Chapter 5
Sage
The sharp crack of wood breaking jerked me awake. What the—?
Something thudded, someone grunted, and I blinked hard, trying to focus through the disorientation of manifesting.
Pieces of— Was that a table?
Whatever it was, the pieces lay scattered across the floor, one of the legs digging uncomfortably into my side, and Lord Rider and Sir West grappled on the floor.
Rider had West in a chokehold from behind, his forearm covered in thick fur and his fingers ending in sharp claws as if he were starting to turn into a wolf.
My pulse pounded and my thoughts whirled. None of this made sense. Why were Rider and West fighting?
West rammed his elbow back into Rider’s ribs. Hard. The impact made a dull thud, and Rider release a sharp grunt, his grip loosening, letting the massive knight break free and roll off him… right toward me.
Crap.
I scrambled back, hands and feet flailing, desperate to not get crushed.
The movement caught West’s attention, and his sapphire eyes locked with mine. His gaze raked down my neck to my cleavage and his eyes widened.
It was barely a fraction of an emotion, a flicker of something that wasn’t just grim resignation, but from what I’d seen from West so far, it was practically a full emotional declaration.
“Your marks,” he said, his voice deep and harsh.
My marks?
Oh shit, my marks!
Everything froze. I froze. West froze. Rider froze half-raised from where he’d been grappling with West.
Even the air seemed to still and drop in temperature.
In that brief moment between where I was Sawyer, now terrified that I was going to lose my mind because of a magic I didn’t want and couldn’t control, and waking in the Garden as Sage into the middle of a fight, I’d forgotten Zinnia had put my marks to sleep and I didn’t want anyone to know about it.
It was bad enough Quill had learned the truth, but now Sir West and Lord Rider?
And with my revealing lacy dress, the one I couldn’t change no matter how much I wanted to, West could see all my plain, lifeless spots where there should be light and power and the promise of a potential mate.
Worse, some of them were green, possibly indicating that my soul had already picked its first mate, which it hadn’t because I wasn’t fae and I couldn’t bond mates… and if I thought that enough times, maybe I’d eventually believe it.
Father, how was it possible for things to keep getting worse? At some point, I had to reach rock bottom, but I really didn’t want to see what that looked like. Things were bad enough as it was.
And now everyone knew I wasn’t just a novelty by being a new arrival.
I was one because my mating marks had been put to sleep.
They’d ask questions I couldn’t and didn’t want to answer and talk about me when all I wanted was to be invisible and bide my time in the Garden and the Gray until Sawyer was safe.
West stared at me, his expression unreadable. What was he thinking? What would he do? The frozen moment stretched longer and longer.
Then Rider snarled and tackled West, pinning the knight to the floor with his claws digging into the man’s throat.
“Don’t look at her,” he growled, but West’s gaze remained locked on me. “I said don’t look.”
Rider jerked West up by the neck of his armor and slammed him back down on the floor, drawing an “umph” from the large knight and making him blink.
The sudden lack of eye contact shattered whatever had frozen the moment between us and I scrambled farther away from the fight until I bumped into something and a soft blanket fell over my shoulders.
“Here,” Lord Quill said, wrapping the blanket and his arms around me.
“Thank you.” I clutched the blanket at my neck, hiding my marks even though everyone had already seen them.
And that everyone also included Talon, who stood by the door as if to block it. Swell.
Of course, I’d known I wouldn’t have been able to keep it a secret forever, at least not from West since I couldn’t control the clothing I manifested in, I’d just hoped…
I wasn’t sure what I’d hoped for.
A small part of me was furious that Lord Rider, Talon, and Lord Quill were even in the suite, and yet a much larger part was grateful that I wasn’t alone with West.
I still wasn’t sure I trusted the leaders of the Black Guard, but I trusted them more than the grim knight who’d been spirit linked to me that I knew nothing about.
“Listen,” Talon said as he strode across the sitting room with breathtaking grace and knelt beside Rider and West.
As usual, his long white hair was pulled back at his temples with half a dozen braids on each side, accentuating his sculpted facial features and his delicately pointed ears, and my core throbbed with the remembered heat and yearning of his allure while my chest ached at his beauty.
But his beauty, like a lot of beauty I’d discovered in the fae realm, was a lie. It didn’t mean he was kind or generous or caring. It just meant he was pretty,
I fought to ignore the sensations, determined to not be attracted to him.
“We just want to have a conversation,” he said.
West’s sapphire gaze shifted to Talon, and his eyes narrowed.
“We’ve already demonstrated we care about Lady Sage’s safety,” Talon continued. “We want to help you with your duty.”
“You have your own duties,” West replied, his voice a low, dangerous rumble.
Talon frowned and his expression turned calculating for a moment before it smoothed back to calm and concerned. “We do, but you’re still going to have to allow men access to the lady so they can court her.”
“Barging into her room and assaulting her guard isn’t courting behavior,” West replied.
“Are you sure?” Talon glanced at Rider.
The knight huffed. “I stand corrected.”
“I’m not—” Rider growled, but Talon shot him a hard look, and the Lord Commander of the Black Guard snapped his mouth shut.
“We’re all interested in courting Lady Sage. We all intend to spend time here with her.” The mesmerizing swirl of pink, blue, and purple in Talon’s eyes captured me, and my unwanted desire warmed again. “If the lady will allow it.”
I knew for a fact neither Talon nor Rider were interested in courting me.
Except if they were here to protect me from Sir West and the other fae, then they’d need an excuse to be near me, and courting me was one everyone would accept.
“You can meet her in the court gardens and sitting rooms like everyone else,” Sir West said.
Rider snarled and jerked his face closer to West’s, his canines sharp and wolf-like. “That isn’t safe.”
“I can protect her,” West rumbled back.
“Not if everyone knows about her marks,” Quill said, and Sir West’s attention jumped back to him and essentially back to me.
I fought the urge to shrink in on myself under the knight’s cold glare. Zinnia had assured me I could be as strong and as forthright as I wanted and I wouldn’t be punished. But a part of me still struggled to believe that.
Especially since she’d only mentioned it yesterday and the behavior from Wells, Crane, and those other men belied that information.
“So you’d keep her to yourself? You can’t even court her,” West said to Lord Quill.
Quill stiffened at the reminder that because he didn’t have any magic the Goddess wouldn’t bond him to a woman.
“Not the point,” Talon said, his tone suddenly harsh. “Sage’s marks were affected by whatever Wells and Crane did and sharing that information with anyone, even Her Brilliance, will only shame her.”
“The power will return when the Goddess wills it,” Quill added. “It’s just a matter of time. You wouldn’t want to shame someone who’s already been traumatized?”
West’s eyes narrowed and with his set grim expression I couldn’t tell if Lord Quill and Talon’s argument was working.
“Please,” I said. “Magister Zinnia said it’s only temporary.”
Or at least Zinnia had hoped it was temporary.
I hoped it was permanent because I couldn’t afford the complication of having a fae mate, not when I was human and didn’t belong to the fae realm. It was bad enough some of my marks had already turned from my hair color to my eye color indicating that I’d already bonded a mate.
Regardless, what I really needed to stop attracting any more attention was to keep the state of my mating marks a secret. I didn’t want to think about what the High Priestess would do if she found out, but I knew without a doubt it wouldn’t be good.