Page 103 of Owned By the Fae
‘Fine,’ I say with a sigh. ‘I’m willing to compromise. We won’t kill the servants and the lower Skilled, but the guards and the elites can’t be allowed to leave the fold. Their crimes against her are too severe.’
Kallum nods. ‘We leave nothing to chance where she’s concerned.’
We walk along for a few moments in silence. ‘We also still need to decide where we’re going to take her when we leave,’ Kal says with an annoyed look. ‘I can’t believe Varrik has no map books at all.’
I sniff. ‘Need to figure outhowwe’re going to leave first, I think.’
Kallum puts his arm on my shoulder as we reach the edge of the forest, and we disappear.
‘I know,’ Kal says. ‘I just wonder if we should decide on our destination and work backward from there. Perhaps it’ll help us to think ... differently about it. Come up with another idea.’
‘Fine. In the absence of any map books, any thoughts from memory?’ I ask, not breaking my stride.
‘Not from memory. There’s only one place I would take her,’ he answers.
He doesn’t say it, but I know he means the Light Realm, a place we can’t get to.
We don’t talk anymore as we skirt the village and make our way into the keep. We leave the guard on the floor at the bottom of the cracked stone steps. It’s not the first time there’s been an accident here, so we should be in the clear.
‘It’s a pity we won’t be able to do this again tomorrow night,’ he says as he belatedly pushes the guard’s boots back on and then pours half a flagon of wine over him that he then places strategically on the floor close by.
I nod. ‘But we'll get them all.’
‘Aye. Every single one who hurt our female.’
I hear voices coming closer, and I put my hand on his shoulder again. We blink out of sight.
‘I want to do some scouting while we’re up here,’ Kal says in my ear.
I roll my eyes. I suppose I’m tagging along then because he doesn’t give me the option of not.
Kal takes us through walls. We watch servants working and listen to their chatter. I get some more names to add to my list of people who are being cruel to my Harbinger or speaking ill of her. Even though we aren’t meant to be killing any of them anymore until it’s time to go, I decide that if I do get any chances, I’ll take them.
In truth, I’m not glad that some of these cunts will survive. As far as I can tell, most of them deserve to die, even though they're ignorant about Varrik and his true nature. None of them, bar that healer, Jak, have even tried to be kind to our female. None have shown her any decency at all.
We make our way around level by level, going through rooms and listening to conversations.
When we reach the hall where the elites are, I watch narrow-eyed as Dane leaves the Harbinger’s room after performinghis dutiesto Varrik for the second time today. We haven’t talked about what we’ll do about Dane if anything. He was one of us, after all. He’s saved our lives more than once as we’ve saved his. But if he still blindly loves Varrik as much as that guard did by the time we kill the fae lord and leave, there won’t be any other way than to get rid of him like the others.
We’re about to go to Lia’s room when we see Fiana coming down the hall slowly.
We haven’t seen much of her at all since she’s been back, I realize. Not even in Dane’s company. I almost snort aloud. Well, not after his cock didn’t work at any rate!
‘They aren’t together much,’ Kal says under his breath, his remark echoing my thoughts. ‘I've barely seen them together at all except for at the banquet the other night when we saw Dane fail to fuck her.’
I don't know what to make of it. As far as I knew, Dane couldn't wait to see Fiana. Surely, if they both felt thus they'd be spending a lot more time with each other. But perhaps after Dane couldn’t perform ...
We watch her enter her room, and Kallum follows. We go through the cold wall as quietly as we can, and we find her drinking tea at her small table. There's a knock on her door.
‘Come,’ she says.
It's Vern.
She stands and gives him the first genuine smile I've seen since she returned.
‘I missed you,’ he says. ‘I hate seeing you with that cunt.’
She titters, but it sounds a little forced to my ears, though Vern doesn’t seem to notice. She kisses his lips, and my hand clenches around Kallum’s shoulder.
