Page 70 of Owned By the Fae
'I'm trying,' I snarl, 'but you've been with her.'
'Yes, of course I have,' he growls back, and then gritting his teeth and looking away. ‘She … she came here.’
‘Here?!’ I take a long sniff of the air around me and don’t smell her. I shake my head, trying to understand what he’s going on about. ‘I’d have scented her.’
‘Dane got rid of it.’
I stare at him, betrayal warring with fury. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean …’ Kal runs a hand through his hair. ‘None of it was how we thought. I mean, I didn't think... we didn't realize ... even Dane was shocked once we both saw the truth of how she ... I was wrong.Wewere wrong.’ He looks up at me, his eyes almost pleading with me to listen to him. ‘We need to get her away from here. Dane is going to help us.’
My eyes bore into him, trying to make sense of his words while half of me wants to rip out his spine as well as Dane’s for keeping my mate from me.
‘Us?’
He blinks. ‘You and I. We’ll escape with her like we said. We just need to do it sooner than we thought.’
I huff a breath. ‘How? Both Gates are locked down with Varrik’s wards. They might as well be dead except when Varrik lifts them. No one else can. There’s no other way out unless we’re on a mission for him, and he’s hardly going to let Lia come with us.’
‘Rikoth,’ Kal mutters. ‘He has some trinket. I’ve seen him open the Breach without a Gate. If we can get it, perhaps it’ll work to get us out of here.’
‘I saw him use it as well.’ I sit down heavily, thinking it through. ‘Varrik will send his strongest after us. Probably even Dane. Where will we go that they won’t find us? We’ll need to travel quickly to stay ahead of them, and it’ll need to be close, or she’ll get Gate Sick again.’
‘Can you think of such a place? Perhaps we can catch the Breach when it’s strongest. It’ll take us further in one trip like last time.’
I rub my weary eyes, glad at least that the beast is listening instead of trying to kill our friend.
‘But I don’t know it’s cycles,’ he continues when I don’t say anything. ‘We need up-to-date charts and predictions.’
‘And how do we get those when we can’t leave?’ I hiss.
‘We don’t need to leave. They’ll be in his library, won’t they? We just need to find them. Get the beast under control. We’re going into the keep.’
I roll my eyes. 'The beast is fine, but I can't go into the keep, remember?' I snarl in frustration. ‘You know that the wards will keep me out.’
'Maybe, but if I’ve noticed anything since I’ve been up there every day, it’s that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.’ Kal shrugs. ‘Grith was the mind behind the keep’s everyday activities, and now that he’s dead, there’s a void that’s yet to be filled. Have you tried to get back in since you went on your mission?’
I open my mouth to argue but hesitate. Surely, it wouldn’t be so simple as that ...
'No,' I say finally. ‘I haven’t.’
'Well, perhaps luck will be on our side, and no one’s remembered to change the wards.’
'Fine,' I mutter, 'but I want to see Lia while we’re there. How will you get me in unseen?'
Kallum shrugs. 'I can get you past the guards. I think if I focus, I can make you disappear with me so long as you're touching me.'
'How do you know this?'
He makes a noncommittal noise. 'My clothes go invisible when I do. Who's to say you won't as well?'
‘Bit of a fucking problem if we get to the moat and you’re wrong,’ I mutter.
‘Try it.’ He gestures to himself, and I put my hand on his shoulder with a long-suffering sigh.
'Go on, then.'
He takes a breath and disappears.
