would’ve paled in comparison to what would happen to him in a realm ruled by the Winter Queen. We would’ve killed him. End of story. But a fae stabbed by iron didn’t die. It basically sent them home, and being sent to the Otherworld was a fate worse than death.
Not that he didn’t deserve it, but I…
I just couldn’t believe any of this.
“Brighton.”
Blinking, I realized that Kalen had been speaking to me. “I’m sorry?”
“It’s all right. I said…” He dragged a hand through his hair, trailing off as he stared at the same spot as I did. “I can’t believe this. I wouldn’t have believed any of this if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”
“I thought that maybe he’d told Tatiana and perhaps her brother. So that they’d know what was happening and she could pursue Caden, you know?” I explained hoarsely, running my fingers over the cuff. “I had no idea.”
“I don’t know what to even say.” Kalen turned away from the spot. “I really don’t.”
“Neither do I.”
It was only a few minutes later that Caden filled the doorway. I looked up, my heart seizing at the sight of him. The urge to race over to him hit me hard. I was starting to stand when I realized what I was doing and stopped myself. Was he still mad at me? Well, obviously, he had to be. One didn’t get over all that he learned in a matter of hours. I wasn’t sure if he would want me to go to him, to touch him.
And God, that was another sting on an already raw, rapidly spreading wound.
Caden had halted, but then he was striding forward, coming to where I sat. I half expected him to stop there or to put space between us.
That’s not what he did.
He knelt, gently taking my face in his hands. The contact was a jolt to the system as his gaze searched mine. “Are you okay?”
I started to answer, but his touch threw me for a loop, and all my hesitation slipped away.
Dropping the cuff onto the bed, I all but launched myself at Caden. If he were unprepared, he didn’t show it. He caught me in his arms and straightened, holding me tightly. He didn’t push me away. I buried my face in his chest, inhaling deeply. That didn’t mean that everything was peachy and perfect between us, but I needed him—needed to feel him, to smell him, to be held by him—and he was here.
That meant everything.
“Brighton?” he murmured, smoothing a hand through my hair and down my back as I felt his head turn. “Is she okay?”
“Physically, yes,” came Kalen’s answer.
“I’m fine.” My voice was muffled and probably barely coherent, but I didn’t lift my head. “I’m just…it was Tanner, Caden. It was him.”
Tension strummed through every part of his body as he said to Kalen, “Tell me what you know.”
Kalen did exactly that, but he didn’t know everything. I did. Forcing myself to put it together, I lifted my head and reluctantly stepped back. I told Caden everything Tanner had told me, and he went from tense to downright rigid when I got to the part about Aric.
I was pacing by that point, one arm curled over my stomach. “He kept saying that he thought he was doing the right thing—”
“He wasn’t,” growled Caden.
“I know.” I stopped, meeting his gaze. “I was going to kill him. I trusted him. My mom trusted him. You trusted him. But I was going to kill him.” Tearing my gaze from Caden’s hard one, I started walking again. “That’s when he grabbed the blade with a napkin and told me that Neal had left the city, but that he had to know that I was your weakness, and that Neal would’ve told others. He then told me—” I cleared my throat. “He told me that I needed to do what he’d failed to do. Protect the Court by never letting my guard down. And then he…”
“He sent himself back to the Otherworld,” Kalen picked up where I left off. “What will be done to him there will… It will make whatever we could do to him here look like nothing.”
A muscle worked along Caden’s jaw. “That knowledge doesn’t ease me. I want to watch the life seep out of his eyes.”
Kalen didn’t object to that.
Neither did I.
“Can you please sit?” Caden asked, and I stopped. “You should be resting, and nothing about any of this is restful.” He turned to Kalen. “Can