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“And you think the queen can help me?” I ask. I have about a million questions I want the answers to, but that one seems to be the most important. If she can help me, I need to focus on getting to her and getting back home to the guys.
“I think if anyone could, it’s her. She’s one of the most powerful in generations and, as far as I know, one of very few who knows anything about the portals the wisps open and how they work.” His eyes dart away as he talks, and I get the feeling that what he just said isn’t exactly the truth, or maybe something about the portals makes him uncomfortable.
Either way, I don’t push. I’d like to think if he could help me, he would, but at the end of the day, I don’t really know him, the same way I don’t know this place. For all I know, traveling through the portals might be frowned upon; hell, he might get in trouble just having me here, and that’s the last thing I want.
“Okay, well, I guess I need to go find this queen, huh?” I try to sound excited, but even I hear the hint of anxiety in my voice. It’s not as if I have much experience with queens or anything else here. All I need is to piss her off and have her demand I lose my head or whatever it is queens do as punishment.
Crap, I’m totally going to die here.
“Well, thankfully, the queen lives in the castle, so finding her isn’t the problem.”
“But there is a problem, though, isn’t there?” I ask, hearing what he didn’t say. He didn’t say there was no problem, only that finding her wasn’t the problem.
Fantastic.
“Yes and no,” he says, but his face doesn’t agree. If I had to guess, it’s going to be another thing I really don’t like.
“Well, spit it out,” I press when he doesn’t go on.
“Ryker?” I call his name, but still, he says nothing, simply staring off in front of him.
“Hey, Ryker!” I say louder, reaching out to shake his shoulder.
He snaps back as if I’ve pulled him from a trance, flinching away from me, his breathing heavy and eyes frantic.
“Ryker?” I whisper, afraid to startle him again but needing to know he’s okay.
His eyes snap up to meet mine, and my breath catches at the unmistakable look of panic that fills his eyes. I’m speechless, unsure what caused this sudden change, and uncertain if I even want to know what could have him this terrified. This is the same man who took a stranger into his house without fear and very confidently told me he was the scariest thing in the dark woods not two nights ago.
I watch as he runs a hand through his hair, his eyes darting around the room as if looking for something. A moment later, he turns back to me, looking me over and swallowing hard enough that I can see his throat work.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, unable to remain quiet. As much as I might not want to know, I need to. He’s starting to freak me out.
Instead of answering, he reaches out and grabs my wrist, pulling me from the bed before he scoops me up in his arms bridal style and jumps down to the main floor. It happens so fast I don’t even have a chance to freak out before he sets me down and moves to put his shoes on.
I don’t have shoes, but he grabs a random pair from near the coat rack and shoves them in my arms before pulling on his cloak.
“Ryker, seriously, what’s wrong?” I ask as I slip on the shoes. They’re too big, but if we’re leaving, I’d much prefer that to being barefoot again.
“We have to go,” he says before running into the kitchen.
I hear a few bangs and what sounds like glass breaking, and I rush to follow him. He moves around the kitchen like a tornado, destroying everything in his wake as he pulls spices from the shelf and throws things into the cauldron too fast for me to even see what they are.
“I thought you said we needed to leave?”
I’m confused as to why he would choose to cook right now when he was just so intent on us leaving.
His head pops up, and he gives me a nod when he sees I’ve got the shoes on.
“We do. We are.” He says so fast his words are almost jumbled. As quickly as he came storming in here, he’s leaving again, snagging my arm as he passes and pulling me behind him out the front door and into the forest.
Iblink slowly, trying to remember what happened. I don’t recall going to bed last night. The blinding light above makes my eyes water, and I roll away in an attempt to hide from it, only to roll into something solid beside me.
Serena?
She’s the only one who ever shares a bed with me, but that doesn’t feel right.
It takes a second for my eyes to adjust, and I find myself staring at Lyle, who lies next to me.
