Reyna arched her brow. “Don’t tell me the esteemed warrior despises the entire court.”
He chuckled. “There are many terrible people inside of the Air Court. There are just as many good. Thane, for one...”
He fell silent, frowning. His mark burned at his words. Thane was not vicious, evil, or cruel. He sometimes made poor choices, but didn’t they all? Fae were no better than humans in most regards. They liked to think they were, but they were wrong.
A strange expression flickered across Reyna’s face at the mention of the prince. He could not blame her. She was to marry Thane, someday very soon. In several months’ time, she would be a wedded female. And she had just given herself to another male.
Lorcan had tried to hold himself back, but his need for her had been too great. When she’d stared into his soul with her silvery eyes, he’d had no chance. He had caved to his carnal desires, thrusting himself deep inside of her. She had felt like hot silk around his cock. If he could turn back time and undo it all, he wouldn’t.
“The rains have let up,” she whispered. “We should probably return before the Air Court sends out another band of fighters to get slaughtered.”
Damn the rains. Only a light drizzle that was more like a mist had settled over the grasslands, creating a thick fog that blocked the distant hills from view. It would be difficult to find their way back, but Reyna was right. They needed to return to the castle to warn the others, before the wood fae knocked down the city gates for war.
Reyna slipped back into her damp clothes, and Lorcan followed suit. They had dried slightly in the night, but only just. The cold material clung to his skin, sending a chill deep into his bones. What he would give to toss them off again, and hide away in this tiny cave with Reyna for as long as they could live.
“I won’t tell anyone,” she said just as Lorcan turned to duck out of the cave. “Everyone has secrets, and it isn’t my place to reveal yours to the world.”
That caused Lorcan to pause, just for a moment. Guilt clouded his mind. Should he tell her everything? He hated hiding the worst of it from her. Maybe she would hate him forever, but...
He opened his mouth to try to find the words but was stopped short by her sudden gasp. Lips parted, she pushed out of the cave and gazed around the grasslands. He followed suit, following the line of her eyes.
A new chill swept across his body. All around them, the wheat had charred. Where the golden stalks had swayed beneath an ever-present breeze, there was nothing but piles of black ash. He glanced at Reyna. Her hand was at her throat, and her face had gone grey. No longer did the scent of wheat curl around them. It had been replaced by the pungent aroma of soot.
“The Ruin,” she whispered. “It was here.”
44
Thane
Lorcan and Reyna stood before him, looking very much the worse for wear. Reyna’s silver hair was soaked through and plastered to her ashen face. Her clothes were damp, as were Lorcan’s. Water splattered onto his chamber’s stone floor. Black soot clung to their matching leather boots. Reyna’s owl had flown in through his window moments after her arrival, and the poor thing now perched on her shoulder, rubbing his curved orange beak against Reyna’s cheek.
Reyna and Lorcan had come in through the hidden tunnels beneath the castle to find Thane stewing in his study. As he had prepared the day before to parley with the Wood Court, his own mother had sent troops first. Every warrior she sent had died in the fight, save one, who had reported back to the castle. He had told Thane that his betrothed and his warrior had somehow escaped from their cage, but they could not be found.
Now, they stood before him, with matching chagrined expressions.
“Well, first, I am glad to see you are both alive.” He sucked a deep breath in through flared nostrils. “However, I must ask. Whose idea was it to run off to confront the wood fae without informing me first?”
“Mine,” Reyna said quietly, eyes downcast. “Lorcan attempted to stop me.”
“He must not have attempted very hard,” he said in a snap, pounding a fist against his desk as he stood. “Lorcan is larger than you and far stronger. If he had followed orders properly, he would have dragged you back to the castle, kicking and screaming if he had to.”
Reyna lifted her gaze, her eyes flashing. “It isn’t his fault. I didn’t tell him what I was doing until after we got captured.”
Of course she hadn’t.
“I see.” His gaze turned toward his warrior, the one he had trusted above all else, the one who had failed him this time. While he normally appeared strong, firm, and unruffled, Lorcan now looked as though he’d been rolling around in the dirt. “What is your response, Lorcan?”
“You are right, of course. I should have dragged her back as soon as I saw her sneaking out of the castle. I did not. And, for that, the fault lies with me.”
With a frown, Thane regarded them both. Each taking the blame for the other’s actions. He could distinctly remember a time when they hated each other. They could scarcely get through a day without hurling insults. How quickly things could change. However, despite his annoyance, he could not help but soften, just a bit. He was glad they had finally formed a friendship. They both meant a great deal to him.
