Chapter fifty-three
Asickening blast of yellow warred with an impenetrable wall of black. But the darkness held me.
Kaed was here.
His magic poured into the world around me.
Something shattered and reformed inside of me at the sight of him. Terrifying and brutal in the darkness, Kaed was washed with the yellow magic Huxley threw at him.
But he deflected whatever attack Huxley had attempted.
“Kaed …” I tried, but my voice couldn’t reach him as my fingers stretched out into the night.
The world went unnaturally dark as Kaed lashed out with whips of shadow. Huxley’s own magic was instantly extinguished, and I heard a crack as he must have crashed to the ground.
Another crack.
And another.
Bones.
My gut twisted at the sounds.
“Don’t …”
Another shattering crack sounded, followed by a howling scream.
“Kaed. Don’t … don’t kill him. Eryk—”
The shadows lifted then, and fae light spilled out over me.
Gavrin, Denora and Audrie were here. There was a bronze warrior beside Gavrin. Rionna. She looked ill at ease but not out of place in the company. Her eyes were steady as they took in the scene before her.
I sagged in relief at the sight of them.
Kaed.
He was beside me before my head collapsed to the ground.
“You have to stop saving me like this …” I tried to smile past the lingering pain.
The longer Huxley’s magic was gone from my system, the clearer I could think, but the pain was still burning through my muscles and my bones as though I had been dropped in acid. Everything felt like it was bubbling and fizzing away.
Kaed laughed, but it was strained, tinged with something I didn’t have the energy to think about.
“Eryk … he … planned … something … he—” The words I needed were eluding me.
Kaed’s hand was cool as it swept the hair from my face. “Find Eryk,” Kaed commanded to no one in particular.
There was a sobbing sound coming from somewhere, and I looked up to see Audrie in Denora’s arms.
“It’s okay, Audrie. I’m fi-fine.”
I wasn’t sure I believed myself yet. I needed to sleep for a week, and my muscles felt like I’d been dragged over gravel tied to a horse. But there was no magic poisoning me, and Kaed’s shadows were like a balm around me.
“I won’t let anything else happen to you.” His words were stern, and I knew he’d have something to say about all of this later. “Audrie.” He turned to her, and she was still sobbing. “Find Celeste. And warn her before she gets here.” His eyes fell to Huxley.
“What are we going to do with him?” Denora’s voice was edged with steel the second Audrie dashed to the glasshouse.
Denora came to my side. Kaed reluctantly let go of me before going to the heap of bones and blood that was Huxley. He was breathing. It would take more than broken limbs to kill a fae.
Yellow light guttered and died at his fingertips when Kaed towered over his form.
“If you couldn’t beat me with all of your limbs intact, what makes you think you have a chance now?” His boot came down hard on the wrist that was trying to conjure magic, and a revolting wet crunch followed.
To Huxley’s credit, he didn’t scream. He just writhed there and stared at Kaed. He had some nerve. Staring at Kaed when he wasn’t threatening you could be intimidating, but when storms brewed in those blue eyes, it was something different entirely.
“We can’t kill him,” I finally managed with a dry voice.
Kaed hunched down beside Huxley, like he wanted a better look at the work he’d put into mangling his body.
“Kaed. Listen to me.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t kill him,” he said without turning to me.
Everyone exhaled with relief at that—most of all, Huxley.
“This was Eryk,” I said, and forced myself to sit with a hand from Denora. “We’ve been looking in the wrong place. It’s not a council member, at least not yet, that has been planning a move. Someone else—”
“Not here,” Denora said, standing and turning to a sound coming from beyond the rose garden walls.
And then everyone was here. Tymon, Celeste and Audrie, who finally came and hugged me.
In a flurry of skirts and bustling, Celeste was in front of me, and her magic flowed over me like I’d been placed in a bath of milk.
I instantly felt relief from the strain my muscles were still enduring.
Even my nerves felt soothed as she poured everything into me.
