Chapter 30 #3
“Stand down,” he said, weaving in thick strands of silk that gagged his closest enemies. One by one, they stepped back. The animosity vanished from their body language but raged in their eyes.
He spun, taking note of every person who still fought to reach him, each voice that demanded he be punished.
“Shut up and get on your knees,” he said, throwing out massive amounts of magic, more than he ever had at any one time. David had never tried to coerce this many people, and the acute drain on his energy made his limbs ache and his eyes grow heavy.
But it worked. The magic sprinkled over them like fairy dust. As one, the crowd knelt, and he stood at the center of a mass of hate. At the periphery, Sean paused, gazing around in confusion. Anna, spared from his coercion, kicked people out of her way to reach him.
Her hands cupped his face. “Are you okay?”
He let loose a wry grin. “I don’t know how long I can hold them.”
Anna grabbed his hand and dragged him toward Sean, not bothering to avoid stepping on fingers and toes in the process. Once they were free of the crowd, Sean fell into step beside David. Autumn and Isobel followed.
“Take the names of every person who grabbed him,” Sean said to Cathaire as they hurried away.
“Aye,” the pixie replied. He met David’s eyes and bowed. “I am sorry.”
“Should have put some coin down,” David said with a grimace. “I’d have gotten something out of it.”
Cathaire chuckled, then faced the kneeling, gagged crowd, dire creases on his brow.
“I’m going to speak to the Council,” Sean said as they turned away, hurrying into the forest. “This is unacceptable.”
David rolled his eyes. “I saw this coming the moment they started calling me Djiante.”
As the adrenaline wore off, pricks of pain woke throughout David’s body. Aching ribs. Throbbing elbow. A sharp twinge in one knee that caused him to limp.
Sean hardly looked better, with blood still painting his face. He wiped under his nose, smearing it further, then tossed a glance back at the crowd as if verifying no one followed. “I won’t tolerate this.”
“An easy solution is for me to stop training.”
Behind them, Autumn protested.
Sean shook his head. “Not a chance. If you stop, then I stop.”
David snorted. “They’d revolt.”
Deep blue side-eyed him. “Then I guess you stay, huh? We don’t bow down to prejudice.”
“Are we already at the we stage of our relationship?”
“Sean, you’re bleeding,” Bel said. “Can we stop a moment? Let me heal you.”
He ignored her.
The farther they walked, the heavier David’s limp grew. He couldn’t even remember hurting his knee, but each step sent fire up his leg. Anna ducked to pull his arm around her shoulders, taking some of his weight.
Sean’s gait faltered at a particularly sharp pang. His steps slowed while David stopped completely, holding his weight on his good leg.
“You okay?” Anna murmured. “What can I do?”
David winced. “Cutting it off might help.”
Sean gazed at Bel, waiting. Finally, he pointed at David. “Maybe you could heal him instead, seeing as he’s the one who can barely walk?”
A cold wind seemed to sweep between them all as David met Isobel’s emerald eyes.
He clenched his jaw, unsure which hurt more—his arm or the sudden fury. “I’d rather heal the old-fashioned way—thanks.”
They were halfway back to the Tree already. If he could just make it to the infirmary…
“David,” Anna whispered. “Your arm isn’t straight anymore. Just let her fix it.”
He took a steadying breath. A fever simmered at the thought of Isobel anywhere near him.
“It doesn’t mean you forgive her,” Anna said.
Bel stepped closer, facing him with a tight jaw. “You don’t have to take my help, but I’ll offer it since I did the thing…you know.”
“The thing,” David repeated in a flat voice.
She had the grace to blush.
“I’m trying to think of something I could have stolen from you that would be half as terrible as what you’ve done to me.”
She blinked. The corner of her mouth twitched. “You stole my life. Do you remember that? Do you remember killing the man I loved because you were jealous?”
“I didn’t do that to you,” David snapped. “That wasn’t even you.”
Isobel puffed out her cheeks. “Do you want my help or not? I’m standing here, offering.”
“Even though you’d prefer to watch me suffer?”
She raised her shoulder, an elegant move for a regal woman. Why did she have to be so excruciatingly beautiful? Her allure was like a poisonous flower—deceptive and deadly. Belladonna.
Anna lifted his arm from her shoulders, urging him toward Bel.
In a fit of anger and pain, he grabbed the witch’s waist with his good arm. A small squeak escaped her as she tripped forward, but she didn’t put up a fight as his lips touched hers.
The last time she’d bestowed her healing kiss on him, memories had unlocked, showing him how Galadaine had never coerced Meléan. That kiss had elicited zero physical response.
This time, no memories appeared.
Instead, the kiss glowed through his nervous system, all wild and hot and fierce. Each injury disappeared, and his breathing came easier, but the strange magic spread through his veins like electricity. Every hair stood at attention. Blood diverted to stain his skin and pool in inconvenient places.
Tainted desire claimed him. It pulled in opposite directions, telling him he wanted her, convincing him she needed him, reminding him she was inevitable.
He hated it. Every sickening, hot second of it.
As soon as the pain vanished and he could stand on two legs, he pushed her away. Hard.
She blinked up at him with green eyes speckled blue and amber, then rubbed her arm where she’d taken his injury. Slowly, mercifully, that disgusting feeling faded.
What the fuck was that? Where did it come from?
David dove behind his icy shields and turned to leave.
“Wait, David!” Autumn called. “We need to talk about this!”
He didn’t bother to look back. “I can’t. I just…I can’t.”
He retreated to his sanctuary and tried to forget it all.
The connection to Sean.
The puzzle of Anna.
The hatred of that crowd.
The tainted kiss.
The library was almost empty when he entered, and he headed straight for the stairs down to the dark tunnels. No one ever ventured down there. He’d be free of people, of interruption. Free to think.
No book could help him understand the dynamics of Meléan and Galadaine. No tomes would teach him what was happening in Anna Ainslan’s head. Nothing in the world could fully explain how he’d garnered so much hate with so little provocation.
But there had to be a book about soul binding, and David was determined to find it.
He wished for a librarian or catalog or anything that would help him find the information he needed.
Combing through the titles in the earthen tunnels, the scent of soil and books thick about him, his fingers brushed over the dusty spines of hundreds of ancient tomes and found nothing of import.
David searched all morning, ignoring the gnawing hunger in his stomach to focus on his need for information. He had to know what this meant for him. For them.
Because he wasn’t in this alone anymore.
He’d never be truly alone ever again. David knew without having to ask that Sean would ensure those people faced consequences for attacking him.
David would do the same if it happened to Sean.
The urge to protect him, to stay united was akin to his own survival instinct.
It wasn’t a brotherhood, as Cathaire believed. This was fusion.
David’s eyes had gone blurry by the time he sensed another presence weaving through the tunnels. He might not have noticed if it were anyone other than Anna, but her maelstrom of emotion was impossible to ignore, like a foghorn blown beside his ear.