Page 32 of Fae Divided
“I didn’t think you’d agree to send a mated clanmate into a high-risk situation. And certainly not your brother-in-law.” The prince retrieved a towel from his private bathroom, wiping ineffectually at the stain on his jacket.
“You had no right.” Her brother’s eyes were fierce liquid gold.
“I had every right,” he snapped, the show of emotion from the ordinarily composed vampire prince startling in its ferocity. “It is my duty as House thlán and Rose’s heir to protect her rule by any means necessary. A single Ferwyn male and his mate would be unfortunate but acceptable losses when compared to the hundreds of thousands of Fae Touched lives that would be forfeit if we go to war.”
Sarah sucked in a breath, struck mute by stark disbelief. Righteous anger blindly guided her footsteps. A stinging palm and a flash of red on the prince’s cheek returned her senses and her voice. “James is notacceptablecollateral damage.”
“That’s where you are wrong, Mrs. Reed,” he replied as if the slap never happened. If he’d neverallowedit to happen. “Everyone is expendable apart from the queen. Myself included.”
“You are irreplaceable to me, Myles,” Lady Rose said on a soft sigh, as though the same words had been spoken numerous times before, and she was weary of the retelling. “Where is Sarah’s mate?”
“We don’t know if Mr. Reed is in imminent danger. Charging prematurely to his rescue because he missed a scheduled fucking would blow his cover needlessly.”
“Myles!” The flat of the queen’s sword smacked against Samuel’s chest, holding him back. “Do not kill him yet, commander.”
“James is in trouble. I can feel it,” Sarah said with all the conviction in her heart. If begging would convince him, she’d happily fall to her knees. “I’m not asking for your help beyond telling us his location. Please, milord.”
“When did I say I wouldn’t help?”
Sarah’s mouth opened, jaw slack. “What?”
“We’ll require a battle witch.” The prince strode to his desk, shrugging his soiled jacket from his shoulders and draping it over the chair as if it were still pristine. The red stain on his dress shirt continued to spread; a wound that deep and made by a Ferwyn’s claws would take hours instead of minutes to heal. “Mr. Jenkins is my first choice. Rose, can you ask him to join us? I’m afraid our public relations guru would only ignore my request.”
“I don’t understand.” Sarah rubbed at her forehead, an ache steadily building behind her eyes. “You said—”
“I said your truemate’s life would be an acceptable loss, not that I wished for his demise.” He removed the framed antique map highlighting the nine designated Fae Touched territories within the United States to reveal a safe made of a graphite material—probably titanium—embedded in the wall. The prince punched in a lengthy code and pressed his thumb to the pad near the latch. It opened with a motorized whine and loud clank. He removed a thin blue folder from inside. “Commander Walker, please notify Lieutenant Tucker. I have a feeling he’ll want to be in on this particular retrieval.”
Chapter 14
James wrapped hishands around the thick bars, ignoring the burn of iron. The pain distracted him from the overwhelming temptation to renew the link with Sarah. It was all he thought about, but he couldn’t risk it without understanding what the Fae Lord’s mark on his neck could mean to their bond.
A mating bond was isolated from a Ferwyn male’s connection to his pack’s Alpha, but was it susceptible to Elven magic? James had no idea, and the not knowing was driving him crazy. Was Sarah safe at home, or had she come to the hotel to meet him and been captured by Grayson?
How far had her health deteriorated during the additional twelve—or was it thirteen—days of his captivity?
He let go of the poisonous metal keeping him imprisoned and began to pace, scrubbing at the seared symbol on his nape with iron-blistered fingers. James hadn’t seen the bastardized brand for himself, his cage providing a cot, a toilet, and a sink without a mirror. But he could feel the raised edges of an inverted Y and two smaller triangles staggered near its stem.
“Do you want to see it?”
James swore internally but outwardly didn’t react to Grayson’s scentless arrival. Had the Fae gifted him with the magical ability to come and go without a trail, or did it have something to do with the rune on his neck? A stamp James now bore as well.
“Do you?” The Alpha approached his prison.
Grayson had visited only one other time—when James first regained consciousness. It was Simmons who brought his meals and then immediately left. Guilt and conflict in the young Ferwyn’s smell. Adam alternated guard duty with an older shifter from the pack. Neither male came inside to talk, and the other outcasts were kept away. He didn’t have the faintest idea of what was happening outside his eight-by-ten cell.
“Is Sarah somewhere in the farmhouse?”
“What does your bond tell you?”
“Is. She. Here?” The threat was clear: if Jeremiah Grayson harmed his mate, James would kill him.
Grayson slammed his palms against the ore-infused bars. His flesh sizzled. “No. Check the bond.”
“But the Athair told you to take her.” The green paint on the storm cellar walls had dulled to a cloudy white, his vision losing the human spectrum of light and color. His wolf was rising despite being surrounded by iron.
“I chose to disobey. I can do that on occasion. Not often, but sometimes,” Grayson said, examining the fluid-filled burns on his hands as they slowly healed. “Check the bond, Reed. It’s safe.”
“How can I trust you?” he asked, leaning in. “Can the Fae Lord influence me with this brand on my neck? Can he get to Sarah through me?”
