Page 56 of Owned By the Fae
‘Well, I see him for the cunt he is now. So does Grey. I’m only sorry we were so late in realizing.’ I put my forehead against hers. ‘No more hurting yourself. I’ll bring you the tea Dane gave you while we were traveling, all right?’
She nods vigorously and grips my hand again. ‘I won’t be bred,’ she vows again.
‘No. I promise. But we need to get you away from here.’ I hesitate at my next question because she never answered me before. ‘I need to know why you haven’t used the Harbinger to escape.’
Heaving a sigh, she looks down at the water. ‘I can’t. The binding Varrik put on me when he got me here is different this time. The Harbinger’s power is truly hackled. I can barely reach it.’
‘Reach it? The skill, you mean?’ he asks.
‘Yes and no.’ She hesitates as if she’s weighing up what she should or shouldn’t tell me.
‘I think Varrik’s skill is what makes everyone adore him,’ I blurt, trying to show her that I’m her ally and that she can trust me.
Her eyes widen, and then her expression becomes one of realization. ‘Of course! He’d never stop at just one if he could give himself more.’
‘More?’ I ask faintly. ‘What other skills does he have?’
She shakes her head. ‘I don’t know. He can conjure, though. I’ve seen him do it. If he has others, he keeps them as close to his chest as his method for making his Skilled, though. I doubt even the other elites would know.’
Looking at me intently, she rises from the bath. Water runs down her body in rivulets, and I try not to watch them as I swallow hard.
‘I can speak to the Harbinger, or at least I could,’ she amends, letting out a breath now that she’s told me a secret.
‘Speak to it?’ I whisper. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Like a shifter does with their beast. I can feel the Harbinger. We dream together. It took pain from me in the dungeon, so I didn’t feel some of the things they did. We have an understanding now. Maybe more than that.’
I flinch a little when she talks about the dungeon and her suffering at Varrik’s orders.
‘Are you sure?’ I try not to look as skeptical as I feel. ‘What if it’s?—’
‘Lying to me?’
I nod.
She shivers as she regards me, and I grab the bath sheet for her, wrapping it around her and urging her closer to the fire to dry.
‘I don’t think it is,’ she finally says. ‘It’s hard to explain, but I know its mind, and it knows mine. Would you tell Grey not to trust his beast?’
I laugh. ‘In a fucking heartbeat.’
Lia gives a small smile but sobers quickly. ‘Something’s coming for Varrik. The Harbinger feels it.’
‘What’s coming?’
‘The Dark Realms. It’s angry. Varrik shouldn’t have made his Skilled. He stole ...stealsDark Realm power to do it. It wants him destroyed. If it finds the fold while we’re still here, we’ll all die.’
‘How do you know this?’ I ask. ‘You’ve been locked up here for weeks with nary a visitor.’
‘The Harbinger is Dark Realm. It knows ...things.’
I sit back on my heels with a sigh. ‘Grey and I are going to get you away from here,’ I tell her. ‘We can go anywhere you want.’
‘You’d leave Varrik?’ she whispers, looking surprised.
‘I owe that bastard nothing.’ I look into her eyes, wanting her to understand that what I’m saying is the truth. ‘While we were in Rondorai, I realized I didn’t want to bring you back here at all. I thought I had time to convince the others. I knew Grey would say yes, and I thought I might be able to get Dane to agree given time, but then the fucking Breach brought us almost all the way back in one trip.’
‘And Dane called for Varrik as soon as he learned how close we were.’ She wraps her arms around herself and avoids my gaze. ‘Did you know?’
