Page 32 of Curse of Thorns
Rev is broken. Right here and now, he’s at his most vulnerable. And there isn’t anything to fix, I realize. So, I don’t shush him or tell him it’ll be okay. I just hold him and let him cry.
The fae prince of the Luminescent Court dissolves into tears in my arms.
Minutes later Tyadin arrives. At the sound of footsteps approaching, Rev clenches me closer, his face pressed tightly into my neck. Tyadin stops, his eyes wide as he surveys the foyer.
“What the hell happened?” he whispers. His lips part as he examines the broke Rev in my lap.
“I’m sorry,” I say with an awkward grimace. But what else is there to say?
He swallows and lifts his head high, chest puffed out. “Can you get him out of here?”
I nod. “I’ll get him to bed.”
“I’ll take care of the rest,” Tyadin says with a determined set of his sharp jaw.
I prompt Rev to stand, and he obeys without much effort. I wrap his arm over my neck and grip him around the waist. His head hangs low—in exhaustion or shame, I’m not sure. I don’t suppose it matters much. His feet only shuffle on the stone floor, but he follows my guidance down the hall and up the stairs to our rooms.
He pushes his bedroom door open but then pauses, resisting my pull for the first time.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he whispers, and with a determined expression, he presses through the doorway, pulling me with him. I stumble forward, his arm still over my shoulders.
He marches to the bed, pulling me along with him until the moment he drops onto the mattress, face first.
He finds his way beneath the covers and groans, pressing his face into the pillow. I back away slowly, but he lifts himself up.
Is it entirely insane and wrong that I take his moment to admire the muscles on his back flex?
“Caelynn?” he says through a gruff voice.
“Yeah?” I whisper. Does he need something? Water? A potion?
“Will you stay with me?” he says weakly like it pains him to ask. My stomach sinks and heart lifts all at once.
It pains him to need me. To want me.
I swallow and pretend that fact doesn’t hurt. But I couldn’t possibly blame him.
“Of course,” I say, even though my heart aches terribly as I eye the place beneath the sheets he carves out for me. My breath trembles. Am I really going to do this to myself? “I’ll never leave you, so long as you want me.”
It’s not like I don’t torture myself in every other way. Why not this too?
So, I crawl into the bed with Rev.
His arm slips beneath my head, and the other curls over my waist, pulling me closer. My breaths come shallow here, cocooned in Rev’s chest and arms.
Tears sting my eyes, but I allow myself to fall into this feeling. His warmth fills everything, and in only moments, everything falls away. Every doubt, all the fear and pain, until all that’s left is him.
Reveln. Mine.
I shake my head, a quick reminder not to fall. Not totally. Reveln is my mate, but he will never be mine. Not really.
