Page 192 of Primal Bonds

The man was a fucking onion, with layers upon layers. She had a feeling she could know him for a decade and still not understand how his mind worked. And the bitch of it was, she wouldn’t mind sticking around for that long. Fane intrigued her. Inside, her cat hummed agreement.

She scowled and removed her quartz from her bra. For now, she’d keep the other quartz around her neck as a decoy. She didn’t think she could stand losing her real quartz again. Once in a lifetime had been enough.

She bit the inner side of her cheek. A part of her would always mourn her first quartz. The pain as the men ripped it from her had been excruciating, like having her heart torn out, and when they’d smashed it in front of her, the agony had doubled and redoubled.

Only a mate or close relative could touch an earth fada’s quartz without it hurting. Bad.

And that had just been the start…

She exhaled and dragged her thoughts back to the present.

Time to report to Adric. She hadn’t intended to call him until Corban was dead, but he needed to know what was going on with Blaer and her cages. The other earth fada alphas should be informed, and maybe even the water fada clans. This was bigger than Marjani trying to prove herself.

She tapped a slight depression, accessing the quartz’s smartphone. Another tap pinged Adric.

He answered immediately. “Jani? You okay? Where the fuck are you? It’s been over a month.”

For some damn reason, her eyes stung. Goddess, she missed him. The two of them had never been apart for this long. She could just picture him scrubbing a hand over his spiky hair, his hard face a mixture of anger and worry.

He was as much feared as loved. Very few people saw the big heart concealed behind that ruthless façade. But Marjani did.

Adric was only two years older than her, and the two of them were more like twins than siblings, especially after the death of their mom and dad. You tended to bond with someone when you were fighting for survival.

This past year, her brother had been so damn patient with her, gently coaxing her back to something resembling a normal life again. He’d fed her. Talked to her, even though she spent most days as her cat. Asked her advice when her only response was a twitch of her tail.

When she’d gotten so depressed that all she did was lie on the living room rug staring into the fireplace, he’d changed to his cougar and slept curled next to her, knowing that what she needed most of all was touch. And when nightmares left her whimpering and shaken, he nudged her awake and told her stories from their childhood.

Without him, she’d have gone completely feral.

“Jani?” Adric said. “You still there?”

She gave a hard swallow. “I’m fine.” She glanced around the cavern and decided her brother didn’t need to know everything. “And don’t worry, I’m safe.”

Then she realized what he’d said. “What do you mean it’s been over a month? What day is it?”

“August thirty-first.”

“Holy shit. By my reckoning it’s only August eighth.”

“So you got inside the ice fae court.”

“Yeah,” she said, still reeling at how much time she’d lost. “And Ric, Luc did, too, but they caught him. Put him in a fucking iron cage. I got him out, but I’m not sure he got away. The last I saw he was fighting with the ice fae king.”

“A cage? The king put him in a cage?” Her brother’s voice was chillier than Sindre’s tower.

She shook her head. “That’s the strange thing. The king definitely knows about it, but the person behind it seems to be a lady in his court—a Lady B, who’s also the woman the king hired you to track down in India.”

“The fae lady I sent Corban after?”

“Yeah. And Ric, it’s bad. She knows the secret of our quartzes. She grabbed mine and tried to use it to compel me, but I’d switched it out for a fake quartz. Corban must’ve told her.”

Adric muttered something dark. Only a few fae knew the secret of controlling the earth fada through their quartz—and those fae had been either bribed or threatened into keeping quiet. “What the hell’s going on?”

“It’s a long story. I promise I’ll explain everything when I get back. For now, you need to get the word out to the other earth fada clans.”

“Agreed. I’ll contact the other alphas as soon as we’re done. And Corban?”

“He’s in an iron cage, too, completely under her power. I was told they were lovers, but now he’s her prisoner. There’s no way he could’ve sent that message to you on his own.”

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