Chapter 52 #2
The golden bars disappeared and I stumbled forwards, suddenly freed from my cage and thrown off balance. I hurried to the seelie, heart racing, head pounding, anger rising.
My knees hit the dirt beside the seelie, all hope of infiltrating the Summer Court to save Danica bleeding from me just as all life bled from the holes in his body, spreading across the ground beneath him.
“Godsdammit, Kaeleron!” I looked from the dead seelie to him.
Kaeleron stood where he had been, chest heaving, crimson eyes wide and unblinking.
And then he looked down at his hands and the shadows that writhed beneath his boots as the stars slowly appeared again and the moon retook its place among them.
“I… I…” He lifted his gaze, locking it on me, and I shook my head, silently telling him not to apologise because I knew it had been instinct and that he was tired, drained from the fight and saving Everlee, not fully in control of his power.
His brows lowered, narrowing his eyes as his lips turned downwards. “He wanted to take you from me.”
I nodded.
“I know.” I dipped my head again, trying to make him see that it was all right. If someone had tried to take him from me in such a way and I had possessed his power, I would have done the same thing. “I know.”
I lowered my gaze to the dead seelie.
“We’ll find another way,” I said.
I wasn’t sure there was one.
“You would have been a prisoner,” he whispered. “He knew what you were to me. They would have—”
I nodded again, hoping to reassure him that he had done the right thing, even when I wasn’t sure that he had. The male had said I would be a guest and that someone had wanted to meet me, and Kaeleron’s reaction to the name had told me that male was one of importance in the Summer Court.
“I could have done it.” I kept my gaze on the dead seelie. “I could have found her and brought her back.”
“It is too dangerous.” He lowered his hands to his sides, his shoulders sagging as he sighed.
“You know only a map of their lands and what you have read in books. You have no experience of that side of Lucia. You do not truly know the Summer Court. You do not know the seelie. They are snakes. All of them. Not to be trusted. They lie and conceal and manipulate. I could not let you face that danger alone, my little wolf. You are strong, but they are stronger. More vicious. More cunning.”
He took a measured step towards me.
Males dressed in gold and white armour emerged from the shadows like wraiths.
Kaeleron shifted his feet apart in a battle stance as they formed a wall behind me.
I subtly shook my head as my heart thundered and I palmed my dagger, fear hijacking my body as the combined power of the seelie warriors pressed down on me and I saw he would fight them, even when he was not strong enough to battle them all and win.
He would do it for me. To try to save me.
His shadows rose around him, sharp tendrils poised to strike, writhing and hungry.
They stilled as the males in the centre of the line filed to one side, forming a gap in the wall, and a regal, beautiful blond male stepped through the ranks, his glittering gold and white armour glinting in the moonlight.
Something like fear crossed Kaeleron’s eyes for a heartbeat, there and gone as he donned a cool mask, concealing all his emotions, blotting them out in the blink of an eye as he faced this newcomer.
“The second female appears to be more than a mere girl, Luthryn. It is little wonder you would not speak of her,” the seelie said to the body I still knelt next to, clutching my dagger, looking as if I had been trying to protect him, looking as if I was with him and feared Kaeleron.
How much did this male know about me and Kaeleron?
Kaeleron’s gaze subtly darted to me, silently beseeching me to move whenever it did, and I knew him well enough to spot that trickle of fear chilling my blood was running through his veins too.
But there was something else there, something cold and feral that filled me with dread far worse than the thought of being taken with these seelie to the Summer Court.
He was going to fight.
Despite my warning not to, he was going to fight.
I could see it. Feel it in every beat of my heart.
He was going to fight to reach me and he would be overwhelmed and defeated—killed.
The fae were armed to the teeth, weapons drawn already, with the exception of the finely dressed one who had spoken and had yet to take his crystal blue eyes off Kaeleron.
I couldn’t let Kael fight. I couldn’t let him get himself killed. He was the strongest male I had ever met, the fiercest warrior I had ever known, but not even he could win against this many with only his magic and his talons as weapons, not when he was so tired.
I subtly shook my head, hoping he would listen to me this time and come to his senses enough to listen to that strategic side of his mind that must have seen what I had.
Fate had given us a second chance to infiltrate the Summer Court.
I could do this. I was strong. Cunning. Brave.
I could step into the Summer Court and save Danica, and discover what had happened to his brother.
I could do all that and return to him. He had trained me well, had honed me into the weapon of his vengeance, and I would carry it out and survive to return to him.
The seelie male closest to me eased into a crouch, bringing his face almost eye level with me.
“It will be my pleasure to escort you from the presence of this fiend.”
He smiled a wretched, terrible sort of smile that chilled my blood together with what he said as he elegantly extended a gauntleted hand to me.
“Daughter of Sylas, heir of the Summer Court.”