“Wait a second. You set him on fire?”
I can hardly believe that I have to admit it. “I didn’t mean to. Rys gave me faerie fire—”
Riley huffs. “Because of course he did.”
“Don’t blame Rys,” I shoot back, nerves getting the better of me. And I get it. I do. Riley has history with Rys, and faerie fire’s a pretty touchy subject with her. Still. “If it wasn’t for his gift, that asshole would’ve touched me without his permission. I was protecting myself.”
Riley opens her mouth, thinks better of what she’s about to say, then throws up her hands. “Okay. You’re right. I know what it’s like to want to avoid a touch. Trust me. But what do you think that was all about?”
I wish I knew.
11
We don’t go back. As much as I’m dying to find out what’s happening, it’s too big of a risk. Besides, both Rys and Nine are expecting us to be good little girls who are waiting for the men to come back to take care of them.
I say that to Riley and she actually snorts. Turns out it’s not that we’re girls, but that we’re their girls. Fae—whether they’re Seelie or Unseelie—have a possessive streak a mile wide when it comes to their mates.
Yeah. I kind of figured that one out a while ago.
I’ve lost track of how long it’s been since I last slept. Thanks to the consistently purple sky in the Shadow Realm, it seems like this has been a never-ending night. I feel bone tired, but my anxiety over the guys is making it impossible for me to do anything but pace.
Riley makes herself a shadowy nest on the ground, then mutters something about how she wished she could do this as easily when she’s at the cemetery.
I decide not to ask what that’s about.
Instead, I keep on moving, trying to burn off some of my anxious energy, waiting for some sign of Rys. I eventually get it when I finally hear the roaring sound of hoofbeats racing toward us.
Riley perks up. I stop pacing, vibrating in place.
It isn’t much longer before he’s there. And—I almost drop to my knees in relief—he’s not alone.
Rys has Jim lying in front of him, sprawled out across the horse’s back. With one hand, he’s holding onto Jim, keeping him from falling off of Herla. With the other, he’s holding tightly to Herla’s black mane.
The horse slows to a trot as they come into the clearing. At the same time, Nine slips out of the shadows.
“Nine!”
He holds his arms out to Riley, welcoming her as she runs straight to him. Slinging his arm over her shoulder, pressing her closely into his side, he looks over her head so that he’s talking right to Rys.
“I tried to lose the ones who came after us. I traveled all the way toward Scáth and I think I got all but the last. What about you?”
“I sensed a Dark Fae portal-hopping, trying to keep up.” Rys presses his palm to Jim’s back. “Herla outran his shade-walking. He’s a marvelous beast and the Hunter has earned everything I owe him. But I don’t believe that we’ve lost him entirely. To follow as far as he did, it won’t take much for him to track us to this point.”
While Jim stays quiet and still on the horse, Rys dismounts easily, then lifts Jim up. I hear a muffled groan when Rys sets him on his feet, slipping Jim’s arm behind his neck so that he’s carrying his weight.
“The human is in no shape to keep riding. If the Dark Fae decides he wants to come after Samradh’s prisoner, then he’ll have to find us here.”
In the shadows, I can’t quite see Jim’s face. His head is hanging, his chin tucked into his chest, and his dark hair hides the rest of him. But he moaned which means, no matter what, he’s still alive.
From the way Rys is moving him so gingerly, I’m not so sure he’s going to stay that way much longer.
Jim.
“We don’t need to ride. I can shade-walk us out of here,” offers Riley.
Not all of us.
“Rys is a Seelie,” I remind her. “He can’t travel through the shadows like you guys can.”
“Well, he can, but he’ll probably end up even worse than…” Riley nods right at Jim. “I could fix him, though.” A pause. “Probably.” Another pause, and then, “It worked for my dad and he’s a Light Fae, too.”
“What if it doesn’t?”
She doesn’t have an answer for that.
“I wouldn’t survive shadow travel,” Rys says. “Not after we’ve been in the Shadow Realm as long as we have. Maybe if I was fully recharged… but I’m not. No. If he comes, I’ll make my stand here.”
I don’t like the sound of that.
