Page 52 of Faerie Hunted

My guard rose higher than normal.

“Welcome to my village. It’s a quaint set-up, don’t you think? Morgan, give us a moment alone, if you please. Miss Alderidge, have a seat. Get comfortable.”

Morgan, or One Eye, bowed his head and disappeared out through the tent flap. The low tingle of magic burned the inside of my nose as a silencing bubble descended around us. Exhaustion kept me from recognizing its depths but I marked the smell for its uniqueness. Fresh raspberries and sulfur.

What an awful combination.

Dorian continued to watch me, waiting with one hand extended toward a plush loveseat tucked against the side of the tent.

“No one intends to harm you,” he continued. “You have my word.”

“Will you release my direwolf?” I hiked a thumb over my shoulder.

Dorian arched a brow. “Pardon me?”

“My direwolf, Noren. I won’t speak to you until he’s free.” I made the demand boldly.

These people might not mean any harm to me,yet, as long as I cooperated, but I refused to allow my friend to suffer through the iron muzzle.

We both needed to be ready to run.

Just in case.

Irritation flashed across Dorian’s face and screwed his features into an ugly grimace. In an instant, however, his smile returned. “I’m not generally in the position of allowing people to make demands of me.”

“I’d think as a leader you’d be used to it by now.” I took a risk talking back to him, but a moment later, Dorian popped his head out of the tent and motioned for the men to unbind Noren.

An overwhelming sense of the surreal colored the moment.

I’d been kidnapped by Dorian Jade, the man behind the conspiracy against the kingdom. The leader of the Unseelie fae, and he looked nothing like what I’d thought.

Noren slunk into the confines of the tent half a heartbeat later, his head low and his focus entirely on Dorian. The fur on his ruff rose and his eyes were narrow, glowing, his teeth white.

They stared at each other until Dorian made the first move and settled. He dropped down casually into a chair opposite the loveseat and crossed one ankle over the other knee. Utterly unbothered by the menacing growls rumbling from the back of Noren’s throat.

“It makes sense for a half-werewolf to have a wolf protector. I enjoy a good bit of irony, and this seems to me the most perfect example. Yes.” Dorian nodded decisively.

Finally, I felt like I had no choice but to sit with him. I reached out and kept one hand on top of the direwolf’s head before cautiously taking the offered seat.

“As such a half breed, you must have seen how bigoted the Seelie can be. You’ve had to hide yourself from the moment you were accepted to the Halfling Academy in the normal world. Haven’t you?” Dorian asked me.

“You already know my history, it seems, so you tell me,” I snapped.

Instantly contrite, I reeled myself back. I’d learn nothing if I antagonized him too much.

I forced myself to relax. Of course he’d have to know all about me as leader of the opposition. One would be ineffective if one knew nothing about the people one was at war against.

Since coming here, I’d made my allegiance to Mike and his father clear to anyone on the outside, even when King Tywin kept his focus on me like a kid with an ant hill. The magnifying glass had inevitably come, and readily, curiously, he’d watched it burn me.

Dorian must have found the answer he searched for somewhere on my face. He tilted his head to the side and studied my expression, taking in every small change before his eyes met mine again. “Their world is unfriendly to anyone who is different,” he said at last. “You’ve experienced it with your own eyes. The terrible burden of being born different, made different, except you are only you. Don’t tell me you haven’t experienced these things.”

“You’re not wrong.” It seemed safe enough to agree with him.

Dorian leaned in eagerly, shifting again to balance his elbows on his knees now. His gaze took on a fiery light at my admission. “I’m sure you’ve lived through your fair share of tragedy since you crossed into our world. Beyond what my sources have reported. Being terrorized for a murder you did not commit is only one of them.”

It really had been damn hard since I came to Faerie. I’d never fit in anywhere.

I started to agree with him but quickly snapped my mouth shut.Less is more. If I wanted to get out of here, then paying attention would work in my favor, rather than spilling my guts.

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