Chapter 4
Chapter
Four
Loren slept fitfully, tossing on the narrow cot.
Sleep never came easily anymore. He couldn’t help but hope every time he closed his eyes that this would be the time he found her waiting for him in his dreams. That she’d be able to tell him where she was.
Reassure him that she wasn’t hurt. That she was waiting for him.
But it never happened. Their bond remained a pale echo of what it should have been, his sense of her so smothered and distant he might as well have been on the other side of the world, not in the same city.
But now—
White-hot pain ripped through his dream, her terror flaying him to the bone.
Loren staggered to his feet, one hand pressed hard against his chest. Someone shouted, but Loren couldn’t hear what they said.
Not with the shadows surging around him.
A thousand voices screamed her name. Whoever had hurt his mate would pay for the offense in blood—
His knees struck stone. He didn’t feel it. Couldn’t—not with her agony digging sharp claws into his heart. His mate was terrified. Pinned down. Helpless. At the mercy of the same monsters who had spent twenty-five years carving into him with iron knives.
He couldn’t leave her there.
Loren reached for her, following the path her pain had carved through the bond, bringing them back together despite everything the Arcanum had done to smother their connection. I’m here. He begged her to hear him. Open your eyes. Show me where you are—
She opened her eyes. A stone ceiling. Jaxon’s blurred face. His mouth moved, but Loren couldn’t hear anything over the shrill ringing in his ears—no, those were screams.
She was screaming.
A shadow fell across him. Across her. Kai’s face swam into focus. His bronze skin had a sickly pallor, but his hand was steady. He pressed the iron needle against her soft skin—
“Loren!” Hands grabbed him, the shout muffled by the roaring in his head. He fought them, clawing for the bond, for her. He needed to stay. For her.
Stay with me, ael’sura. Please—
The fragile thread between them snapped, sending Loren careening back into the cold darkness. Alone.
“Are you with us, Loren?” Thorne knelt at his side, his amber eyes dark with worry. “The shadows—”
They were everywhere. Clawing at the walls, the ceiling, at him—writhing coils of smoke and fury that screamed in his mind. Go to her. Protect her. Destroy them.
“They’re hurting her.” Loren staggered to his feet. “I have to go—”
“You can’t.” Finn joined Thorne, his hand closing around Loren’s arm. “Trust me, Loren. I know how awful it is. But if you race in there alone, you’ll be killed or captured—”
“I’m the most powerful fae alive,” Loren snarled. “I wield magic that can tear a man—an entire army—to shreds. I can’t just sit here while she—” his voice broke, her screams still ringing in his ears.
“You’d be playing right into their hands.” Thorne gripped his other arm, uncaring of the shadows that hissed and spat at him. “She’s not the prize. You are. Jaxon Shaw already demonstrated he can control the shadows. You can’t depend on them. Not for this.”
Loren bared his teeth. “Then what am I supposed to depend on?”
“We’ll make a plan,” Finn said. “You won’t go alone—you’ll have support. Backup. Once Kai gets back and confirms—”
“Kai?” Loren laughed, the sound scraping against his raw throat like he was the one who’d been screaming. “Kai’s the one hurting her, Finn.” His voice rose, echoing off the damp walls. “How’s that for your fucking confirmation?”
Silence crashed down, the only sound in the cramped bunk room his own harsh breathing and the furious hiss of the shadows.
They coiled around his legs, drifting over splintered remains of cots and wooden crates.
Anyone else who had been sleeping here had long since fled, only Thorne and Finn brave enough to face the shadows.
Even Serafina hadn’t come in, her face pinched with worry as she hovered in the doorway.
Loren sucked in a slow breath, closing his eyes.
He hated it, but the dara’el he wielded now was a far cry from the unstoppable darkness that had formed the Shadowed Veil.
They weren’t even as strong as they’d been on Eluneth, when he’d had his bond with Araya to strengthen him.
And even then, he’d been powerless to stop Jaxon Shaw from taking her.
Thorne was right. If he went alone, there was a chance he would fail. That the Shaws would take him prisoner. And these people—his people—would lose their king.
