Oh, Kyol. Don’t you know I can feel your lie?
I sit up, help him do the same. He’s so much weaker than I am right now. The electrical current that was pumped into him . . . I’m thankful he survived it, but I wish it would have severed the bond. I don’t think he’d hurt as much if it were gone. Sure, he would be broken-hearted, but he could take his mind off me more easily.
I have to find a way to sever the bond. Kelia and Naito might have tried everything she could think of to end hers with Lorn, but that was a fae-to-fae connection. Mine is human-to-fae. Surely, that makes it weaker. I’ll try everything I can to break it. For now, though, we have to be okay.
“It’ll be easier once you move on and find someone else.” I’m not sure if my words are meant to assure me or him. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t look at me, but I can feel the doubt circling through him.
“You will find someone else, Kyol. I’m not the only girl for you.”
He doesn’t believe me. Not yet, at least.
“Jacia’s pretty,” I say, attempting to lighten the mood.
His gaze slides my way. “McKenzie.”
“So is Lena, but that would be a conflict of interest, I think. Plus, we hate each other.”
“McKenzie,” he scolds again, but my words have helped. There’s a smile in his stormy silver eyes. “We should tell them we’re awake.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “Probably.”
The door to our room opens. Paige steps inside, then does a double take when she sees us.
“They said you weren’t awake.” She grins and rushes forward, throwing her arms around me. Her hair is down, cut into sharp layers, and it’s bleached blond except for the ends, which have been dyed red, purple, blue, green. Basically, all the colors of the rainbow.
She grabs my shoulders, putting distance between us. “You are the absolute hardest person I’ve ever known to get in touch with.”
“It’s good to see you, too,” I tell her. “You’re doing okay?”
“Yeah,” she says, but her voice takes on an odd note. “I’m fine.”
“You know about the Sight serum? That it might not be fatal?”
“It’s not,” she says. “At least, not the serum I was injected with.”
I tilt my head to the side, studying her. “Lee?”
She shakes her head.
Damn. I don’t have much love for Lee, but I don’t want him to drop dead. And I don’t want anyone else who injected the serum to either.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her.
“He deserves it,” she says. It sounds like she’s forcing herself to believe that.
“Where is he?”
“At Naito’s. He and Lee are going through some information the vigilantes gave them. Harper and the others captured some fae a while back. They won’t say if they’re still alive or where they’re holding them, but Naito and Lee will figure it out.”
“They’ve captured fae?” Kyol asks.
Paige turns to him, smiles as if she’s glad to see him. That’s a change. She’s never liked Kyol. She always said it was because he strung me along.
“Yeah,” she says, then she nods toward me. “Thanks for taking care of her.”
“She’s taken care of me.” He squeezes my hand and stands. “I’ll go speak with Lena.”
“Good luck with that,” Paige says. At Kyol’s questioning look, she adds, “Her schedule is beyond full. Nobles and potential nobles and merchants and I don’t even know who are lined up and knocking on the palace doors.”
I frown. “How long were we out?”
“Just two weeks, but we killed and chased off the elari, and Hison immediately put Lena on the throne.”
“She’s queen?” Kyol asks at the same time I say, “Who’s ‘we’?”
“Yes,” she answers Kyol. “And ‘we’ is Caelar, Tylan, me, and the rest of the remnants.”
I look at Kyol. “We missed a lot.”
“Yep,” Paige says. “All the pomp and circumstance.”
Kyol’s presence suddenly softens, and a tension I didn’t realize was there eases out of the life-bond. It’s startling how different he feels. All that stress and responsibility he’s been carrying around, it impacted me despite the wall he tried to build between us. With it gone . . .
A gentle, contented smile spreads across Kyol’s normally stony face.
“She’s queen,” he says, and for the first time in months, there’s optimism in his voice.
THE war is over. We won. We survived.
My heart thunders in my chest, and there’s an energy, an excitement, under my skin that I need to share. Even my chaos lusters seem to sense it. They zigzag across my body, anticipating Aren’s touch as much as I am.
I have to find him. I have to hear him confirm that the violence is over, and we have forever to be together.
I head for his room, don’t find him there, then head for Lena’s apartments. Paige said she was busy, but maybe she’s overseeing his meals and his sleep. He didn’t get much of either because he was watching over me. It’s so damn sweet.
But I still can’t find him. I pass through the sculpture garden for the third time. Maybe he’s not in Corrist? He could be at Naito’s or—
“You looking for Aren?”
I turn and see Nick sitting on a stone bench.
“Hey,” I say in greeting. “What are you doing here?”
“Avoiding the police,” he says, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his knees. “They want to know why I fired a gun at my house and left a few bloodied swords lying on the ground.”
Oh, hell. “I’m so sorry, Nick.”
He shrugs. “I didn’t have to let you in.”
“But you did, and I appreciate it. I didn’t want—”
“It’s okay,” he cuts me off. “I knew what I was getting into. Plus, she’s happy.” He nods to the left. There’s Kynlee. She’s sitting on the edge of a raised flower bed with Lord Garon, her brother. They’re both grinning, and it’s easy to see the similarities in their smiles. She has a name-cord in her hair. It’s made of bright green and white stones and matches Garon’s perfectly.
“He’s been cool about everything,” Nick says. He watches them a moment before he shakes his head and straightens. “Anyway, I saw Aren at the training grounds a little while ago. He’s probably still there.”
I give him a smile. “Thanks, and I hope all of this works out,” I say, indicating Kynlee and Lord Garon. Then I all but run to the training ground.
It’s a strip of land that lies between the palace and the silver wall. This morning, it’s filled with swordsmen. They’re all wearing jaedric armor that’s engraved with Lena’s seal—the seventeen-branched abira tree. I try to spot Aren, try to hear his voice but the clinks of the practice swords are a steady hum in my ears.
Maybe he isn’t here. Maybe he’s already left. Maybe—
“McKenzie!” Aren sweeps me into his arms before I’m able to turn. My feet come off the ground as he spins me, and I hold him tight, clinging to him.
“Nalkim-shom,” he whispers as he sets my feet back on the ground. He breathes out a thank-you to the Sidhe, then holds me half an arm’s length away.
My heart flips. Lena must have healed him at some point. His sharp cheekbones and strong jaw are no longer bruised and swollen, and his posture is relaxed. He’s not tense and hunched in pain.
Her magic didn’t do anything for his hair, though. It’s still a disheveled mess.
A sexy, disheveled mess. God, I love him.
I start to move closer, but a pair of swordsmen swing their swords a little too close.