14. Chapter Fourteen
~Evalina~
It would be a risk. I couldn’t pretend otherwise. If Tarron found out that I helped Felix escape, I would pay for it one way or another. He could lock me up, or force me to accept the position as his amorta that until now had only been an offer, or worst of all, he could take his vengeance on my mother, knowing that would wound me the most. A hundred different, awful scenarios ran through my mind, pressing down like a stone on my heart as I hurried down the path back towards the royal family’s home.
And what guarantee did I have that Felix would even help me like he said he would? Once he got free, he might disappear back through the portal and I’d never see him again.
For some reason, though, I didn’t think he would lie to me. He seemed sincere. Even through the distance between us at the pens, something connected us, something I couldn’t put into words. It made no sense but if I couldn’t trust my gut, what hope did I have?
Given the choice between asking him for help and relying on Tarron, the decision practically made itself.
Rather than going back to the kitchen when I reached the royal residence, I went straight to the guards’ room instead. Jermyn, the head of the guards, always had an after-lunch nap there, and sure enough, I found him passed out in one of the chairs, his head leaning against the soft wall as if it were a pillow.
“Jermyn, wake up.” I nudged his shoulder hard, knowing I had no time to lose. The older man snuffled and snorted as he jolted awake, his brow furrowed in annoyance at being disturbed until his eyes fell on me.
“Evalina? What are you doing here?”
Pulling himself up, he swayed unsteadily on his feet for a moment before he drew himself up to his full height, a head taller than me and nearly twice as wide. His bushy hair stuck up on the side where it had rested against the wall, and he ran a hand roughly through it to try to tame it.
The way to Jermyn’s heart had always been through his stomach and he often visited me in the kitchen to steal any leftovers I might have. As a result, I’d earned a bit of a soft spot in his otherwise gruff demeanour, one that I would have to exploit for my plan to work.
“Tarron asked me to take this food to the prisoner in the pens.” I held up the plate and Jermyn licked his lips as the smell hit his nostrils. “The problem is: he refuses to eat it.”
The whiskers surrounding his lips pulled down into a frown. “Tarron insisted that he eat.”
It seemed we’d both been given the same instruction, which would make things easier. “He said it didn’t smell good. I think it might have something to do with the magic protecting the cells.”
Keeping my expression neutral, I held my breath as Jermyn thought that over, hoping he would believe the lie. His particular magic controlled the pens, which explained how he became head of the guard.
“Maybe it’s because he comes from the other side,” he eventually mused. “The magic might affect him differently. That’s all I can think of because that smells as good as anything you’ve ever made.”
He cast another longing look at the plate in my hand while I pressed my advantage. “Do you think you could remove the magic, just long enough for him to eat?”
Instinctively, he shook his head. “I can’t do that. Too dangerous.”
“But the door will still be locked,” I reminded him. “No matter how strong he is, he can’t break through a lock like that.”
His frown deepened, his fingers tapping against his arm as he weighed my suggestion. ‘I don’t know, Evalina. Tarron would have my head if something went wrong.”
“I’ll take full responsibility,” I promised. “It will only be for a minute and there are no other prisoners to worry about.”
For a long moment, he considered my proposal, his tongue darting out subconsciously every time his gaze fell on the plate in my hands. I forced myself to remain silent so I didn’t betray just how personal the request was to me.
“Alright,” he finally agreed, and my heart leapt in delight. “But I’ll stay with you the whole time to make sure there’s no trouble.”
Sugarlumps. That hadn’t been part of my plan, but I couldn’t think of any reason to disagree as Jermyn called down the hall to his colleague to tell him he would be back in a few minutes. When he turned back, his gaze fell to the food in my hand again, and an idea sparked in my mind.
“I’ll be right back.”
Racing to the kitchen, I grabbed an extra plate, slid it under the one I already had, and returned to the door where Jermyn waited. Together, we walked the short distance back to the pens and once there, he lowered the magical protection over the facility, as I requested.
“You know, this is quite a lot of food for one person,” I said, holding up the plate in my hand. “Tarron only said he had to eat something , right?”
