Chapter 25
Max
Aterrible scream wakes me from a dreamless slumber as my body jolts, heart racing. Glancing once, I don’t wait for another yell as I rush from the tent, slinging on my boots.
At the edge of the bright, dry, rocky terrain and the dark coolness of the forest, the volunteers huddle together. They all stare at an empty spot, with only a worn saddle bag sitting there, forgotten.
Tay stands toward the front, with the Dark Fae siblings before him.
“What’s going on?” I whisper, mouth tipped toward Tay’s ear.
He shakes his head in disbelief, gesturing to the area. “They claim he was taken by a Fury.”
“Who?” I search, locking eyes with Kaden.
Tay points to the bag and the few remaining servants left; most were killed in the ambush of the Skrull. One is anxiously describing his experience to another lord, pointing to the sky, while the other holds his head mouth flapping open and close.
“He was here one minute, gone in the next.”
“I swear a Fury took him. Black claws snatched him right out of the sky!”
“They’re talking about Hastings from last night,” the heir says, assessing me.
We share a silent, telling look. The man who tried to force me onto my knees was stolen away.
Served him right.
Unfortunately, Hastings is the lord who supplied most to the raid—including horses, weapons, guards. Without him, his unit leaves and the campaign is near defenseless.
Tay seems to come to the same conclusion. “Should we search for him? We need him to continue on.”
“And if a Fury took him?” Kaden asks, rolling his eyes. “Then he wasn’t worthy of breath and is most likely being digested in a Fury’s gut.”
“But we need him to finish this,” Tay insists. “His men will only follow his command. Without them, this all falls apart.”
“The Gods’ deemed him a threat to womankind,” Kaden drawls, glancing to me. Those amber eyes draw me in and I know, he’s remembering last night. “You cannot fight the Gods.”
Tay growls, fists clenching at his sides. He’s worried about losing the agreement to rebuild the Coven.
It’s not my Coven, but I still want them safe.
“What about a search party?” I ask, looking to my friend, then the Fae. “A small group can go look for him and bring him back.”
Kaden snorts. “Once a Fury takes her prey, they’re dead. You’d be going off into trouble for nothing.”
“It’s worth a try,” I argue. We can’t let the agreement fail.
“This is a common thread for you,” he mutters, rolling his eyes.
“Running off into danger even when it’s best to sit it out.
” He glares at me and I lift my chin. I know he’s talking about when I tried to run into the battle with the Skrull to find Tay.
“And after what that lord tried to do to you, you still want to help him?”
“You think I want to help some terrible man like Hastings?” I spit, stepping forward to poke the Fae’s chest. My finger begins to turn a faint pink as my magic stretches and yawns, roused by my emotions.
“I’d soon rather let him sleep for an eternity with Seti in his Hell.
But we need his men and we need his supplies. If he dies, then my Coven falls.”
Kaden grabs my finger, holding firm. “It’s not your Coven, kitten.”
Tay sighs behind me, annoyed. He didn’t know about Hastings and he doesn’t like this go between me and the heir.
“Regardless,” I say, stepping back. “You want the Blackwoods water? Then you’ll need this raid to finish. Otherwise, no deal.”
Growling, he nods, eyes narrowed. “Fine. What do we need to do?”
Biting my lip, my mind spins as I quickly think through my options.“Follow me.”
All five of us head back to my tent as I gather my daggers and waterskin. Tay grabs his sword, peering down at me as I fasten my hair into a braid.
“The myth says the Furies roost in the mountains?”
Nodding, he points to the sharp rock face, the sides sheared off. “They roost in the highest summit. If the lord is alive, he’ll be there.”
“Then we’ll have to find a path and scale the mountain to find him.”
“And if you find only regurgitated flesh?” Kaden quips, sitting on the log beside my tent, ankles crossed. “Then what?”
“Then you don’t get the water,” I reply, smugly. “And this raid fails. So hopefully, that’s not an option.”
The Coven needs the help. If the Dark Fae are so desperate for water, they’ll be inclined to make sure the raid continues.
Then maybe, just maybe, the Coven will see me as the person I am and not the monster they think I am.
“Let’s just Finnick our way through this,” Tay quips, hands held wide, smiling wide.
With the situation so dire, I don’t expect Tay to crack a joke. But when I laugh, I can’t deny how good it feels, how the stress melts away. Wiping away a tear, I sigh. “Did you just Finnick me?”
Of course he’d bring up the bard. He never misses a chance to tease me about my poor choices.
My friend grins, winking. “You do it to me all the time.”
“I do not.”
Tay raises an eyebrow. “Just last week when the crone wanted help hauling her herbs inside and you agreed, but we had no idea how to harvest them for her.”
I giggle. The herbs had been poisonous and had to be harvested a certain way. We figured it out, but not without Tay healing us.
Kaden glowers from his spot, gripping his sword handle. “Can someone focus and explain what in Seti’s Hell is a Finnick?”
“Wait,” Fee interrupts, holding her hand up high, “the traveling bard? Dark hair, goatee? The one Reid slept with?”
Mouth dropping, I grasp the younger royal’s wrist, tugging him close. “You knew Finnick too?”
“Oh, we knew each other very well,” he drawls, eyebrow waggling, earning a quick laugh from me. “How do you know him, Max? He’s the type that only likes dangerous beings.”
“Oh, he chose right with Max,” Tay taunts. “I found them together by the cliffs in our Coven. First love and all that.”
“It was not first love.” At least, I don’t think it was. “It was a two-week stint and then we went our separate ways,” I explain, ignoring Kaden’s arched look.
It’s similar to how he looked when the lord thought he could make me submit for him. Dark, angry, full of retribution.
I don’t exactly hate it.
When I was younger, in a Coven surrounded by Witches who feared me, I was often alone. When the traveling bard came, he performed nightly in the one tavern in the center of the Coven and stayed in the fields. By that time, Tay had found Cully and Nafre had multiple lovers.
I just wanted to feel normal, wanted, desired. Finnick didn’t fear me, didn’t taunt me. He only saw a young woman with a body that craved touch.
It was nothing spectacular. We rushed through movements as I sought release. I wanted lust and passion. I wanted to know how it felt for a man’s lips to be on my body. Finnick gave me that experience.
And once the two weeks were up, he left.
It had crushed me when he left—not because I would miss him. But I would miss the piece of me I was with him. Normal. He wasn’t my first love, but he was the first to give me normalcy, when others only showed me hatred.
Tay looks back at Reid, smiling. “Finnick is what we say when we need to just go with the tide, to trust and follow the path to see what happens. It’s an inside joke of sorts.”
“Very small inside joke.” I pinch my fingers together. “Now if we’re done talking about my previous relationships, I’d like to see if we have a raid to salvage.”
“We’re done,” Kaden interrupts, face expressionless. Except his knuckles are holding the sword handle with shadowed fingers. “I’d really love to know how you plan to rescue a dead lord, kitten. I’m sure it’s riveting.”
Tucking my braid into my cowl, I shrug. “Simple. Climb the path, find the lord before the Fury finds us, and pray it we don’t die. Easy.”