Page 16 of Faerie Fate
The flicker of movement over Kendricks’s shoulder materialized into a very familiar face and I broke eye contact. Silent alarm splintered my senses. The rattle in my ears became a full blown storm.
He couldn’t be here.
This was no king’s camp. This was no grand or splendorous moment. This was a dismal and dusty classroom in the mortal realm and no amount of trembling would break the chain.
Dorian Jade had arrived.
Chapter Five
“Enough of this, Grimaldi. You’ve had your fun.”
Like wiping away spilled milk with the swipe of a few fingers and a cloth, Dorian lifted a hand. The powerful punch of fae magic lifted my blindfold to neatly set it back into place.
Darkness replaced light. The fabric knotted itself with his spell, tighter than ever, and I gasped, encapsulated by the strength of his Unseelie spell.
He had covered my eyes. Almost like he knew about my power. Had he and Kendrick spoken about it?
“She almost had you,” Dorian continued.
“I don’t like this,” Kendrick grumbled. “It’s a sloppy solution. I want to see her face.”
“You like seeing the way she hates you?”
They were like two men having a casual conversation in a store. In a park. It felt easy and light.
I did hate them.
“Ifeelher hatred,” Kendrick corrected. “It gets me off.”
Dorian crept closer, the stench of his magic giving him away, and in a blink he replaced the blindfold with a pair of dark sunglasses. A shadowed, dim world was better than seeing nothing at all, but if the sight was Kendrick’s face, Dorian’s face, maybe I’d rather be in the dark.
“She can still see but they’ll protect you. Do you understand?” Dorian explained.
Kendrick dwarfed Dorian, although the fae male stood over six feet tall. His dark hair shone with an almost purple hue around a rectangular face. Despite the stubble and his strong chin, he was a child compared to Kendrick’s features.
Dorian’s deep-blue eyes shone with a manic light, ringed with dark lashes and thick brows. He’d swapped the trousers and shirt for a neat mortal suit, although the silver and gold threads of his jacket were still present, those immodest details. He was a debonair man out of time. And ancient, I realized now.
As old as Kendrick or older.
The two of them stood shoulder to shoulder in front of me, considering me like an animal kept safe behind glass and a barbed fence in a zoo.
Kendrick leered at me. “This is the one who gave you so much trouble. Right?”
Dorian nodded in confirmation. “Yes. She threw my entire camp into chaos. And before she took off, she freed many of the Seelie working for me. She left nothing but bedlam in her wake.”
It was the wrong thing to say, and spurred the anger in my head that had quieted to whispers before.
“Working?” I forced myself to say the word and winced at the pain in my throat. My voice sounded different. “Is that what you call it? Other people might term itslavery.”
“She won’t be a burden any longer, brother,” Kendrick promised. He clapped Dorian on the shoulder. “I have her under control now. The deal stands?”
“Absolutely, yes,” Dorian agreed.
The two shook hands to seal the details of their cryptic agreement. I pulled against the chain, furious, trapped. The simple movement exhausted me but I didn’t stop.
What the hell had they wagered on? Something clearly made prior to my arrival. Neither of them gave anything away in their expressions. They were masters of their games.
“It’s funny how you hate the fae until it’s time to work with them,” I told Kendrick.
