Throne of Silver (Silver Fae Book 1)

by KB Anne

  He stopped talking and turned to me. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

  “No, it’s worse,” I wanted to say, but instead I lifted my head up and down once in agreement. Let him think he was getting one over me if it made him feel better, but someone would pay for this.

  “Do you want to tell me why you didn’t call me and let me know you were coming down to the cabin?” Ben asked pretending to be hurt.

  Christian squeezed my hand. “Just checking on the place. It’s been a while.”

  “It has been a while,” he agreed, “but you’re full of crap.

  Christian straightened up in his bed. His face scrunched into a grimace. He was clearly in pain, but he wouldn’t admit it. He was a stubborn one. “Ben, it’s complicated. Really a need to know basis, and cousin, you don’t need to know.”

  “Listen cousin,” Ben replied, “somebody messed you up pretty good, and nobody messes with one of our own and gets away with it.”

  “Ben, let it go,” he said.

  The room crackled with electricity and testosterone. One of the machines started beeping again. Thirty seconds later, a nurse came in and said, “Enough excitement for one day. This boy nearly died. He needs to sleep and rest for several days.” Her body language threatened us more than her words. “Now you two need to get out of here.”

  “No,” Christian growled, pulling my arm to his chest. “She’s not going anywhere.”

  “Could I stay if I’m quiet? I promise I won’t say a word.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Very well, you may stay. If I hear even a whisper, you’re out of here. Ben, back to work.”

  “Catch you later Bro,” Ben said, giving Christian a loaded look as he walked through the door. “Starr, can I talk to you a minute outside?”

  I stood to follow him. Christian tightened his grip on me. The machines started beeping again. “No! You’re not leaving my side.”

  “Christian, I promise I’ll be right back.”

  “No,” he said through clenched teeth.

  “Christian,” I bent over so my eyes were inches from his, “you’re the one, who said I would be safe here, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, but….”

  I sensed his resolve wavering and used it to my advantage. I leaned in to his ear so close I was almost kissing him. “Christian, I will be right back, I promise. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Fine,” he conceded. “But if you aren’t back in one minute, I’m coming after you.”

  I swept down to give him a peck on the cheek, but he turned his head so his lips met mine instead. He managed to wrap his arms around me, wires and all, and pulled me in to deepen the kiss. The machines started beeping louder. The forgotten nurse cleared her throat.

  I stood up quickly. “Sorry.” I shrugged as I walked past her.

  “I mean it, young lady.” She stopped to waggle her finger in front of my nose. “If you want to go back in there, you better not say or do anything that’s going to excite him. He needs to stay calm.”

  I cast my eyes down. “Yes, ma’am.” She gave me another humpf and stomped off. Ben started laughing when we couldn’t hear her squeaky shoes anymore.

  “Don’t mind her. Her bark is worse than her bite,” he said.

  I smiled at him.

  “Listen, I’m sorry for accusing you of hurting Christian. He’s a big boy. I guess I’m just a little protective of him after all he’s been through.” He let his response hang in the air, waiting for me to volley it back because I knew exactly what Christian had been through or if I let it drop like a bomb in front of me, it proved that I knew nothing about Christian and had no right to be here now.

  “I’m sorry he got involved in this mess. I would never, could never, do anything to intentionally hurt him.”

  He stepped closer. “What is going on?”

  His eyes were so honest and kind. I wanted to tell him everything. “It’s a long story, and I promised him I would only be gone a minute. If I’m not back soon, he’ll freak out.”

  “I thought you’ve only known him a week.”

  “It’s been one hell of a week.”

  “Must have,” Ben said, opening the door for me. “I’ve never seen Christian look at anyone the way he looks at you.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered. Heat gathered in my cheeks as I pushed open the door.

  As I entered the room, Christian smiled at me. I marveled at this boy who changed my life and my heart, so completely. I would do whatever was necessary to keep him safe.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “Well, don’t you two look cozy!” A loud cheerful voice broke the quiet of the room. I jerked awake. I must have fallen asleep in the chair next to his bed, our hands still linked together. Ben and the other orderly from last night stood together at the doorway.

  Christian grinned at the one with the ponytail. “What’s up Coda?”

  “Not much bro. You look a hell of a lot better than you did last night,” Coda said. His skin was lighter than Ben’s but darker than Christian’s. There was also a yellow undertone to it. He looked about my height—5’7” or 5’8”.

  “I feel a lot better too. Did the medicine man come and heal me during the night?”

  “No, just Dr. Wynn. She’s got major skill. She knows how to work...,” he paused glancing over at me, “magic.”

  Christian grinned. “Yes, she does. Coda, this is Starr. Starr, Coda. He and I go waaayyy back. These two characters are the best friends a guy could ever have, but they have a knack for finding trouble.”

  “Look, who’s talking.” Coda laughed a deep hearty laugh with every bone and muscle in his body joining in on the joke. “Who climbed up the tree to the honeycomb to get some sweet mountain honey and sent the entire bee colony after us? We had to jump in the lake to get away.”

  Christian rubbed his abs. “Man, that honey was good.”

