Her lips twitched this time. Briefly, but I caught the little movement, and my heart gave a thump in response. “Sounds lovely,” she deadpanned.
“Good.” I winked at her and turned for the kitchen, leaving her to talk to Kols alone. He still had some groveling to do.
Hell, we all did.
But I’d let him go first.
I was honorable like that.
Chapter Thirteen
Kols
Aflora watched Zeph through wary eyes, then shifted that look to me. She still stood against the wall, right where I’d put her, but she appeared a lot less feisty now. If anything, she reminded me of a wilted flower with her shoulders caving inward in insecurity and her arms curling around her middle.
I sighed, hating myself a little for making her feel this way. “I have a reputation for fucking around,” I told her softly. “I upheld that image during our break days to deter the others from asking any questions. But I used glamour spells to do it. Exos and Cyrus were there the entire time, if you want to ask them. They were immune to my enchantment, mostly because they knew I’d bonded to you and would have killed me otherwise.”
It’d been hard enough to calm them down when they sensed my new mating bond—something that had shocked the hell out of me.
Apparently, my wristband only applied to Midnight Fae links, not Elemental Fae ones. However, the Council didn’t seem to have the same ability to sense my connection to Aflora. Which made sense because, according to Exos, it was a link on the spirit plane that gave me away, something only Spirit Fae could see.
And Sol, apparently.
Because he knew right away.
Although, I suspected his was earth source related.
Elemental Fae were fucking complicated.
“If they know about our mating link, then they know I’m an abomination,” she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. “They’re never going to let me back, are they?”
I immediately pulled her into my arms, needing to soothe her. She’d been so strong, fighting every step of the way, but the helplessness always weighed on her. I saw it peek at me whenever she second-guessed herself. Yet she always pushed it back.
Until now.
“Shh,” I hushed, leading her to the couch to sit.
She didn’t even try to stop me, her breaths coming in short bursts as the weight of everything seemed to crush her at once. “They shouldn’t take me back,” she admitted on an exhale, her shoulders trembling. “I’m… I’m…”
“One of the strongest females I’ve ever met,” I told her as I pulled her into my lap to hold her.
That she didn’t even object told me everything I needed to know about her current frame of mind.
She’d given up.
Just for a moment.
But that moment broke my heart.
I pressed my lips to her forehead and drew my fingers through her hair.
“Actually, I think you might be the strongest female I’ve ever met,” I corrected, smiling to myself. “It’s what drew me to you initially. That, and your altruistic nature. You put the safety of your people before your own needs and desires, just as a royal should. I admire you for it.”
She said nothing for so long that I thought perhaps I’d lost her to the sadness, only her eyes were shimmering with unshed tears when she pulled back to look up at me. Aflora hadn’t truly broken, just been on the verge of it.
“It’s my duty to protect them,” she replied softly. “To do otherwise is to fail. It’s why I need to talk to Sol, to officially relinquish my power. Because I can’t be trusted as an abomination, something I imagine you confirmed with him, Exos, and Cyrus, yes?”
I tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, then drew my fingertips down her neck. “Not exactly.”