Chapter 9 #2
“Oh, they aren’t all dead,” she replied matter-of-factly. “Only about half. Which is why the stupid barrier is still up. But don’t worry, I can fly through it…”
She paused. Her ears swiveled, and her eyes went wide and startled.
“No way,” she breathed. “It can’t be.”
“More of them?” I mumbled, taking shallow breaths to avoid the pain that stabbed deep every time my ribs moved.
But she was searching the sky, head tilted, then her eyes closed as if listening…
“Duck!” Kira hit me and knocked me to the ground, covering me with one of her wings right before the glowing barrier overhead shattered into a million scintillating shards.
They rained down like razor-edged snowflakes, turning the ground blue for a mere instant before they evaporated into the night.
And in place of the barrier, hovering over us like a vengeful archangel, was a creature I had neither seen nor heard of before.
Wreathed in lightning, it was neither man nor beast, but a nightmarish meld of the two, with the hind legs of a lion and the torso of a human, both covered in midnight black fur.
Its face was human-like, with pale, hard features beneath a crest of dark feathers.
Eyes like silver stars pierced the night sky as it hovered on dark-feathered wings and let out a bone-chilling scream.
It spotted us and dove, and all I could see were the curved claws that tipped each finger—reaching for us. Ready to rend and tear…
“Kira, go!” She could at least save herself. No need for both of us to die here.
But instead of leaving me to my death—or charging to meet her own with a snarl of defiance—she flung herself skyward with a glad cry, and her dragon collided with the bizarre monster in a tangle of feathers and scales.
A moment later they hit the ground, but there was no blood, no snarls, no rending. Instead, the bronze dragon was facing that nightmare, nose to nose, and his brilliant silver eyes were closed as their foreheads gently touched…
Oh, dear heavens. This was Draven?
I knew he was part shifter, but I’d never seen his fully shifted form before. And despite my ignorance, even I knew that he was something outside the experience of most Idrians. A blend of magics, creating unpredictable results… just like me.
I realized shortly afterwards that I was staring and turned around to give them some privacy. In doing so, I noted one of the fae beginning to stir and groan, and walked over to where she lay on the ground.
“Want to tell me who sent you?” I inquired mildly, taking stock of her visible injuries. Bruises and claw marks mostly, which meant she was likely to survive. What on earth were we supposed to do with injured fae assassins?
Her eyes opened enough to shoot me a murderous glare, but she was careful not to make any sudden moves. Whether because she couldn’t or knew better than to try, it was difficult to be sure.
“Okay, that’s a no to who hired you. What about the job? Are you here for murder or kidnapping? Telling the truth might help when I call Faris Lansgrave and tell him a bunch of fae attacked his kid on his territory.”
I didn’t need magic to sense her shrinking away from me.
“I can answer that.” The unearthly voice from behind me had to be Draven, but I still flinched a little at the threat in his chilling tone. “They were sent by Elayara’s cousin, Lysarian Galavor.”
That name sounded familiar to me for some reason, but it could have been coincidence. Fae names were like tongue twisters. They sounded a lot alike, and it was hard to say more than one in the same sentence.
“He’s one of the aspiring claimants to Dathair’s throne, and he reasoned that if he could manage to kidnap my mate, I would be willing to put pressure on my father and brother to abdicate.”
Well, that was the dumbest plan I’d ever heard.
“And he only sent eight people?” I turned to look at the woman lying on the ground at my feet. “To kidnap a dragon?”
Kira gave a nasty chuckle. “The only thing most people know about bronze dragons is that our scales are impervious to pretty much everything. So once they find out I’m tiny, they think they can just pick me up and carry me off.”
“Unfortunately,” Draven said, “this isn’t why I’m here.”
I sensed his words were aimed at me, so I turned and somehow managed to hold his star-eyed gaze.
“Callum was at court this morning during the claimant debates. An assassin attempted to lock down the court and murder Rath, and Callum was close enough to stop him. However…”
No. No, no, no.
I couldn’t let him say it.
I didn’t want to hear his however.
As weird as it was knowing that there was a person who could sense my feelings and almost hear my thoughts… As difficult as it was trying to figure out all these strange emotions and sort out our wildly different backgrounds…
I couldn’t bear it if I lost him. My vision turned to dark tunnels, my pulse thudded ominously in my ears…
“Raine, it’s okay!” Kira’s scaled shoulder was suddenly under my elbow once more, preventing me from falling. “He’s not dead. Can you hear me? Callum isn’t dead.”
Not dead. Whatever had happened, he wasn’t dead.
“Are you sure?” My voice was raspy and sounded a million years old.
It was Draven who answered. “He is alive. But he was stabbed with a poisoned blade meant for Rath. He’s unconscious, so he can’t shift, and we haven’t… convinced the assassin to tell us what poison was used.”
If he couldn’t shift, his natural shapeshifter healing wouldn’t be much help.
“It’s not safe for him at the Fae Court,” Draven continued.
“He’s got no one to watch his back, and when we called Angelica, she seemed to be giving us cryptic warnings not to take him to New Mexico either.
So we decided to bring him here. We were hoping that if you could make contact with the herbalist, she would agree to assess his condition.
Unfortunately, someone either intercepted the message or spied on our conversations and got a team here ahead of the meeting. ”
Kira turned to glare at him and whacked him with her tail, hard enough that he staggered a few paces. “I love you, but how could you hide this from Raine for this long? If someone knew you were hurt and didn’t tell me, I would give them to Mom for an after-dinner snack.”
“Where is he now?” I was proud that my voice didn’t waver. I was solid as a rock. If rocks had knees made out of jello and arms like overcooked pasta.
“On his way to The Assemblage. We decided his place would be the safest.”
“Does Faris know?”
Draven shrugged. “Possibly. I didn’t want anyone at the Fae Court to know where we were going, so I waited until we landed to send messages to Tairen and Morghaine. Angelica met us at the airport, and I headed straight here to tell Kira in person.”
But nowhere in all of this had anyone thought to tell me?
The oversight stung—particularly coming from Draven—but I didn’t have time to be butthurt. We had fae prisoners to deal with, a pixie herbalist to find, and I had decisions to make.
The first thing was to call Faris, since I was the only one with normal fingers at the moment.
He picked up after the first ring.
“Trap?” he rumbled menacingly.
“Sort of. But we have eight fae, about three of whom are still breathing.”
“And the herbalist?” He sounded grim.
“Nowhere in sight. Must have seen the ambush and freaked out. You know about Callum?”
He hesitated. “Morghaine just notified me a few seconds ago. I wasn’t sure of your situation, so I waited to call you.”
I understood. I did. For all he knew, we might have been sneaking around, hiding from enemies, or fighting for our lives. A phone call could have distracted me or given away our location.
And out of all the people who’d known about Callum, Faris might be the only one who knew how to contact me directly.
So, it probably wasn’t that anyone was deliberately cutting me out.
I was letting my own insecurities get to me instead of remembering what mattered—Callum chose me.
All I needed to do was keep choosing him in return, in spite of my fears, and in spite of what anyone might say about us.
“I’m sending some people to pick up the prisoners,” Faris promised. “Just hang on for a few minutes, and then you can head for Callum’s place.”
“Draven can babysit the prisoners,” Kira interrupted. “And wait to see if the herbalist shows up. We’re leaving now.”
I nodded numbly.
She shoved her scaly nose closer to the phone. “Tell them to hurry, because Raine and I aren’t waiting.”
I glanced over at Draven.
“He’s got this,” Kira said firmly. “Now hang up and let’s go.”