Okay. Okay. Rys can’t travel like Nine and Riley can. But what if I went with Riley, Nine grabbed Jim, and then Rys hopped back on the horse and...
Wait—
“Where’s Herla?”
The massive horse is strangely missing. And, yeah, I know I’m a little distracted, but how did I miss that?
“He’s gone to rejoin the Wild Hunt,” Rys says. “My geas has been met. I had a ride out to the prison and a ride back here. That’s all I bargained for.”
Welp. There goes that plan.
“Hel…”
The croak is barely a whisper, but I heard that. “Jim? Jim!”
I race over to Rys. He tilts Jim down, easing him into my arms as I help lay him out on the ground.
From beneath Rys’s cloak, where his sleeve bunched up near the crook of his elbow, I can see the shiny, pink flesh, the raging red blisters that ruin his bronzed skin. He’s been burned and pretty freaking bad, too. Look at his hands. It’s like he pressed them up against an iron—
—or the skin of a human who never gave him permission.
I never even second-guessed the way that Rys rode into the clearing, Jim slung in front of him as he held him in place on the back of the horse. I guess… I guess I just assumed that his cloak and Jim’s flannel protected him. His shadow cloak is gone, but the thick shirt should’ve helped, right?
“Rys, what—”
“Hel? Is that you?”
“Take care of your human, Leannán,” Rys murmurs. “I got to him before the guards did anything worse, but we both know the touch of the diamaint glove is never pleasant.”
The diamaint gloves. They look like leather gloves with uncut, sparkling diamonds sewn into them. They gave the guards in Siúcra the power to touch a human without the risk of being burned. But, because the gems were uncut, they were sharp and super dangerous.
Now that Jim’s on his back, I get a good look at his face. And I can immediately guess what happened to him while he was imprisoned.
“I didn’t let them touch me,” Jim whispers, his voice scratchy and rough. His dark brown eyes are dull, glazed over, as he tries to focus on me. “I promised.”
“I know, Jimmy. I know.”
Choking back an angry sob, I stroke a lock of dark hair away from his forehead. I’m careful not to touch any of the slices that cover his face. Some of them are deep gouges, others shallow lines, but they’ve got to hurt.
What did they do? Slap him in the fucking face with the diamaint gloves?
Monsters.
I glance up at Rys. Though Nine and Riley are staring at the way he came, waiting for the guard to appear, Rys is watching me closely.
“Is there anything we can do to fix him?”
“Ah, my darling. Don’t ask me that.”
That’s not a no.
“Please?” The word comes out shaky. When Jim closes his eyes again, turning his head toward me as he breathes heavily, I blink back tears. “There’s got to be something.”
“I can touch him. He won’t feel the pain if he gives me permission to flood him with pleasure instead. Or he could take a bite from this. It’ll certainly heal him.”
Rys has done the same parlor trick before. Reaching under his cloak, pulling out one of the pretty, pink apples he grows on the crystalline tree in front of his manor.
Only, this time, he’s not providing me with a meal.
/> He’s offering me a chance to heal Jim—and also doom him.
“Will he recover without the faerie food? From what those bastards did to him?”
“Yes.”
I exhale in relief. Rys is fae. If he wanted to bullshit me, he could use all the pretty, twisted language in the world to make me feel better. But that simple yes? You can’t get any more definite than that.
“Then I can’t let him eat that. Even if it’ll take his pain away. I won’t make that decision for him.”
Rys doesn’t say anything. He just makes the apple disappear again before addressing Riley and Nine. “I don’t doubt that the guard will be coming for me. Riley’s right. You can get away from here. Make sure to take Elle with you. I’ll stay behind.” He reaches beneath his cloak again, but he’s not holding an apple when he pulls his hand back out. Instead, he’s clutching the same dagger he used to cut his arm and summon the Wild Hunt. “He won’t get past me.”
I don’t know what’s worse: how adamant he is that he’s about to fight one of the Unseelie guards, or that he thinks I’m going to haul ass out of here with the others and leave him on his own.
I check that Jim is still breathing—it’s slowed enough that I’m pretty sure he’s passed out now—before looking up at Rys. “I’m staying.”
