Page 31 of Owned By the Fae
‘Will your conjures do anything to it?’ Vern snarls.
Dane shakes his head. ‘I don’t know. I’ve never come across whatever this is before. Some of them feed off magick. I’ll use indirect conjures to waylay it, just in case.’
We run up the path towards the Gate, and I wonder how we can possibly get out of here in time because it’s not as if it will open at our whim. That’s not how the Breach works.
But then I see Rikoth take a necklace out of his clothes and rub at the purple stone in the middle of it when we’re close to the Ring. The Gate opens almost immediately.
But there’s no time to wonder how he has something like that. I can feel the creature just behind me. It’s traveling quickly, faster than us. But when I look back, there’s nothing there.
‘Where is it?’ Rikoth snarls, as he looks over his shoulder, his eyes darting this way and that.
The thick grass beside the path flattens no more than three paces from me, and my eyes widen.
‘It’s invisible! Get through the Breach!’ I yell.
Dane throws a conjure. It explodes in front of the creature, making a crater in the path and giving us an extra second or two.
I reach the Gate and throw myself through it, registering Dane beside me and not caring if the others have made it or not.
We land in a pile on the floor of Varrik’s hall.
The illustrious leader is sitting at his desk in the adjoining room calmly, looking unperturbed as the Gate closes behind us.
‘Did you get it?’ is all he says.
We get to our feet, and Rikoth hands the box to the fae lord, who looks pleased.
‘You've done well.’ He surveys Dane and then me. ‘You too. I'll let you know when the next quest will be.’
Summarily dismissed, we leave Varrik’s presence, ending up in the corridor.
‘What was all that about?’ I mutter.
Vern and Rikoth shrug, and I narrow my eyes at them, brushing against their thoughts to find out what I want to know. But I realize that neither of them actually have any idea either. Whatever it was in that box, Varrik has kept them as much in the dark as us. They're pretending to know more than they actually do because they wish that Varrik had trusted them, his prize Skilled, with his secrets.
I hide my mocking smile, and we leave the keep. I glance down the elite’s hallway as we go by it. Knowing that my female is so close and I can’t go to her at the moment is difficult, but I don't want my access to the keep taken away from me, so I follow them out, across the bridge that goes over the mote.
Dane and I return to our house. When we get inside, Dane whirls on me.
‘What was in that box?’ he asks.
‘I don't know, but neither did Rikoth and Vern.’
Dane’s expression shutters. ‘And how do you know that? How did you know that creature was watching us?’
‘Maybe I can do a little bit more than I let on,’ I say quietly, unable to help my grin.
‘You can read others’ thoughts?’
‘A bit. Ideas and feelings, perhaps,’ I say. ‘Whatever someone's actually thinking about at the time, certainly.’ I put a hand up when his mouth opens to ask his next question. ‘I can’t shuffle through someone’s memories or anything like that. At least, not yet.’
‘Why have you kept this from us?’ Dane asks, his eyes flashing.
I shrug, enjoying his anger too much. ‘Grey knew.’
‘WhereisGrey?’ he asks, looking around.
‘He's been having trouble with the beast,’ I murmur. ‘You'd know that if you’d been around lately.’
