Chapter five #2
Would the people of Shadowfall have protected me the same way?
My home. Was that home? Most of them were just a collection of faces I’d left behind.
Faces I didn’t care to see again. Names I didn’t care to be called again.
A cowardly thought entered my mind then.
Did I have to protect them? I swallowed the vile intrusion.
I might not like the people of Shadowfall, but they didn’t deserve to die.
And Leesha. The baby. I couldn’t sell their safety for my freedom. I couldn’t.
“Telling me would be the wisest option. And the truth.” He’d stopped examining the crystals and was back, casting a shadow over me. “Because if you lie, I will find out when we bring you there, and there’s no faebane.”
Faebane?
The pages of my mind fanned open in front of me.
Faebane was the fae term for adamyte. The history books had mentioned it a few times.
It had been plentiful in the Four Corners for aeons, but some accounts of the Two-Hundred-Year War actually cited its dwindling sources as the reason the war lasted so long.
Had one side had a significant advantage over the other, a victor might have been crowned sooner.
“Why do you want it?” I flicked my eyes to him.
“Just tell me where it came from, peach.” His voice was strained.
The other male rode up then. “They’re all dead. No fun, really. Men piss themselves when they die. And they smelled bad before that.”
“You really are something, aren’t you, Gav?” the stranger said to the male on horseback.
The one atop the horse just curled his lips in a skewed line in disapproval. But then instantly sobered, and his eyes darted. “Someone’s coming from the east.”
Bray! My heart raced and my blood thundered.
“Gen?!” Bray’s voice was pitched. “I’m sorry. Look, can we talk about this? I’m not good at this. I didn’t mean to push you away.”
“Someone else we should worry about?” The dark stranger before me pulled my attention to him.
No. No. No.
They’d kill him.
“Gen?!”
“Gen?” The male before me looked intently at me. “First lie already?”
“My name is Imogen,” I said emphatically. “I’m not lying.” My courage guttered. “I can’t tell you where the adamyte—faebane is from.” My words were swallowed by the rush of blood in me. They could hurt Bray and everyone back home. They could hurt me.
What was the cost of protecting people—Leesha, Bray, home—going to be? I already knew the answer. But it was never a question. “I just can’t.” I repeated the vow as if to affirm it in my heart.
“And does your lover know where to find it?”
“He’s not my lover!”
“Guess that answers that question.” The female—Denora—came up behind the stranger clad in black before me and winked.
“Gen?” Bray’s voice was closer now. It carried through the spindly silver birch. The one called Gav twitched, as if he wanted to kick his mount to follow the sound.
“Don’t hurt him. Please.” My eyes shuddered, threatening to flood tears over my cheeks.
The stranger regarded me then, lips pursed. “Tell me, and I’ll consider it.”
I hesitated. It was Bray. They’d kill him if I didn’t.
“Last chance. Tell me where you found the faebane.” He gripped his sword as if to remind me that he would indeed cut Bray down.
But I couldn’t.
Bray would have to understand. Even if I told them where I’d gotten the faebane, there was no guarantee they’d let him live. And I just couldn’t risk Leesha and the baby. My heart squeezed. He’d have to understand. He’d have to. Leesha’s safety rested in my hands.
“I can’t.” My eyes fell to the blood-soaked ground.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
“Denora, take this to my father.” He held the crystals out. “Tell him we’ll get more.” His eyes never left me.
“We will?” she asked as she tucked the shards into her leathers. She looked at me pityingly, her eyes kinder now, if stern.
“Gavrin.” The stranger never took his eyes off me as he spoke. “Take Vega and meet us in the usual spot. Secure somewhere suitable.”
Without deliberation, the other male took off with the black stallion that must have been Vega.
The sword that had been dripping blood was now sheathed at the stranger’s back. My eyes snagged on the blade, the back it was strapped to and the male before me.
I could feel something shift beneath my feet. Something like gravity. Like the world was moving, but I wasn’t. Or was it me who was moving and everything else stood still? Maybe I was in shock, but I felt strange.
They were leaving. Why did he tell the brawny one to take his horse, though?
Gavrin was only just out of sight when Bray crashed through the tree line.
“Gen?!” He stopped short when he took in the sight of the camp through the guttering firelight. The dead bodies, blood, and disarray.
Bray took it all in and, to his credit, didn’t try to paint the grasses with his breakfast like I had.
The female now had an arrow nocked and trained on his temple. The dark-haired stranger spun me around so he was at my back, and we were both looking at Bray.
“What are you—” I elbowed him in the ribs with full force. “Let go of me!”
A small chuckle emanated from the female atop her horse.
My hit didn’t even wind him. The fae male’s arm pressed me to him; it stretched from my left to right shoulder with ease, engulfing me.
“Who in the hells are you? Let her go!” Bray’s voice was loud, clear. Defiant of what lay before him.
I was beginning to feel far too much like chattel today. Everyone seemed to think they could say what should be done with me. Sell me, use me. Rob me, marry me.
“Bray! Go! Just go!” He needed to leave. Now. “They’ll kill you if you don’t!”
As if I’d asked him to, the male’s free arm reached for the sword at his back.
“No! Please. He doesn’t know anything. Don’t,” I pleaded with my captor, but he wasn’t listening.
“Kaedian, are you sure about this? Maybe you shouldn’t …” The female’s voice stilled the male’s hand as it gripped his blade. He refocused on her instead of Bray, who was pacing like a scavenger. “Your father—”
“What else am I going to do?” he snapped back at her. “Do not question me on this. My father needs this. We need this. I need this.”
“I’m not telling you where I got the faebane!” I shouted up at him, pulling on his hold on me.
The female seemed to smirk at my words, but it was the male who replied. “I know. That’s why you’re coming with me.” He sheathed his sword again with a heavy thud.
“You sure you can handle her, Kaed?” But her voice was lost to the ground that faded under my feet as he propelled us skyward.