"Ellie!"
"What?” She shrugs, completely unrepentant.
To my surprise, Logan actually huffs and hauls his furry ass out of the tent—even if he moves slow as molasses to cover thefew feet of difference. The canvas flap settles behind him with a soft whisper, leaving us alone for the first time since I woke up. I know that privacy is only an illusion when walls are made of canvas, but Ellie drops her voice so low that even I can barely make out the words.
"This bond…” she says carefully. “Why did the triad do it? Because deep down they truly care about you so much that they are willing to endanger their own lives for yours? Or because they have use for you, and it’s that use they are willing to take the risk for?”
I wince, because that's the question I've been asking myself as well, each time coming up with nothing but a stomach twisted in knots. Kai, Kyrian and Logan chained themselves to me. But they also chained me to them. I don’t know which one truly drove their actions.
"Which do you want it to be?" Ellie asks.
“No one wants to be used.”
She gives me a reproaching look. “That’s not an answer, Ro. Of course no one wants to be used. But the alternative isn’t without complications.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I’d not trust my assessment of the triad’s intentions, even if IthoughtI knew what they were about.”
The admission tastes bitter. "I mean, I truly believed they cared about me back in the Spire—right up until they turned out to be fae agents and kidnapped me. Then the fake engagement. The real sex. The number of times this has gone back and forth is giving me whiplash.”
And that’s before even touching Logan's confession about me being his mate. What do you do when someone claims you're their other half, but only because some primal wolf instinct decided it for him?
I consider telling Ellie about it, but the words won't come. Not yet. Because they bring us right back to square one—Logan’s mating bond is a connection forged of compulsion. Just like the sex we had under the stars.
Biology wearing the mask of destiny.
"Life gets a great deal more complicated if there is love involved," Ellie says quietly, watching my face with those too-perceptive green eyes. "In either direction. So is there? Love, I mean. In either direction."
My chest aches where it tightens, the three lay lines inside me pulsing with a connective magic that’s keeping my heart beating. The bonds hum with warmth and life. With something that tastes suspiciously of contentment. But contentment isn't love. “No.”
“Good.” Ellie tips her head in thought, reminding me of Logan. Which only makes me ache more.
“Good?” I echo, aware of the voices approaching the tent outside. The bonds inside me brighten with recognition. Kai's clipped authority. Kyrian's melodic accent. Even without seeing them, I know they're coming.
Ellie glances toward the tent flap, then back to me.
“Look,” she speaks quickly now. “Eryndor is coming. For me, I’m staying as far away from that army as I can. I became a traitor the moment I realized that the only thing Eryndor still wanted me for is so the Commandant could whip me to death as an example for others.” Her voice drops even lower, barely audible. "But for you, if your loyalties are truly with the queen and the humans, the Commandant’s assault will be the best chance of getting home you're likely to see. Don’t waste it. And don't underestimate what the fae are willing to do to ensure you keep doing their bidding."
Chapter 25
Rowan
The scent of stew and fresh bread announces the fae’s arrival a moment before the tent flap whispers open to let in the males, Autumn, and a tall female fae with an echoing resemblance to Kai. The first pinpricks of rain on the canvas follow them though, the needle like rain sneaking inside the open flap. Ellie gives a conspiratory giggle and ogles Kai’s body as if his physique — and not my pending escape back to Eryndor—had been the subject of our discussion.
“Brought some food.” Logan says, dropping himself and a large tray beside me. I wonder why he's condescended to switch back into fae form but suspect it has something to do with the maps Kyrian carries and the tense expression on everyone's faces. The kind people wear when preparing for battle. “What do you think, Rabbit? Can you eat something?”
I eye the clay bowl of venison stew with chunks of root vegetables bobbing in dark gravy, and a half-loaf of crusty bread still warm enough to steam when Logan tears it open. It’s rich and savory and utterly mundane in the best possible way.
My stomach growls with complete lack of dignity. In the distance thunder echoes against the trees and the sound of pattering rain picks up its pace.
"Told you she'd be hungry," says Logan.
"Actually, it was Autumn who said that," the tall fae says, pulling her mane of orange hair back behind her ears.
"But I believed her,” says Logan. “It's almost the same."
"No, it's actually not the same at all."
Autumn clears her throat with the kind of delicate authority that makes everyone shut up. "Rowan, allow me to introduce Auri, Kai's twin sister. Auri, Rowan."
