Page 19

“But seriously, though…did you fuck it up already?”

I sighed, smoke streaming from my nostrils in my frustration.

“Goddess, have mercy,” he muttered.

“She’s…” I searched for the right word. I could have given him a list of the things she was: argumentative, stubborn, opinionated, ignorant, terrified, alone…beautiful. Mother, have mercy, I was an arse. What she must have been feeling, and I just… but she… I settled on the only word I could: “Frustrating.”

Kol smirked, and I frowned. Damn him, there was no way he could hear my thoughts. I had them on tight lockdown.

“I can’t hear you, Nyx, but never forget I can feel you. Especially when your emotions are so intense. I get it, though. She’s come from a bad situation, and her learning curve is going to be steep. You’re just desperate to get airborne with your ryder. But you have to be patient. Educate her, help her adjust, and above all, give her time.”

“You don’t get it at all,” I snapped, getting to my feet and pacing. “She will never want to be my ryder, Kol. She thinks I’m responsible for what just happened to her and her family. Even if she believes what I tell her and I give her time to let it sink in, how will she ever get past that?”

“It will not be easy, especially if you go in there all fire-breathing dragon, trying to force her to see things your way.”

I paused my pacing, guilt crawling up my spine. I hated the feeling.

“You’re such an idiot sometimes, Nyx. You went in there all fire-breathing dragon already, didn’t you? Fuck!”

“In my defense, she has seen me as my literal fire-breathing dragon already, so I cannot see how my attitude is going to intimidate her further.”

Kol jumped up and stalked toward me. “She is alone, probably scared to death, and you”—he jabbed his finger in my chest—“with your ‘I’m the alpha dragon, so it’s my way or the highway’ bullshit is the last thing she needs.” He looked at where his finger met my bare skin. “And while we are on the subject of not scaring the new girl shitless, where the fuck are your clothes?”

I smacked his finger away. “I flew in. Since when does my state of dress concern you?”

“Please, you have nothing I haven’t seen a thousand times. Your ryder, on the other hand, comes from the most extreme of those batshit religious groups and was living on the damned edge of existence. I doubt she’s ever seen so much as an exposed bicep, and you’re parading around in all your glory acting like you don’t realize what you do to the fae of this court in just your gray sweatpants and nothing else.”

I chewed on my lip.

“Fuck my life, you’re impossible. You knew exactly what you were doing going in there like that, didn’t you?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but he cut me off.

“Don’t even bother denying it. You like her. I can smell it on you. By the Goddess, Nyx. Really? Do you think having a thing for your ryder is going to help the situation?”

“You’re one to talk,” I threw back. He was nailing me to the wall, and I wasn’t just going to take it, even if he spoke the truth.

“My ryder was not just yanked out of his life of lies and thrust into this whole new world where an arsehole dragon thinks he can call all the shots and use his glowy eyes and muscles to get what he wants, was he?” He huffed, annoyed with himself for taking my bait. “Your ryder is going to need a friend, not a turn around your bedroom, Nyx.”

I bit back my annoyance at how right he was. I sighed, tipping my face up to the sky and letting a plume of smoke drift up and away as the fight went out of me and the tension bled from my body. “Zaria. Her name is Zaria,” I said after a moment, admitting without words that she was more than just my ryder and we should call her such.

“Beautiful name,” he replied, the tension gone from his voice now, too.

A beautiful name for a beautiful fae. I was so screwed.

Kol’s soft laugh pulled me back to him. I was broadcasting too much, apparently. I’d never needed to keep absolutely every feeling and emotion from him before. But then I’d never actually had anything I wanted to hide from him this badly. Thoughts were easy to close off, but everything? I was going to have to work on that.

“You need sleep, Nyx. Go to bed.” He assessed me and rolled his eyes. “Or ignore me and go fly back up to your little perch on the roof across from the healer’s wing and watch her balcony all night like the possessive alpha dragon you are. Whatever. Just be nice to her when you see her next. She has been through enough. She needs a friend.”

He didn’t wait for a response, just walked away.

My wings shot from my back as soon as he rounded the building, and I took off. I didn’t shift fully, just wings. I didn’t want to lose the sweats and have to sit on the roof all night naked. The nights in the capital were balmy enough to allow it, but sitting with my dick out while watching my new ryder’s window all night was not a good look.

NINE

ZARIA

Iawoke to the morning light filtering through the opening I had left in the curtains that surrounded the bed. I had originally closed them, then felt vulnerable not being able to see the rest of the space, so I settled on having them open a little after I used the bathing chamber and then settled back in bed.