Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
We flew through the Wood, moving as fast as the wind. Phillen rocked beneath me. Jax sat behind me. They acted as though all was normal, as if everything that had just occurred was all part of an average day’s work, yet I still couldn’t move.
Couldn’t think.
Could barely breathe.
Shock wrapped around me like a suffocating noose. Because one thing had become apparent. Jax had wanted to capture my guardian, which meant the Dark Raider had foreseen my attempted escape. He’d anticipated me calling for help. He’d known I was going to do everything in my power to get away from him.
And he’d been one step ahead of me the entire way.
In front of us, atop Lars, my guardian sat hunched forward, still tied to the stag. Worst of all, I couldn’t tell if he was conscious or not .
Guilt speared me that I’d dragged Guardian Alleron into this. If only I’d been smarter, thought of a better plan, or anticipated the level of cunning Jax was capable of...none of this would have occurred, and I would have actually gained my freedom from the Dark Raider.
But I hadn’t. I’d failed—failed miserably .
“How?” I finally whispered. “ How did you do it?”
Jax shifted behind me, his muscled form hard and unyielding. The solidness of his chest reminded me of carved stone, and given his immense magic and ability to plot things in such a calculating manner, trying to defeat him seemed as impossible as scaling a treacherous mountain.
He shrugged. “Simple. I saw enough of your personality yesterday to know that you wouldn’t give up easily, so I offered you a way to seek your guardian out, and you took the bait, exactly as I hoped you would.”
My brows drew sharply together. “What do you mean?”
“There’s a reason I picked an inn across the street from a shop that sells dillemsills.”
I nearly choked. Coughing, I bit out, “You chose that inn for that lone reason? You knew I would find a way to acquire one and call for Guardian Alleron’s rescue?”
“I didn’t know for certain that you’d be capable of it, but I hoped for it. When I sealed the room with a locking spell, I chose one that could be broken out of.”
“In other words, you wanted Guardian Alleron to come for me. ”
“Yes. When I took you, I didn’t know about your collar. I saw that you wore it, but I thought it was a piece of jewelry, not a magical device, and when its complexity became apparent, and you confirmed that the only fairy capable of removing it was your guardian, I knew I needed to capture him too. Yet returning to Leafton wasn’t an option. I needed him to come to me.”
I stilled, freezing so completely that I was like a wall of ice on the Solis continent’s Cliffs of Sarum.
When my mind began turning again, I rasped, “So everything was set up? All of it? Taking me to the inn, choosing an inn across from that shop, leaving me alone to meddle?”
“Yes.”
My cheeks burned. And I thought I’d been so clever, fooling all of them and feeling so superior behind their backs. So foolish, Elowen...You’re an absolute imbecile.
Shame fired through me. “You must have had a good laugh at my expense.”
“No, actually, we didn’t. Truth be told, we were all quite impressed when you broke through my sealing spell so quickly.”
“It was an easy spell,” I mumbled, but then my head snapped back. “Wait...you were watching me ?”
“The entire time.”
I gritted my teeth. “From where?”
“Across the lane. We were on one of the shop’s rooftops, hidden under an illusion. ”
An illusion. I’d been right. One of them did harbor magic from Mistvale.
But any sense of smugness I felt that I hadn’t been wrong about everything dimmed when the depths of his plan took root. He’d played me like a fiddle.
“Stars and galaxy,” I whispered.
No wonder he’d never returned during the night. If my cheeks had been pink prior, that was nothing compared to the flaming scarlet they felt like right now.
Jax nudged me. “Don’t be embarrassed. You truly surprised me. I thought it would take you half the night to find a way to open the door or window, but you did it much faster than I would have thought possible.”
I snorted. “Right. Now, you’re truly making a mockery of me.”
“I’m not, actually.” His voice turned softer, more sincere. “Most females would have lain on the bed crying or screaming for help, but not you. You took matters into your own hands and found a way out.”
Some of the heat in my cheeks abated, even though I told myself I was stupid to believe anything he said, but he seemed...genuine, which I wasn’t sure how to interpret.
I entwined my fingers through Phillen’s mane. “And the thirty guards who my guardian brought with him? Did you truly kill all of them as it appeared?”
He was quiet for a moment. “What do you think?”
My chest rose with a deep breath. “I think they all still live. I think your arrows were dipped in a powerful potion that rendered them unconscious. And I think someone in your group wields Mistvale illusion magic, making it all appear that they’d died when, in reality, they haven’t.” I paused. “Am I right?”
He chuffed. “Stars.”
When he didn’t say more, I frowned. “Well, am I?”
“You are.” He laughed, a hint of surprise weaving into that sound. “I can’t believe how quickly you put that together. Most have no idea that we don’t kill those caught in the crossfire. You’re quite intelligent, Elowen.”
I brushed off his flattery, since I was more interested in getting to the bottom of it all. “So it’s true? You pretend to kill, but you don’t always?”
He released a breath, then made a sound low in his throat. “I will say this...I don’t kill innocents, Elowen, and I never will. Those who fall at my hand deserve nothing less for what they’ve done, but as for others...no.”
Hearing that made my stiff shoulders soften, and it felt as though the fist that had been squeezing my lungs—constricting each breath since my abduction had occurred—loosened. For the first time since he’d taken me, it felt like I could breathe because Jax might be the Dark Raider, but he wasn’t as brutal as the kingdoms claimed him to be. He’d simply allowed his reputation to become the monstrous tale that it was, even if the truth remained hidden .
And the reality of that revelation meant he wasn’t going to kill me.
“Thank you,” I finally said. “For not killing Mushil. I thought you had.”
He grunted. “I’m assuming that Mushil is one of your personal guards?”
