The Summer King Bundle 3 Stories - Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,141

this,” I whispered, blinking back tears.

“There is nothing wrong with what I’m doing. You need help, and I am here, where I am supposed to be.”

“But—”

“Let me help you. That is all,” he coaxed. “Then you can rest. Later, if you’re feeling up to it, you and I can talk.”

I turned my head to the side. “There’s nothing to talk about. I already told you that.”

“And I already told you that there is a lot.”

“Then talk to me now.”

His chuckle somehow rumbled through me, stirring parts of me I’d rather ignore. “Now is not the time, Brighton. Not for a conversation like this.”

No matter how much I insisted, he wouldn’t tell me what he thought we needed to discuss, deflecting each question by changing the subject. He talked about the tavern brawls, which always surrounded some sort of perceived insult, and then he told me about the little-girl games his sister would make him and Fabian play. It all seemed so…human. I imagined if I had older brothers, I would’ve forced them to play with dolls and eat pretend food. I would’ve chased after them just like Scorcha had with Fabian and Caden.

When Caden finished with my hair, I could actually run my fingers through it, and like I had suspected, he didn’t leave. After helping me lay back down, he got me one of those pain pills and refilled my glass. Then he pulled up his chair as close to the bed as he could get it and told me more stories about him and his brother like he had before. And when my eyelids got too heavy to keep open, his voice softened. I fell asleep knowing that he would remain and that he’d be there when I woke up.

And I wasn’t afraid.

Chapter 18

When I woke the following morning, I remembered.

In my sleep, I had shifted to my side, and I was surprised to find that it didn’t cause my ribs to hurt all that much. Opening my eyes, I found Caden asleep in the chair beside the bed, just like I had the last time I woke up. He was closer than before, the chair right next to where I slept, and not only were his legs propped up on the bed, but his left hand…his fingers were threaded through mine.

We were holding hands.

If I’d done that in my sleep or if Caden had, who knew? But it was as sweet as him brushing my hair the night before, and just as wrong.

In the moment, none of that seemed to matter.

I didn’t know why or how, but I remembered bits of what Aric had told me about Caden—about the mortuus and about Siobhan…and about the Summer Kiss.

Important bits.

I remembered why Aric had dressed me in that gown, and that he had planned to use me to force Caden to open the gateway, something that, at the time, hadn’t screamed how much of a big deal it truly was.

Because Caden was the King. He could open those gates, releasing the Queen and God only knew what else. That was something I doubted Ivy and Ren were aware of, and I also knew it would unsettle them and the Order.

I stared at our joined hands. I also knew that if the Order ever became aware of what Caden could do, they’d put a hit out on him. I knew it to my very core. They wouldn’t care that he wasn’t evil and hated the Queen more than anyone else. He’d be viewed as too much of a risk.

And being a member of the Order, even if one undervalued, it was my duty to inform Miles of what I knew. If I didn’t, and they were ever to discover that I knew the truth, they wouldn’t just remove me from the Order, there’d probably also be a hit placed on me.

Hell, if they learned I’d had relations of the forbidden kind with Caden, they’d probably boot me right out of the Order. The fact that Ivy still remained a member even though it was known that she was a halfling wasn’t something that all Order members supported. She had Ren’s support, and she was also a hell of a fighter. The Order needed her.

They didn’t need me.

I thought about what Caden had said the night before about duty and how following it wasn’t always the right thing to do.

Reporting what I knew about Caden was my duty, and to the Order, it was the right thing to do. But it