4 #2
Connus cuts the laughter off like a switch. “The Dark Lord’s pet, you said,” he says, eyeing Melody with clear interest. Her heartbeat is a weak but steady thrum.
“Caryan will come here,” I say, “and peel your bronze skin off layer by layer. So better fuck off now.”
The pack flinches at the mention of Caryan. Connus just cocks an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know. Just let me go, Con. He’s already on his way. And once he finds us? There’ll be no mercy. The girl’s your only chance of survival—if she’s still alive.”
“Hm.” The Fox lifts his chin, as if reconsidering the whole situation. “Yeah, I agree.”
My shoulders sag with relief, but then he continues.
“It’s gotten tough to get by here, you know. If she is such a precious pet to the Dark Lord as you claim she is, my dear, lovely Blair, then she might very well be…useful.” He inclines his chin to his men. “Renfris, carry the girl. And see to it my lovely witch here joins our humble entourage.”
My jaw unhinges. “What? Didn’t you hear what I just said? Caryan is going to fucking kill us all. You can’t be serious, Con. Not even you!”
“He’s likely going to kill us, Blair. If we aren’t fast enough.
A touch of a gamble, but I’ll take the chance.
” Connus’s eye flickers with the challenge of a hunt.
Gods, I should have known that he couldn’t resist. He’s always been a cunning bastard who won’t let an opportunity slide.
Not even when it might cost him his own hide.
“If what you say about the Dark Lord himself being that interested in that girl is true, it can only mean that she is the girl. The girl from the prophecy. And given that, you might understand that this is a chance you only get once in a lifetime, and I walked straight in on it. We must make haste and get to a place even the angel will not find.” He claps his hands twice and turns to his men.
They all straighten immediately. “So, again. Let’s not waste more precious time. Off we go now.”
Suddenly, Melody stirs, mumbling something.
It almost looks as though she’s talking to someone, but I can’t make out the words.
At least she’s still alive, although by the sounds of it, she seems to be in some weird kind of nightmare.
Similar to the state she’s been in on that damn, cursed Mount Silas, when Caryan gave her his blood to save her life.
Connus frowns down at her for a second, then gestures to Mr. Mohawk. “Let’s go, Renfris.”
Without waiting, the bastard shifts—turning into that large, bronze wolf with a fluffy fox tail—before stalking quietly off into the dense tree line and vanishing between them.
Renfris lifts Melody in his arms, leading the way, and I curse under my breath as I’m shoved along behind them.
We march through the forest, the trees thick and heavy, swallowing every trace of light.
The ground feels dead beneath our feet. Hells, everything feels wrong here, even the very air I breathe.
Eventually, we reach a clearing with an insidious swamp stretching before us. Connus pauses, shifting back to his fae form, and mutters something under his breath—an enchantment. A dome of light bursts into being, spanning the entire swamp.
Connus steps in—and vanishes.
Shit.
“What the hells is this?” I growl, digging my heels in. But two of Connus’s ever-adoring lapdogs shove me hard in the back.
“Welcome to the Elysium, witch,” one sneers before throwing me forward.
I growl and snarl. If I still had my magic, they’d all be so fucking dead. Instead, I stumble, landing on all fours, and the dickheads behind me laugh. My head snaps up. My breath catches at the unexpected warmth gracing my face.
Sunlight.
I’m kneeling in grass greener than any I’ve ever seen, so impossibly soft I want to run my fingers through it. Butterflies flit around me like something out of a twisted fairytale.
Ahead lies a sprawling, timber mansion with a gods-damned veranda, and fuck me, an actual bird feeder with hummingbirds. What is this? An illusion? If it is, it’s a damn good one, which would require a lot of magic.
The front doors fly open, and Connus reappears, grinning down at me like a dog that’s caught something it has no intention of letting go. “What? Did you think I hunkered down in this insidious forest like those brutes of Nefarians?”
“Well, yeah, kind of,” I admit, still staring and kind of expecting this to turn into a nightmare at any moment. “Is this an illusion?”
“It’s all real, babe,” he assures me with a wink.
“Where the hells did you get the magic from?” Constructing a dome like that, a bubble that keeps the evil around out…it would take one of the most skilled spell-weavers ever heard of. And most of them are in Palisandre, working for Lorvil.
Connus smirks, as if I’ve paid him a damn fucking compliment.
“You know, I always make sure to have friends in the right places. And some happened to owe me a favor. That dome is so tight not even the Dark Lord himself will be able to sense it. So, we’re safe—or at least as far as you can ever be safe in a world like this. Or with me, for that matter.”
He glances down at me, his tone darkening. “And now, my dearest Blair, I never thought I’d say this, but I prefer you less dirty.”
“Then run me a bath, you mongrel,” I snap, rising to my feet and brushing the caked mud off before realizing how pointless it is, because I’m covered in it like a damn fucking cake covered with mud-frosting. Two of his men growl in a warning at my tone, but I ignore them. Suck it up, assholes.
“It’s already running, my lady,” Connus drawls with a smirk, motioning grandly for me to enter. “And then you can tell me everything about the half-human.”
When I look around, I realize that the guy who has been carrying Melody vanished.
“Where is she?” I demand, suddenly alert.
Connus frowns. “I don’t remember you being this much of a worrier, Blair.”
“Well, I am worried. Because she’s the reason Caryan will slit our throats if he ever finds us. And you better tell me she’s fucking alright, Con, or I’ll trash this place. Your dimwit mutt pups included.”
His men stiffen, hands going to their weapons—but Connus raises a hand to stall them.
“Ah, I missed your temper, Blair. And your disdain for diplomacy and etiquette. But wreaking havoc won’t help. This dome? You can’t escape it without the keywords to break the spell. So keep it civil, my dear witch. At least until we’re in my bedroom.” He has the nerve to wink at me again.
“In your dreams.”
“Oh every night,” he retorts, smooth as ever.
“I bet your beta, Renfris, knows the words. I’ll spare him after I’ve gutted you and your friends.”
The mohawked Renfris snorts when I cast him a glance after he suddenly reappears through a door.
“Renfris knows how to enter ,” Connus says. “Only I hold the key to getting out .”
“I could torture the spell out of you .”
Connus grins over his broad shoulder. “Yeah, like chain me to a chair or a wall? You know that threats like that make me hard, Blair. But I survived torture from the king of Palisandre himself. And as much as I admire your talents, you won’t break me.
So—enjoy the amenities. And then let’s try to strike a deal.
We are old friends, after all, aren’t we, Blair? ”
I want to launch myself at him, but two of his watchdogs hold me back by the arms.
“Where is the girl?” I grind out between my teeth.
He just rolls his shoulders.
I glare at his back and, damn, if I could kill with my gaze, he’d drop dead, drifting belly up like a fish in an aquarium.
“The girl is being tended to,” he calls to me. “Don’t worry. We’ll heal her.”
He strolls into the mansion as though he has no care in the gods-damned world.
And a dark part of me always admired him for that.