Page 7 of Owned By the Fae
I blame myself.
I go back to staring out the window, looking up at the keep on the hill that looms over the village. She’s so close, but the Breach itself might as well be between us. I watch Varrik’s castle home all the time. As if I’d be able to catch a glimpse of her at this distance.
‘She’s in there,’ I whisper.
‘I know.’
‘I haven’t seen her since we got back … what if he’s hurting her?’
‘He wouldn’t.’
I glance at Grey. Was he this naïve about everything, and I just never noticed, or is it only when it comes to Varrik? Was I like this before she began to open my eyes?
‘She told me things when we were in Rondorai,’ I say finally.
‘What things?’
‘The way she was treated by Fiana and the other elites. By Varrik. Other things, too.’
‘You believed her?’
‘I still do.’
‘She got under our skins, and she knew it,’ Grey mutters. ‘She would have said anything to garner sympathy. She wanted our guards down. That’s all.’
‘You told me she saved your life, Grey! She killed for you. She vowed she’d never use her skill again, but she did. For you.’And then you fucked her in a cave like it was nothing.
He flinches as if I’ve said the rest aloud, but when he speaks, he’s not on my side, nor hers. ‘And we saved her flimsy human life from the Wilds by bringing her back to a place where she’ll be safe. Whatever she’s said to you, he won’t hurt her, not really. She’s the Harbinger. She’shisHarbinger. He didn’t want her back just so he could destroy her.’
I turn away, hating his words because I wish I had even a little of his conviction that she’s protected here. But I don’t. It’s the opposite. I think she’s in more danger with Varrik than she was in Rondorai. At least there, she had us to protect her.
‘What about Grith? Do you believethosetales she told, or are those more attempts atgarnering sympathy?’
Finally, I see the spark of anger in Grey. ‘Grith,’ he snarls in a voice that isn’t his own. ‘Grithwillhave to be dealt with. Properly.’
‘Do you really think that Varrik will let us do anything to his second-in-command?’ I sneer. ‘Are you imagining there’ll be some kind of trial if we expose him?’
‘No,’ Grey says, finally looking me in the eye. ‘I was going to catch him alone. It’s only a matter of time before I do, and I’m going to rip his throat out. I’ll tell some lie about how he died. Varrik won’t be the wiser, and our mate will be safe.’
I stare at him, my eyes narrowing a fraction. He has no idea what he just said, I realize as he keeps waxing lyrical about his plans to kill Grith. But I heard it. The beast knows she’s ours on some level. Even if Grey is fighting the idea, it’s only a matter of time before the fae side of him sees it, too.
But it might be too late for Lia by then.
‘I want to see her,’ I murmur.
But that won’t happen unless she’s permitted out of the keep, and there’s no chance of that for a very long time, if ever. Only Varrik, Grith, and the elites are allowed unfettered access towalk those stone halls, and we aren’t high enough in the food chain … At least, we weren’t before we came back.
‘But things have changed,’ I murmur to myself.
Perhaps I need to take a leaf out of the other elites’ book. It’s time to step into the light and start using what I can do to get whatI want.
‘I’m going to show them what I can do tomorrow,’ I say casually, making up my mind here and now. ‘You should as well.’
‘I might,’ he says, surprising me. ‘But I’d assumed you’d keep yours close to your chest.’
I shake my head. ‘I want to see her. I want to know she’s all right. I need her to know the truth, that I didn’t know what Dane had done until it was too late.’
‘There’s no other way to tell her this than by showing your new power?’ Grey asks, looking amused.
