“And, uh, that’s it. I found you safe and sound in your room even though the king and queen had sent the hologram out of you in distress on the mountain for us to reach. But,” he exhaled loudly, “since I did not reach your hologram by midnight, you were,” he looked to the ceiling, clenching his teeth, not willing to finish the sentence without a moment to collect himself first, “promised to the boys who did.”
My heart fractured.
“I was disqualified.”
He’d known the difference between me and a hologram, and that hadn’t been good enough?
“So, does that mean there are three other men who can feel me like you can?”
He swallowed hard. “Yes.”
The thought scared me. I had some intense connection to three other men? “Where are they? Did they come looking for me too after I was taken by my mother?”
He screwed his eyes shut. “Ripley. I really don’t like thinking about the other men who you were promised to.”
I gulped and pressed on. “Did they come looking for me like you did?”
He sighed. “They did not.”
I narrowed my eyes. He had been the only one to search for me no matter where I hid, no matter the distraction. My heart fluttered and my stomach flipped. I didn’t want to be connected to other people. It was too much. It was unwarranted. Not when Fletcher had proven himself more than once.
Fletcher gulped for a second time, as if he preferred I didn’t have a curiosity about them. He preferred to be the only one.
“They are in Elizy. Waiting for your safe return.”
I looked away, suddenly feeling violated by knowing other men—strangers—could feel my distress like Fletcher could. “I don’t want them to feel me.”
“Me too.” He gave me a glance and blurted, “I have a surprise for you,” ready to finish with this conversation.
I furrowed my brows, remembering the last time someone had a surprise for me only to be locked in that cage with Mirin by my mother. My heartbeat fluttered as every part of me burned with the impulse to flee.
“Whoa,” he muttered as he, too, felt my panic. “Hey, what’s going on?”
“My mother. She said she had a surprise for me and locked me up.”
He tilted his head, brows pulling upward and making his brown eyes large with worry. “Okay. Let me rephrase it. I have someone I’d like you to meet. I just need you to get dressed first.”
Sensing his calm and seeing his earnest smile took the edge of the trauma away. “I don’t have any clothes here.”
Fletcher reached over his shoulders and yanked his shirt over his head. “Use this.”
The tattoo did not distract me as much as the wounds—my wounds—that now marred his body. On the shoulder without the tattoo was a deep gouge that still glistened of crimson blood.
“Fletcher—”
“Don’t. Don’t say a word. Just put it on.” He got up and opened the bottom drawer of Aldris’s dresser, pulling out my leather pants he had purchased for me during our first night in Ellion City. “We don’t know where your shirt went, but I believe these are yours.”
I stood, wrapped my hair in a top knot, and put on the pants. Then, Fletcher tossed me one of his black shirts that I dressed myself in. The hem fell to just above my knees and the sleeves to my elbows. It smelled like him, and it felt like he was staking a claim on me.
He smirked.You can wear something of Aldris’s instead if you’d like.
The thought of taking it off bothered me, making my answer clear. As long as Fletcher was around me, I felt a bit safer. I crossed my arms over my chest and grabbed my shoulders. “No, thanks.” I smiled. “But if you find my leather shirt, you can put it on.”
He gave a quiet chuckle as I tugged on my pants.
“Ready?”
I nodded.
