Chapter 39
Kaden
“What are you doing?”
Fee looks up at me, sharpening her sword as I close the cabin door. Like our cabin, clothes had been left early that morning with a few other necessities to show the village’s good hospitality.
I know Wulf. This is all an act. The man would sooner eat you alive, than be kind to you.
Her dress is simple, grey, made from satin with long leggings underneath and her dusty boots. The cowl is made from the pelt of a grey rabbit, most likely caught by a shifter.
I refused to wear his bribes. Dressed in my dirty leathers, I cross my arms, eyebrow raised.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” she drawls, dropping the blade to the ground beside her. “What are you doing with the blood summoner?”
We both look back at the cabin, Max’s form resting in the pile of blankets on the fur rug I left her in.
Turning to my little sister, I lean back against the door, smirking. “I thought that was pretty obvious, Fee.”
She rolls her eyes. “You can pretend to hide behind that arrogant heir mask you love to show Father and the Dark Court, but we both know that’s not who you are.” She stands, poking me in the chest. “You are not heartless, brother.”
If it were anyone else, I’d remind them of the power I possess. How I do not cower from those around me.
But Fee is different. She’s seen me at my weakest and has loved me regardless of the darkness in my soul. Even when I deserved less.
“So, I’ll ask again: What are you doing, Kaden?”
Licking my lips, I drop the mask and shrug. “I don’t know, Fee,” I say quietly. “I had a plan. That plan can still work. It’s just—”
“Complicated,” she finished, pinching her brow. “Of course, it is. I knew this was going to happen.”
“You didn’t know this,” I gesture to the cabin at my back, “was going to happen.” She didn’t know my heart would feel as if it’s been fused into one piece, begging to never be apart.
“No?” She smiles, shaking her head at me in disbelief. “I knew it the moment you saw her. Something was different with her, but you didn’t want to listen. You thought you could play her and it just backfired. Fantastically.”
Growling, I push off the cabin and stalk into the woods.
“I’m still going to bring her to Father. He’ll be satisfied with what she can do.” Even as I say it, my gut twists.
I can’t give her to him, not entirely, but if I can play this right…
Fee gives me a sad look. “Do you remember the day after Sose?”
Stilling, my body goes taunt as the name leaves her lips. I remember that day in stark clarity. The smells, the noises, all of it. It still haunts me.
“What of it?” I ask harshly.
“I told you, it wasn’t your fault.”
Silently, she rounds on me, face contorted into an unusual display of grief. Grief for me. “If you bring her back to Father, no matter what plan you think you can play, you know that he’ll get her. You know what he’ll do to her. What he’ll make her do to the world. That will be your fault.”
Looking away, I have to still my urge to lash out. Because she’s right.
She knows I’ll carry that guilt until I meet Seti in Hell. Because as ruthless as I am, I’m not heartless. I still care about those in this world even if they despise me.
“Then what would you have me do?” I whisper, words edged with poison. “Let her leave? Go back empty-handed? I’ll face those consequences, but I will not risk you or Reid to Father’s wrath.”
I also can’t think of the possibility of not having Max. Of never seeing her again.
“You might not have a choice.”
Her hard eyes glance to the cabin and then to me. “She’s an innocent, Kade. Just like Sose. She shouldn’t be forced to do anything even if it is to save us from Zelos.”
“You care about innocents now?” I scoff, running a hand through my locks. “Since when?”
Of all of us, Fee has been the least likely to risk her neck for an innocent. It’s made her an effective soldier but not a great Fae.
“She risked her life to save you,” she says slowly. “She saved the Hadeon. She’s important to you. Someone like that deserves some compassion.”
It’s like a slap to the face. Fee, who has always been worried about Zelos’ reach of power and what he can do if he doesn’t get it, is telling me to let the woman go. To go back to face the torture he’ll inflict on us for failing.
All so that Max is safe.
I cannot let Zelos have her but I can’t let her go either. Not after last night. Not after how right she felt.
Rubbing my lip, I change the subject. “What do you know of Heartbonds?”
Fee laughs, a sharp noise that echoes around us.
“That they’re a fairytale mothers tell their children to help them sleep at night.
Dark Fae don’t get Heartbonds, Kaden. We’re not lucky enough to have another person out there to share our burdens with.
To share our darkness with.” She looks off sadly. “We’re just not that lucky.”
Reid comes rushing up to us, from the side of the village where the long-home rests. Unlike Fee, he didn’t care to partake in the new clothes either, staying in his leathers.
“Kaden,” he pants, stopping short of us, eying our defensive stances. “We good here?”
“Fine,” I snap, looking over his shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“The Humans and Wulf have already met this morning.” I glance to the sky; the sun has barely risen. “Wulf has already declined to support them in their quest to find the Crimson Army.”
Fee huffs out a breath. “Good. That means we can go home.”
I notice how she doesn’t include Max.
“What are they doing now?” I ask my brother, pulling my hair into a knot on my head.
He shrugs. “The Humans are getting ready to leave. They’re planning to continue on.”
“Fools errand,” Fee says. “They’re going to look for an army that will destroy them. All of this was a stupid plan by the king.”
Something tickles the back of my skull and I file her words away.
“And Wulf?”
“He claims it’s not their fight and won’t risk shifters in a battle they don’t get anything from.” Typical.
“Why would they?” Fee scoffs. “They’ve never been attacked in this fortified village. The Crimson Army leaves them alone so the shifters don’t bother with them.”
She’s right, of course. With the mountain pass dangerous and the hollow protected by the Hadeon, the army had no reason to seek them out.
“What do we do?” Reid comes closer, dark brown locks curling around his face. “We were contracted to be guides, but this small of group will be kill. I, for one, don’t want to be slaughtered because a bunch of men don’t know when to quit.”
“We only agreed to be guides to stay close to the blood summoner,” Fee explains tiredly. “The raid doesn’t concern us. We don’t even need the water from the Blackwoods Coven. We don’t need to stay.”
“Are we not taking her back?” I shake my head, Reid smiling. “Then let’s get our guards and get the fuck out of here. I miss my bed.”
It doesn’t occur to him that by going home without Max, we’d be asking for trouble with Zelos.
That’s if I can let Max go. Everything in me, in my very soul, rebels at the idea of letting her leave me, to go back to the Blackwoods Coven and live a quiet life in solitude.
Would they even accept her after she chose to stay behind? Or would she continue on this path to prove her darkness isn’t evil—just is?
“I’ll wake her,” I say, moving back to the cabin. “We’ll meet you at the meeting hall and go from there.”
“And what would be the plan, big brother?” Fee taunts, knowing full well I don’t know what to do next.
Flipping her off, I enter the cabin.