Chapter 27
Raine
His head hurt so fucking bad.
Raine tried to reach for his forehead, but something stopped his hand, and he groaned when the frown that formed across his forehead made the headache worse.
Blinking, he tried to get his limbs to cooperate, but as he managed to get his eyes to focus in the dim light, he realized he was bound with heavy rope.
What the—
Raine whipped his head up when he smelled her, and a harsh, grating growl ripped through his chest as he took in the scene before him.
Frelina’s head was slumped between her shoulders, her arms and legs fastened to a chair with thick white rope—probably taken from the mast of this damned ship—exactly like his own were.
Around them were several more bound Fae and humans, and by the deck to Frelina’s left, in the shade of the towering black rocks surrounding their ship…
Fuck. Frecco looked barely alive, his body so broken that Raine guessed his back had given out, and the blood pooling beneath him didn’t reassure Raine one bit.
The wind brought Frelina’s flowery scent to him once more, and Raine tensed when the beautiful female before him squirmed, the ropes shifting as she tried to move her arms.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Frelina,” Raine called in a low voice. “It’s all right. It’ll all be all right.”
A male voice slicing through the air made Raine jerk as Frelina’s terrified eyes latched onto his. “So you’re finally awake. Thought you were lost there for a while.”
Raine couldn’t see the male—he was somewhere behind him—and when he searched for his mind, his magic fighting his lingering fogginess, there was a barrier, a thick wall of what Raine could only describe as…
greenery? At least the taste of grass and warm forest beds layered over him as Raine tried to find a way through the blockade, into the mind of this bastard, ideally to take him the fuck out.
But there wasn’t any. At least not yet.
Frelina made a sound that made Raine believe the male was right behind him, but Raine locked his muscles, refusing to do anything other than stare into Frelina’s beautiful eyes, although he kept to himself the soothing words he’d almost let slip.
He’d been captured before, and showing any type of fear or worry for another?
It was the worst thing he could do.
Even if he was fucking terrified for the little half-Fae with the big eyes and the neck that he could spend days admiring for its soft skin and beautiful swerves.
And when more of what must be fucking Oakgards’ Fae came into his line of vision—faces covered with hoods, brown robes held together with green clasps that looked like some type of branches with leaves—he tugged on every lesson he’d been taught growing up in those soldier camps to keep his body resting against the back of the chair.
The Fae and humans around them pulled sharp gasps into their lungs as maybe a dozen or so Fae circled them, their hidden faces turned somewhere above Raine’s head, where Raine guessed their leader stood.
He brushed the male’s mind again, but that thick, thorny bush still kept him out, and he dragged his magic back when low laughter echoed behind him.
“I’m glad we believed the books,” the male said in his strange, slow accent after his laughter faded.
“We don’t have the mind Fae in Jordeina, but our old scripts spoke of those who could twist and capture minds and how to protect ourselves against them.
I can actually feel you trying to find a way into my thoughts. ”
“I wouldn’t have guessed you could read,” Raine drawled, still fighting to remain still, especially as Frelina’s eyes widened, her hair flying around her face as she shook her head at his words.
“I thought all earth Fae just danced around in the forests and performed sacrificing ceremonies to keep your sacred mud fueled.”
He would have grinned at the hisses exploding around him, the jolting hoods as the Oakgards’ Fae’s heads snapped his way, if Frelina hadn’t screamed into his mind, Stop this right now. I know exactly what you are doing, and it won’t end well, Raine!
Raine held her gaze as he responded, That’s what I am counting on, sunshine.
Raine. Frelina’s tone shifted from angry to begging so fast it crushed his chest. Please. We’ll figure out a way out of this together.
He made one side of his mouth curl when he heard the air sing behind him. There is only one way out of this.
He’d been in situations like this before, and he knew of only one path to keep Frelina alive: to keep these fuckers focused on everyone other than her until either help came, or he was able to kill them all.
Raine’s head flew forward as a fist or palm struck him in the back—so hard it knocked the breath out of him for a second—and he took a long breath before wheezing, “Wow, all those greens you eat really make you strong. Not b-brave, though. No… not if you can’t even face me.”
The wind stilled again, and Raine didn’t need Frelina screaming “No!” to prepare for the next strike.