Loren’s stomach turned, fury curdling into shame. Araya had risked everything to protect his people. She’d been willing to sacrifice herself, her happiness. How could he do anything less?
“After Kai gets back,” he ground out. “We find out what he knows and make a plan.”
“Good.” Finn let out a slow breath, nodding. “Good. Serafina—can you talk to Nyra about moving everyone to the next safehouse?” He glanced around at the wreckage of the bunk room, his gaze sweeping over the destruction. “I think it might be better if no civilians were here when Kai gets back.”
“The child needs a healer with her,” Serafina said from the doorway.
“I need Thorne here,” Finn said. “Can you—”
“Of course.” Serafina nodded, but she didn’t move to leave right away, her gaze lingering on Loren.
“That child is going to live because of him, you know,” she said, her voice quiet.
“If Kai hadn’t insisted on helping her, she’d be dead now.
I don’t know what you saw, but...” she shook her head, sighing quietly.
“You should hear him out, Loren. Not everything is black and white here.”
Loren clenched his jaw, fixing his gaze on the dark stone wall. The shadows coiled tighter around his feet, furious and hungry.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard Serafina’s soft footsteps splash through the puddles, the quiet whispers of a mother gathering up her daughter.
Thorne sat down on the cot beside him, uncaring of the shadows that had almost killed him just a few short weeks ago.
Finn took up a position by the door, on guard.
All they could do now was wait. Would Kai even come back? If he did—if he admitted what he’d done—Loren wasn’t sure anyone would be able to hold the shadows back.
Not even him.
By the time Kai turned the corner, Loren had been waiting for hours. He sat in the same place, his teeth clenched so tightly his jaw ached. Every passing minute stretched into an eternity, the shadows climbing his body in restless spirals.
Go to her, they hissed. Go to her. Go to her—
“What happened here?” Kai asked, glancing around at the destroyed bunk room. “Where is everyone—shit!”
Kai hit the wall with a crack that echoed off the damp walls. Coils of darkness wrapped across his chest, pinning him to the cold stone. They weren’t choking him—not yet. But they wanted to. Loren wanted to.
“Loren, stop.” Finn stepped forward, his hand hovering at the hilt of his long knife as if simple steel could make a difference here. “We agreed to hear him out.”
We agreed to nothing. The shadows tightened, curling around the human runesmith’s throat. Ask your questions. Then show him what happens to those who touch what belongs to us.
“He can’t answer if you’re strangling him,” Loren said.
The shadows hissed, rippling with displeasure. But they drew back—just enough to let Kai gasp in a full, shuddering breath.
“Loren—” Kai’s wide eyes found his. “Whatever you think happened, I can explain—”
“I don’t think anything.” Loren stepped forward, the dark tide of dara’el’s wrath fanning the flames of his own fury. “I watched you carve into my mate with an iron needle. I heard her scream. Felt her pain. So please, Master Sterling—explain.”
Kai went pale. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, swallowing hard.
“You felt—” his voice wavered, breaking. “I’m so sorry. She was supposed to be dosed up on that tea—I swear, I had no idea what they were going to do. The new High Inquisitor was right there. I didn’t have a choice—”
“They chose a new High Inquisitor?” Finn cut in sharply. “Who?”
Kai flinched, his gaze dropping to the stone at his feet. “Baran Pryce,” he said hoarsely. “He was a high-ranking inquisitor under Hale. I know him a bit. He’s Caylin’s father—”
“Caylin?” Loren demanded. “Are you telling me the father of the inquisitor you’re fucking told you to hurt my mate? Ordered you to carve Goddess only knows what into her flesh—and you did it?”
“Caylin and I haven’t been together since Eluneth,” Kai said, his voice small. “There wasn’t anything I could do. I couldn’t save her—”
“You didn’t even try,” Loren snarled. His vision blurred at the edges, his rage and the shadows’ fury impossible to separate. He could kill him right here. Take vengeance for the pain she’d suffered—
Do it, the shadows hissed their agreement, their dark coils stretching Kai’s arms wide. Crush him. Break his bones and tear the flesh from them—
“I can help you get her out!” Kai shouted, his voice cracking. “I know where they’re keeping her now. I even have a way in—”
“You?” Loren scoffed. “You think I’m going to trust you? After what you did to her?”
