Chapter 14 #2
“If she fights,” the second slaver says, oblivious to the fact that I’m too busy thinking… brooding… to even put up much of a resistance at the moment, “we put her down until we have her secured in the caravan. Right, Finch?”
“Whatever you do, don’t damage the horns,” the first slaver—Finch—replies. “The queen likes her trophies intact.”
Bile rises up in my throat as, suddenly, I’m not only worried about my own sorry rear.
Rafe… this is exactly what happened to Rafe, isn’t it?
Slavers, whether it was this trio or not, must have dragged him from Brille Rouge, bringing him to Noctavara, putting him in chains of his owns and carrying him off to the queen.
They don’t tell me. Obviously, I don’t ask. But I know, and, at that moment, I’m so close to offering to go with them willingly if that means I’ll end up where I should’ve been all along: with Rafe.
I almost, but before I can, a sound cuts through the woods. We all turn to look for the source of it: a piercing whistle, followed by a soft thunk of something solid meeting flesh.
The third slaver—the one with the chains—makes a confused noise. He sway, the chains going slack a moment before he crumples to the ground, a shining, silver knife embedded in his throat.
It won’t kill him. If he gets that out, allowing his immortal body the opportunity to heal, he will. As long as a tiny piece of sinew keeps his head attached to his body, the slaver will live, but the shock of the injury is enough to keep him out of it for the next minute or two.
The first two slavers whirl right as Thane stalks out of the trees, jaw tight, sword out, and his belt minus his eating knife.
Binx pads at his heels, tail flicking back and forth. He chirps at me, telling me that he’s back, that they’ll save me, and I realize how ridiculous I would’ve been to let these slavers take me. I want to rescue Rafe. I don’t want to join him in a gilded cage.
The two upright slavers both still as Thane turns his gaze on one, then the other.
“What,” Thane he says, his voice low and dangerous, “do you think you’re doing?”
Finch’s eyes widen in recognition. “Aurex. You shouldn’t be here. This isn’t your business.”
Thane’s gaze locks on the chains keeping my wrists connected.
His voice is still calm, but no less dangerous than before. Not when the soft lilt of his accent hides the calm of a predator ready to finish a hunt.
“Isn’t it? She’s with me.”
The second slaver’s tone turns nervous. “With you? She can’t be.”
Thane takes one step forward. “I assure you, she is.”
His eyes dart over to me briefly, like he’s checking for any injuries without letting them see he cares. Once he’s assured himself that I’m still alive at the very least, he gives the chain a pointed look, his jaw flexing.
“Lower your sword,” he says, voice flat. “Unchain her.”
The first slaver does drop his sword, though he leaves the chain right where it is. I’m not surprised. The sword was a plot to get me to listen. If Queen Celeste really does have an interest in me, she’ll want me to keep my head. But the chains… “And if I don’t?”
Thane moves forward, his sword flashing.
The third slaver loses his head that fast. Thane drops down, his cloak flaring out behind him, as he plucks his eating knife out of the dead fae’s throat before rising up again, the threat obvious.
Finch’s eyes narrow. “The queen will hear about this.”
Thane’s expression doesn’t change one bit.
“That’s fine,” he agrees. “She hears everything anyway.”
The second slaver argues, but the first one begrudgingly reaches for the nearest lock.
He presses his thumb against it, the metal heating up, then popping open with a snick-ing sound.
Before Thane orders him to do the other, he does, and all I keep thinking as I rub my wrists is: he listened to Thane. Why did he listen?
Once I’m free, Thane marches over to me, grabbing me by the bicep. He yanks me behind him, claiming me all over again, before putting enough distance between us and the slavers that they don’t have any thoughts of trying to take me back.
Not like they do. Maybe seeing their immortal partner lose his head was enough of a warning, and I decide to go with that. I mean, what could any other explanation be?
“You alright?” he murmurs, too low for the slavers to hear.
My throat tightens as I flash a sorry smile. “I didn’t get to fight.”
His grip tightens for a second. “Good.”
I blink. “Good?”
He glances back at me, amber eyes dark. “If you’d fought back and they’d hurt you, I would’ve had to kill more of them.”
Now that Thane’s attention is on me, Finch regains some of his nerve. “You’re making a mistake, Aurex. That demoness is worth a fortune even if she isn’t the one spoken of in the prophecy.”
“You have no idea,” scoffs Thane, “what she’s worth. And neither does Queen Celeste, and you can tell her that when you reach the Gilded Court. Without her.”
Poor Finch. He doesn’t know when to quit. “But, my lie—”
Thane gives him a quelling look that stops the other fae mid-sentence. Once he has, my bandit turns his head slightly, speaking to me without looking away from the two surviving slavers.
“Go,” he murmurs.
Huh?
“Thane?”
His grip on my bicep tightens. “Alana. Binx. Go.”
And leave him behind? I stare at the hard lines of his profile, the way his mouth is set, and I know I’m not leaving him at all. I’m just getting a head start while he finishes up with the slavers. Most importantly, he doesn’t want me to be around when he does.
Got it.
Making sure that Binx is following me, I dart back the way we came before veering left, leaving a trail that Thane will be able to follow.