Page 72 of What did you do?

“But the truth is, you don’t really know what I’ve become either.” Eli’s large, golden wings stretched wide behind his firm body. Streaks of deep, brassy gold covered him. There werebarely more than a few inches between each of the lightning-like marks. Texture in the gold shone through, brightening under the sun’s rays. Seelie bled gold. These were scars.

Eli’s chest and back were covered.

I struggled to contain the violent ocean of pure rage that coursed through me. My teeth creaked against the force of my jaw. I would slaughter whoever had done this to him. Add them to the fucking list.

I moved behind him to see that his broad back and shoulders bore even more marks than the front. My fingertips carefully skimmed over the scars on his pectoral muscle, then followed the vein of gold to another branch of scars that stopped just below his neck. My eyes blurred with hot tears. Eli had gone through all of this without me here to help. Whoever hurt him would experience a pain so severe it would need a new name. “Tell me who fucking did this to you, Eli. They are dead,” I thundered.

“Mendax, the crown prince of Unseelie did this to me.” Eli’s honey-colored eyes held mine. “The man you choose over me. He is responsible for these marks.”

“What?” The air was punched from my lungs.

What had I done?

“The Smoke Slayer and I have had more than our share of battles. Many of them at the commands of our mothers…many of them not.”

He stepped into me, and my palm heated against his tan abdomen.

“Neither you nor I know what the other is actually capable of, do we? We’ve both kept things from the other. It doesn’t mean anything now. I have been in love with you since the day I met you, when you told me you hated me,” he chuckled softly. “I will be anything for you. I love you, Calypso, and if I need to fight the Unseelie prince for you, then he should be warned. Every battlewe’ve endured prior will benothingcompared to the lengths I am willing to go through to ensure you are happy and safe—with me.” He bent down to press his warm, sun-kissed lips against mine.

It felt like summer. Like rolling down a grassy hill and laughing until your belly hurt. Like the feeling you got when the first rays of spring sunshine danced across your melancholy winter mind. The kiss was so light and gentle, filled with feelings and tenderness I’d never felt from anybody before.

Nothing about it felt wrong or shameful. For the first time since my mom and sister died, a bit of warmth spread through my cold insides, blanketing the dark, angry parts of me with the feeling of home.

Eli moved his head back to end the sweet kiss but stopped with his lips separated only a breath from mine, his eyes still closed. As if he couldn’t physically move away from me.

“Feuhn—Kai—Greeyth,” he whispered.

Eternal love and friendship.

My mouth would have lifted in a genuine smile, but for a moment, I forgot how to move, so instead I looked at him for a few seconds without my walls or masks.

“Your lips feel like happiness and sunshine,” I muttered. I didn’t want to move for fear I would lose the feeling.

“You taste like sadness. Or a rainy day that doesn’t know light should be in the sky,” he whispered against my lips. “Allow me to be your umbrella, Cal. Let me keep the rain from touching you ever again.”

We stood still for a few beats before he stepped back, folding his wings and replacing his shirt. My very confused, ashamed eyes trailed over my best friend’s lean, flexing muscles.

Suns. What was I doing? I had fucked the Seelies’ greatest enemy not long ago. The very same man who had scarred my best friend’s body like an old cutting board—and I had wanted it.Shame drowned any good feelings. I had thought about leaving with Mendax after I got my heart and telling him everything, stupidly thinking he would be perfect to help me with what I still needed to do. What the fuck was I doing? Mendax was evil, Eli was good. I needed to be good.

Mendax was lust, danger, and passion, but with Eli, I could be different. Everything could work out so perfectly—even better than I had hoped. I could finally get my heart back and be happy.

“Come on, we should meet up with Tarani. I want to make sure she got there okay. I’ll explain how you trick your horse on the way. Tarani’s probably already gotten hers.”

“Sorry, what?” I said, certain I’d misheard him through the myriad thoughts that pounded away in my skull. I stepped away from the shade and back into the blazing sun and winced as soon as the light hit my eyes.

“There will be shade once we are at the hills,” Eli said sympathetically.

As we walked, my mind flickered back to Walter, at the castle where I had left him. I knew that his goal while we were gone was to try to figure out why he kept sensing Artemi powers in the back corner of the throne room when there was nothing in there but creepy murals of an eerie, empty battle and thrones.

“How much longer until we arrive?” I asked, breaking the silence.

“The forest of the hills will begin shortly,” Eli replied.

I got the distinct impression that he was avoiding telling me any more about the hills than he had to. “I still don’t understand why we have to go into the forest to capture a horse. I happen to know the castle has a paddock full of horses. The Unseelie had skeletal unicorns in theirs. They were incredibly cool.”

At the mention of Unseelie, Eli shot me a look. “That is exactly what I’m talking about. In Seelie, we respect our horses. We prove to them that we are worthy of their strength andloyalty. The Unseelie simply capture and cage anything they decide they want.”

He had no idea how true his statement was.

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