Chapter 26 #2
Sebastian dismounts in one graceful move. He takes Nox’s reins in one hand. “Do not harm the horses or the female. What do you want with us?”
“I’m giving the orders and asking the questions. You’re answering me and truthfully. I know when someone is lying.”
Her eyes move across his face, studying him in a way I don’t like at all. It’s as if she wants him and loathes him in equal measure. Like she isn’t sure whether to bed him or kill him.
I grit my teeth to stop myself from launching an attack on her. It wouldn’t end well for us, so I hold back.
“Your eyes are a very interesting color,” she says, tilting her head. “I’ve heard of such eyes. They’re rare indeed.”
Sebastian says nothing. His face is a mask, devoid of emotion.
“Who are you?” she asks him. “I heard that the Shadowfae King had returned. You look very much like him. Are you Sebastian?”
She keeps her eyes firmly on his.
“Cat got your tongue?” she asks when he still says nothing.
“No. I’m not who you think I am. I just happen to have the same-colored eyes.”
She makes a noise of interest and then turns her attention to me.
I stand straighter as she approaches. I make sure I have a steady grip on the reins when Jack shifts his weight next to me. My horse doesn’t like the shifterfae, and I can’t say I blame him. In fact, he is an excellent judge of character.
“What about you, human?” She looks down at me.
“You’re such a small thing to be out here in the wastes.
Your friend over there,” she looks over at Sebastian, “called you Isla. A female matching your description is wanted for helping the Shadowfae King escape. Are you a performer? Are you that Isla? The one with a hefty bounty on her head?”
I lift my chin. “We’re just travelers. Nothing more.”
“Travelers, you say?” She smiles like she doesn’t believe it for a moment. “Traveling to where, exactly? Because there is nothing in this direction but more mud and misery.” She smiles wider. “I think you’re lying to me. I don’t like liars much.”
She reaches up. Her hand closes around my throat, and her gaze turns cold.
The grip is iron. Her fingers are long and strong, and they press into the sides of my neck, cutting off my air supply. My air thins. My vision narrows at the edges.
But I don’t flinch. I don’t grab at her wrist. I don’t look away.
I hold her gaze with everything I have. My mother didn’t raise me to cower. We come from good stock. My great-grandfather was an important male. I know that my mother would have died with her head held high. I will do the same.
I will not give this woman the satisfaction.
“Leave her alone.” Sebastian’s voice comes from behind the female. Low and hard and vibrating with something dangerous.
I flick my gaze past the female’s shoulder. Sebastian’s hands are gripping Nox’s reins tightly, and the shadows are back. Dark wisps bleeding from his fingers, curling around his knuckles like living things. His eyes blaze with such anger that I am momentarily afraid.
The female eases her grip on my throat just enough for me to pull in a deep breath.
“I’m the singer,” I choke out. “I’m Isla,” I add, pulling in small breaths in ragged pants.
The female studies me. Her thumb strokes the hollow of my throat, which is still constricted, although not as badly as before.
Then she lets go.
I suck in air. My throat burns. I keep my spine straight and my hands still.
The female turns back to Sebastian.
This time, there’s something different in her expression. A sharpness that wasn’t there before. She steps up to Sebastian, and he holds his ground.
Her fingernails elongate. They grow from her fingertips with a soft clicking sound, extending into dark, curved talons, each one as long as my index finger and razor-edged. She grabs the front of Sebastian’s tunic and slices downward in a single, savage motion.
The fabric falls open, baring the eclipse marking.
The female stares at it. Her lips part. The look on her face isn’t surprise. It’s hunger. The kind that has nothing to do with food and everything to do with power.
“The Drakar will be very happy indeed.” She is smiling in a way that is feral.
Sebastian goes rigid, the blood draining from his face. The tendons on the side of his neck stand taut.
“The Drakar?” His voice is a low rasp. “Has the Drakar been found? Was he ever lost to begin with?”
The female turns back to him. Amusement dancing in her eyes.
“I don’t divulge information to shadowfae, let alone the king,” she says.
“You’ll each ride a thornback,” the male speaks for the first time. He jerks his chin toward the creatures behind the formation.
I look at the thornbacks. Up close, they’re even more terrifying. Each one is the size of two carts stacked on top of the other, but wider, and covered in a shell of bone and thorn. Their small, dark eyes peer out from beneath ridges of thick armor that could be made from zuuuk steel.
“We will ride together.” He clasps my hand. “It is all I ask of you.”
“Ahhhhh…how sweet,” the female says, “The Shadowfae King is in love. And there I was thinking I might take you to my bed if we survived long enough.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightens.
I squeeze his hand.
“I’d no sooner bed you—” Sebastian starts to growl through gritted teeth.