“You have to.” Kai fought for breath, struggling against the shadows pinning him to the wall. “Jaxon made me carve compulsion runes into her. She won’t be able to disobey a direct order from him. You need to separate them so she actually has a chance to run. I can do that. I can get them apart—”
Kai’s words choked off in a wheeze, the shadows cutting off his air.
Finn shouted something, but Loren couldn’t hear over the roaring in his ears.
He stared at Kai, only vaguely aware of the others trying to reach them both through the roiling shadows as the runesmith’s face slowly turned purple.
He’d given Jaxon Shaw the ability to compel Araya.
Carved it into her skin. She wouldn’t be able to fight him.
Whatever orders he gave her, she would have to follow.
“Loren!” Finn shouted. “You can’t kill him.”
Loren clenched his jaw. That’s where Finn was wrong. He could kill him. Easily. The shadows would rejoice to do it.
“Do you have any idea what kinds of things Jaxon Shaw might order her to do?” he hissed.
“I do.” Finn fought his way forward until he could put a hand on Loren’s shoulder.
“But we need him. Compulsion runes are tricky. The runesmith who put them on her is the best person to take them off. He’ll also be able to mitigate any tracking runes they put on her.
If we aren’t careful, rescuing her could lead the Shaws right to us. ”
Bringing the full might of the Arcanum down on them all.
The resistance wouldn’t survive that. The people Finn and Serafina rescued—they were desperate.
Weak from a lifetime of having their magic siphoned away and living in poverty.
If the fae here tried to take the Arcanum on head-on… they’d all be slaughtered. Or worse.
But he couldn’t leave her there. “We go tonight.” Loren glared at Kai. “Make whatever excuse you need to get back in there—”
But Kai was already shaking his head, the only movement the shadows would allow him. “She’s too weak,” he croaked. “I’m sorry, Loren. But she can’t take any more. If I try to do anything else to her now—it could kill her.”
He lies, the shadows snarled. He serves them. He always has—
Loren glanced at Thorne. “Is he telling the truth?”
Thorne’s jaw worked, his brow furrowed in thought.
“Compulsion runes are…” he trailed off, his lip curling in disgust. “I’m not going to lie to you Loren, it’s extensive, complicated runework.
I’m no runesmith, but the idea of attacking something like that on someone already weak—” he shook his head. “It’s not a good idea. I’m sorry.”
Loren closed his eyes. He hated it—hated leaving her there. He wanted to burn that house to the ground, to drag anyone who’d had a hand in her pain into the street to pay for their crimes. But if it was their best chance…
He raised his hand. The shadows twisted against his grip, the roaring in his head building to a crescendo.
Strategy, he shouted at them. Survival. Her best chance.
He repeated it, over and over again, until they grudgingly shrank back, still muttering furiously amongst themselves.
Freed from their grip, Kai slid down the wall and slumped to his knees, both hands clutching his bruised neck.
“We’ll go as soon as she’s recovered enough,” Finn said. “Thorne—heal those marks. None of this will work if he gets caught.” He glanced at Loren, then back to Kai. “Don’t come back here. When you have a date and time, leave the information with Caela for us. We’ll handle the rest.”
Kai laughed hoarsely. “Understood.” He turned his head to give Thorne better access. “Thanks for not killing me, I guess.”
Loren didn’t laugh. He stared at Kai, looking into the face Araya had seen as she screamed.
“Swear you’ll get her out,” he demanded. “Swear it by whatever gods you answer to.”
“I will.” Kai’s voice cracked, his eyes wet as he looked up at Loren from the ground. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get her out. I swear, Loren. I didn’t want to do it. I know you don’t believe me, but…she’s my friend.”
“Some friend.” Loren pressed his lips together, looking away.
“Go. Do whatever it is they expect of you. But if you betray us—” he let the sentence hang, the temperature around them plummeting so suddenly that ice cracked across the nearest puddle.
“I’ll kill you myself, even if it’s the last thing I do. ”