Page 99 of Ruin of Revenants

At last, Archer stepped forward the smallest bit, his hands sliding gently, slowly, around my waist. When I didn’t pull away, he turned me, gently avoiding my shackles and tugging me against him so that my back was pressed to his chest. I could feel the pounding of his heart, matching the rhythm of mine.

Swallowing thickly, I let my head fall back against his shoulder.

“Thank you for helping me with my curse,” he whispered at last, his breath feathering against my cheek. “It’s usually despair that consumes me, but the panic has started becoming more frequent too.”

There was pain in the admission—I could feel his shame—but I appreciated his vulnerability in sharing that with me. Appreciated his gratitude, even if my acts of healing were still self-serving in that they helped give me relief as well.

Most of all, though I refused to admit it aloud, I was thankful to just be held. Other than Mama’s embraces, which already felt distant, I had had little comfort in the touch of a fellow fae. I’d had nothing but Onyx’s affectionate cuddles and Archer’s and my forced interactions. It wasn’t until this moment that I realized how starved for simple touch I had become.

As swiftly as he’d embraced me, Archer dropped his arms and stepped backward. The space between us could have been miles, the absence of his warmth almost painful. This is good, I admonished myself. He isn’t supposed to be hugging you like he cares. You don’t need to pretend to be happy anymore. The farce is over. “Can you…can you change?” he asked awkwardly.

“I might have to sleep in this tunic,” I said. “I can’t lift my arms far.” To illustrate my point, I lifted them a little, the metal clinking.

“I could get Lily?” Archer suggested. “That’s what I should have done…earlier.” He laughed, the sound once again awkward, at odds with the charming prince I knew. “I don’t want you to feel more uncomfortable than you already are.”

“I want to bathe after the dungeons,” I said longingly, gazing at the nearby tub.

“That’s it.” Archer started striding away. “I’m making the guards see reason and let you bathe. We aren’t barbarians. Even they—and Father, if he were here—should remember that.”

There was a long, heated discussion until a compromise was found: the female guard and Lily would stay with me while I bathed, shackle-free. With the presence of the guard, Lily and I couldn’t speak as freely, but she tried to act as if the sullen female wasn’t standing against the wall, arms crossed and eyes glaring at us the entire time.

“Don’t try anything with your fire demon magic,” the guard snapped at me as she’d removed my shackles, “or I’ll kill you and her.” To illustrate her point, she’d lifted a forget-me-not infused blade, pointing it toward Lily.

Gritting my teeth, I’d let the relief from my temporary reprieve of the shackles rush through me. “I won’t.”

For those brief moments as I stripped out of my clothes and stepped into the tub, I remembered my magic and felt my fire in my chest. I longed to unleash it. Or to curse the consequences and transform into phoenix form.

But even if I could escape, I couldn’t get far without Archer, and I refused to risk him—or Owen or Lily. As soon as I was finished and dressed in my fresh nightgown, the guard marched over, my shackles in her gloved hands, and clamped my blistered wrists back in them.

The pain slammed into me like a punch, sucking the air from my lungs. I couldn’t quite stop the tears from pooling in my eyes.

Lily scowled, pulling me into a crushing embrace, but the guard stalked off, satisfied that I was no longer a threat. “We’re going to get you home,” Lily whispered in my ear fiercely. “I promise. Once the bond is broken and you’re safe to be away from Archer.”

I wanted to say more, how I regretted that we couldn’t spend more time together or how I wanted to be able to help them fight the battle for Emberglade too, but she was already slipping away. “We need rest before we go on,” she added.

“Are you stuck with the guards?”

Lily’s cheeks pinked. “They have a room to themselves. I…uh. Well, Owen didn’t want me trapped with any of them, and there weren’t enough rooms for me to have my own. And since Archer insisted on being close to you…”

I raised my eyebrows. Ah. Something interesting to distract me from my pain.

“It’s just a friendly gesture,” she added hastily, unable to hide the wistfulness in her eyes. “And even if it meant anything—which it doesn’t—it can’t lead to anything, so it hardly matters.”

Under different circumstances, I’d have teased her, but knowing her pain, I didn’t dare. “I’m glad he’s watching out for you,” I said instead.

“Goodnight, Isa.” Lily squeezed my hand, a thousand unspoken thanks and regrets shared in the small smile she offered me.

And then she was gone, weaving out of my shared room with Archer and leaving me to reenter our bedroom. Archer was in a pair of loose pants and nothing else. A wave of worry washed over me.

“Where is your shirt?” I demanded, eyes wide as I dragged them away from the muscled planes of his chest.

“Oh, is it missing?” Archer smirked, pulling back the blanket and settling into the bed. Even when he tugged the bedclothes over himself, they didn’t cover enough of his chest. His gaze scanned me from head to toe where I hovered in the washroom’s doorway, suddenly thinking the floor sounded preferable to the bed. “If you aren’t covering those marvelous legs while you sleep, why would I wear a shirt? It’s too hot, and this is how I sleep comfortably.”

Stifling a groan, I pushed off the entryway and forced myself over to the bed, pretending like I slept next to a half-clothed Archer every night. My only comfort was that I could still feel the anxiety rolling off Archer in waves, assuring me that his unaffected air was all for show.

Lying back on my own pillow, I ensured there was enough distance to keep us from touching as I tugged my half of the blanket over myself. Rolling onto my side so my back was to Archer, I closed my eyes and tried to think of anything other than the maddening prince in bed with me.

“Goodnight, Archer.” Even though it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to say. I wanted to ask him if he’d miss me when I was gone, if he’d feel the absence of our bond. As unwanted as it had once been, it had become a comfort to sense his emotions, to know I could speak into his mind.