31. Chapter 31
Chapter thirty-one
We didn’t speak.
I focused everything in me until I was a statue on his knee. It took everything in me not to ease back into him. I even kept my breaths shallow so as not to rub up against his chest as it pressed into me.
And Kaed did the same. He must have been cursing me for leaving in the first place. For forcing this upon him.
Each dip and step Vega made had me bouncing left, then right, on my hip. On him.
I needed this to end. Before I moved. Before I rocked back on him.
We were fully robed in night by the time the city walls came into view. Torches burned in the narrow windows of the wall and turrets, the stone glowing orange in the fires. Farther into the city, the fae lights twinkled, and I couldn’t help but admire the beauty of it.
And I relaxed a little at the sight of Viverna.
I was surprised at my own reaction. This wasn’t home.
It wasn’t where I needed to be, to get to.
But my body always seemed to know what I didn’t.
My shoulders softened a little. Until I felt Kaed shift under me; it undid any sense of ease I’d just had.
Did he think my movement, my unrestrained stirring, was for him?
Heat flooded my insides from where he pressed into me until it burned.
Before I could say anything, the gate opened its jaws, chains clinking and thunking heavily in the stillness.
We both tensed at the same time, our bodies in synchronisation and on alert for what came through the gates.
I felt the trickle of Kaed’s magic playing on the edge of his fingers as his grip tightened around me. Maybe I should have jerked away when I felt his magic gathering, but I clung to the familiarity of it.
My body fused to his in response to what I saw.
Pacing in step, a score of guards surrounded us as we neared the entrance. Their bronze armour was ghoulish as it shone in the flickering torchlight.
Each one of them, in unison, sparked a ball of umber fae light in their hands, their aim trained on us.
“Dismount,” an anonymous voice shouted from the soldiers. “Both of you.”
I twisted to look at Kaed.
“Leave her out of this.” Kaed’s voice was like a mountain rumbling its threat before erupting.
“The lady comes too. By any means.” The soldier’s voice was steady as he relayed the demand.
Kaed roiled under me. His power rippled to the surface like an ancient sea serpent readying to destroy the hulls of ships that bobbed helplessly above.
He leaned closer to me until his nose was in my hair and his lips at my ear. “Go to Denora. Tell her to find Tymon. Not Sapphine. Just Tymon.”
“What? Where are you going?”
“Release the female and surrender,” the soldier demanded from behind their glowing magic.
“She will be unharmed.” Kaed wasn’t asking.
Silence emanated from the soldiers before one of them released a bolt of amber light without warning. It sang straight past Kaed’s ear and I flinched.
Kaed’s anger rumbled in his chest as shadows spilled over me, his arms still encircling me.
“Surrender.” The voice was unabashedly brazen in its command.
Kaed tensed beneath me, his magic unfurling further.
“No, stop,” I whispered, angling my chin down and towards him.
“Are you going to attack them all?” I asked under my breath.
“You can’t level violence at them and expect it not to be thrown back at you.
” Was surrender the right choice? I didn’t think an all-out battle would be to anyone’s benefit.
I thought of Denora’s words. Magic and its power were driven by intent.
And these soldiers intended to hurt us if they needed to.
I couldn’t feel their power, but I could read the stony look in their eyes lit by the humming of their magic.
Kaed seemed like he was weighing something up, and then he squeezed his hand where it touched me, urging, not gripping. “When I set you down, you run. You don’t look back. I will draw them. Don’t trust anyone. Find Denora. Find Tymon.”
“You’re leaving me?” I wasn’t sure if I was hurt or afraid.
“She remains unharmed.” Kaed’s voice echoed into the eerie orange light.
There was a murmur amongst the soldiers. “She will not be touched … upon your surrender.” The voice that spoke now sounded coiled. Like it wanted to snap if Kaed didn’t bend.
Kaed held me close and angled Vega until his flank was between us and the majority of soldiers. They tried to mirror the movement, the metal of their armour clinking and screeching as they did.
My feet had barely bent the blades of grass under my shoes when guards tore away from the formation and gripped each of my arms. Their magic converged on me, anchoring me as though it were a weighted vest. I felt heavy and had the urge to crumple.