“Yes…we’re in love,” I blurt. I’m not sure if I do so because of the burning jealousy I need not feel or because I want to stop Sebastian from saying something that could get him killed.
The female looks at him. Then she shrugs. “Let them ride together. It might give them more of a chance.”
A chance for what…or at what?
I don’t ask.
The nearest thornback lowers itself at a guttural command from one of the hy-weres. It goes down onto its belly, the bone spikes along its back jutting upward like the ramparts of a castle wall. Even kneeling, its back is higher than my neck. I’m not sure how I’m going to get up there.
I reach up as high as I can and put a hand on one of the spikes. Sebastian grips my hips and boosts me up. I find my seat between two rows of bony spikes, gripping the nearest one for balance. The bone is smooth and warm to the touch, like sunbaked stone. Not what I expected at all.
Sebastian climbs up behind me. I am almost in his lap. He wraps one arm around my waist while gripping a spike with the other.
The thornback rises. It is not a gentle motion. The creature heaves itself up from the mud, and we lurch forward, then back. I press back against Sebastian, and his arm tightens around me, pulling me against the hard length of him.
“Don’t try anything clever,” the male says.
He’s standing in front of us. His arms are folded, and his face gives away nothing.
“Do not use your magic on us. Do not try to escape, or you will face the consequences. We would like to keep you breathing, but it is not a necessity.” He gives a one-shouldered shrug.
“Understood,” Sebastian tells them.
The male holds his gaze, then nods and turns away.
The two fae drop to all fours and shift. The transformation is faster this time. Where two naked fae stood a heartbeat ago, two enormous creatures now stand.
The formation moves. The thornbacks lead, their massive strides slow but steady, covering more ground with each step than I would have guessed.
The hy-weres fan out on all sides, running in easy, loping strides.
The six-legged serpent creatures slither along the flanks, their gait silent on the wet ground.
As soon as we move, Nox squeals, going up on two legs before running away. Blessedly, toward the Shadow Court…toward home. Jack follows close on his heels.
“Goddess help us,” Sebastian mutters.
The thornback sways beneath us with each heavy step, a rocking motion that would almost be soothing if we weren’t prisoners of an army heading gods know where.
I keep my voice low. “It looks like we’re going back…toward the court…toward…” I hope I’m wrong.
“They’re moving in the same direction the dragons were flying. We’re headed into battle.”
I close my eyes for a moment. I’d hoped, foolishly, that being captured by the shifterfae was the worst that could happen today. But no. We’re being carried straight into the path of the woman who wants Sebastian dead.
“That’s why they said not to use my magic on them. They didn’t expressly forbid us from using magic.”
He nods. “That’s why the female let us ride together.”
I gasp. “She said we might have more of a chance that way. A chance of surviving.”
I turn to look at him, and his expression is grave.
I sag in his arms, pulling in a fortifying breath.
“What is a Drakar?” I whisper.
Sebastian is quiet for a few strides. His breath is warm against my hair. “The Shifterfae King. I thought he was lost like the rest of us, but perhaps not.”
I feel him tense behind me. I don’t need to ask what he’s thinking. I already know.
“I’m sorry I got you into this,” he says against my hair. His voice is rough.
“You didn’t get me into anything. I made my choice.”
“I’ll find a way to get you out. I don’t know how yet, but I will.”
I don’t answer right away. A thin rain has started, fine as mist, dampening my coat and collecting in droplets along the thornback’s bone ridges.
“Maybe it will be I who gets us out.”
His chest vibrates with a silent laugh. “You’re so right. You’ve saved my ass more times than should be allowed.”
We ride in silence for a time.
“So, one tumble and you’re in love with me,” he says into the shell of my ear.
I freeze, my face heating.
“Am I that good?” he whispers. I can hear that he is smiling.
Heat moves through me, settling low between my legs. Hard to believe that I can become aroused in a situation such as this, but there it is. I am.
I push out a soft laugh and shake my head slowly. “I was trying to keep you from doing something stupid. Don’t let it get to your head.” My voice is husky.
“I know, and I’m grateful.” He gently kisses the side of my head. Or perhaps it wasn’t a kiss but a touch of his head to mine, and just my wishful thinking.
I lace my fingers through his, where they rest against my stomach. His hand is bigger than mine, rougher, and warmer. He squeezes back.
I’m pretty sure that we’re riding to our death. I’m glad I had the confidence to take the Shadowfae King to my bed, even if it was just our clothes on the ground. I would have regretted it otherwise.
Despite everything that has happened, I’m glad it’s all out in the open. I might not live for too much longer, but at least I can live as me. As Isla, daughter of Elistral from the House of the Dark Daggers. Wielder of magic.
I can hold my head high instead of hiding in the shadows.