  Ben elbowed Coda in the stomach as he walked into the room. “I’d love to chat about old times, but I want to know what happened to you last night.”

  Christian waved off Ben’s question. “It’s nothing.”

  Ben crossed his arms. “Nothing didn’t leave you almost dead.”

  I immediately tensed. I hated hearing the words “dead” and “Christian” in the same sentence.

  Christian squeezed my hand to ease my mind. He was the one lying in a hospital bed, but he was still trying to take care of me. “Seriously guys, don’t worry about it.” He purposefully didn’t look my way. He didn’t want the guys to think I had anything to do with his injuries, which was completely false, and they knew it.

  “Christian, either you tell us what happened or we’re sending in Rebecca,” Coda said. He raised his eyes up and down in true vaudeville villain fashion.

  Christian pulled his free hand to his chest in mock horror. “No, not Rebecca.”

  I almost forgot he had a life before he moved to Webster. That life would include old girlfriends, but I was still allowed to be curious. “Who’s Rebecca?”

  “Just a girl we grew up with. No one you need to worry about,” he smiled.

  Ben and Coda started laughing. “Just a girl who’s been following Christian like a lovesick puppy since the day she met him.”

  “Really?” I raised an eyebrow. “How interesting.”

  Christian shifted in his bed adjusting his blanket. “Starr,” he said, “it’s nothing. Whenever I visit, she comes over to say ‘hi,’ and then stays all day, talking endlessly about everything she’s done since she last saw me. I’m talking from the second I left Cherokee to the second I returned. She’d go on for hours and hours.”

  “And hours and hours,” Ben added.

  “Wait ‘til she finds out you’re back. It’s been almost two years. She could go on for days and days.” Coda laughed again.

  Ben chuckled with him. “More like weeks.”

  Christian’s eyes grew wide. “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “We could keep you a secret, I suppose…,” Ben pa
used for dramatic effect, “if you tell us what happened to you.”

  And there it was—the blackmail. The lighthearted mood of the room switched in the blink of an eye. Ben and Cody stood with their arms crossed. Their smiles erased. The threat of Rebecca made quite an impression, because Christian flopped back against his pillow and sighed.

  He gave me a tight-lipped smile before turning to his friends. “Starr and I came up to check the cabin. The horses couldn’t carry all the supplies the first trip, so I made a quick trip down to the barn to pick up the rest. I got off my horse and somebody grabbed me from behind. Another put a pillowcase over my head, and then tied my arms and legs together.” He winced either at the memory or from his current injuries. He glanced over at me. I tried to act calm, but the inside corner of my mouth got a workout from me biting it.

  “Then they picked me up and put me in the back of a van and drove off.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said Ben. He put up his hands to stop him. “Who took you and why?”

  “They wanted information,” Christian said his jaw tight.

  “About what?” Ben glanced over at me. My eyes dropped to the floor.

  “They didn’t say,” Christian said firmly enough that Ben looked back at him. “I was tied to a post and left to rot. Starr found me and brought me here.”

  Ben stood up from his chair and walked over to Christian’s bed. “I think you’re leaving out some vital information.”

  Ben’s massive six-four frame towered over his beaten body, but Christian raised his chin all the same. “I told you everything I know.”

  They glared at each other. Coda and I watched the contest of wills, waiting to see who would fold first.

  “So you forgot about the part where they tortured you.” Ben broke his staring contest with Christian to watch my reaction. I wilted under his gaze. My shoulders rounded in on themselves. I cowered before him. I was guilty, 100 percent guilty.

  Christian snorted. We all turned to him, confusion written across our faces. Not one part of our discussion was even remotely funny. He took a shallow breath. His eyes tightened as pain gripped his body, before he said, “I wasn’t tortured. I was pushed around once or twice, not tortured.”

  Ben was about to argue with him, but a new nurse came bustling into the room. “Good morning,” she said all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, the complete opposite of Nurse Ratched from last night or was it early this morning? My brain was too foggy to remember. “How are you feeling today?”

  “I’m feeling very well. Thank you,” he said then flashed Coda and Ben a defiant smile.

  The nurse clicked a pen while she read his chart. “The doctor will be in to see you in about an hour during her morning rounds.” Click. “Your pain medication is running low. She’ll speak with you about that.” Click. Click. “Do you need any pain management in the meantime?”

  Pain management sounded serious. I studied his every move. A grimace when she fluffed his pillow. A wince when she adjusted the bed. A tightened jaw when she took his temperature.

  “No, I don’t. Thank you.”

  She clicked the pen in quick succession. “You need some rest. Boys, give him some space. You have work to do anyway.”

  It wasn’t until she mentioned work that I realized they were both wearing blue hospital scrubs. My preoccupation with Christian gave me tunnel vision.

  Christian studied their hospital scrubs down to their shoes. His eyebrows pulled together in an adorable V—a facial expression he did when he was lost in thought or preoccupied. “You work at the hospital?”

  Ben’s dimple popped out when his lips turned into a sly grin. His shoes squeaked as he rocked back and forth. His hands rested at the collar of his scrub shirt. “We’re orderlies. Thinking about going into the medical profession someday.”

