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Rose pulled on her robe. “Send him up.”

“Are you sure you’re well enough for visitors?”

She moved into me and wrapped her arms around my waist. “I’m okay, Ronan. A little sore and tired, but I’m fine.”

We both knew that wasn’t the truth. Her wings had been sliced from her body. She hadn’t had them long, but they’d become a part of her. The trauma and the brutality of the act would take a long time to recover from. “We’ll get through this,” I said, looking into her beautiful eyes.

She looked up at me, her own eyes glossy, a sadness in them that had been there since she woke up at the colony bandaged and weak. She tightened her arms around me. “As long as I have you, I can get through anything.”

I could tell she was trying to convince herself as much as me.

There was a light tap on the door and we turned.

“Rose, Ronan,” Daire said, inclining his head.

Rose smiled. “Hey, Daire.”

The male walked into the room. “You’re looking much better today.”

“I feel better,” she said.

I stopped myself from telling him to make it quick, that she was tired and needed her rest. Rose had endured more than enough of her life feeling weak in front of others, and I wasn’t going to do that to her now. So when she leaned into me, I slid my arm around her, holding her up, giving her the support she needed, and ignored the urge to scoop her up and put her back into bed.

“I have something I need to discuss with you.”

“I guessed as much,” Rose said.

“You’re the rightful queen of our colony, Rose, and I was hoping we could talk about when you’ll be ready to come home.”

Rose stilled and so did I. “You want me, a bat shifter without wings, to live at the colony? Rule over your people, people who don’t know me and have no reason to trust me?”

“They’ll learn to trust you,” he said. “You’ll regain your wings, so I see no reason—”

“What?”

“They’ll learn to trust you.”

“No. The part…about my wings.”

“They’ll grow back?” Daire asked.

“What?” she said again.

Daire frowned. “I thought you knew.”

She trembled against me, her relief raw and palpable. “How would I know that? I know nothing about the colony or your people.”

“I assume your wounds aren’t healing?”

“No, they’re not.”

“That’s because your new wings are regenerating. You’re a queen, Rose. You’re powerful, special, chosen by a higher power to lead us, which is why you have that ability. We need our queen. We’ve been without one too fucking long.”

Rose was quiet for several seconds. “What will happen if I don’t? If I refuse?”

He frowned. “Without Kefir and his bargain, and the absence of a queen, a new one will eventually be created. But that could be years.”

“Can the current one appoint someone else to lead until that happens?”