Chapter twelve
Down multiple flights of marble stairs, Kaed sat in a chair behind a mahogany desk.
A warm breeze I wasn’t acclimated to tumbled through a set of wide-open glass doors.
A beautiful orange grove and garden sprawled beyond the doors with flowering blooms that seemed to shimmer like they were covered in stardust. Bees buzzed between petals of gem-like magenta and sultry rose that brimmed beyond the house.
The urns and beds were overflowing with flowers of every variety, and I wondered who the gardener amongst them was.
Enchanting as it was, it was also an exit strategy for when I did decide to leave. I’d made a promise to myself to memorise the exits and routes I took from now on.
But this wasn’t what I was expecting from my shadow-fae abductor. I thought Gavrin might lead us to a dark stone cave with flickering torches. Skulls and cages. But to see Kaed lounging in the chair with the backdrop of flowers. It was disorientating. Ever the predator drawing you into comfort.
His clothes had changed from riding attire to a tailored shirt and tight-fitting leathers that laced to the front. “Patience is a virtue. But it’s not one I possess.” His callous tone was hampered by exhaustion. It was plain across his face.
“Didn’t get your beauty sleep, I see.” Maybe I should have shown some deference when it came to the lord that was before me. But I couldn’t find it in me to cower before him.
Gavrin swallowed a laugh. He closed the door behind Audrie and me once inside and stood, arms clasped, like a warden.
“Denora is still in Hayden.” Kaed’s voice carried to Gavrin behind both of us as if we weren’t there.
“Denora? She was the last one there when Bray was …” I couldn’t finish the thought.
“He’s alive.” Kaed’s words sounded charred, like they burned his tongue to say them. “While Denora wouldn’t have killed him without my order, that doesn’t mean I won’t still give it.”
Shock hollowed out my cheeks.
He was alive. Audrie stood into my weight as I swayed a little. But Kaed didn’t look at me again.
“She should be here in a few days.” Kaed’s voice was tight as he spoke to the sentinel behind us.
“Just in time for Daeghan’s party.” Gavrin’s grin was broad and mischievous.
I didn’t take them for the partying type. But how did I know, I supposed. It wasn’t the usual occupation for kidnappers.
“We won’t be going.” Kaed clenched his jaw and shot a look at Gavrin that had his sentinel’s chest deflating.
Audrie’s shoulders slumped under me at Kaed’s words.
“You don’t like to relax, ever?” It might be helpful if he were at a party, getting drunk, letting his guard down.
I’d at least get a moment to myself to explore this new city.
And, aiming to plan ahead, my eyes darted to everything in the room.
Gilded candlestick holders, leather-bound books.
Even some of the vases were small enough to carry off.
Plenty in here for bartering with any merchant sailor to get me out of here.
“Sadly, peach, I don’t have that luxury right now.”
“You mean, don’t have an invite,” Gavrin quipped.
Kaed shot him a look that promised violence.
“I thought lords would get invited to everything,” I mocked, falling easily in tone with Gavrin.
“Or weren’t you ever taught manners for polite society?
” Not that I knew anything about polite society.
But how a lord had managed to find himself excluded from revelries and events, I wasn’t sure.
Maybe the people of this city just didn’t like him.
I could empathise with them on that, I supposed.
Kaed’s eyes went mercilessly dark as he looked between Gavrin and me.
Gavrin held up his hands in surrender. “Don’t look at me.”
I took a step towards those dark eyes. “Maybe my good friend Councillor Carron could get you an invite? You could even bring your new lady.” I had no intention of going to a party, but taunting him when he seemed to be so tightly wound was a pleasure I couldn’t deny myself.
Storms gathered in Kaed’s eyes at the reminder of our ill-struck arrangement last night.
Beside me, Audrie looked at me with confusion.
Kaed had stepped into my light. He hadn’t said anything, but his presence was enough to make anyone consider their safety.
“Stop it! You’ll scare her.” Audrie moved in front of me, even though I didn’t feel the fear I probably should have. As if on instinct at being commanded, Kaed glowered at the tiny human standing between the demon and me.
And then it was Audrie who seemed afraid.
I swapped places with her until I was practically pressed to Kaed.
With a hesitant pause, he pulled back from glaring at Audrie, and his focus shifted entirely to me. I felt pinned beneath his stare, but I refused to cower. My eyes wanted to pull away from him, but I forced them to look up into his.
“Leave. Her. Be.” I took Audrie’s hand in mine. “Or we are leaving.” I turned Audrie to the door, but Gavrin made no signs of moving.
“You’re here until I get what I want from you.
