Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
Knox
Once free of the harem, I dragged the sorcerer up the hill to the protective barrier while Devnair and Briar followed me. She hadn’t spoken since our confrontation inside, and I was glad for it. I couldn’t stand to listen to more of her lies. She had to tell her mother; no one else could have.
Even if Briar hadn’t told Marina directly, she’d told someone who’d gone back and reported our plans to the queen, and that was still a betrayal.
We’d vowed not to tell another living soul what we intended to do.
We’d known that if anyone in our families ever found out, they’d do everything they could to stop us… and hers had done exactly that.
There was no other way for Marina to have known as much as she did if Briar hadn’t told her, but the look on her face when I revealed this to her had been one of shock. It had looked so real.
For one fleeting second, I’d believed she was telling the truth. Then I’d recalled what a good fucking liar she was. And she truly was the best.
As we continued up the hill, Briar spoke again. “Why did you come here today if you think I’m a monster who betrayed you?”
“Because you’re going to help us break the curse,” I told her. “Then you, and your whole kind, are going to pay for what they did to me and so many others.”
“What curse?”
“Don’t play stupid about that too. I’m not someone who will buy your lies.”
Silence greeted my words, and then Briar ran past me, got a few feet ahead, and swung around to plant herself between me and the barrier. I had to stop abruptly to keep from running her over.
“I’m not playing stupid about anything,” she stated. “If you believe I’m a liar, then that’s fine, and I can see why it doesn’t look good for me, but I have no idea what you’re talking about. What curse?”
I’d never seen Briar truly angry before, and it intrigued me to see her like this now. Her beautiful sea green eyes burned with rage as she planted her hands on her hips and glowered at me.
“I must admit, I’m intrigued about this curse too,” Devnair said.
When I shot the elf a look, he stared stoically back at me. “I’m sure you’ll learn of it when you return home,” I told him.
I started to walk around Briar; she stepped in front of me. The low growl I released caused Devnair to retreat, but Briar continued to glare at me with her arms folded over her chest.
“Is the curse what you shift into?” she asked. “Is that beast the curse? Because it’s not normal.”
I released a harsh, bitter laugh. “Oh, mea eveto, it’s about as far from normal as it can get, but the beast is my cross to bear for trusting a caster.”
When she flinched before opening her mouth to say more, I grasped her arm, moved her out of my way, and continued up the hill.
“You have to hold onto her other side,” I told the elf. “We can only go through if we’re touching one of them.” I looked pointedly at Briar. “Which is another reason why we can’t take everyone with us.”
She huffed but didn’t speak. When Devnair hurried to her side and clasped her arm, a snarl twitched at the corners of my mouth.
At one time, I’d marked this woman as my mate, and the beast was reluctant to let that go. It certainly didn’t like another man touching her, but it would get over it… as would I. Even knowing this, I didn’t let go of her arm.
With my claws still embedded in the sorcerer’s head, I dragged him across the barrier as Devnair and Briar stepped through with me. We continued up the hill to the rise where I’d left Pierce, Dromon, and Lyra.
They waited with our horses near a copse of trees. Pierce and Lyra sat on the grass, sharpening their knives, while Dromon stood against a tree with his arms crossed and an irritated expression on his face.
The four of us had formed a pack after the harem, and Dromon was my beta, the one I trusted most, and the one who would see through my orders if something should happen to me. As soon as he spotted us, he stepped away from the tree; his movement drew the attention of the others.
Pierce and Lyra rose as all the horses continued to graze, their tails swishing occasionally. When their gazes found Briar, fury darkened their eyes, and an air of savagery emanated from them.
“And there’s the other missing three,” Devnair murmured. “How did you figure out how to escape?”
“Luck,” I replied.
When I first forced the night caster to open my room and let me out, I dragged him with me to free the other shifters. Not thinking right, I left him at the back door of the harem when we fled. It wasn’t until we hit the barrier that I recalled we couldn’t get past it.
Unnerved by what I’d become and desperate to get free, I threw myself at the barrier over and over again to no avail. I was mindless in my desperation to get free and couldn’t stop.
It was Lyra who suggested returning for the night caster. We’d crossed through the barrier with them to enter the harem; perhaps we could leave it with them too.
We returned to the harem together and found that the dark sorcerer had dragged himself down the hall and was almost to the sitting room. I grasped him by the neck and hauled him outside with me as the other prisoners howled.
When we all held onto each other and the caster we couldn’t get through, but Lyra and Pierce could cross with him between them. Once they passed the barrier, they threw the caster back to us, and Dromon and I crossed next. We never looked back until today.
“Is this her?” Lyra demanded as she raked Briar with a scathing gaze.
“It’s her,” I confirmed.
“Holy shit,” Dromon said.
They all knew she was the reason I was in the harem. It wasn’t something I revealed while in captivity, but once I was free, it didn’t take long to learn that almost everyone in the kingdoms knew what happened.
It was impossible for them not to learn about me and Briar, as Marina’s wrath had resulted in a devastating fallout for the rest of the shifters.
“Can she break the curse?” Pierce demanded.