Page 20 of A Dream Shrouded in Fury
In the centre chair—a purple-upholstered armchair draped with a crocheted blanket—sat the woman who had to be the fury leader.Her ash-grey hair was filled with small braids where it fell across her shoulders, pinned out of her face by small metal hoops that glinted in the light from the candles strung overhead.Her leather armour was formfitting and left her arms bare, giving her the appearance of a woman comfortable in her own home but ready for danger to strike at any time.
Although her expression remained neutral on our approach, I caught the tiniest twitch in the corner of her eye when her attention fell on me.
“Kalla,” she greeted.
“Thorn,” Kalla replied.
“What have you brought us?”
“This is Jael.”
Thorn’s gaze swept over me.“Not much of a meal for the entire community.”
I hid my reaction, understanding that she wasn’t threatening me—not yet.She was making a point.
Kalla straightened her shoulders.“He’s not a meal.I found him injured in the woods.He’s… lost.Just as we are.But there are more fae wandering the forest.We need to be prepared.”
Two other vampires closed in behind us, and I glanced over my shoulder to find a stocky man and a lithe female flanking me.
“Take him to the others,” Thorn said.“My kin-daughter and I need to talk.”
“Thorn—” Kalla started, but Thorn held up a hand to cut her off.
“No harm will come to him for the time being.It seems we have a run of fae in the area.Cliff and his team found three survivors of an ambush off the trail.Those fae are recovering in the other room.I thoughtJaelmight be more comfortable with his own while you and I chat.”
Kalla and I exchanged a glance.More survivors?
Despite Kalla’s concerns, I allowed myself to be led away, giving her what I hoped was a reassuring look before I turned.My heart thrashed in my chest, and I did my best to steady my breathing, not wanting to tempt these vampires with my rushing pulse.
The man on my left removed my dagger belt and patted me down for any other weapons, then gripped my arm tightly and jerked me forward, not cruelly, but not kindly, either.
“If you’ve caused harm to come to her, fae, you won’t live to see dawn,” he growled in my ear.
“You must be Cliff,” I said.
He bared his fangs at me but didn’t deny it.Good.Regardless of what happened to me, I was happy Kalla had people watching out for her if danger threatened their nest.
We reached a nook off the side of a narrow tunnel, and Cliff shoved me through a curtain of beige cloth.“In there.Don’t try to leave.”
I stumbled over the threshold, and when I caught my balance, I was amazed to find Pimmin, Hethyr, and—unfortunately—Corban sitting on the floor.
“Jael?”Hethyr’s disbelief filled the room, and before I could answer, she’d leapt to her feet and closed in on my space.“You’re alive!How?Thank the sun.I thought we were the only three left.Are there others?”
She peered over my shoulder as though hoping the rest of the Coynfare might walk in with me.Those hopes imploded when I shook my head.She staggered back and returned to her place on the floor next to Pimmin.
“How’d you make it out?”Pimmin asked.
“I—” I didn’t know how to answer.Telling them the truth—that I’d been set up comfortably in a cave with a vampire goddess for the past few days—seemed like an insult to the others who hadn’t survived, but hiding it from them would be futile.Word of Kalla’s rescue would no doubt spread throughout the fury quickly.“I guess my story is the same as yours—a vampire found me.”
Corban snorted.“And look where it got us.”
“We think they’re going to kill us,” Pimmin said, their gaze darting to the doorway.“We’ve seen the looks, heard whispers.They wanted to get information out of us.Now that they have…” They dragged their thumb across their throat.
My stomach twisted.I wanted to reassure them that Kalla would talk to Thorn but didn’t want to raise any hopes.She’d said she would speak on my behalf, but we hadn’t known any more rebels had survived.
What did it mean for me that they were here?For those fleeting days, I’d believed I could put the Coynfare behind me.Leonine.Soldara.But if my fellow rebels were here and Zath was dead, it meant I was their leader.
“We can’t let them kill us,” Corban said, his mud-brown eyes hard as stone.“Whatever happens, we have to try to fight our way out.We need to get back out there and carry out our mission.”
