His companion smiled, but sadness still filled his eyes. It was as if something had broken inside of Rayne. Of course, if Caelan walked in right now and demanded Rayne come up with a solution to their New Rosanthe problem, Rayne would instantly pull himself together and do exactly as Caelan asked. But Drayce was more worried that if something wasn’t done right now, the broken part of Rayne would never get fixed. Rayne would stay broken, and no one would ever be able to reach that part of him again.
Rayne needed to talk.
“But if you started dating in Shallow Edge, how did Eno react when he found out about Shey?” Drayce prodded.
As he’d hoped, the smile returned and there was even an added twinkle in his green eyes for just a second. He quickly wiped the look from his face, but Drayce wasn’t convinced. “Shey is in the past.”
“Uh-huh, sure. I also saw how Shey stares at you.” Drayce leaned in close, pulling out his best teasing voice. “The man wants to devour you, and he wasn’t being sneaky about it.” He pulled away to see just the tiniest brightness to Rayne’s cheeks. “Eno strikes me as the chest-beating, possessive type. Did he really shrug it all off?”
Rayne cleared his throat. “Not exactly.”
“So, he cares. And maybe that’s why he wants you to stay here in Stormbreak. I bet we can break the Empire on our way out the door, and then you can get everything in order with some help from Tomas and General Morgan. Eno probably thought you’d be safest here.”
When Rayne shifted to face him, the rage had returned and was burning like fire in his brilliant green eyes. Drayce swallowed hard and started to rethink his earlier conclusion that he couldn’t make Rayne lose his temper enough to punch him.
“His job isn’t to keep me safe. It’s to protect Caelan and do what is best for him. What’s best for King Caelan is to have his advisor at his side,” Rayne replied, his voice growing in volume with each word.
Drayce fought the urge to inch back a little bit. “Sure, but it’s his job as your boyfriend to keep you safe. Maybe after everything we’ve been through, after seeing you hurt, his brain broke. Or maybe his heart seized an opportunity. Leaving me behind might keep me safe, but I can’t do anything here that would be more useful than protecting Cael. You, on the other hand, could save a lot of people in Stormbreak by staying here.”
Rayne kept the ice balanced on his hand as he shoved his left one into his hair. “I know,” he admitted in a trembling tone. “I could do a lot of good here. At least clean up the mess Croft has made and keep the city safe for Caelan’s return. This is my home. My family is here. I would happily bleed for Erya.”
“But…”
His hand fell from his hair into his lap. “This…this is bigger than Erya, Drayce.” He paused and frowned, as if he were struggling to put his thoughts into words.
Drayce’s stomach was growing queasier by the second. This wasn’t good, but then he’d already had that feeling while they were all talking downstairs.
“It’s like we’ve been given twenty random pieces from a five-hundred-piece puzzle. We don’t know what the big picture is, but the glimpses we’ve gotten aren’t good.” Rayne shook his head slowly. “If we make sacrifices to save Erya, I think we lose in the end. But I’m afraid that to save all of Thia, it might mean we have to walk away from what’s happening in Stormbreak.”
“To have any hope of saving Erya, we have to save all of Thia from this Goddess of the Hunt,” Drayce summarized. He paused and nodded. “Yeah, if that’s the case, I definitely want you with us. But what about the gods and the goddesses?”
“I don’t trust them,” Rayne quickly replied.
Drayce’s mouth fell open. Not what he was expecting Rayne to say at all. “Ooookayyy…”
“I don’t like the influence Kaes has had on Caelan. Since bonding with the God of Storms, he’s been more impulsive and given to violence. He’s never been either.”
“True, but he’s also working through losing his mom.”
Rayne’s expression grew even darker. “And I wonder if Kaes is using that to control Caelan.”
“What about Tula? She’s the Goddess of Life. Wouldn’t she temper some of that violence?”
Rayne shook his head. “I don’t trust her. I’m not sure why. Something happened when Caelan met with the goddess. I don’t think he trusts her either.”
Drayce bounced to his feet and rubbed both hands on the top of his head. This was getting way too heavy for his poor brain. “Dude, we’ve already got two, and now Caelan is supposed to go meet with this Dead God. What the fuck! If you don’t trust the first two, how smart is it to go pick up a third?”