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“Even if it isn’twhat?”
“Even if it is not thisplace.”
But was that what he’d originally meant tosay?
Rafe pulled back, his jaw flickering. He tore his gaze across the sky, sighing heavily as a strange kind of weariness seemed to settle across his shoulders. “We should return to the castle before it is noticed that we have gone. I imagine Taveon will not be happy when he findsout.”
“I thought you said that you didn’t care what Taveonthinks.”
“I do not care what he thinks about this, but that does not mean I want him to send guards out to track usdown.”
He was pulling away from her. Ever since she’d made her wish, he’d had that strange and tight look on his face. Bree frowned at him. He’d been the one who’d told her to do it in the first place. He’d been the one who had brought her here. And now that she’d done exactly what hewanted?
“Stop it,” she faintly said. If he was going to act like this, then she was going to call him out on it. “This isn’t fair of you,Rafe.”
“What isn’tfair?”
“You told me to make the damn wish.” She balled her hands into fists. “So, don’t get mad at me when I doit.”
“I know I told you to make the wish. And I truly do want what is best for you, Bree.” He let out a heavy sigh and stalked across the edge of the volcano. “But I can also be sad when you want the very thing that will take you away fromme.”
Bree’s heart pitched in herchest.
“If you do not want to be the Prince’s champion, then I agree that you should not have to participate in this battle.” His jaw flickered, and the muscles on his back trembled from the intensity of his emotions. “But I do not want you to leave, Bree. I wish you could stay. I wish you could be happy here. I know you cannot, but selfishly, I wish you could. Those are my damn wishes, and I hate that I wasted mine so many years ago or else I’d make another one right here and now if that meant you could find a way to stay here and behappy.”
Bree could barely breathe. She stared at the fae, at the pain in his eyes. How had she been so blind to this? All this while she’d felt this connection, this attraction to Rafe. She’d never realized that he felt the same way. And that he felt it sodeeply.
“What does this mean?” she breathed, tears springing into her eyes. “Doyou...?”
She couldn’t even voice it aloud, for fear she waswrong.
“Care about you?” He suddenly stopped before her, his eyes alight with a fire that could rival the lava of the volcano. “Yes. As mad as it is, yes. Far more than I would have ever expected. There is something about you that gets under my skin. Something about you that I cannot stop thinking about. When you are with me, my world feels complete. And when we are apart, I think of nothing else but the next time we willmeet.”
“Rafe,” Bree whispered and placed a hand on his chest. He tensed underneath her touch, but he didn’t pullaway.
“Please,” he said. “Please do not tell me you feel the same. Because I do not think I can bear it, knowing you will leave one daysoon.”
Bree’s heart felt torn in two. She wanted nothing more than to press up on her toes and brush her lips against his, and to feel those strong arms wrapped around her once again. She wanted to tell him not to worry. That she wasn’t going anywhere. But that would be a lie. As much as she wanted him, she knew she didn’t belong here. She was the Prince’s slave. Even if he hadn’t ordered her shot, she knew that was only because he hadn’t had the chance to do ithimself.
And she would not spend the rest of her life living for someone else, trapped by whatever whim he had next. Punished for speaking too loudly. Trapped. Hidden away. Forced to fight. And to kill. Surrounded by the fallen, those who wanted to see herdead.
That was not a life, at least not one that she wanted tolive.
Rafe saw all of those thoughts written in her eyes. His entire body shook as he stepped away from her, and a strange gulf of cold air rose up between them. She wanted to reach out, to pull him back, but she knew she couldn’t. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them if shedid.
“I guess that means your wish came true,” she whispered, unshed tears burning her eyes. “If you believe it will come true forme.”
Rafe nodded slowly, as if the very act caused him pain. “Oh, it came true. The realm gave me exactly what I thought Iwanted.”
Bree opened her mouth to ask him what he meant by that, but her words were cut short by the shock of arrows slicing through the air. One whizzed by her head, sucking several strands of her hair away from her head with the force of it. She gasped and jumped back, whirling with a tremblingheart.
“Rafe, what’shappening?”
But the raven shapeshifter didn’t answer. He leapt across the distance that separated them and spread his entire body across hers. His arms were wide on either side, his stance sure and strong. Bree realized a second too late what he wasdoing.
Rafe had become hershield.
“No!” she cried out just as another flurry of arrows were launched their way. Several sunk into his body with a horrifying crunch, and Raferoared.
