Page 116 of Owned By the Fae
Fiana’s eyes narrow on me, and they’re oddlyknowing. My heart lurches in my chest.
Does she suspect that her tea switching worked?
But then she simpers at me as if she has no idea and I relax a bit.
‘See you later, swine.’
They both leave and I breathe a sigh of relief, but I wince as I remember that Kal and Grey have seen and heard everything.
I look over at the corner to find them visible ... and livid.
Neither of them speaks as I sit up and slide my legs over the edge of the bed, not meeting their eyes.
‘Why didn’t you tell us?’ Kallum grinds out.
‘I didn’t think you’d believe me,’ I whisper.
Kallum lurches forward, taking me in a hard hug that I return with a comforted sigh. ‘We would believe you if you said the sky was green with stripes, Lia. Never keep anything from us again. Swear it.’
I nod.
‘They’re dead,’ Grey whispers, dark promise in his eyes, and Kal gives a jerky nod.
I bask in the knowledge that these fae males care about me and that they will protect me and the babe.
The Harbinger sinks deep into my darker recesses, conserving its strength after doing what it could under the binding, and I feel its determination. Soon, I won’t need protecting. Soon, revenge will be mine.
Dane
I stare at the mirror in my hand, shaking with anger. I heard her make the others promise not to intervene. I know it’s because she and the Harbinger aren’t ready, and attempts to escape from the fold would be futile until they are. But it meant that I, too, could do nothing but watch as Skith put his hands on Lia roughly, seemingly impersonally, while he surreptitiouslyhid the bulge in his breeches, and Fiana, the female I thought I loved once, treated my female as a slave.
Horror soaks into me like cold from the damp earth at the realization that the feelings Fiana forced from me for years, I do feel in truth, but for the Harbinger. Their treatment of Lia ...mytreatment of her. How could I have allowed it, thought she deserved it?
But I know how.
I performed the obscure rite I found years ago in some forgotten tome in a neglected corner of the library in Alcana. It did its job and showed me all the magick that’s ever been worked on me.
There was much more than I could ever have imagined, and most carried Fiana’s taint. She must have laid her conjures on me over and over when she couldn’t release me of that first one she bungled so that I’d never know what she’d done to me.
But I’ve purged them all and every pretend feeling along with them. And the hole where my love for her used to be, a place I assumed would be hollow and empty when I was finished my task, is instead full of my caring for another. I just couldn’t see it,feel itbefore.
Lia, the mother of my unborn babe.
I feel sickened by Fiana’s dark plans for her that I’m learning in detail from the spying conjure, and my face twists when I think of how she’s hurt Lia as well as that healer’s filthy hands on her.
I don’t want to remember Lia’s wince of pain and her resigned expression when she looked away. I could see that she’s used to this being done to her and while I knew the healer would be going and making sure Varrik’s will was being done, I’d thought it would be, at most, a cursory inspection. Not this, and definitely not with Fiana looking on with a sadistic grin onher face, a possessive glint in her eye that reminded me of Healer Reyn with his slave, Gwennie, in Rondorai.
Fiana wants Lia for herself. She wants to rule over the Harbingerand the human... and my babe as well.
I vow then and there that I will watch the light leave her eyes, I decide. I will kill Fiana. But first things first.
I break the salt circle, take up my small mirror, and stride from my room. I give Fiana’s door a look of promise, and I leave the keep by way of the main portcullis and the bridge over the moat. I see Skith on the path to the village, and I follow with purposeful strides.
I catch up with the healer easily, and I walk past him, getting to the village before and getting a pint from the pub so that I have a reason to stand and watch his coming and goings under the guise of a refreshing drink. I stand outside, my ale on one of the giant barrels, and keep my eyes trained on him covertly as he ambles down the street toward me.
He goes into the supply stores and comes out a little while later with a package and a bounce in his step. He doesn’t wait to unwrap it, even coming close to where I’m standing to place it on one of the barrels, not even noticing me in his haste. He rips at the paper, revealing a box, which he opens.
I straighten and lean forward, looking over his shoulder at the smooth, cork-like object as he picks it up. It has leather straps-, and a piece of parchment flutters to the ground. I pick it up, the color draining from my face as I take in the picture of a human female, and I see what thisthingis for ... who it’s for.