“He is, or rather, was . I guess he’s been fired.” I threaded my fingers more through Phillen’s mane, the course hair grounding me as a rush of sadness coasted through me. In all likelihood, I would never see the older guard again.
Jax shifted behind me, his chest brushing my back. “You sound...upset by that.”
I lifted my shoulders. “Mushil was always kind to me. He was the only personal guard I ever had who was nothing but good to me. When I thought you’d killed him—” I swallowed the thickness in my throat. “Well, he certainly didn’t deserve death, so I’m glad you didn’t murder him. But I will miss him. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”
Jax’s chin bobbed against my head, as though he was nodding. “I’m sorry you’ve lost him, but you’re right, I wouldn’t have killed him. He was simply doing his job by trying to protect you. I cannot willingly kill a male for doing his work. If I did, then what the kingdoms believe of me would be entirely warranted, so at least now you can rest easy knowing that the guard you cared for still lives.”
I sat for a moment in silence, processing exactly what this new revelation meant. The reality was that Jax might be the Dark Raider, but unlike what I’d thought of him—what everyone thought of him—he wasn’t actually evil. He just allowed his reputation to precede him.
I shifted again, my thoughts turning as more questions came to me. “How long were you watching me for, before you took me?”
“About a month.”
“And you knew I was a lorafin who catered to the wealthy and had a guardian who kept me under lock and key, so an abduction at night in the Wood was the only way?”
“Yes.”
“And you knew I would have the education and training to know a counterspell to break through the locking spell you wielded in Lemos?”
“Also yes.”
“What else do you know about me?”
“I know that you’re twenty-eight summers old. You’ve lived a vagabond lifestyle in three of the kingdoms and have only settled in Faewood within the past full season. I know that you don’t have any siltenite friends, only wildlings, because your guardian forbade you from forming close friendships with others. And I’m guessing he doesn’t know of the wildlings you’ve befriended, because if he did, he would likely put a stop to it. I know that the king favors you and is likely going out of his mind at this very moment now that I took you and he can’t use you for callings, and I know that you treat others with kindness and respect. I saw that very early on while I was watching you. It didn’t matter if they were nobles or servants, you were polite to everyone.”
I scoffed lightly and for a moment couldn’t respond. Finally, I said in a wry tone, “Is there anything you don’t know about me?”
“I don’t know who your blood family is.”
It felt as though he’d punched me in the gut. Gasping, I couldn’t speak, but then I managed to rasp, “But you know that my mother left me in the Wood to die?”
A heartbeat of silence passed before Jax replied quietly, “I know that your guardian claims that she left you.”
A whirring sound began in my ears, like a high-pitched scream. The realm spun around me, and I leaned forward, trying to dispel the dizziness.
“Elowen?”
I inhaled sharply through my nose as darkness cascaded through me. Why? Why do I still have such a visceral response whenever anyone mentions my family?
“Elowen?” Jax ran a hand up my back, softly, lightly, as though afraid the collar would once again break me if he moved too fast.
I slowly straightened, and his hand fell away. But his concern did little to lift my spirits. I couldn’t stop thinking about what he was accusing Guardian Alleron of.
No .
The little voice inside my head, the voice that had also whispered things to me throughout the seasons, making me question if everything my guardian told me was a lie, threatened to rise.
No!
I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and dropped my chin. My guardian loved me. I knew he did. He wouldn’t have lied to me about my mother, yet once again I was questioning if there was more to it than he claimed.
But until I reached thirty, I would never know.
Defeat swam through me. It was so potent that for a moment, I couldn’t breathe.
“Elowen?” Jax said softly again. “I’m sorry if I’ve upset you.”
I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm. When I was certain that my tone wouldn’t waver, I replied, “It’s fine. It’s nothing I haven’t considered before.” I took another deep breath and exhaled. “But you’re wrong. My guardian loves me. If he said my mother abandoned me, then she did.”
Jax fell silent, but eventually, I felt him nod.
“So now what?” I asked. “You have both me and Guardian Alleron, which means my guardian can wield the adaptor so I’m able to perform a calling for you. So what’s your plan? Do we stop soon so I’m able to find whom you seek?”
“Eventually, yes, but I also know it’s too soon for you to perform a calling, especially after the stunt you pulled when your magic broke you. That had to have taken a toll on you. ”
My cheeks warmed again. Jax knew that the injuries I’d suffered from hadn’t been an accident and weren’t something my magic occasionally did to me involuntarily. I cleared my throat and hoped he didn’t sense my returning embarrassment. “And after I perform your calling, then what?”
“Then I’ll let you go.”
“You will?”
“Yes. I told you. I’m not a slave guardian. I have no interest or intention of owning you, Elowen.”
My breath sucked in, and my heart beat so wildly it felt like a trapped bird in my chest. Before, I wouldn’t have believed him. I would have felt it was another pretty lie to manipulate me to do his bidding, but after knowing he hadn’t killed Mushil...
“Do you mean that? Truly?”
“I do,” he replied gruffly. “After you do as I ask, I’ll set you free.”
Hope surged in me. If he let me go, then my life could return to normal. Guardian Alleron and I could return to Emerson Estate. I could continue counting the days on my calendar until my thirtieth birthday arrived, and then my guardian would permanently remove the collar, and everything I’d been working for could still come true.
I just needed to do Jax’s calling, and everything would be set right.
I sat straighter, and a new sense of determination slid through me. “All right, Jax. You have a deal. Once I’m able to do a calling for you, I will, and then you’ll let me go.”
A smile filled his words when he replied. “We indeed have a deal, Little Lorafin. Now, no more self-harm on your part and no more stunts to escape. In two days’ time, you’ll venture to the Veiled Between for me, and then, I’ll release you.”