“Shhh. I don’t want to hear you apologize.” He tucks me even tighter and takes in a shuddering breath from my hair. “Mason told me you fell. They found you… I thought—”

“I’m all right.”

“I thought I’d lost you,” he finishes with a whisper.

My heart skips a beat. He sniffs my skin, a low growl rumbling through his chest. Is he smelling Alexei’s scent on me? Then he lowers his lips to mine. I feel the brush of his beard, the brief heat of his mouth, but draw away. I don’t deserve his kiss.

Stepping out of his hold, I tuck my hands into my back pockets. “I’m all right,” I say again, covering my awkwardness. “Are you okay?”

He searches my face, a crease in his brow, but drops his hands. “Are you injured?”

“No. What about you? Your face?” I reach up to test the crusting claw lines with my fingers, stopping myself before I touch tender flesh.

“It’s nothing.”

“Nothing? You need to get that—”

“You came back.” Soft heat warms his steady gaze.

“Course. Why? You thought I’d make a run for it?”

He twitches a smile. “I wasn’t a hundred percent certain. I was also unsure the Faelands would let you through. I just wanted you away from him. I’m sorry I took that chance.”

“I was fine. Well, I had to circle a blasted log a few times before the Faelands let me find the gate, but it got me here a lot faster than I could have run it. How did you get away from Alexei?”

A shadow steals the brief moment of ease from his face. “He let me go. I assume when the Blood Guard left Blackriver.”

“After all that, he just let you go?”

Flanagan’s sigh sounds pained and exhausted. “He only drew me away from Blackriver for the attack. Once it was over…”

Guilt climbs, drying my throat. Flanagan left the mansion for me. Left his post for the man who nearly killed his soldiers. I’m surprised Alexei freed him. Why wouldn’t he want to lock his mortal enemy in a dungeon somewhere out of the way?

“How did Alexei know when the guard left?” I ask.

“The Anlu’kyr communicate through telepathy. From any distance. It gives them an advantage we cannot match, even with witches.”

Was that why I could hear Alexei and Radomir in my mind? Another reminder that I’m part vamp.

“The Faelands held me hostage longer than Alexei,” Flanagan says. “It kept me most of the night. Until I threatened to murder the Queen with my own hands if it didn’t show me the road.”

I expel a laugh. “Shouldn’t that Goddess tattoo of yours be like a VIP pass? The whole forest is Flame.”