” His words were measured, but there was an unmistakable tremble of power in them.
“As long as that may take,” he said slowly as he took a step towards me.
“You might not be in a cell. But make no mistake”—the thrum of my heart was all there was in the silence before he leaned over me—“you are mine. You will remain mine until such time as I have what I want.”
I went still. A glacial lake with an impenetrable surface. Beneath the mirror of my exterior, rage rippled. “My betrothed, everyone.” My sardonic tone was ripe with ire.
“What?” Audrie blinked.
After hiding his grimace, Kaed said, “Didn’t you hear the happy news, Miss Stairlor?
” He straightened, a false smile pinched at his mouth.
“Imogen here is my intended. As of last night. It was terribly romantic. The details are … not worth telling, but I’m sure she will fill you in.
” The venom in his voice could set fire to the sea.
“Congratulations,” she breathed, perhaps not quite believing what she heard. And I couldn’t blame her for being shaken by the news. It was the most ridiculous thing imaginable.
“It was just the only way this cad could think to explain away why he’d kidnapped someone, to a city she didn’t recognise. Late at night. Just before a storm.” I wasn’t sure why I was telling Audrie this. I’d only just met the girl, but she was kind.
Her eyes bugged as I explained what had happened last night. Perhaps I’d said too much, but I wasn’t about to pass up honesty if it would win me an ally in this place.
Kaed twitched a smile, but his eyes darkened. “Careful, peach.” He levelled his gaze at me, and the corners of the room grew dark like the edges of a page caught by fire.
Why I felt the need, the urge to taunt him, I didn’t know. I didn’t know what he was capable of, but tiny sparks inside of me kept shooting off as if to find out. A ripple of fear tumbled through me, but I bit down on it until it stilled.
“It’s necessary,” I clarified to Audrie. “For both of our interests.”
“I’m not happy about it. But—” His face became a placid mask, indifferent to the situation he had created for himself.
“Are you ever happy?” I cut in.
“I’m enjoying it!” Gavrin shot over us.
“Sometimes. On special occasions.” His smile was wicked. Knowing. “I’m not happy about it. But Lady Imogen forced my hand.”
I scoffed. “Much like you forced me to be here?”
“While she is here,” he continued over me.
“You”—his eyes flicked to a quivering Audrie—“will be her escort through the city. You’re not to leave the city limits, and if you’re going anywhere beyond your normal routes to the library, either I, Denora, or Gavrin will be informed. You’re being given this task—”
She was shaking as Kaed spoke.
“Miss Stairlor? Are you listening?” Audrie nodded at him despite the shaking rattling through her still. “Good. You are being entrusted with this because you are one of the very few people I can rely on from home. I can trust you with this, can’t I?”
Somewhere along the way, his voice had softened. He had gone from demanding and dictatorial to charming and coaxing.
He had her.
She relaxed into his voice. “Yes, my Lord. Of course.”
“Good.”
Kaed flung his gaze to Gavrin behind us, and the door opened, ready for us to leave.
“Wait.” I said, refusing to leave. “That tells me nothing about how long I’ll be here?”
I had said by the next moon cycle. But I wasn’t sure we’d actually bargained on that part.
In some sense, it didn’t bother me once I could get what I needed out of this place.
Or maybe I’d just grow bored with this city and keep moving if I found nothing.
I wasn’t used to decadence and marble halls.
Kaed paused as he regarded me. “It doesn’t, no. That depends wholly on you and your mouth and …” He paused to close the space between us again, Audrie already gone to the waiting door. “How loose your tongue gets.”
I smacked him.
I’m not sure who was more shocked at what I did, but none of us moved for a heartbeat.
Kaed tended to his jaw where I’d struck him as though I’d dislocated it. I’d likely hurt my hand more than his fae bone structure.
“You’re a pig.”
“Your mind is just elsewhere. I said nothing.”
“You implied. And I’m not like that. I wouldn’t do that.”
The angle of his brow pointed upwards.
Was he really implying he’d let me go if I—No. I wouldn’t. He couldn’t be? Could he? Maybe it was a stupid line, but I wouldn’t cross it. I wouldn’t sell myself to him.
Realising I wasn’t going to play this particular game, he disengaged and adjusted the perfect cuffs of his shirt. My hand still smarted, but he’d moved on.
“When you give me what I want, you can leave this city. If you fail to before I’m done here, you’ll come with me, tied to Vega’s saddle if need be. We can travel the Four Corners in its entirety looking for it.”
“We already have a bargain,” I interjected.
“A bargain that relies on you providing me with a location for what I want from you.”