Page 36 of Quest for her Knights (The Lost Souls of Dyconia #5)

Chapter twenty-five

Draven

“ W hat do you mean, you made it worse?” Arrow asks as Blaze sits down heavily on the sofa, looking dejected.

“I thought I was helping for a minute, then, well, it backfired.”

I press my ear to the bedroom door and hear a muffled sob. I turn angry eyes on Blaze. “What did you say to her?”

“Nothing! I mean, I just… she asked me to kiss her.” My eyes widen in surprise. I didn’t expect that.

“Oh, I get it,” Arrow says, taking a seat beside Blaze and patting him on the back in sympathy. “You’re that bad of a kisser, huh?”

“What? No! I didn’ t kiss her.”

“Wow, I don’t think I could have denied her,” Arrow says, mirroring my thoughts. Though I’d never admit it, I was far too close to kissing her myself before she stormed off to the bedroom.

Elora wears her emotions on her sleeve, and whether she’s happy or frustrated, I find myself tempted to grab her and kiss the living hell out of her, just for a moment, to know what it’d be like. It’s not just that I’ve never kissed a woman before. It’s that I want to kiss her specifically.

“Well, you need to,” Ranger tells his brother. “She is off-limits. Blaze was right to refuse her.”

“Even if it makes her cry like that?” Arrow asks, gesturing toward the closed bedroom door.

“It’s not our decision. It’s our duty.”

“Even if it makes us miserable?” Arrow asks, looking pained.

“Yes,” Ranger grits out.

“Even if it makes her miserable?” Blaze asks, wearing the same look of despair.

“You’re all acting like I made this choice. Have you lost your minds? You know what it means to be a knight. You all agreed to this mission. Whether she likes it or not—”

“But don’t you care that she doesn’t want this?” Blaze asks, dragging his hands through his hair in frustration. “She doesn’t want to be a princess. She doesn’t want any lords. She wants us. ”

My heart thuds heavily in my chest. Is that true? Does she want all of us? I’ve kept my distance this whole trip, but it hasn’t stopped her from worming her way into my heart.

I hear the door creak open and see red-eyed Elora peek out. The others don’t seem to notice.

Ranger’s eyes stay fixed on the other two as he says, “I don’t care what she wants.”

“You don’t mean that,” I say, giving him a chance to walk it back. But he doesn’t catch the tone and nods.

“I do. It’s my job, our job, to protect her. To make sure she acts appropriately. It doesn’t matter how she feels about it. It doesn’t matter how you feel about it. This is our duty. She’s a job. Nothing more.”

Fucking hell. Her face crumples, and I open my mouth to say something, but I come up short. I can’t comfort her. None of us can. She closes her eyes, then the door, slowly.

I glance back. The others still haven’t noticed her. My fists clench in fury.

Blaze made things worse. Then Ranger? He just epically fucked us all six ways to Sunday.

Not knowing what else to do, I storm up to Ranger and punch him as hard as I can in the gut. He grunts, not expecting it, clutching his stomach as he doubles over.

Arrow and Blaze stare at me, wide-eyed, as I shake out my hand .

“What the fuck, Draven?” Ranger gasps once he can breathe again.

“Be happy that wasn’t your face. But I figured a black eye might upset her.”

“What are you talking about?”

“She heard you,” I whisper harshly.

His eyes go wide. All three glance toward the bedroom door. “How much?”

“Too much.”

“Shit. She wasn’t meant to hear that.”

“You should be happy,” I tell him, my voice hard. “There’s no way she’ll want anything to do with us now.”

We informed the lords that Elora wished to rest after traveling by horse for several days and arranged for her to meet them for dinner.

Ranger looks like he’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, so I take over assigning our roles for the afternoon, giving him some much-needed time to himself. Arrow looks like a wounded puppy so I have him patrol ahead of us and outside the dining room, hidden from Elora’s sight.

Blaze is better at hiding his emotions so he and I wait in the suite for Elora to come out.

Several times I think about knocking on the door, or going to check on her, but I don’t know what I would say.

Even Blaze, who is great with his words, made things worse.

I’m sure I won’t be able to do any better.

I’m just contemplating ways to get her out of there when the door opens and she steps out.

“Elora,” I say, getting to my feet. I’m not sure what else to say, and thankfully she fills my awkward silence.

“Are the lords expecting me for dinner?” she asks formally, her chin raised as if mimicking what she thinks a princess would do.

“Yes, Blaze and I will escort you,” I say gesturing to the door where Blaze is waiting to lead the way.

“Elora—”

“No,” she holds up a hand and cuts off whatever he was going to say.

“Save it. Unless you have something to tell me about your job to protect me, I don’t want to hear it.

” She turns her eyes to me. “And you. If you remove me in the middle of a conversation with my potential suitors again, you'd better have a damn good reason that has something to do with my safety.”

She turns on her heel and motions to the door. “Well? Are we going or not?” she asks Blaze. He presses his lips together tightly and nods, moving in front to lead the way as I take up the rear.

My mind reels in frustration, anger and sadness.

When she spoke to me, I saw the exact same emotions reflected back at me.

And I don’t blame her one bit. She never asked to come to this world.

She came here to save her friend from dying, then was forced into this arranged marriage situation.

All the while, she’s probably been drawn to us in the same way we have to her, and is constantly trying to get us to explore the connection only to be shut down time and time again.

All of us repeatedly telling her we can’t cross that line, that she’s just a job.

It’s a lie. One I’m starting to hate with every fiber of my being.

Seeing her like this makes me more tempted than ever to say forget her parents , and carry her off into the sunset to live somewhere they’ll never find us.

That might have been an option this morning, but I think we’ve finally pushed her too far.

I’m not sure she’ll ever want us after what happened today.

“Princess, you’re looking refreshed,” Lucien says as she enters the dining room. Blaze stands by the door and I take up position on the opposite side of the room, where I’ll have a good view of her face while she eats.

“I hope your room is to your liking.”

“Yes, it’s lovely, thank you. Your home is very nice,” she responds as she takes a seat amongst them at the table.

I watch her closely while she eats and chats with the five lords. They seem… okay. Definitely the best out of everyone she’s met so far, but it doesn’t mean I like seeing her with them.

I can’t stop thinking about our conversation earlier. She wasn’t just a job. It might have started that way, but somewhere between leaving the castle and using my ability to save her from the ogre, she became more than a job. Much more .

But now we’ve gone and fucked it all up.