Damn it, she needed to ask him so many things.
She stepped into a dark hallway, frowned at how very dim it was. Why couldn’t she see well? “Rhodes?” She could hear the fear in her voice, hated it. But panic gripped her chest tight.
Then he was there, but instead of hovering, he’d crouched again so that he was closer to her eye level. “Why are you not by the fire?” His eyes were glowing, lighting up the darkened hallway.
“Something is wrong with me,” she whispered.
“I know. You’ve been poisoned by fae.”
She gasped. “In our realm?” She hadn’t misremembered those fae, the glowing blue orb, her fall from the sky. Oh no. No, no, no.
“They are dead. I made sure of it.” His dragon looked back at her now, the switch from human eyes to dragon instantaneous. The green-gold was even brighter. “I sent their heads to your family.”
She swallowed hard. “They shouldn’t have been able to get into our realm.”
“I know.” His expression was dark, his jaw set tight. “They will never harm you or anyone again.”
“Do you know…what kind of poison?”
He paused. “Not for certain, but I can guess.”
“Am I going to…” She didn’t want to say the word.
“No,” he snarled. “I’ve already given you a small injection that should combat the full effects until I get you to a healer. It is the only reason I didn’t take you back to the Nova realm immediately. As soon as you’ve eaten…I will return you to the Nova realm and you will see a healer.” Too many emotions crossed his face as he spoke and she couldn’t grasp on to any one of them.
She shook her head. “No way. We crossed the portal obviously. Right?”
He nodded.
“We continue to New Orleans then. There’s an ancient healer there, she’ll heal me. And we’re at the halfway point anyway so it’s no farther to go there.”
“You don’t wish to return home?”
“I was sent on a mission and I’m not stopping until it’s complete. You can come with me or not, but I’m not returning home.” In reality, he could probably force her.
“I will go where you go, do whatever you command.”
Oh. Ohhhh, she liked the way he said that way too much. He must have been ordered to listen to her, which made sense. Even so, the way he said the words sent a frisson of heat spiraling through her. She had so much more to ask him, however. “Do the guards at the portal know of the fae in the realm?”
He paused, then nodded.
She wasn’t sure what to make of the pause. “What?”
“I punched one of them when they would not listen to me. But when I tossed the head of one of the fae in front of them, they stopped acting like assholes. They raced back to the castle with the heads and bodies so your family knows about the breach.”
“What did they say about…me?” She was surprised they’d let him pass through the portal with her unconscious.
“I did not tell them about you,” he said matter-of-factly as he suddenly scooped her up in his arms again.
She wanted to be annoyed, but she really, really liked the feel of him holding her so close. He had on a tunic, similar to the one he’d given her, but she could feel how built he was, the raw power of him. And her legs were weak anyway. “You lied to them?”
“No. I simply did not tell them about you. When they went to deliver the bodies and news, I left with you. I don’t answer to them.” His voice was a low, deadly growl as he sat her in front of the fire again.
“Who do you answer to?” She was hoping he’d finally tell her who had ordered him to escort her.
“You.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Rhodes watched the princess—Stella—closely. Curiously. She had surprised him in more ways than one.
He’d been fascinated from the moment he’d started watching her.
But when she’d touched his face earlier, he hadn’t known what to do. So he’d remained still, hoping she would continue to stroke his skin.
Now she was staring at him with wide bicolored eyes—one a bluish green that reminded him of the Mediterranean and the other a silvery gray. As she watched him, it was difficult to read her. The fire created shadows across her face, her emotions flickering too quickly across her expression, too many for him to discern. Her silvery hair was in disarray, falling over her shoulders in loose waves. The silver was a familial trait the royal family shared. That and other magical powers.
Unfortunately her magic would be muted now because of the poison.
He wished he could kill those fae bastards again. Then again, for daring to hurt her.
“Me?” she whispered, hesitation in her voice.
“You’re a princess.” His princess. “Of course I answer to you.” His dragon wanted nothing more than to make her happy. To an extent that it confused him.
Her cheeks flushed a delicate shade of pink and the scent that rolled off her—he wasn’t sure what it was, how to read it. But he liked it, sweet and sensual, like strawberries.
“I would like to go outside then.” Her voice was quiet, almost subdued.
And he wanted to argue that she stay right where she was by the fire. He didn’t like how icy her skin felt. It wasn’t that cold outside at least, not like in the Nova realm, where it seemed to be frigid all the time.
Growling under his breath, he scooped her up again, ignored her little yelp of surprise.
“I can walk.”
“You have been poisoned.” She would not be doing anything until she got to a healer. He wasn’t certain why she wanted to go outside but there was no one near this little farmhouse he’d found. It had been abandoned long ago and other than the animals in a nearby forest, there were no humans he could scent or hear.
She laid her head against his shoulder as he strode out the front door and onto a large porch covered in pollen and dust. He tried not to focus on the way she’d curled up against him so naturally. He knew he shouldn’t get used to this, shouldn’t enjoy it at all. Not when she’d been injured. It was the only reason she was leaning on him.
A half-moon hung in the sky and a blanket of stars lit up everything around them for miles.
“Put me down,” she murmured, wiggling in his arms.
He shoved down a groan. He didn’t want to let her go and had to lock down the direction his thoughts were headed. Gently he eased her down, liking the way his tunic looked on her even if it was too big. He knew she must have brought a bag with her, but he hadn’t been able to find it in the forest and there hadn’t been time to extensively search for it. He’d wanted to get her to safety in case there had been more fae lurking.
She pushed the tunic up on her shoulder, but it fell down again. “Can you turn around please?”
He frowned down at her as she nervously twisted her thick hair around her hand, just watching him with that inscrutable expression. Did she…realize he hadn’t been sent by her family? That he wasn’t really a bodyguard? Her assumption had been fortuitous, but maybe he had betrayed himself somehow. He hadn’t been raised in the castle, hadn’t been raised by dragons, so perhaps he’d done something small and she’d picked up on it. “No.”