Page 80 of By the Orchid and the Owl
Velika managed a last squeak before he ripped her into leathery ribbons.
Then Jagaros turned to Lord Arad himself, who was wide-eyed and drooling with rage, but unable to break from Coen’s magic grip.
“Didn’t your ancestors warn you not to mess with the faerie king of old?” Jagaros grumbled. “No?That’s really too bad.I hate the taste of your kind.” He turned back toward Coen and said, “Release it. I want to make it slow.”
To my shock, Coen nodded as if he understood the tiger’s growls. He grabbed Emelle and me by the shoulders and muttered, “C’mon. Let’s go.”
When the three of us stumbled back out into the mossy green light of the jungle, Coen released his hold on the last heir of the ancient Asmodeus Colony.
And the sounds of Lord Arad’s shrieks began.
“You can talk to animals?” I demanded.
We had just stumbled back onto campus, where the courtyard still crawled with vendors and buyers and monkeys, even under the purple tint of dusk. Apparently, the Cardina marketplace wouldn’t disband until the last good had sold.
Coen stopped Emelle and me on the edge of the Summoner sector, facing us with folded arms and glancing between us with unnerving speed.
“No, I can’t talk to animals, not in the way you can. But when you froze with panic and I couldn’t get a straight answer out of you, I had to use alternative methods of communication.”
His mind, I realized with a touch of unease. I’d always known Manipulators couldcontrolanimals, but for Coen to have entered Jagaros’s mind and plan an attack with him… it was different, somehow. He must have done it while sprinting toward our location from the moment I’d relayed Lord Arad and Velika’s story to him.
It would explain the sweat curling the edges of his hair, at least.
I’ve never ran so fast in my life,Coen confirmed in my head, then jerked his gaze toward Emelle.She knows everything, then?
Yes.I didn’t know whether to feel sorry or defensive about that. Emelle… she still hadn’t said anything. Was still silent and shaking by the knees.
I trust your judgment,Coen said.Just please don’t tell her about the others.
Of course.I hated the pleading note to his tone. Garvis, Terrin, and the twins—their histories weren’t mine to tell, anyways.
I turned to Emelle, letting the clamoring sounds of the marketplace camouflage the whisper of my voice.
“Are you okay, Melle?”
She blinked at me. Rubbed her eyes. Blinked again.
“You’re asking me ifI’mokay? Oh, Rayna.”
And she dragged me into a hug that cracked the tension in my back.
“I’m afraid for you,” she whispered back. “But I’m not afraidofyou.”
It meant more than she’d ever know, those words. I let myself sink into the warmth of her embrace until she quit trembling, until my own heart had eased.
Coen watched us, a faint look of contemplation on his face.
We’ll talk later?I asked him.
I wasn’t particularly interested in talking about my mother right now. Or about how Fabian… Fabian had stolen me from her. Iwasinterested, however, in hearing about the logistics of Coen’s communication with Jagaros—Jagaros, whom we’d left in that collapsing hellhole so that he could play with his prey in peace. I hadn’t expected it, that viciousness from the faerie king.
The faerie king of old.
I’d pulled those words out of my ass, but Lord Arad had seemed to believe them, despite his family’s ploy to attack us anyway. And Jagaros had proven that he wasn’t to be messed with, hadn’t he?
Animal minds are usually filled with mist as thick as mud, hard for me to wade through. Buthismind was like ice and fire,Coen murmured into my head, shuddering.Crystal clear and blazing hot.
Out loud, he said, “I believe you have a dress to pick up from Grandma Gretel’s Gown tent near the fountain. For the Element Wielder formal.”
