The Glass Queen (The Forest of Good and Evil #2) - Gena Showalter Page 0,95

wished to sever ties with me now instead of later? He desired me as much as I desired him, and he could think of nothing else? Which one, which one?

“I insist you continue giving me tasks,” I told him. “You promised four at the very least, with expert-level difficulty, but so far you’ve only delivered two novice-level mini-tasks. Do you truly think our war can end if you start our truce with a lie?” I tsk-tsked, faking disappointment in him.

“Recovering from Adriel’s attack counts as the third and fourth tasks.”

No way. “What did you have planned for my third task originally?”

He huffed, admitting, “I planned to make you muck a stable. You would shovel manure...with animals bespelled to eliminate each time you came close to finishing.”

Ohhh. How perfect. Leonora would hate every second of it. “A never-ending supply of manure?” I laughed, almost gleeful. “Tomorrow, I’m mucking those stalls, and that’s that.”

He tripped over a rock I couldn’t see, then spread and closed his wings in quick succession to right his balance. “Let me see if I understand this correctly. You want to be punished in such a way?”

A blue feather floated in front of me, and I caught it with a grin. “Well, yeah. You were right. You were harmed. You deserve recompense.”

A weighty pause. “How many memories have you relived?”

“Two.” Okay. Time to part with him before I inadvertently admitted something about phantoms. “Well. We should probably—”

“Which two?” he insisted.

He wouldn’t leave my side until I told him, I realized. To hurry things along, I said, “The day Leonora and Craven met, and the night he informed her he was kicking her out and wedding someone else, after he had been intimate with her.”

“You sound offended on her behalf. Did you not see what happened just before that intimacy occurred? Craven walked into the room to speak with her about parting. He hadn’t been with her for weeks. He started talking, and she dropped her robe. She...took matters into her own hand.”

My cheeks blazed white-hot in a mere blink of time. “No, um, I didn’t see that part. And I wasn’t defending her actions at any time, in any way. She’s a monster. I was just pointing out the fact that Craven was a monster, too, and he bore some responsibility for the war. Now, let’s say goodbye and—”

His arm shot out to pull me against him. As I flailed for purchase, startled, he took flight. Realizing he was flying me home, I let my body meld to his. I didn’t want him at the palace, but I didn’t want him to drop me, either.

“You can’t go inside the bedroom with me,” I informed him. “I’m tired, and I need my rest.” Truth. As Saxon’s body heat enveloped me, a wave of fatigue swept me up, up.

No, no. I couldn’t rest. If Leonora walked me back to Milo...

I suddenly wanted to vomit. I yawned instead.

“You do need rest,” Saxon said with a nod. “Your fatigue and strain are palpable.”

“So you’ll drop me off and go?”

“No.”

Deep breath in. “We can talk later. Yes, later sounds good.”

“Do you fear me, Asha? Is that what this is about?”

He asked the question so softly, so gently, that I flinched. “I’m not afraid of you.” I’m afraid of what I can do to you. Afraid of what you can do to my dragons. Afraid of what we can do to each other. “I could be having, uh, female problems.” It was an excuse I’d heard other women use upon occasion. For some reason, it never failed to send a man fleeing. “That happens.”

As Saxon sputtered, I relaxed, certain I’d headed off disaster. “You can drop me off at the front door,” I told him.

His brows knitted together. “Why not our balcony?”

Our balcony? “I believe there’s a rule, somewhere, that states a boy should never fight in a tournament for one girl and fly another to her balcony.” My tone developed a bite at the end.

His whiskey-colored irises glittered with an emotion I couldn’t name. “Can he kiss this other girl?”

Kiss? What?

Kiss?

He took me straight to the balcony. Because Saxon. I couldn’t bring myself to complain. I hadn’t wanted to let go of him yet.

I still didn’t.

Would he kiss me goodbye?

What am I doing? I couldn’t allow myself to discover the answer to that question.

As soon as he set me on my feet, I flattened my hand on his chest to hold him back. “Good night, Saxon.”

As calm as rock, he said, “I think