Page 99 of Magic Betrayed

Now, for whatever inexplicable reason, it was Callum—the perfectly-in-control-at-all-times king of the shapeshifters—who made me feel safe enough to let go.

Safe enough to shift into my tiny fox form and follow him out the door and across the street, where he insisted on carrying me up the stairs to his sixth-floor apartment.

Safe enough to curl up on his couch while he made coffee, and safe enough not to run away when he collapsed onto the couch next to me with a sigh, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the cushions.

“Medic said sleep,” he reminded me, turning his head to regard me with a gaze that was both warm and utterly spent. “You can shift back anytime. Your clothes from last time are clean and in the closet. Bedroom is yours. We can talk when you wake up.”

You mean whenwewake up,I thought as loudly as I could in his directionand was shocked when he rewarded me with a sleepy smile.

“Yes. We.”

His eyes drifted shut, so I silently slipped off the couch and into the bedroom, where I resumed my human shape. It was much easier to shift back this time, though my eyes were already trying to close as I shamelessly ignored my own clothes, stole his comfiest pair of sweats, and burrowed under the covers. My ankle ached, but was clearly much better, and all my other aches and pains seemed muted and distant, along with my worries about the future.

For now, there was nothing I needed to think about. I could just sleep. Because Callum was here, and I knew that he would always keep me safe.

* * *

I woke slowly,moving in and out of consciousness several times before I recognized the smell of coffee and… was thatbacon?

Suddenly, my stomach decided it was ravenous—as if I hadn’t eaten for days. I cracked my eyelids and found that the room was dark. No light peeked through the shuttered windows, which meant I’d somehow slept the rest of the day away.

The doctor had suggested twelve hours, but I was happy knowing it had been at least eight, with no waking from nightmares. No checking to make sure Ari hadn’t teleported out of the apartment during the night. No worries about missing my alarm, or realizing I’d forgotten to wash my work clothes…

Actually, Ihadforgotten to wash my work clothes.

But even that problem seemed far away as I rolled over, snuggled deeper into the covers, and then remembered I wasin Callum’s bed.

That opened my eyes in a hurry, and also made me aware of voices coming from the other side of the door.

One was clearly Callum’s, and the other was a female voice that I recognized but couldn’t seem to place right away.

“I know you’re pissed, and you have every right to be,” the woman said. “But this is an emergency.”

The words acted like a shot of caffeine to my flaccid limbs. What kind of emergency, and where?

“I’ve been gonefive days.” Callum sounded much more growly than usual. “And when I left, they couldn’t wait to see the last of me. They said I was playing favorites and perverting the rule of law. Using my power for my own benefit and refusing to own up to my failures. So explain to me why my presence is suddenly so necessary, just because the Fae Court is in shambles?”

A jolt of rage shot through me as I realized there was more to his “leave of absence” than he’d admitted. I’d known there would be backlash after the events of the Symposium—known they would blame Callum for things that were never his fault—but hadn’t expected it would be quite this bad.

“You know why.” The answer was icy and stern and suddenly I knew exactly who had shown up on Callum’s doorstep.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping on a conversation between the shapeshifter king and his executive assistant, but I didn’t really feel all that bad about it. Callum was aware of my presence—probably even knew I was awake—and if I was going to agree to consider this whole mate bond thing…

I needed to know what I was letting myself in for.

“Actually, I think I’d like you to say it out loud,” Callum responded in a hard, uncompromising tone. “Because none of the rest of the court seems convinced.”

“We. Need. You.” Angelica bit the words off like they tasted bad. “For all the same reasons we did before. You’re the only one strong enough to hold everyone together. To prepare us to face a potentially hostile Fae Court. If Dathair is truly dead and the majority refuses to follow Vinrath, we have to assume the next sovereign could be from among Elayara’s sympathizers.”

Faris had mentioned the attempted overthrow of the Fae Court as the reason Rath and Draven hadn’t shown up to help rescue Kes. But this sounded considerably more serious than simply anattempt. Were the two of them even safe?

Kira had to be out of her mind with worry right now.

“I’m not interested in being the court’s attack dog,” Callum returned bluntly. “If all they want me for is to be big and scary and roar at their enemies, I’m done. I won’t agree to stand by in the face of injustice just to keep my position, and I won’t be their puppet.”

“How is it injustice to ask you to uphold the laws?” Angelica snapped. “Believe it or not, I don’t like it either. I know you think I’m nothing but a bitchy ice princess, but even I know that the laws need to be changed. Raine doesn’t deserve their hatred. But as things stand right now, you don’t have reasonable grounds to refuse their request, and you know it.”

A wave of ice rolled from my core to my fingertips, leaving me trembling with fury and… yep, there was the guilt raising its head once more.

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