Page 57 of Magic Betrayed

I heard cheers and clapping, and other sounds of joy, but they seemed muffled and distant. I was too busy holding Ari close. Too busy hiding my face in her shoulder so no one could see my tears.

“Are you okay, Bug?” My voice was shaking, but there was no way in the world I could have stopped it.

“I’m hungry,” she announced, and I laughed—a weak, wobbly sound that was fooling no one except Ari. Maybe not even her.

“Why don’t we try the kitchen?” I suggested. “I bet we could find you something.”

Irene might frown at us messing around in her domain, but I knew if she were here, she wouldn’t be able to resist a hungry child.

Kira appeared with her hand extended, her own eyes red and damp, her lips trembling as she met my gaze. “I can take her,” she offered.

I nodded. I didn’t want to let her go this soon, but her arrival changed everything, and I needed to talk to Shane without her sharp little ears listening in.

Ari let go of my neck and took Kira’s hand, skipping off beside her dragon friend without a backwards glance. I watched her go, feeling almost lightheaded with relief alongside the piercing ache of worry for Logan and Kes. And as she disappeared behind the swinging door into the kitchen, my gaze found its way to Talia, who was still standing by the bar, looking as if she’d just been knifed in the heart.

Her cheeks were wet, but her expression seemed hollow and utterly bleak.

My child had been found, but hers was still out there.

“We will find her,” I said quietly, my words meant only for Talia.

And this time, she simply nodded.

* * *

I wasn’tsure Shane would talk to me with so many listening ears, so we ducked into the card room and shut the door before I spoke.

“Thank you.” My relief was so great, I could have hugged him, but I doubted the grim-looking mercenary would appreciate it. “There are no words, Shane, but I’m going to offer them anyway. Thank you for finding her. For keeping her safe. For bringing her home.”

He grunted, looking decidedly uncomfortable with my effusion. At times, the half-goblin could be almost as emotionally expressive as Faris.

“How did you find her? Where?”

He looked oddly as if he didn’t want to tell me. “I was searching your apartment,” he finally admitted. “Looking for clues you might have missed. She popped in and started yelling for you. Luckily, she remembered me and was willing to come with me when I asked.”

Part of me had been hoping Ari would use her magic to escape, but practically, I knew better than to rely on it. There were any number of ways her captors could have kept her unconscious. Even threatened Kes until she took Ari’s magic. And after months of trying to impress on her that she should never teleport in front of strangers, it wasn’t all that difficult to imagine her deciding to listen at the worst possible moment.

“Did she tell you anything?”

Shane’s dark eyes sparked gold. “Promise me. Promise you will let me help.”

I wasn’t in any position to turn down assistance, particularly not from Shane. He had too many connections. Knew far more than me about those who’d escaped our prison. But I also wasn’t ready to trust him implicitly.

“Why do you care?” I asked bluntly. “I know there’s more to this than you’ve told me. I know there’s something off between you and Kira and Faris, and with all that’s at stake, we can’t afford any fighting behind the scenes. So I can’t make promises until you tell me the truth.”

His glower intensified.

“I know,” I acknowledged, “that you don’t owe me anything. I owe youeverything. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to take risks with the safety of the people I love.”

For a moment, I was convinced he was going to punch me in the face—he looked that angry. But then his head tilted back, his eyes closed, and his fists unclenched.

“I was adopted as a boy,” he said, his voice little more than a hollow rasp. “By a pixie woman who lived here, in the Shadow Court. She was unfortunate enough to be friends with Kira’s guardian. It’s a complicated story of power and politics, but the end result was that she was forced by the fae to spy on the two of them, using my life as collateral.”

I’d originally met Shane over ten years ago in the depths of the fae prison, so I’d known he was once a prisoner like me. I just hadn’t known why.

“I escaped, but Kira was young and foolish, and her actions eventually led to my adoptive mother’s death. It happened only a few miles from here. I was with her that night, and she still died.”

“Faris…” He shook his head. “He claims to protect the people of this city, but when my mother became a victim of the fae queen’s obsession with power, those with the ability to save or avenge her didnothing. Because my mother was poor and powerless and could do nothing to support his empire, everyone turned a blind eye.”

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