Chapter 3 #2
“Are you saying you’re going into the Nightwood with this girl alone?” Kael asked. “You can’t possibly be that reckless.”
Kael’s tendency toward thorough preparation and his conservative approach were what made him the perfect assassin, but this wasn’t the time for caution.
“The entire mission is reckless. It’s do or die.”
He stopped himself from objecting. He knew I was right.
In the brief silence that followed, looks of determination flickered across each member of my team, firelight carving resolve into their features.
The girl stirred.
Every man around the fire tensed. Kael’s hand drifted toward his daggers.
Thane shifted his weight, ready to grab her if she bolted.
Zephyr’s fingers began tracing patterns in the air, preparing to call the winds if needed.
Riven continued his work, but I caught the slight pause in his movements that meant he was ready to react.
Her eyes opened slowly, pupils dilated from the drugs but aware. Intelligent. She took in our faces, the forest around us, the weapons we carried, processing everything with the quick efficiency of someone who had learned to assess threats fast or die.
Firelight caught the panic in her eyes. They scanned the clearing and landed on the children, huddled on one side of the flames. Relief flickered across her expression, brief and sharp, before her attention snapped back to us.
“Where am I?” Her voice was rough, raw from screaming and the muzzle they’d forced on her.
“Safe,” I said, which was true enough for the moment.
Her gaze moved from face to face, cataloging details with an intelligence that impressed me despite myself.
When her eyes met Kael’s, I saw her note the way he held himself, ready for violence but not aggressive.
Professional. When she looked at Thane, she assessed his size, but also caught the gentleness in how he’d built the fire, how he’d positioned himself to block the wind from reaching her without making it obvious.
The speed at which she gathered information didn’t ease the tension in her gaze, or in her magic.
“You’re the ones who killed the mages,” she said. Not a question.
“Some of them,” Kael confirmed with a slight smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “The rest killed themselves by standing in the wrong place when your magic exploded.”
She flinched at the reminder, and I caught Thane shooting Kael a warning look.
Too blunt. Even for necessary truths.
“The burns need tending,” Zephyr said gently, holding up a vial of something that gleamed silver in the firelight. “This will help with the pain, but removing the sigils completely will take time.”
“Don’t.” She pulled back, wrapping her arms around herself protectively. “Don’t touch me.”
“The magic they burned into your skin is poisonous,” he continued in that calm, professional voice he used with difficult patients. “It’s designed to make you easier to control, but it’s also slowly killing you. I can help, but only if you let me.”
She looked at him for a long moment, then at each of us in turn. I could practically see her weighing options, calculating risks, trying to decide who represented the greater threat, us, or the poison still coursing through her system.
“Why should I trust any of you?” she asked finally.
“Because,” Zephyr said with characteristic directness, “if we wanted you dead, you’d already be dead. And if we wanted you as a prisoner, we’d have used iron chains instead of rescuing you from them.”
Her gaze found mine across the fire, and recognition flickered in those silver eyes. Not of me personally, but of what I represented. She’d heard the stories, seen the sketches, knew exactly what it meant to be looking at someone with silver eyes and shadows that moved without wind.
“You’re him,” she whispered. “The King’s Shadow.”
I inclined my head slightly. “Not anymore.”
“What do you want with me?”
Straight to the point. I appreciated that. Too many people wasted time with pleasantries when their lives hung in the balance.
Around the fire, my companions waited to see how I’d handle this moment. We’d discussed strategy, but ultimately the choice of how much truth to share was mine. Too little, and she’d never trust us enough to cooperate. Too much, and she’d realize exactly how dangerous this path was and try to run.
“The prophecy was right,” I said, watching her face for a reaction. “You’re going to destroy everything.”
Thane muttered something under his breath that might have been a prayer. Kael’s hand stayed near his weapons. Zephyr looked fascinated, as if watching a particularly interesting experiment unfold.
“What’s your name?” Thane asked.
The girl hesitated. She didn’t even trust us with that.
“Seris,” she said reluctantly.
Seris stared at me for a long moment. Then she laughed, a sound like breaking glass.
“Good,” she said. “This kingdom deserves to burn.”
The words caught even Kael off guard.
Her laughter stopped abruptly, her defenses snapping back into place.
Her eyes kept darting toward the children, her wariness unrelenting.
I could tell she wanted to run, but the children were anchoring her here.
Even bound and having witnessed what we were capable of in that chamber, she was calculating escape.
I couldn’t decide if she was foolish or brave.
She tested her restraints. They held.
“Let me go,” she said, and there was enough venom in her voice to kill a man. “Let me go, or I’ll tear you apart.”
“With what?” I asked mildly. “Your magic is exhausted from the escape. The targeting sigils disrupted your natural channels. And you’re surrounded by five men who’ve been killing people professionally longer than you’ve been alive.”
She glared at me with hatred so pure it was almost beautiful.
Almost.
“Besides,” I continued, “you don’t actually want to leave. Because you want to know why we rescued you. Why we killed the king’s mages and burned his precious ritual chamber. Why we’re sitting in a forest discussing prophecies instead of running for the border.”
“I don’t care why you,”
“You want to know why the Shadow Prince himself came for a half-dead Fae girl in chains.”
That stopped her cold. She was too intelligent not to see the logic, too curious not to want answers, and too angry to admit I was right.
“Fine,” she said through gritted teeth. “Why?”
I smiled then, letting her see just enough of what lived behind my eyes to make her step back.
“Because you’re going to help me kill my father.”