Maybe I was too impatient. As a statue, it’s not like he would’ve known if I waited a few more hours before I tried to bring him back with the Brinkburn. I haven't eaten enough. Lord knows I could use a shower and a nap.
I hadn’t cared, though. The second I stumbled back into our apartment in Newport, I had to know if everything I went through was worth it. If the crystal shattered the spell on Nine, if I saved him, I could get past it all—I just needed my Shadow Man.
And all he wants to do is leave.
His explanations are worthless. I can barely hear them over the pulse of blood in my head, and the breaking of my heart.
“I’ll never survive here. The sun… it’s not made for my kind. And the iron… I can feel it around me already. Weakening me. Stealing my strength. I won’t be able to protect you anymore. Don’t you see?”
“What did you expect me to do?” I snap. “Leave you behind? Leave you with her?”
Nine reaches for me, his burned hand heading toward my cheek, pausing when a few inches still linger between us. He pulls back, and sighs. “Shadow—”
That name.
That name.
“Don’t call me that.”
He nods. “I understand.”
Does he?
I want to launch myself at him. Throw myself into his arms, let him touch me while I’m pressing my skin against his, my lips against his. Was that kiss a fluke? Did I imagine his whole claiming me in front of the queen and her court?
I think I left that Nine behind in Faerie. Because this Nine? There’s something in the set of his jaw, the dark look in his silver gaze that has me feeling like I’m a kid again and I’ve upset my Shadow Man.
The scoff escapes me. It’s either that or a sob. “And I’m not asking you to protect me, Nine.”
His lips thin. “That’s my duty.”
Right. His duty all because of a bargain he made with my mother more than twenty years ago.
“Callie told me all about it. About how the Fae Queen sent her soldiers after me, and how she used your debt to my father to trick you into agreeing to watch over me. Well, in case you haven’t noticed it yet, my… my parents are back. You don’t have to do your duty anymore, okay?”
“A human could never trick a fae.”
Of course that’s what the Dark Fae took away from everything I just said.
“Whatever.”
“Riley—”
This is the night in the cemetery all over again. When his honesty was too much for me and I couldn't take it.
I sent him away then.
This time, I don’t. I can't.
Because I know—I know—that if I push Nine away this time, if I tell him to go away, there’s a good chance he won’t come back.
I can’t do this. And when Nine reaches for me again, I pull back, dodging his fingers. I won’t give him the satisfaction of sending him away.
I storm out of the apartment on my own instead.
11
“Riley, wait up.”