Titus gaped at her, shocked by her outburst.
But all I could do was smile.
That was the fighter I required. The woman beneath the elements who would do what was needed to save those under her care. No tears. No excuses. Just a warrior ready for battle.
And maybe my methods made me an asshole, but they’d worked.
“All right,” I said, holding out my hand. “We need to go now.”
“Fine.” She glanced at Titus and sighed at his expression. “I’ll be fine.”
“You have no idea what you’re walking into, Claire,” he said, his anger creating a line of invisible fire across his aura. “And you just allowed Cyrus to bait you into going.”
“He had me at ‘Exos,’?” she replied, her smile sad. “If he has a lead, I have to follow it. And I would do the same for you.”
“I’d never ask you to.”
“And neither would Exos.” She cupped his cheek and went to her toes to kiss him deeply, the moment one meant for two lovers. I found it oddly satisfying. A strange sensation, since she wasn’t mine to care for, but I rather liked seeing her content. Something told me Exos would approve, too. “I’ll be okay.”
“It’s a death trap,” Titus whispered. “The Spirit Kingdom is where they send fae to die.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m brimming with life.” She kissed him again, then stepped back. “And I have the Spirit King as my guide.”
A smart-ass remark about her trusting me graced my tongue, but I didn’t allow it to escape. I really did need her cooperation if this was going to work, and as I had it, I wasn’t about to lose it.
“If anything happens to her—”
“You won’t have to worry about killing me, Titus,” I interjected. “My brother will do that for you should harm befall her.”
He stared me down for a long moment before nodding. “Bring her back, Spirit King.”
I held out my hand for hers and smiled. “If I have it my way, it’ll be Exos who brings her back.”
Sol
“She’s so small,” I muttered. Not necessarily as small as Aflora or my little sister had been, but definitely smaller than me.
“Who?” Vox asked as he worked on fixing my latest damage to the Spirit Quad.
What had once been a dining table was now a pile of splinters that Vox meticulously worked to reassemble. It took incredible power and concentration for the Air Fae to align each broken shard back together.
I hadn’t meant to break it. Frustration had gotten the better of me, and, well, yeah.
“Who?” Vox repeated, a hint of impatience in his tone.
“Oh. Claire.” Who else could I be talking about? “She’s just so much smaller than me.”
“And?” he prompted, finally looking at me.
“I just…” I palmed the back of my neck, uncertain of how to word it. Maybe it was easier if I just said nothing at all. I mean, Vox didn’t need to know. He probably had his own issues to deal with where Claire was concerned. “Never mind.”
“Oh, no. I want to know why you said that. Why are you thinking about her height?”
“It’s not so much her height as it is her overall size,” I huffed. “She’s so small.”
“Yeah, you said that.” He folded his arms. “Why do you care?”
“Don’t you?” I demanded. “I mean, you hear her at night just like I do. You have to think about it.” And there were the words I didn’t mean to say. By the shock on Vox’s face, they also weren’t the ones he expected.