Page 3 of Veil of Shadows

Snorting in disgust, I set the tea down and pushed it away. Just a few days ago, hope would have bloomed in my heart at hearing that. I’d wanted friendship with him too. Okay, more than friendship.But now?I seethed inwardly. No, I wanted nothing to do with him now.

I tilted my chin. “Do you make it a habit to lock up yourfriendsand lie to them about who you really are?”

His throat bobbed in a swallow, but then the corner of his lips kicked up in a devastating smile. “No, you’re the first.”

But I didn’t rise to his inviting humor. I couldn’t.

Bravado fading, my shoulders slumped, and I hated that my voice sounded broken when I asked, “What are you going to do with me?”

His humorous expression vanished, and he leaned forward, draping his elbows on his knees. When he replied, his voice was quiet and his eyes dim. “That is a very good question, Elowen.”

I wrapped my uninjured arm around my middle. “I would never tell anyone your secret, Jax. I promise I won’t.Please, just let me go.”

He studied me again, his look so intense that my cheeks began to heat. Raw emotion blazed from him, but then he shook his head. “Even if you mean that and your intentions are purely honest, you and I both know that sometimes our choices aren’t up to us.”

“Are you truly that worried about a Mistvale fairy forcing me to reveal your secret?”

“I am.”

“But what are the chances?” I threw my uninjured arm up. “They would have to suspect that I knew who the Dark Raider was, and what are the odds of that?”

He sighed. “They’re slim,veryslim, I know, but it’s still a chance I can’t take. Too many lives are at risk.”

“Because you’re protecting youractualfriends, not me.” A stinging pain clenched my chest that had nothing to do with my injuries, but it was the truth. Jax was protecting Phillen, Lars, Bowan, Trivan, and Lander. His loyalty didn’t lie with me.

Jax winced. But instead of denying my accusation, he slowly stood and prowled around the coffee table to sit beside me. The couch dipped under his weight, and since he sat so close, his thigh pressed to mine. Heat soaked through my breeches. Goddess, he was warm, alwayssowarm.

But I inched away, breaking our contact.

“May I see your arm?” he asked softly.

I cradled it closer to me. “No.”

“Elowen. Please. Let me see how badly you’re injured.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then...I’ll respect your wishes if that’s truly what you want, but I would greatly like to help you if I can.”

He sounded sincere.Dammit, why does he have to always sound sincere?Reluctantly, I extended my limb and revealed the full extent of the collar’s brutal dousing effects.

He inhaled a sharp breath. Gently, he ran his hand along the broken bones, but already I was mending. His touch didn’t cause me searing agony. “What caused this?”

I gave him an annoyed look. “I’m sure you can guess.”

His attention shifted to the gold collar encircling my throat. “You ventured to the Veiled Between again without permission?”

“Yes.”

His nostrils flared, his attention still on my collar. “I hate that thing.” He said it so quietly that I almost didn’t hear him. “I wish I knew how to get it off you.”

“Me too.”

For a moment, we stared at one another, and I could tell by his rising aura that his frustration was genuine. I imagined it was even more irksome for him to be met with a problem that he couldn’t solve, considering who he was—the heir to an entire kingdom. Fae no doubt did as he demanded whenever he commanded them, and if there was something he desired, he was probably given it.

But now, he had me—a caged lorafin with her magic perpetually suppressed thanks to the collar, and there was nothing in this kingdom or the next that could change what Guardian Alleron had done to me as a child, even if Jax was the crown prince.

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “May I get you a healer? If nothing else, to provide a potion to minimize the pain while you heal?”

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