Page 8 of Shadow Master
A batch of weavers had arrived a few minutes ago and were now in the process of shutting down the ports.
We were trapped, and Winterlock didn’t know the half of it, but from the look on his face, Brunner was filling him in.
He looked up at me as he spoke and then raised a hand and crooked a finger at me. It was the kind of move a tutor would use on a small child or a father on his errant offspring, and damn did it grate on my nerves. My impulse was to flip him off, but he was Winterlock, the maker of tech and the only pure feyblood on this side of the veil. He was the man who could order Hyde executed if he felt there was anything inappropriate between us. So, I inclined my head and walked over to him, keeping my expression neutral.
Hyde trailed after me, but I didn’t look back at him. The less eye contact I made with the man who had a piece of my heart, the better.
“What happened?” Orion asked curtly. “From the beginning.”
I looked to Hyde. “I can’t. The binding.”
“The binding was linked to the fortress,” Hyde said. “There’s nothing stalling our tongues now.”
I was so sick of replaying the events, but it had to be done. Switching off my emotions, I gave him the rundown from the night before, when I’d noticed the shadows in the kitchens of the fortress to the moment when Henrich had handed me the Shadow Master seal.
“Henrich gave you the Shadow Master pin?” His brow flicked up again in an arch that was becoming familiar.
“Yes.” I gripped it tighter.
He held out his hand. “Give it to me.”
I frowned up at him. “Why?”
He rolled his eyes. “Because it doesn’t belong to you. You have no experience, no qualifications to run an army.”
“And you do?”
There was a collective gasp around the room.
Orion’s lips flattened with annoyance. “Maybe you don’t know who I am.”
I looked him up and down. “Oh, I know who you are. But being pureblood fey and owning a company does not give you the right to run a shadow knight army.”
His jaw tightened.
“Miss Justice…” Brunner stepped in. “Mr. Winterlock is…” She faltered for a word.
“What?” I asked her. “He’s what? A fey with money and power? So what?” I met Orion’s gaze levelly. “Unless you’re willing to don armor and go into the mist. Unless you’re willing to get on the frontlines and fight if need be, then you have no fucking right to this badge.”
His eyes narrowed, and his lips curved in a thin smile. “But Hyde does. He can be Shadow Master.”
My stomach flipped because he was right. I’d thought the same thing a little while ago. Fuck, if it came down to it, I’d rather Hyde than this tosser.
Orion was looking at Hyde now with a smug expression, like he’d just played an awesome move in a game of chess.
“No,” Hyde said. “With all due respect, no. Henrich gave Justice the pin.”
“He was obviously delusional,” Baron interceded as he joined us. His smile was smarmy, and I itched to slap it off his face. “Orion, I apologize for my daughter’s behavior.”
Rage bubbled up inside me like lava eager to eat at some nightblood flesh. “I am not your fucking daughter.” I took a menacing step toward him. “Or have you forgotten that your wife cheated on you with a weaver?”
The room was suddenly deathly silent. All eyes were on us. All ears wagging, eager to hear more.
Baron’s jaw ticked in a move I recognized from childhood. The move that told me he was about to lose his shit and lash out. But I wasn’t a kid anymore. I was no longer afraid of him.
I locked gazes with him and, taking a leaf from Orion’s playbook, arched a brow. “Well?”
“Oh, I haven’t forgotten,” he said. “And trust me, your mother is paying for her crime.”
