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“Alright. I’ll do it.” Eisley jerked her head in a nod.
It killed me not to be at Nissa’s side while she was in pain, but there was no alternative. I couldn’t risk her life again for my own desires.
“I’ll follow the Beast’s scent trail to make sure he’s gone,” Ravv said, his jaw tight as he gripped a shaking Laeli even tighter.
I agreed.
He asked one of his most trusted fae, Elwynne, to stay with Laeli. After she agreed, he whispered something to his mate, and her flames slowly receded. When they were gone completely, her eyes looked haunted and she was still shaking badly, clearly traumatized.
I lifted my female carefully up to Bright’s back, and Bright slipped out with Eisley and Sharp.
Ravv handed his mate to Elwynne, and both women left on the back of her bonded idorr.
A long, slow breath escaped me.
The other king looked at me and nodded.
I nodded back.
It was all the acknowledgement either of us were ready to give at the moment. Merely fighting together was a difficult task, considering all of the pain we’d caused each other over the centuries. But in this situation, we were all united in being completely at the mercy of our bonds.
Both the bonds we despised that connected us to the assassins… and the ones we were still trying to figure out with the humans.
Death and I ran two circles around our city’s perimeter, then snaked our way through the bridges and paths. We were both quiet, though there was no anger between us, only solemn contemplation.
Ultimately, I had allowed my little human to be in that cage. I had gone with the lie that we brought the humans back for that event alone, and there was no one to blame but me.
The weight of responsibility for that choice was heavy on my shoulders. As was the weight of her health, which I’d never questioned until the truth of it was before my eyes.
“You saw her ribs?”Death asked me as we began another loop.
“I did.”
I’d never seen her bare before, or in anything that showed her abdomen. And she was the same size as Eisley, so I’d assumed she was healthy.
I’d been trying to keep my distance to avoid getting her murdered… and I’d hurt her in doing so.
Veil, I’dstarvedher.
“You didn’t starve her. She’s eaten every meal with you,”Death said as if reading my mind.“She chose not to tell you because she wanted you to ask. The female wants to be chased, but you’ve kept her at an arm’s length for her safety.”We’d known each other long enough that he didn’t need to hear my thoughts to know what I was thinking most of the time.
“She needed more food. I should’ve realized there was a reason for her hunger,”I said bitterly.
My father would’ve noticed immediately if my mother wasn’t eating enough or if she had seemed hungrier than normal. He had noticed everything about her.
Then again, they had been mated for a long time before they had me.
Regardless, I was at fault.
Completely and utterly at fault.
“You were trying not to let yourself feel anything for her. A useless feat, as I said from the beginning. All creatures are meant to take mates,”Death said.
“She’ll never forgive me for this.”
“Perhaps not. But if you had known, you would’ve fed her. A fact she is doubtlessly aware of. She was waiting for you to pay attention to her.”
I grimaced.“After this, she’s going to beg me to ignore her again.”
