Chapter 20 Raine #2
“I am trying to protect you because I care about you,” Loche hissed back, and the spots appearing on Iviry’s cheeks mirrored her fiery hair as she avoided his eyes.
“You may not believe it, but I didn’t fucking notice any of this because I couldn’t stop staring into your beautiful damned blue eyes, and it pisses me off. ”
It was Iviry’s turn to gape, but as the crowd went quiet, Raine forced a thought into both of the leaders’ minds. Absolutely adorable, but we’re about to be murdered, so please focus.
As the pair pulled themselves together, Raine caught Frelina’s eyes again, and when her gaze darted to her side, he realized they’d caught Frecco too. The Fae looked as if he’d taken the brunt of the beatings, with his broken nose and his head hanging between his shoulders.
You will be okay. Raine tried to soften the words in her mind, not to let in the fear and anger at that bastard keeping his hands on his… on her. I will make sure you’re okay.
I know. Frelina glared back at him as if this were his fault, and Raine frowned at her before she continued. You’re about to do something stupid. I can feel it. Raine? Raine!
Raine didn’t respond as Loche spoke again, his demanding tone floating across the three ships where all now stared at the group facing him, Iviry, Loche, and the two guards.
“You’re the… instigator, I presume?” The regent lazily flickered his eyes from the shifter in the front to the rest of the group.
If Raine hadn’t felt the worry in Loche’s mind, he’d actually have believed his bored expression.
“I am the leader,” the shifter snarled, the air around him flickering for a moment as if he was holding back a shift. Which, after a quick brush of his mind, Raine could confirm that he really was.
Watch out for that one, he warned both Loche and Iviry. He is furious and losing it.
Then he turned to Frelina again, staring at the gold in her eyes going in and out, as if she was picking up the thoughts and memories of the shifter holding on to her.
Be ready. Raine bore his eyes into hers. When it’s time, you fight like you did on that plateau.
He didn’t give her time to respond, and with those final words, Raine started to look into the minds of the half-Fae instead, and he nearly scoffed when he was able to capture all of them within moments.
You absolute idiots, he purred into their minds. You didn’t think you’d get out of this alive, did you? You touched my girl, and as soon as you did that… you became dead males.
Raine blocked their terrified responses, and he was happy to find that there was no outward sign on any of the half-Fae that Raine now controlled their minds—and in turn their entire lives.
“The leader…” Loche tsked as he slipped a hand into Iviry’s, and while Raine knew it was to keep her beside him, it looked as if they were one—one leader, one force, one to unite their people. Just like Dedrick and the rest wanted.
“There is no other leader here but us,” Iviry filled in, her soft voice complementing Loche’s hard one so well that Raine wondered how he’d ever been surprised they were mates.
“We are leading Havlands,” Iviry continued. “We are taking care of our people.”
Loche nodded in sync with her words, his eyes flying out to the crowd, which watched their every movement. “We are making sure you all live to see the next full moon. And we don’t appreciate when the prisoners we let walk turn against us, do we?”
“No.” Iviry put on a good show of appearing disappointed, even if Raine knew her well enough that her tight shoulders betrayed her apprehension. “We really don’t.”
“We don’t think it’s fair!” the shifter screamed. “Who is representing Korina? There is no shifter advocate. There is no halfling ruler!”
Loche’s low laugh floated over the murmurs. “No shifter? No halfling? I am both those things. Half human. Half shifter. Iviry is Fae. We represent all people in Havlands.”
“That’s why we let you go. That’s why your treachery wasn’t punished.” Iviry seemed to struggle to keep her rage out of her own voice. “Because we believe we all belong together. Like Loche and I do. A world where human and Fae and shifter and halfling are all equal.”
“And we don’t believe in taking anything by force,” Loche snarled as he jerked his head to his council members being held against their will.
“We were elected. And so shall all leaders be from now on. In Havlands. In Ellow. In Vastala. In Korina. Perhaps one day only one ruler will lead our entire nation, but for now, we are representing all.”
A rush of worry blew through the group, and Raine knew it didn’t matter what Loche said. Not to the leader in the front, who almost seemed to be frothing at the mouth as he spat, “You’re no shifter! Your mother told us how useless—”
“Fuck this,” Iviry growled as she sprang forward, pushing Loche off as he reached for her, and Raine knew immediately what would happen, even before Iviry’s delicate hands slammed into the shifter’s face just as he shifted into a black serpent.
