Page 126 of Hoarded By the Dragon

“How could you?” I cry. My voice thick with tears and raw. I don’t even know what specifically I’m angry about. Him leaving, him not coming for me, him risking hislifeto destroy the fae gate. It all swirls together into a stew of betrayal.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, my queen, my Rina. For all of it.”

“That’s not enough,” I choke out.

“I know.” And the deep lines in his face show that he does.

This fear of losing her. Of losing him. It’s so large in my soul I don’t know how I’ll ever function again.

It’s not just fear. Kalos risked his life to destroy the gate… and I risked our daughter’s to try and save him. I was only thinking of him.

If I dwell on that guilt, it will devour me more completely than the fae gate magic attempted to.

“You left!” I cry. It was his first sin, so we might as well start there. “You can’t just leave me.”

My gut churns at the memory of the vulnerability and anxiety of his departure.

“I did.” His voice is frustratingly calm. “I was… unwell. I needed the time to convene with the wilder parts of my nature.”

Each word smooths over some of my riotous anger, even when I don’t want to lose those sharp edges.

Kalos’s eyes glow with determination even as his arms cradle me. “I was always going to return, but I needed to find balance before I could come back.”

The words are what I’ve spent days agonizing over, but now that I have them and everything else in the mix, I don’t know what to do with them. I look away from his imploring gaze and notice our surroundings for the first time.

We’re in his bedroom, but there’s no trace of the damage from the Leonid attack littering the sheets around us. It’s no different except for the flood of light in the room. I glance up, and my throat catches at the sight of the destroyed dome. There’s a distant birdsong from outside that conflicts with the broken part of our home.

My home.

“I love you, and it hurts so deeply,” I whisper without meaning to.

Kalos blinks in surprise. “You love me?”

“Yes, you thoughtless reptile!” I snarl.

Ignoring my animosity, the corners of his lips lift in a boyish expression of hope.

“Then I haven’t broken things beyond repair?” he asks.

The anger halts for a moment. It leaves a portion of calm that I don’t deserve.

“I don’t know,” I say, soft and broken. I don’t know anything. I don’t know how to get past what he’s done, what I’ve done. I don’t know how to resolve all of it with the knowledge that this place and these people feel like the only home I’ve ever known.

He lifts my chin and touches his lips to mine softly. “Then rest, Rina. Let me care for you. Everything else can be addressed later.”

“And she’s okay,” I say against his lips as a reminder to myself more than anything else.

Kalos nods. “She’s okay. You’re okay. And I’m never letting you go.”

That should be alarming, but my tired mind mercifully leaves it for later.

43

KALOS

“Everything is set to be finalized,”Ben says with a professional air as if we stand in a conference room rather than the back of a cathedral. His manner is fitting. This is a business deal after all. One that he’s been able to pull off within seventy-two hours from the moment Stella sat across from my desk and made the choice that brought her father down.

The audience shuffles around to sit, lacking the usual joyful emotions of a wedding. The people representing the Leonid contingent, distant relations, and those who reside in the territory, are subdued and watchful.

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