Rhys sighed as a fresh wave of pain enveloped him. How was he ever going to face another day without Lily? He no longer cared about Ulrik or the war that was coming. Nothing mattered anymore. Lily had taken the light from his life when she left.
He turned away from the doorway and braced a hand on the wall of the tunnel. The warmth was gone from Lily’s body. She was growing cold.
Rhi walked to him and put an arm around him. “The hurt won’t ever go away. It might lessen, but it’ll always be there.”
“I was meant to protect her,” he ground out, feeling more powerless than he had since Ulrik’s curse.
“You couldn’t know her brother would shoot her,” Henry said.
Rhys slammed a fist into the wall, the force causing a carved bit of a dragon’s wing to break off. “Ulrik won. Or at least he thinks he has. His men got onto Dreagan, they shot me, and they killed my mate.”
“But they didn’t get the weapon,” Henry reminded him.
Rhi leaned back against the wall to look at Rhys. “In case you’ve forgotten, handsome, you broke the spell Ulrik used. You shifted without dying.”
“How does that even matter now?” Rhys asked as he met her gaze.
Henry stepped toward them. “It means you can kill the asshole.”
Rhys pushed away from the wall. “That I already planned to do.”
“Con will stop you,” Rhi said.
“He can try.”
Rhys was tired of talking about all of it. He needed to take Lily’s body to her family and explain as best he could. Then he was going to track down Ulrik. He spun away from Rhi and Henry and strode into the small chamber, only to draw up short. Lily’s body was gone. He stared in shocked confusion as the last shred of his control snapped.
“Where is she?” Rhys bellowed. He pivoted and found Rhi blocking his way. “Who was here? Who took Lily?”
“Took her?” Rhi asked, her brow furrowed. She leaned to the side and looked around Rhys. “How is she gone?”
He gently pushed Rhi out of the way and walked out. Whoever took her couldn’t have gone far. Since Rhi was there, he knew she hadn’t taken Lily. But whoever did was going to be beaten to a pulp.
Rhys was so distraught, he almost missed the movement in the shadows of the tip of a black boot. He slowed and then stopped. He knew those boots. Slowly he turned and faced the shadow. “Lily?”
With his heart pounding in his chest, Rhys anxiously waited for a response. He stumbled backward when she stepped out of the shadows.
“How?” he asked hoarsely.
If it was a trick, it was the cruelest form. His vision blurred as tears gathered along with hope that she might truly have returned to him. Could she have some Fae blood that brought her back?
“I’m going to get Lily some clean clothes,” Rhi said and vanished.
Lily’s eyes widened.
Henry chuckled as he walked to Lily. “I’m fairly certain that was my reaction the first time I saw Rhi as well. She’s a Fae, a Light Fae, that is. I’m Henry North, just a common mortal.”
Rhys had never been so jealous of Henry as he was when Lily shook his hand. She had yet to come to Rhys, and he couldn’t fathom why she’d left the chamber instead of calling his name. He was right outside. She had to have heard his conversation, she had to know how broken he was.
Henry glanced at Rhys and lightly placed an arm on Lily’s back to return her to the chamber. “I didn’t get the chance to meet you earlier, Lady Lily, but it’s a pleasure.”
Rhys watched them, unable to move. He was ecstatic that Lily was alive, but concerned with how she was. And he was hurt because it appeared as if she were running from him. Him. Of all people.
Did she blame him for her death? Was she angry that he had failed her? She couldn’t possibly hold more contempt for him than he did himself. He’d promised her she would be safe, and yet she died.
Ever since Ireland, his life had been unraveling. Lily was the only thing that kept him together. He’d taken it for granted that he could win her. His plan to stop Ulrik had failed spectacularly, and it was the one person he cared for above all others that got hurt.
The one who wasn’t even supposed to have been there.
“I should’ve thought of it,” he said.
Rhys should’ve taken the time to think through every possible scenario. He thought he knew Dennis and Ulrik. He assumed their methods would be repeated from the past, but he had been wrong.
So very wrong.
Con often called him reckless and rash. He’d proven that day that he was both of those things, even with his mate.
He looked up when Rhi appeared in front of him. Her face was lined with regret. “She’s done changing if you want to talk to her.”
Rhys lifted his gaze to the doorway. He went to Lily as Rhi and Henry walked away. Rhys stopped at the door. Lily was leaning against the slab she’d previously lain dead on. She looked at her hands, which held a string in her fingers that she twirled.
“I’ve never been so happy as I am to see you alive.”
Lily lifted her head, and for the first time he noticed the bruise completely gone from her cheek. Would the wound from the bullet be as well?