I clutched my staff, finding reassurance in the surge of magic as I stared Rigel down. “Why?”
“Why?” Rigel repeated.
“Why did you leave?”
Rigel shifted, and I thought I saw something flash in his dark eyes, but it was too fast for me to judge what it was. Besides that, he only stared at me.
Lord Linus tossed one of his dice in the air. “Do you really think you can stroll back in here without any explanation, brat?” His voice was still dark, and there was something sharp in his eyes. “Leila’s been attacked while you were gone. Do you really expect us to think it wasn’t your doing?”
Rigel shifted his gaze from me to Chase. “She was attacked?”
Although Chase kept his gun aimed at Rigel, his tone was conversational. “Several times since you left, yes. The trap in your room, some shadow monsters attacked her at a Court function, and the night mares intercepted a spell meant for Queen Leila.”
“Intercepted?”
“Someone planted an artifact—they broke it.”
As Chase and Rigel chatted, I tried to keep my expression even.
Hearing Rigel’s smooth voice, seeing him again, the familiar way he’d hold my gaze, all of it was upheaving my mind.
How can he act as if nothing happened? He left without telling me anything, and he never contacted me—never even texted me! And he’s acting as if he was just out for a few hours.
I still didn’t know for sure if Rigel was behind any of the attempts to kill me. There was a possibility he was mixing implications with vague statements to lead us to a conclusion—as Lord Myron had done when I’d first been crowned queen and he attacked me so he could frame another fae family.
Admittedly, I wasn’t sure how Rigel could be using the same technique here—he’d used pretty direct language in his answers.
Plus, if Rigel really was behind any of the traps, I’d be dead. He was the Wraith for crying out loud—the deadliest fae assassin alive.
But I wasn’t dumb enough to accept all of that at face value. We’d have to question him once we were better prepared, to make certain.
I thought that might make me feel a little happier—Rigel possibly hadn’t betrayed me. Maybe.
But it almost hurt worse knowing that then he’d just left. And for no reason he was willing to share.
Apparently, he cared so little about me that he had no regrets just vanishing.
Fresh pain rippled through me—not just in my chest and heart, where I’d been nursing it for months. No, this time it zinged all the way to my head, hammering at my eyeballs and making a headache throb in my temples.
Chase narrowed his yellow eyes. “You aren’t behind any of these attempts?”
“I haven’t tried to harm Leila since our first meeting,” Rigel said.
Chase sniffed the air. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to smell—any scent markings on Rigel, maybe? “But you won’t say where you’ve been? Or what you’ve been doing for two months?” There was a tiny bit of a growl at the end of his words.
A muscle twitched in Rigel’s cheek, but he said nothing.
At least he’s not going to attack us. Maybe he really didn’t try to kill me. Again.
I severed my staff’s connection to magic, then leaned into Skye. “Let’s go back to the mansion. I’m done here.”
“Yes, Queen Leila.” Skye started to walk toward the gardens—where a gate that opened into our human territory stood—then paused and peered back at me, her brown eyes crinkled with concern.
I tried to smile, but it was taking about everything I had not to cry, so it ended up a painful grimace. “Come on, Chase, Lord Linus. We better go back.” My voice was thick, and the words barely made it out of my throat as I picked my way down the stone staircase that was chipped beyond repair.
Chase followed behind me, and after a few long moments, Lord Linus joined us.
“You’re not going to shout at me?” Rigel asked.
I stopped. “What?” Against my better judgment, I turned around to look at him.
His gaze flickered to the others.
I glanced over my shoulder, where Chase, Skye, and Lord Linus waited. “I’ll meet you all in the gardens,” I said.
Skye pressed her lips together, but bowed and picked her way through the wreckage, heading for the gardens. Lord Linus strolled after her. Chase did, too, but he stopped when he reached the garden entrance and took up a guarding position—just far enough away that he probably couldn’t hear what Rigel and I said if we talked quietly, but close enough he could reach me if there was trouble.
“What would I shout about?” I asked.
My headache was getting worse—my ears were almost buzzing from the pain as I struggled to contain my emotions and hold Rigel’s gaze.
He shrugged. “About being gone for so long.”
I held my breath until my lungs burned—reminding me I was still alive even though this felt like a cosmic joke. “If you’d been gone for a week I would have scolded you. Two, and I would have shouted at you. But, Rigel, you’ve been gone for two months.”
“And that means it’s not worth raising your ire?”
“No. It means—” I cut myself off and squeezed my eyes shut.
It means I love you, and you abandoned me. You left without telling me anything—without even thinking of me. You care that little about me.
I opened my eyes. “It means you hurt me.”
Whatever Rigel expected from me, that was not it. A few wrinkles marred his perfect complexion as he furrowed his brow. “Hurt you?”
“You left—for months—after I’d been nearly killed in our rooms,” I said. “You didn’t leave a message—Eventide found your cellphone in your room, and now you stroll back and—” I cut myself off and had to swallow as my eyes burned with tears again.
“I’d left before and you never minded,” Rigel said.
“You’d disappear for three days—or a week, maximum!” I snarled. “Two months, Rigel. Two months! I didn’t know if you really were behind the trap that injured me, or if you just got sick of being consort and decided to leave—I had no idea what you were thinking!”
Rigel narrowed his eyes. “The trap hurt you?”
“Yes! It was rigged between our rooms—I thought I was safe because I felt protected whenever I was with you—which was my mistake,” I snapped. “And you know what? It messed up my shoulder pretty bad, but that hurt way less than you leaving.”
“But I didn’t harm you. I didn’t set up the trap.” Rigel’s expression was so certain, I couldn’t handle it.
He doesn’t get it at all. He doesn’t understand why leaving me would make me upset, because it would never occur to him to care like that.
My tears finally broke through my weak control and dripped down my face. I’m not a pretty crier. I’m sure I was red faced and ugly as I clenched my hands into fists.
“Even if you didn’t set up the trap, you abandoned me.” My voice shook, but at least the pitch was steady. I hadn’t gone squeaky, yet. “And that hurt me way worse.”
I turned away from my consort and blindly stumbled toward Chase, my shoulders twitching as I tried to hold in a sob.