My vision became disjointed as the guards continued to pour their magic into me. But Kaed’s magic erupted, and there was a flash of darkness as the two guards that had been at my side smashed to the ground with a crunch, the metal of their armour crushed to them.
They didn’t move again.
Four guards caged me off from Kaed then, and the remaining guards encircled him.
“Kaed!” My terror spilled out as the four poured more magic into me.
Their magic was crushing me to the point of collapse. I felt like rabid wolves were gnawing on my body, their teeth grinding into the chalky surface of my bones.
Black shards sliced through the air, and the soldiers who held me were gripped by bands of darkness.
“Release her.” His voice echoed around me. Soldiers’ cries, metal, and crackles of magic sounded all at once. My ears were ringing until everything sounded like the resonance of a bell tolling, all bleeding together and impossible to focus on any one thing.
Vega bucked, his hooves gouging crescent moons into the earth.
The black bands around the soldiers tightened as Kaed’s fist flexed, but the soldiers didn’t release me. If anything, their magic poured deeper, entombing me.
I saw it in his eyes then. The cold dark of what he was holding back. What he would do.
I shook my head. If he killed them, there would be no coming back.
“Kaed …” I rasped. “Don’t—I can’t—”
His magic was pushing the soldiers to cloister me in, not release me.
“Your actions will determine her outcome,” someone informed him from the horde of soldiers.
I heard a rumble of thunder come from Kaed’s chest.
There was a pause.
My breath struggled in my ribcage.
With a single lithe movement, he dismounted Vega and raised his hands as casually as he could manage with that power thrumming beneath the surface.
The darkness rippled around him, but he held it at bay.
He looked at me, his jaw set in a punishing line. I thought for a moment he might still do it. Might still kill every one of them here.
A filament, a nearly imperceptible thread of shadow caressed my cheek. I looked to Kaed, and it vanished as quickly as it had reached out.
I felt his magic retreat.
Entirely.
And then the power that had been crushing me receded until my breath moved in me again.
A dozen guards closed in around Kaed before I could get to him.
“Kneel. Hands behind your back.” A guard with gloved hands approached with the same manacles from the Cage.
“Wait, no! What are you doing?” I tried to push past them, but a hand on my shoulder held me.
“This doesn’t concern you, my lady,” another anonymous voice tolled.
I tried to push past the guards again, but more gripped me. “No! It does! It’s my fault. This is about the city arrest? It’s my fault. Kaedian followed me out there. I don’t understand. He’s back now.”
“Imogen.” Kaed’s voice steadied me as I looked at him. “Go. Now. Find Denora.”
“On your knees,” the guard demanded. “And hold her.”
I was immobilised by gruff hands.
“You said you’d let her go.” He pushed against the guards who held him.
Someone else spoke then, their voice like molasses as it cloyed its way over me. “I said nothing of the sort. I said your actions would determine what happened to her.” A wicked grin corrupted his features as he looked to Kaed.
“Varris,” Kaed spat.
His unimportant presence wormed its way closer to Kaed. He was human. Short in stature, but he held himself tall with pomp and importance. He was the one who insisted on Kaed’s city confinement. The same crooked teeth broke through his grin.
“Kneel,” Varris said, savouring the word.
I watched, unable to do anything, as a hand landed on Kaed’s shoulder and urged him to the ground.
Soldiers with fae strength grasped his hands and forced the cuffs around his wrists. I hadn’t been able to stop it the first time it happened, and I watched helplessly as Kaed bowed to their subjugation again.
A hiss burned into the night as the metal closed around his wrists, searing his skin.
“Stop it. Where are you taking him?” They’d hauled Kaed to his feet and escorted him through the gates.
“Please. Come with me.” The man—Varris—offered me his hand. “The prince is being taken to the council chambers.”
I refused the outstretched hand.
What was a council member doing here? With twenty fae soldiers.
I felt as pale as my bones.
The Cage.
“Imogen,” Kaed called back to me. “You don’t have to see this. Go to Denora. You don’t have to go with them.”
“I’m afraid, my lady, I must insist you come with us.”