Page 79 of Renegade Kingdom
I wanted to argue. But he was right. I could feel it in every cell of my body. The exhaustion was absolute, overwhelming, impossible to fight.
“Trust us,” Tank continued, as he carried me further away from the others. “Trust that we’ll all do what needs to be done. You’ve carried us this far. Let us carry you for a while.”
I laid my head against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. He was warm. Safe. Real. Everything I needed him to be.
“Okay,” I whispered.
And for the first time since this whole nightmare began, I let go.
I fell asleep in Tank’s arms, feeling impossibly, miraculously safe. Tomorrow, there would be challenges. Tomorrow, I would meet my mother, and then the real battle would begin.
But tonight, I could rest.
Tonight, I was home.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Tank
She was stirring.
I’d stayed awake through the night, ignoring the ache in my ribs where that branch had caught me. The pain was a distant thing, manageable, nothing compared to the contentment that filled me as I watched her sleep. The bear rumbled his agreement, pleased that our mate was safe, pleased that she was resting, pleased that for once we could be what she needed instead of what the situation demanded.
She’d been so drained that she’d barely moved for hours. Her breathing slow and deep, her face relaxed in a way I rarely saw when she was awake. The worry lines that had become permanent fixtures between her brows had smoothed out. The tension that she carried in her shoulders, in her jaw, in the set of her spine, had finally eased. In sleep, she looked younger. Softer. Like the girl she might have been if the world hadn’t demanded she become a queen.
I’d held her the entire time. Hadn’t wanted to put her down, hadn’t wanted to break the contact that felt so essential to both of us. Even injured, even exhausted, holding her felt moreright than anything else I’d ever done. The bear rumbled in contentment every time she shifted closer, every time her fingers curled tighter in my shirt, every time she made one of those small, trusting sounds in her sleep.
This was what I was made for.
Not the fighting, though I was good at that. Not the berserker rage that lurked in the depths of my soul, even though that had its uses. This. Protecting her when she needed someone she could trust to do that. Being the shelter she could rest in when the storm became too much. Being strong so that she could be soft, even if just for a little while.
The room Fizzle had led us to was simple but comfortable. A large bed with soft sheets that seemed to be made of something between silk and cloud. Warm light filtered through windows that looked out on something I couldn’t quite identify. Something in between sky and forest. A swirl of colors that shifted and changed the longer you looked at them. The Fifth Court was a strange place, neither fully real nor fully dream, and I’d stopped trying to make sense of it hours ago.
Her eyelids fluttered. Her breathing changed, shifting from the deep rhythm of sleep to something lighter, more aware. And then her eyes opened, those beautiful brown and gold eyes that made something in my chest ache every time they looked at me.
“Hey,” I said softly, brushing a strand of hair from her face.
She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she snuggled closer, pressing her face into my chest with a small sound of contentment that the bear absolutely preened at. She fit so perfectly in my arms. Like she’d been made to be there. Like we’d been made to be together.
“We should just stay in bed,” she murmured against my shirt. “Ignore the world for a while. Pretend it’s just us.”
I smiled, though she couldn’t see it. “Is that what you want?”
“This almost feels like normal life.” Her voice was wistful, dreamy, still half-caught in sleep. “For a moment, I just want to pretend. That the outside world doesn’t exist. That all the problems are waiting for someone else for a change. That we’re just... two people. In love. Without the weight of an entire realm on our shoulders.”
I tightened my arms around her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. The scent of her filled my nose, familiar and perfect, and I felt something in my chest ease. “Then you can stay here as long as you want. I’ll fight off anyone who tries to interrupt us.”
She laughed softly. “My hero.”
“Always.”
She tilted her head back to look at me, and I could see that she did feel better. The exhaustion was still there, lurking at the edges, but the desperate depletion of the night before had faded. Six hours of sleep had done what we’d all hoped it would.
“How long was I out?” she asked.
“Six hours. Give or take.”
She started to push herself up, that determined look coming into her eyes, but I tightened my grip, holding her in place.