The snake’s hiss was one of great pain, and Iviry threw her bloodied hands in the air, showing everyone the eyes she’d gouged out of the creature’s eye sockets.
She likes to do that. Raine gave Loche a look before he also darted forward when the other shifters screamed in fury. I would avoid pissing her off.
He heard the regent exclaim, “I don’t know, that’s quite alluring,” as Iviry snapped her wild blue eyes to his, and Raine left them to figure it out as one of the half-Fae tried to break through his mental grip on them.
I don’t think so. You’re about to learn a big lesson. Well… your last fucking lesson. Raine’s teeth grazed his bottom lip as he instructed the half-Fae to jump off the moving ship and remain in the fucking water until they could no longer make out their sails.
It would kill them, of course, but this was no time for mercy. They’d had their chance. Besides… he needed to pave the way so he could kill the shifter using Frelina as a fucking shield against Iviry’s two guards—the only two who at least were decent fighters.
“Let her go,” Raine purred as the half-Fae all threw themselves off the railing into the raging waves, and he managed to corner the shifter against the ladder leading up to the quarterdeck, trying not to let his fury at his hold on Frelina’s neck—which must hurt—take over. “Let’s settle this, you and I.”
“I don’t think so,” the shifter snapped. “You’ll kill me.”
“Yes,” Raine admitted. “I am going to fucking kill you for touching my—”
“Raine,” Frelina said quietly, and he froze at the plea and the demand that she managed to pack into just his name.
“Don’t…” She shook her head. “He just—”
Her words cut off as the shifter pressed his fingers harder around her neck.
That was fucking that. The Mind Capturer snarled so loudly that one of the people who’d merely been watching the events unfold stumbled backward and fell over the railing, to the horror of those around him.
Good fucking riddance, Raine thought as he threw himself toward the shifter, using some inspiration from Merrick as he crushed his hand through his rib cage and ripped his fucking heart out.
Throwing the heart after the person who had fallen overboard and ignoring the twitching body crumpling to the deck, Raine dragged Frelina to him, his heart calming immediately as her scent invaded his nostrils, even though the female had the audacity to snarl at him.
“I told you not to kill him!” Frelina lifted her foot as if she was going to stomp on his. “He was torn!”
Fuck, Raine understood now why Merrick was so damned grouchy whenever Elessia tried to be the hero.
Pulling Frelina so close that her nose touched his, he ignored the fighting behind them—Iviry and Loche could fucking figure it out, because he needed to have this said—and with his hands cupping her face, he growled, “You wanted me to use my fucking words, so I will.”
Raine’s eyes darted between hers, and he fought a groan when hers darkened.
He didn’t give one fuck if it was in anger; it made his damn knees weak. “If anyone”—he shot a narrowed glare around—“so much as looks at you without your permission, I am going to fucking kill them.”
The words landed as intended, and the crowd dispersed further, soft murmurs telling him they were getting far fucking away from his rage. Only the damn fiery half-Fae stared back at him without an ounce of fear in her amber eyes, and when she opened her mouth, Raine shook his head.
“No. I said I was going to use my words.” Despite his harsh tone, he knew his fingers were gentle as they tilted her face farther toward him.
“I want you. I want you to be mine. I want you to be happy. I want you to be everything you want and have everything you ever wished for. But most of fucking all, I want you to be safe.” He took a breath when Frelina’s heart began thumping so hard he could feel it against his own chest. “I am going to show you how much I want to be yours, but while I make you believe it, you’re going to allow me to protect you, even if that means killing every last person on these fucking ships. ”
She blinked at him, her long lashes whispering across her reddened cheeks, and he couldn’t help but bend down to crash his lips against hers, the groan he’d squashed earlier slipping free when she let him.
But as her arms moved to wind around his neck, he pulled back. “Not yet. I don’t deserve it yet.”
He leaned in again, his next words almost panting into her mouth, the struggle to hold back harder than anything he’d ever experienced.
“But I will, Frelina. I will deserve it, and when I do…” Raine brushed his lips against hers before stepping back and releasing her entirely. “You’re never getting rid of me.”
With that, he threw a glance over his shoulder, noting that Loche and the others appeared to have the scuffle under control, then turned back to Frelina and swept her up into his arms. “Time for you to sleep, sunshine.”
While they didn’t speak the entire time Raine carried her over to their own ship, he could feel Frelina’s eyes whisper over his face, her thoughts, though closed, curious and…
tinged by a tiny ember of excitement—one that almost killed him when he dropped her onto her bed and forced himself to go to his own room.