No.
I wouldn’t go there. Wouldn’t feel that again—any of it. I started to sit up—
“Let’s not do that yet.” Rhain entered the chambers, the straps designed to hold his weapons hanging loosely across his chest.
I halted, remembering him being beneath the palace, breaking off…roots that had grown from the cracks I’d created in the foundation, witnessing my utter loss of control. My face warmed.
Rhain approached the bed I had no idea how I’d gotten into. “How are you feeling?” he asked, the line of his brows furrowed as he sat on the edge of the bed. He sounded concerned but also…relieved, and I didn’t understand why he would feel either of those two things.
Or why he would be in these chambers.
“Okay,” I whispered hoarsely, glancing around and seeing only Bele lingering by the couch, swathed in the gray of the guard. “Thirsty.”
“Bele,” Rhain called out. “Will you do me a favor and get us some water and juice, please?”
“Do I look like I want to do you a favor?” Bele countered.
The answer would be no.
Rhain shot a sharp glare at her over his shoulder. She sighed heavily, rolling her eyes. “Whatever,” she muttered. “I’ll behappyto.”
The god’s lips twitched as he watched her stomp toward the doors. “Thank you.”
Bele flipped him off.
Rhain’s soft laugh faded as his attention returned to me. “Do you have a headache? Any jaw pain?”
“No.” Trepidation mounted, joining the rising confusion. “Should I?”
“Not sure.” He shrugged, and none of that was exactly reassuring. “You want to try to sit up and see what happens?”
“I don’t know.” I stared at him, even more confused. “Do I?”
A grin appeared, one I hadn’t seen since he’d learned of my betrayal. It quickly faded. “Let’s try it.”
I had a lot of questions, starting with what had exactly happened to me under the palace and ending with the one I didn’t want to ask. Where was Nyktos? But I didn’t want to know where he was. Planting my hands on the soft mattress, I pushed up.
“Slowly.” Rhain leaned forward to help, his hand brushing my arm—my bare arm. A flicker of energy buzzed from my skin to his, drawing a hiss from him as he jerked back.
“Sorry,” I gasped. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.” He blinked rapidly. “Just wasn’t expecting the charge of energy to be that strong.”
It was similar to what I felt when my skin came into contact with…with Nyktos’s, but this hadn’t feltthatstrong to me. The blanket slipped as I sat up, falling to my waist and revealing that I was completely nude. I hastily yanked the soft fur to my chin as my eyes flew to Rhain’s. “Why am I naked? And please tell me it wasn’t you who undressed me.”
Rhain smirked. “Don’t worry. I’m not even remotely interested in what you just flashed me. Now, if you were Saion or Ector, I would’ve been all into the peepshow.”
“I didn’t flash you,” I grumbled, clenching the blanket. “On purpose.”
He watched me lean against the tufted headboard. “By the way, it was either Aios or Bele who did that. You were coated in dust and dirt, and Nyktos didn’t want you to wake up covered in filth.”
My heart gave a too-sharp twist. “How thoughtful of him.”
Rhain’s head cocked once more, his eyes narrowing.
I glanced at the doors again, then to the one leading to the bathing chamber. Both were closed. I refocused on Rhain. “What in the hell happened?”
“I was hoping you could answer that for me.”