The hand connected with the side of his head, and he turned the huff into a chuckle when he caught a glimpse of the tanned limb before it slipped back behind a brown cloak.
It was a female hitting him. And she was really fucking strong.
“You… you’re having your little mate do all the dirty work? How sweet.” Raine snickered, trying to turn his head to show them how little he cared about what they did to him.
From the possessive growl, Raine guessed his deduction had been correct. Behind him must be the leader—or one of them—of the Oakgards’ Fae, and the one who kept hitting him must be his mate and equal.
Another punch had Raine bite his cheek, blood flooding his mouth, but he didn’t stop grinning.
He’d hurt himself for years.
He’d hurt the perfect creature before him—had almost thought he’d lost her until the past few days.
There was nothing they could do to him that would make him cower.
Only to the female he loved, who now bared her white teeth and hissed, “If you do that again…”
“What are you going to do? Spit on us?” the female behind Raine snarled back. “Your king already took care of that.”
Raine went cold when Frelina’s eyes went crazed. Frelina, no! Don’t you fucking dare!
But his cry into her mind did nothing to stop her outrage.
“He’s not our king,” Frelina screamed, heat licking her cheeks. “He’s dead! My sister killed him! If you took one fucking second to stop and ask, you’d know that! And you’d know she’d help you find somewhere to live!”
“Told you she was the sister.” The female must have turned around, judging from the rustling of fabric, but Raine couldn’t tear his eyes away from Frelina’s pink-tinted face and heaving chest. “They have that Rantzier hair and eyes.”
Fuck, sunshine. I need you to listen—
Two figures—the leader and his mate, Raine guessed—stormed around him to approach his female.
Because yes, she was fucking his. She might not be his mate, but she would be his damned everything, and he would not lose her. Raine could hear Solana’s voice in his mind telling him to think, not to panic.
I’m trying, he told his mate. I’m going to save her.
“What do you want with her?” Raine drawled, forcing his tone to remain bored as his eyes searched the floor, noting the sharp-edged stones lying there. “She has no power.”
Frelina’s eyes left the two figures towering over her to fucking glare at him.
Raine glowered right back. I’m trying to save your damned life. Don’t give me that look. And fucking listen to me before you speak again.
“Oh, I think you underestimate her.” The figure that must be the female turned around, and Raine glimpsed more golden skin and a wide smile with no warmth in it before her partner moved to pull at her hood.
“We’ve heard all about her sister and her army of wyverns.
See, we think she’d do a lot to get this one back.
Especially if we give her a little motivation… ”
Well, fuck. He was going to need to act faster than he’d thought.
Raine saw Frelina go to open her mouth, and he slammed his teeth together before quickly responding, “She might, but I don’t know if you thought this through.
How will her sister know she is alive?” He nodded to the seething Frelina, ignoring her curses in his mind.
“You’re better off letting her go, keeping the rest of us, and having them both come back to the trap you’ve built. Because that’s what this is, right?”
Raine cast his eyes to the surrounding rocks, and when the gazes of the people around him followed, he managed to move his foot enough to bring one of the pieces of black rock to his side. Now he just needed—
“I don’t think so.” The male’s deep voice made ice drip through Raine’s veins, but he managed to pull a breath when he realized the Oakgards’ leader hadn’t noticed the stone but was responding to Raine’s suggestion.
“I think we hurt her a little… like I heard you’ve done to our people, leaving them on that charred island.
We’ll make sure the princess rides back on those wyverns so we can kill them all. ”
Low concurring murmurs echoed around the ship, mingling with the worried voices of the bound Fae and humans who had mostly been watching the interaction, but it was Frelina’s soft voice that captured his full attention.
Raine… we can’t let them do that. Her eyes were filled with tears, and it nearly killed him when he realized it wasn’t for herself. She… she can’t come back. And she will if she hears of this. I can’t…
I know. Raine set his jaw as he dipped his eyes to the stone and then back to the female he’d come to love so damned much it felt as if it would burst out of his chest. I love you, Frelina. I need you to hold on to that. I need… fuck, I need you to be strong for me now, all right?
I love you too. I think I’ve loved you for a long time. She blinked away the tears. I’ll be okay, I promise. You won’t lose me.