Jermyn nodded, his eyes tracking the plate’s movements with longing.
“Why don’t you take half of it, and I’ll give the prisoner the other half? I brought two plates to make sure I didn’t drop it.”
That didn’t make a lot of sense, but since it meant he got some of the food for himself, Jermyn didn’t seem to notice. His eager eyes watched as I divided the food between the two plates and handed one to him. “It would be a shame for it to go to waste,” he justified, and I nodded in encouragement.
“Exactly. I’ll take the food to the prisoner and be right back. You can stay here. I’ll be in sight the whole time.”
He might not have even heard me as he placed the first bite in his mouth and groaned in delight.
My feet skipped across the short distance back to the passage into Felix’s cell. He already stood at the other end, waiting for me.
“The barrier around the cells has been dropped, and I can open the door for you. Unfortunately, I had to bring the guard along. Can you take care of him without hurting him? He’s not a bad person.”
Felix’s smile seemed understanding. “Of course. Stay right where you are, I don’t want you to get caught up in the fight.”
Nodding, I placed the plate of food in my hands down onto the passage ledge and closed my eyes to focus my magic. When I couldn’t see the lock in front of me, it took a little longer, but eventually, I could hear the mechanism in the door grind open.
“What’s that behind you?” I called to Jermyn, hoping to distract him, and it worked as his head spun around to check over his shoulder.
Moving faster and quieter than any man I’d ever seen, Felix burst through the door and reached Jermyn in seconds. He rammed straight into him, the two of them tumbling to the ground and sending the plate and its few remaining bits of food splattering onto the soft velvet forest floor. The downed guard never even saw the punch coming before he went completely still.
With my heart in my throat, I raced over to the two men. “Is he okay?”
“He’ll be fine,” Felix assured me as he got back to his feet. Higher and higher he rose until he reached his full height, his body completely obliterating my view of the sun.
He was huge . I’d never seen anyone so big before.
And he was wearing…
Against my will, a giggle erupted from my lips as my gaze travelled down his body and I saw his broad, strong frame squeezed into clothes meant for a man almost half his size. The sleeves of the tunic’s arms only reached his elbows, the leggings barely touched his knees, and most of his midsection remained completely uncovered.
His firm, sculpted stomach didn’t look like anything I’d ever seen before. Nothing at all like Tarron’s slim, lean lines.
My laughter died as I took in more of him, the sheer bulk of him that went against every definition of masculine fae beauty but somehow, on him, looked more attractive than anything I’d ever seen before. That didn’t even account for his face: kind blue eyes beneath sandy blond hair, a firm, stubbled jaw line, and a beaming smile that made me smile back out of sheer instinct.
If Tarron was beautiful, I had no words to describe Felix. He defied any category of man I’d ever seen before, and he was looking at me like he felt just the same.
“It’s okay,” he said, his deep, warm voice pulling me out of my head. “You can laugh. I look ridiculous.”
He gestured down to the clothes he wore with a self-deprecating grimace.
“I don’t think they make werewolf sizes here.”
“You’re a werewolf?” Something tugged inside me at the word while images of the pictures I saw in Tarron’s box on that long-ago day flashed through my mind. The way I felt when I saw them wasn’t so far off the way Felix made me feel. That didn’t seem like a coincidence.
“You know about werewolves?”
We did that, I’d noticed already in the short conversations we’d had. Both so eager to know more about the other, we answered questions with more questions. I made sure to answer him this time before repeating mine. “I don’t know much other than that they exist. Is that what you are?”
“Yes.” He said it softly, like a confession. A hopeful one. “I hope it doesn’t scare you. I won’t hurt you, Evalina.”
My name sounded heavenly on his lips. “I’m not afraid of you,” I assured him, even though I couldn’t say why not. Perhaps I should have been, but despite his size, he put me at ease. “But you should go before they find out you escaped. You’ll still help me get some silver, won’t you?”
“Of course. I promised I would.” He stretched out his hand towards me, palm up, and offered me another blindingly beautiful smile. “Come with me and I’ll make sure you have everything you need.”