Page 73 of Owned By the Fae
He takes me back down to the main hallway, and I see that he’s right. There are guards everywhere down here. Between twenty and thirty patrol the halls slowly in groups of six.
'This is for the Harbinger?' I murmur.
‘Yes,' he says, his tone hard.
He stops abruptly, and I slam into him.
'What is it?' I whisper.
'That guard there with the black-handled dagger.' His voice is low and angry.
‘I see him. What is it?’
‘I've seen him before.’ He pauses as if trying to remember why he’s significant. ‘He hurt Lia.’
I can feel him tense, and my grip on him hardens even as I stare at the guard myself until I know I can identify him again easily.
'Not here,' I mutter, glancing around at all the other sentinels who are milling around. Do none of them have anything better to do?
'Nothere,' I say again more forcefully when Kallum doesn’t move.
I can practically hear him grinding his teeth, but he begins to walk once more.
We get to a door just down the hall, and, forgetting what Kallum can do, I wonder for a moment how we're going to get in because it looks to be locked, but then he pulls me through the wall itself. It’s an odd feeling as we pass through the solid mass. I can feel the coldness of the stone running through me, making me shiver.
In the Harbinger's room, there's no one except for her. She's sitting on one of the upholstered chairs by the fire, curled up under a blanket. The fire itself is giving off a bit of heat, but it’s low and there are no logs to put on it.
'I have something else I need to do. I'll come back in a bit,’ Kal says.
'Where are you going?' I ask.
'To find Dane. I need to make sure that Varrik won't know we were in his library.’
'Are you sure that's wise? There’s nowhere for me to hide if anyone comes in.’
'I'll be quick,’ he says, ‘and then we can talk about everything properly.’
I see the Harbinger look up and do a doubletake with a gasp. She must be able to see me now. She leaves the chair and moves across the room quickly, her bare feet padding across the cold floor. When she reaches me, she hesitates as her eyes meet mine, but I grab her, lifting her up and holding her tightly.
'I'm so sorry,' I whisper. 'I didn't know. That night in the cave. I had no idea Varrik was com?—'
She puts a finger to my lips.
'I know you didn't,' she says. ‘But I’m sorry. I should never have asked you to …’ She hides her face.
'I don't regret it, though,' she says from behind her hands, her shoulders hunching a bit at her admission. ‘Especially now.’
I wonder what she means by that last bit. I cross the room with her and sit with her in my lap on one of the chairs at the table, holding her as close to me as I can. The beast finally calms properly for perhaps the first time in weeks.
‘I don’t regret it either,’ I say quietly to her.
‘I’ve been wanting to tell you I was sorry about something else too,’ she says. ‘The things I said to you about your mother on the street before Rondorai. I didn’t mean them.’
I hold her tighter, remembering how I lost my temper and tried to choke the life out of her for her words. What a fool I was.
‘There was truth in your words,’ I whisper. ‘There’s nothing for you to be sorry for. You were our prisoner, and I treated you …’ I shudder in revulsion. ‘If anyone should be apologizing, it’s me for the things I said and did. You didn’t deserve them, and I should have realized. I’m sorry, Lia.’
She sighs, not saying anything else, but her fingers tighten on my tunic.
