Page 37 of Fae Unleashed
My breath hitched in anticipation. I tried to swallow the sound. I couldn’t believe Rhoan was finally opening up to me.
“You shouldn’t have to know any of this. I wish you could trust me.” He ran knuckle along my cheek.
I lifted my head, cupped his cheek in my palm, and said, “You first.”
Rhoan laughed, though the sound was strained. “I need a drink.”
He snaked an arm around my lower back and twisted us. The bright bedroom vanished, and the dark coolness of an underground room whispered along my skin. I blinked as my eyes adjusted.
Rhoan pulled away and grabbed a bottle from a nearby shelf. A gold liquid sloshed inside the brown glass. I glared at Rhoan in warning. Were we really going to backtrack like this? I didn’t think we should be drinking, but he grabbed two glasses and stalked away from me anyway.
Rage hit my blood stream. “Where are you going?”
I stormed after him only to have the fight inside me die at the sight of light pouring in through two arched glass doors. Rhoan paused in the open doorway and offered a hand back to me. I took his outstretched hand and stepped into a private garden alongside him.
The garden was small, but sunny. I gaped at the rows of burgeoning herbs and tiny flowers growing under the protection of red-leaved willow trees.
“I wasn’t sure if this would be here,” Rhoan admitted.
He tugged my hand and led me to a cushioned seat for two. There, we sank down into the plush pillows with our limbs touching. The garden added an extra layer of privacy. I didn’t think of my parents when I looked around. Instead, I was left speechless by the scenery around me.
“I knew you would love this.” Rhoan smiled, though the weight of what he still had to say kept it from lifting too far.
He stole another minute to pour two glasses of gold wine. I paused and considered the fae wine. Memories of what’d happened to my pack returned. I should have been more hesitant, but I threw the drink back anyway.
It warmed my veins and turned the world soft, but there were no hallucinations. I knew that I was fae the same way I knew that there were other planets in our solar system. Someone told me, but I’d never seen them for myself. Drinking the fae wine and being unaffected was like seeing the planets beyond our own first-hand.
The truth sank in and made me sigh.
I was fae, but not the right kind. Every time Beryl appeared to push my limits, her curse spread a little wider. It fed on my fear, on my anger, and on my panic. When Beryl appeared, I couldn’t help but feel all three all at once.
When I closed my eyes and savored the wine rushing through my veins, I could also feel the Unseelie blight spreading further. It’d consumed so much of my arcana by now.
But this moment wasn’t about me or about how Beryl wanted to corrupt me. I opened my eyes and turned my attention to Rhoan. Alone in this garden, we could be honest with each other. I could show him the ways that the blight overwhelmed me, and he could show me the secrets behind his beast.
At least, I hoped. He’d brought me here with the implication that he would finally be honest. I could see the hesitation drawing his features tight. He stared into his wineglass like it would tell him exactly what he was missing right now.
He shook himself and cleared his throat. “It’s now or never.”
I nodded because it was all I could do to keep from shaking the truth out of this man. He had to do this in his own time, but I’d be damned if he wasted mine in the process.
“Like I said, I wasn’t always this strong. I wanted to be a knight of the Seelie Court. I had grand ideas of how I would look in shining armor, how others would praise me when I brought home the spoils of our battles.” Rhoan shook his head. His gaze was distant like he was in another world.
I reached and put a hand on his thigh so I could squeeze. His flinch made me pull back. Confusion and rejection did a messy dance in the pit of my stomach until Rhoan took my hand in his. He didn’t apologize, but he didn’t have to. The touch was enough.
“I couldn’t keep up with the other knights. No matter what I did, I fell behind. I got hurt. There came a point where I realized that I was a liability on the battlefield. The hunger for power cancelled out all other thoughts until I found myself outside Faust’s domain.”
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise now of all times. Faust had been relentlessly hunting Rhoan and me for reasons that I could tell were personal. Still, I gaped at Rhoan.
He ducked his head in shame. “I struck a deal with Faust. He would grant me the power of his nightmares so that I could surpass my fellow knights. When he added in a clause that would break the contract, I didn’t think twice about it. The possibility seemed so far away.”
Rhoan turned apologetic eyes upon me. My heart clenched in pain. I knew how he felt. The inability to keep up with the threats weighed on my conscience and had nearly cost me my life more than once.
I moved to cup his face. He acted like he needed forgiveness, but I was here to tell him that wasn’t necessary.
Before I could get the words off the tip of my tongue, a crack appeared across the sky. It shook everything with a raucous thunder and threw me off my seat. Rhoan dropped his wineglass and caught me before I could hit the stone pavers. I could barely hear the shatter of his glass on the ground over the thunder still rumbling above.
Darkness spread, wriggling out of the crack splitting the sky. Black and purple shadows reached to cover the bright sun and bathe the domain in dreariness once again. For a moment, Rhoan and I sat, stunned.
