Con opened his mouth to reply, but Ryder beat him to it.
“Henry, you’ve no’ slept in thirty-two hours. Take a rest and eat,” Ryder urged. “You’ll feel better once you do.”
Henry looked from Con to Ryder before he turned and stalked from the room.
“He’s in love with Rhi,” Ryder said as he looked up at Con. “Do us all a favor and try to remember that when you’re doing your usual bashing of her.”
Con ignored his words. “I want to know the moment you find Ulrik. It would be even better if we could discover who else is helping him. Ulrik is good, but he couldna do all of this on his own. He has people. Let’s find them.”
“Will do,” Ryder replied.
Con started out of the room, but paused at the door. He looked back at Ryder to find the Dragon King watching him. “I do remember Henry’s feelings. It’s why I didna tell him what I truly think about Rhi and Ulrik.”
“You think she’s turning Dark.”
It wasn’t a question, and Con didn’t treat it as such. “When was the last time you saw her wear pink?”
Ryder shrugged. “I doona know.”
“Before Balladyn kidnapped and tortured her. He kept her in his fortress for weeks, Ryder. He used the Chains of Mordare.”
“She broke the unbreakable Chains of Mordare,” Ryder stated with a grin.
Con still couldn’t believe Rhi had broken them. Every Fae throughout eternity who had worn them had died horribly. And yet Rhi had shattered them. “That she did, but it doesna alter the fact that she is changed.”
“So was Kellan after the Dark tortured him.”
“Rhi is refusing to see the queen.”
At this news, Ryder’s eyes widened. “That can no’ be right. Rhi’s greatest achievement was being a Queen’s Guard. She adores Usaeil.”
“Adored would be the correct word. It doesna help that Usaeil was having her followed by another of the Queen’s Guard.”
“She’s going to lose Rhi’s trust.”
Con lowered his gaze as he thought back to what he’d heard the last time he visited Usaeil. “She already has.”
“You’ve certainly taken a keen interest recently with the Queen of the Light.”
He’d wondered if anyone had tried to discover where he had been going. Now he knew. He was going to have to be more careful. “Update me as soon as you find anything.”
Con walked back to his office. He was more worried than anyone knew, because they had yet to put the pieces together. Ulrik was dangerous and could bring down the Kings with the help of the Dark.
Rhi knew things about the Kings because of her lover, some of which she could use against them.
Put Ulrik and Rhi together, and Con wasn’t sure if the Kings could win. That’s what kept him up at night.
The latest with the Dark making themselves known in Scotland was infuriating and was something that needed to be handled immediately.
The only good thing was that the Dark’s attempt to discover the weapon that could destroy the Dragon Kings had been put on hold. But for how long?
Every decision, every move he made was with the thought of the Kings’ survival. He was thinking of every conceivable notion and attempting to prepare. The wrench in everything was Rhi.
Would the Light Fae turn against the Kings? Or would she continue to stand beside them?
He’d known the moment he first saw her all those centuries ago that she was trouble. Rhi had her own set of rules, and despite being a great fighter, she was stubborn to a fault and extremely dangerous when her temper was up.
And lately her temper was always up.
The same power that allowed her to revive a dying world could destroy one without even realizing it if she couldn’t control her anger.
Con wouldn’t change the past or what he had done or said to Rhi. Thankfully, there was a King who considered her a close friend. Now all Con had to do was convince Rhys.
* * *
Thorn stared down at the woman as a new day dawned. She was huddled beneath the blankets. Naked.
That part had been … difficult. He was a male, after all. It was in his makeup to look at a woman. And he hated himself for wanting a peek of her when she was ill.
It had taken both him and Darius to get her out of her soaked clothing. Thorn shielded her as much as he could, which meant he was holding her while Darius cut off her clothes. Then Thorn had buried her under a mountain of blankets with the heat cranked up.
What worried him was that she had yet to stop shivering. Her fever was just as high as it had been when he carried her into the flat.
“We could ask Con to heal her,” Darius said from the doorway.
Thorn shook his head. “He willna. Con will protect the humans as a race, but he willna risk coming here and the Dark seeing him to save one female.”
“Her name is Lexi Crawford.”
Thorn raised a brow as he looked at Darius. “You snooped.”
“I got tired of calling her ‘the female.’ I found her identification in her jacket.”
Thorn rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “This place is safe enough to leave her, but she’s too sick.”
“She needs medicine.”
“Aye, but what kind?” Thorn threw up his hands in defeat. “I doona know the first thing about treating a human illness.”
Darius made a sound at the back of his throat. “Then are we no’ lucky to have so many humans as mates to the Kings? Call one of them.”
Thorn berated himself for not thinking of that sooner. He pulled out his phone and dialed Darcy. The Druid answered in the middle of the second ring.
“Hey, Thorn,” she said cheerfully.
“Hello, Darcy.”
“Oh,” she said, her voice dipping low and her Scots accent deepening. “You don’t sound good. Is everything going all right? I know Warrick wants to be there helping you.”
Thorn looked down at Lexi. “He needs to be there with you.”
“Then what’s going on? I can tell by your voice that something is wrong.”
“There’s a sick woman.”
There was a beat of silence before Darcy said, “Then ask her what’s wrong.”
“I can no’. She passed out hours ago and has yet to wake.”
“Okay.” Darcy blew out a breath. “Tell me her symptoms.”
“She has a fever. When I touch her skin, it burns.”
“Not good,” Darcy mumbled. “What else?”
“She’s shivering, her breathing is labored and wheezing.” Thorn swallowed. “She was out in the rain all day yesterday.”
“You were following her?”
Thorn didn’t want to reveal too much or have Darcy read too much into things. “Darius and I spotted her several times following the Dark. I suspect one of them killed someone close to her, and she’s out for revenge.”
“Except,” Darcy urged when he paused.
“They’re on to her.” Thorn closed his eyes. “She’s no’ quite immune to them, but they doona affect her as they do others.”
Darcy grunted through the phone. “You mean how they affected me that first time.”
“Aye. And, just so you know, I brought her to your flat.”
“I was going to suggest that. It’s the only place the Dark can’t get to her in the city. You said she’s been unconscious?”
“She has.”
“Thorn, she needs medicine and a doctor. It could be nothing more than a simple cold, or it could be the flu. Either way, you can’t let her fever continue. It has to be broken.”
She was talking to him as if Thorn would know how to do something like that. “How do you break a fever?”
“Medicine, usually, but my mother put my sister in a bath filled with ice water once.”
That he could do. “What else?”
“She needs fluids. She can’t get dehydrated.”
He frowned. That wasn’t going to be as easy. “Anything else?”
“Find a doctor.”
“You know we can no’.”
“If the fever doesn’t break, you won’t have a choice unless you want her to die.”