  “Don’t listen to him,” laughed Coda. “He’s here for the girls.” Ben swatted at Coda’s head. Either Coda’s too quick for him or he knew it was coming, because Ben’s hand whizzed through the air missing him entirely. He squatted down into a fighting position and took some playful jabs at Ben’s stomach.

  They were the best comedy act I’d ever seen. They cracked me up. I hadn’t laughed this hard in weeks.

  After their play fight ended, Ben turned to Christian, his jaw serious and tight. “We brought you in last night, so we know you were knocked around a good bit more than you’re letting on. We’ll be back after lunch, and then we’re finishing this conversation.”

  Coda slammed a fist into an open palm. The smack echoed through the room. “This conversation isn’t close to being over.”

  We watched in silence as they disappeared from the room. In their absence, my mind quickly returned to what the doctor said. “Tortured, Christian?” He winced as he turned to me. “The doctor told me you were tortured with blunt force objects. What the hell happened?”

  His hand searched for mine. It took everything in my power, but I stepped away from him. The dark circles under his eyes made me feel horrible, but I needed answers. We were talking about something much too serious to joke about. “Starr, it was nothing. I got pushed around. Someone hit me once or twice.”

  I recoiled at the thought of anyone laying a finger on Christian. He saw my expression. “Seriously, it was nothing.”

  I took another step back and crossed my arms. “I damn well know you were hit more than once. I’m not an idiot. I’m tougher than you give me credit for.” He raised his hand to stop me from talking, but I cut him off. I searched his deep blue eyes for any hint of deception but found nothing there. He either buried his torture so deep he didn’t remember, or his life meant so little to him, he didn’t want me to know. I wasn’t sure which was worse. “I understand why you don’t want to upset your friends, but you better tell me. We’re in this together.”

  “Starr, it was nothing.”

  I walked toward the door. “Fine!”

  “Where are you going?” he cried.

  “I’m going for a walk.” I paused at the door and looked over at him.

  There was fear in his eyes. Fear that I’d leave him and not come back. “Don’t go,” he whispered. “Please, don’t go.”

  His plea brought me to tears. He’d been through so much because of me. I couldn’t hurt him anymore. I swiped a rogue tear with the back of my hand. I was still mad, but my hot temper subsided. A slow smile crossed my face. “I’ll go find some muffins.”

  With a deep exhale, his demeanor relaxed. “Blueberry?”

  “Of course, get some sleep. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

  “Make it five.” All traces of humor disappeared from his face. “I might be lying in a hospital bed, but I will come get you.”

  Chapter Thirty

  The walk to the cafe calmed me down. Christian wasn’t telling me what happened to him for my sake, but he needed to stop being so stubborn. He wasn’t helping anybody by keeping quiet. I loaded a stack of blueberry muffins on the tray, along with Snicker bars, and sweet teas, along with a few other goodies.

  On my way back to the room, I passed Ben in the hallway. “Hey,” I nodded and kept walking. I was in no mood to continue our conversation from last night.

  “Hey,” he said, matching me stride for stride. “Why isn’t Christian telling us what happened to him?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  “I think he’s trying to protect you.”

  I stopped and turned to look at him. The quiet beeping of a hundred machines created a steady white noise in the hallway. “I think so too, but I also think he’s trying to protect the two of you.”

  He furrowed his brow at me. “What do you mean?”

  “I think he’s afraid that the two of you might get involved, and from what I know, he likes to protect people.”

  He studied me for a second, maybe surprised to hear I knew as much about Christian as I did. He nodded at me. I assumed I’d passed some test. “He does like to protect people.”

  He rested agains
t the wall. “There was this nasty old guy who lived across the street from the playground. He was like one percent Cherokee, but he was married to the old chief’s sister, so he thought he could get away with anything. He’d harass the little kids and antagonize the older ones to fight each other.

  One day, Coda and I were on the swings. We were minding our own business, just laughing and swinging. Old Beaver comes over and starts threatening us. I mean serious talk of an ass whipping. We were scared to death. All the sudden, Christian shows up out of nowhere and walks right up to Old Beaver.” He chuckled to himself. “You have to understand we were like eight years old, and stood yay high,” he said, indicating a height just above his navel. “Old Man Beaver was an adult, probably a little shorter than me. So Christian says, ‘I’m going to kick you in the shin and break your foot if you don’t leave my friends alone.’”

  “What did Beaver do?”

  “He went to put his hands on Christian’s shoulders probably to push him out of the way, but Christian jumped to the side and kicked Beaver right in the shin. Then he stomped on Old Beaver’s foot so hard, I swear I heard a bone crack through his sneakers.” Ben began laughing so hard he buckled over. After a minute or so, he stood back up. Tears streamed down his cheeks. “Old Beaver fell to the ground, holding his foot in pain, and Christian got right in his face and said, ‘If I ever catch you picking on another kid, I’m getting you kicked out of the nation. Understand?’

  And you know what? Old Beaver never bothered any of us ever again. He’d hobble off in the opposite direction whenever he saw Christian.”

  He wiped the corners of his eyes.

  “He does seem to have a bit of a hero complex.”

  “Ya think?” He laughed. “I’ll see you later. I gotta get back to work.”