AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He arose, flipping his hair back away from his face, “It calms me,” he said, “When I can’t sleep, it’s soothing to be outdoors.”
I hurried to cover the exposed flesh of my breasts, tying the lace at my collar tighter with shaking fingers.
Tiernan only then seemed to notice my lack of attire, and averted his gaze, “Are you alright, majesty?”
I rolled my eyes at him.Does itlooklike I’m alright? No. I couldn’t sleep and was propelled into the Great Hall where I hallucinated hearing voices and was nearly attacked only to be locked in a dark passageway and finally find my out only to be assaulted by you!“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding,” he said, coming near.
I took a step back in response.
“I won’t hurt you,” he said, his voice gentle, as though speaking to a cornered mutt. He pulled a length of cloth from the pocket of his trousers, “Let me wrap it for you. And then we’ll get you back to your chambers.”
Now that he’d drawn attention to it, I could feel the sting on my right knee, throbbing with each rapid beat of my heart. It would heal fast, as wounds did once the transformation from mortal to immortal was complete.
“Why are you helping me?”
“Why not? We’re alone out here, who else is there to help you? Or would you not do the same for someone you saw in distress?”
I couldn’t help it, I blurted, “Don’t you despise the Night Court? Isn’t that—I don’t know, like bred into you?”
He chuckled, and the sound pulled at something inside my chest. When he came forward again, I didn’t move away. He knelt in front of me, tearing the cloth into two pieces to wrap around my wound. “There’s been tension between our two courts for centuries—millennia actually, since the Mad King divided the land, but no, it isn’tbredinto us. Though the older of the Fae in my court uphold that you lot are all a scheming, selfish sort of folk and are not to be trusted.”
“And you?” I asked, wincing as he secured the makeshift bandage into place with a tight knot.
He rose to my eye level, and I averted my gaze, so the darkness could hide the roiling colors of my iris’. “I think there is good and bad in everyone—and we should not uphold the prejudices of our ancestors.”
“Thank you,” I said, gesturing to my now bandaged knee.
He bowed, “You’re welcome.”
He cocked his head, and I realized he was staring into my eyes, “Your eyes, they’re different.”
I turned away, and he took my arm, spinning me back around to face him. I parted my lips to shout at him and found his bright green ones not more than an inch from my own. “They’re beautiful. They seem brighter in the moonlight.”
My heart sped. There was wonder in his gaze, and I had to work to calm my erratic pulse.
How could something so beautiful be so dangerous?
I was about to tell him to let go of me, IswearI was, when a shadow fell upon us. The sound of beating wings was audible for a mere second before the Draconian barreled into Tiernan, sending him careening into the palace walls.
“Kade!” I shouted, thinking it to be him, but it was Finn who turned, eyes ringed with glowing yellow. “Stop!” I shouted at him before he could charge Tiernan again.
He came toward me, wings spread wide, his features softening and footfalls slowing when he beheld my ragged appearance. “Why are you alone? Did he hurt you?” Finn examined me for damage, a blush crawling up his neck.
I took his outstretched hand into my own, hoping to reassure him, “I’m alright. Tiernan found me, he—well he was helping me.” I thought it wise to leave out the part where he tackled me first.
Finn turned to where Tiernan was lifting himself from the ground. The ease with which he stood made it appear as though the Draconian had merely shoved him. But the buckling stone behind him told the truth.
Finn retracted his wings, “I thought—”
Tiernan waved off his attempt at an apology, “No harm done. I would have thought the same.”
Clasping Finn’s hand, I led the warrior away, “Thank you,” I called back to Tiernan. “And you can stay here at court as long as you like.”
Chapter Fifteen
Alaric was furious the next morning. Finn had stayed with me throughout the rest of the night after some harsh words exchanged with a very ashamed Thana.
