“Why didn’t you come home?” Caelan demanded. His fingers dug into muscle and flesh. Drayce whimpered in pain and need. The damn bars were keeping them separated and he needed them gone. He needed to feel Caelan wrapped around him.
“I fucked up. I panicked. I shouldn’t have shifted, and I thought you were dead. Then you weren’t and you were pissed. I fucked up,” he choked out, broken thoughts tumbling from his lips.
Caelan snarled and pulled away, stepping into the center of the corridor. Drayce let out a soft cry and reached for Caelan, his fingers barely brushing across the soft wool of his coat. Rage twisted up Caelan’s features, and he threw out a hand in the direction of the guard station. It was the same expression that had spread across Caelan’s face just before he’d slaughtered everyone in the raiders’ camp in Zastrad.
“Cael, no. This isn’t their fault. Don’t hurt anyone,” he pleaded. He desperately stretched, trying to reach Caelan. He couldn’t let him do something he’d regret later.
Footsteps came running down the corridor. Seconds later a pale, wide-eyed guard appeared with a set of keys in his shaking hand. He went straight to Drayce’s cell and unlocked the door.
“Leave,” Caelan barked and then waved his hand, dismissing the man completely as he stepped inside.
Drayce collapsed into his strong arms. Caelan staggered under his weight, and they fell to the floor in a heap. Sobs broke uncontrollably from Drayce’s throat, and Caelan pulled him tighter and tighter into his arms as if he were trying to pull Drayce into his chest.
“I lost you. I thought…I thought I lost you,” Drayce gasped. It was the only clear idea repeating in his head—Caelan dead on the floor of the Mount Langbo cave.
“You didn’t lose me. You’re never going to lose me. I will always fight to get back to you,” Caelan promised. His breath was hot against the shell of his ear and his words were weaving such magic in his mind. They washed away the last of the fear and horror that had dug deep into him for the past three months. In his lover’s arms, he felt free.
Drayce didn’t know how long it took him to pull himself together, but Caelan held him and whispered reassurances the entire time. He was utterly drained when his tears dried and he stopped shaking. He roughly scrubbed his hand over his face, wiping away tears and snot on the cuff of his shirt before looking up at Caelan.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” he apologized again.
Warmth and worry filled Caelan’s pale-blue eyes, but all traces of the earlier coldness were gone. “No apology necessary. I’m pissed you had to keep something like that from me, but it’s not your fault.”
A heavy sigh of relief rushed from Drayce’s parted lips, and he dropped his head on Caelan’s shoulder. “Babe, you have no idea how much I wanted to tell you. It was like dying from a thousand tiny cuts.”
“Babe,” Caelan murmured to himself with a hint of amusement in his voice. “I feel like I need to come up with an endearment for you. Or maybe I should start calling you Souta.”
Drayce cringed, his fingers clenching in Caelan’s coat as if speaking that name alone could cause them to be ripped apart. “No. Not that. Never call me that.”
“But it is your name, right? The name you were given at birth.”
“I stopped being Takahashi Souta the second I flew away from the Isle of Stone and landed in Erya.” And he was glad. Had been glad from the moment he hit the air. He never thought he’d be here, would never have to take up the mantle of Takahashi again.
“Drayce,” Caelan whispered and he instantly relaxed. Just hearing Caelan say his name was endearment enough. “Will you talk to me? Tell me what’s going on? We arrived a few days ago and have been utterly lost since we stepped foot on this island.”
He lifted his head. “Eno and Rayne are here too?”
Caelan nodded. “We also brought Adrian Westergren with us.” Before Drayce could react, Caelan poked Drayce in the chest and narrowed his eyes. “He is not a replacement for you. Rayne and Eno thought we could use more help until we could find you.”
His grumpy king knew how to say all the best things to make his heart do cartwheels in his chest. He grabbed Caelan’s finger and pressed a kiss to the tip. “I was gonna say that I like Adrian. He’s a good choice. He’s smart and funny and cheats at cards.”
Caelan’s expression softened. “Eno picked him because of his skill and loyalty. I might have picked him because he likes you a lot.”
Drayce shrugged. “He’s got good taste. Like a certain king I know.”
“Not that kind of like, or I would have kicked him out of Stormbreak. I definitely wouldn’t have brought him along to rescue you,” Caelan growled.