And all she spared for her son was a sideways glance as she ground her teeth together.
But I didn’t want to see her give more of herself to me.
I tried to pat her hands away, but she shushed me, and I didn’t have the strength to fight the healing working through me.
Her magic was like gentle moonlight given form. It shimmered and reflected light with the barest hints of rose and pale lavender.
“Your magic is beautiful,” I breathed as her hands floated over every part of my body. “Thank you.”
Celeste said nothing, but her bony hand came to my cheek, and she looked up into my eyes.
“We need to get you home,” Audrie sobbed as she helped me to my feet.
“I’m fine. Really.” I steadied myself, and I did feel better. Inasmuch as one can feel better after being magically drained when you had no magic to give.
I glanced at Huxley. “He knows something. Maybe not everything Eryk does. But he’s part of this,” I said, forcing myself to look at my attacker.
“I can heal him enough to be put in the Cage,” Celeste said, and the chill that came with those words was a harsh wind.
“No.” Kaed was emphatic. “If Imogen is right and Eryk is playing the council, then he might have someone on the inside. We can’t put him in the Cage.”
Everyone agreed, and Denora took point to lift Huxley once Celeste had healed his breaks enough to stand on his legs.
Tymon followed after Denora, and the faint shimmer of a silence bubble formed around the three of them as everyone left. Gavrin was already long gone, tracking Eryk. He was fast, but Eryk had a head start.
My insides convulsed at the thought that he was out there. His plan had failed, and like a wounded animal, he’d be more dangerous now. More desperate.
“Where are they taking him?”
Kaed didn’t answer. His large hands engulfed my face as he cradled it and looked into my eyes. Searching.
“I’m fine,” I said, pulling his hands down. “Let’s go back.”
“Back? Back where?” His shock was barely concealed behind his teeth.
“Maybe someone is missing Eryk. And we can’t be seen to be gone right after he is.”
“You’re not going back in there,” he ground out.
“The threat is gone.”
“You just said you want to watch for his accomplice, and you’re saying there’s no threat to your life?”
His shadows swirled around me. I should have learned to fear them, but all I felt was … safe.
“You can’t leave a party right after Huxley and Eryk do. It’s too suspicious. Someone in there might know this was planned or at least knew Eryk would make a move to provoke you. We have to act as though everything is normal.”
Jaw flexed, Kaed flattened his lips into a thin line.
I was right. And he knew it. And I’m not sure he liked that he wasn’t.
Kaed placed his hands on my hips, then pulled me into him. He was impossibly close, and I forgot everything that had come before this moment.
“What are you doing? We need to go back inside.”
His hand came to push my chin up gently. “I did warn you. If you did anything to jeopardise your safety tonight, there would be consequences.”
I swallowed, and my body shivered deliciously despite the terror that had just flooded it. His touch washed away the memories of what I’d just endured with such ease that it should have worried me.
I had no idea what those consequences were, but my mind swam with the memory of straining against the velvet ropes of his shadows, his touch on me … inside me …
I wanted to know exactly what those consequences were.
A thrill skirted through me that was an intoxicating mix of adrenaline and excitement at his threat.
Somehow, my earlier discomfort at his games had been washed away by the soothing remedy of having him near me. Even if it meant nothing to him, it was difficult for my body not to find comfort in his.
“You will have to wait,” I breathed onto his lips that were poised over mine. “First, bring me back to this party.”
He growled at that. “You’re very demanding for someone who is already in trouble.” His hips swayed a little, and I matched their movement as he pressed himself to me.
Kaed finally let me go and walked us back to the party. To my own dismay, I stumbled with my footing more than once, but he steadied me.
I caught the look in his eyes that threatened to pick me up and take me home right now.
“I’m fine,” I emphasised for the hundredth time tonight. “Just … stay close?” I said as I opened the glass door back into a rush of sounds, music and the warm air of the glasshouse.