“No.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Not even for him?”
Choose.
The word echoes in my mind.
Choose.
There’s only one choice I can make.
“Riley can take him. Or Nine. But I’m staying with you.”
Before Rys can argue again, Nine reacts. He sucks in a deep breath, his cheeks hollowing, his silver gaze flaring brightly, a beacon in the dark shadows. And I know what’s he’s going to tell us an instant before he says harshly, “Someone’s coming.”
The guard?
It’s gotta be.
“Riley. Can you make a shadow portal?”
“Depends on how much time I have,” she answers Rys. “Shadows are one thing. But a portal to take three people… I don’t know.”
“Then thicken the shadows. Conceal everyone. When he arrives, I want to be the only one he sees.”
Riley must figure out that Rys is dead serious because she doesn’t even question his orders. “You got it. Nine?”
“I’m right here with you.”
The shadows immediately start to gather around Riley. With Nine using his own strength, he helps her pull them in before scattering them toward me and Jim.
I crouch down low, kneeling at his side so that they don’t need to push as many shadows around to hide us.
It gets hazy, the dark becoming even more black. Peering out into the clearing, I can’t find Riley or Nine any longer. I just see Rys, standing by himself, his hands tucked beneath his cloak.
The shadows cover us just in time. Right as I’m dropping down to my knees, leaning over Jim so I can protect him while he’s this vulnerable, I feel the air shift a moment before someone appears right at the edge of the nearest empty trees. He didn’t approach. No. The shadows led him right to where we are.
Just like Rys expected.
Did he expect this?
Because, when the Unseelie moves close enough that I can see who he is, I realize that I’m a fucking moron for not realizing who the Samradh guard would be.
“Ah, Dusk. What brings you here?”
“Drop the pleasantries. I’ve got no use for them. Where’s the human?”
“Samradh let him free. He never should have been imprisoned in the first place. I won’t give him back.”
“The male?” Dusk’s chuckle is so dark that it makes my heart nearly skip a beat. “Keep him. If Nyx wants him back, then he can retrieve him himself. But me? I’ve come for the girl.”
Oh, shit.
What are the odds he’s looking for Riley and not me?
Rys obviously is thinking along the same lines. “What girl? I see no one here. Do you?”
Smart fae. He doesn’t see anyone because Riley’s shadows are covering us. And, if Dusk answers, he won’t be able to lie. So, either way, we’ll know whether he has the skill to look through her shadows or not.
Dusk shakes his head. “No, but she has to be nearby. I know you. Human lover.” There’s that nasty sneer that I’ve never forgotten. “Nyx saw the human girl with the male when he captured him. Once I realized you were the Seelie lurking in the Cursed woods, I knew it had to be her. Elle. And I want her.”
“For what?”
Don’t freak, Hel. Just because Rys didn’t immediately tell Dusk to shove it, everything is going to be okay.
No way he’s going to hand you over to Dusk… right?
Right.
I clench my jaw shut, trying to keep from making any noise that would let Dusk know that I’m here.
His silvery gaze is locked on Rys, but if I make even the slightest sound, he’ll figure out we’re bluffing.
“Why? Because I claimed her as mine.”
“I’ve already claimed her. Elle of the Iron was always meant to be mine. So, unless you want to challenge me, I suggest you accept that and go.”
I never expected the guard chasing after Rys to be unarmed. Once I knew it was Dusk—and, honestly, I should’ve figured that out way before he appeared in the clearing—I knew that he’d be wearing his sword. I’m not even a little surprised when he immediately reaches for it.
Slowly, wearing a sly grin that makes me want to hurl, he starts to draw it out of its sheath. “You touched her when you knew that I wanted her. For that slight alone, traitor, I’ll enjoy taking your head.”
I gasp.
I… I couldn’t stop myself. The idea that Dusk could actually kill Rys in front of me is such a scary idea that I react without thinking.
A heartbeat. Seriously. One rapid, pulsing heartbeat. That’s all it takes. Dusk swivels his head, zeroing in on the exact spot where I’m still crouched down. Now that he knows I’m hiding, he blinks, then stares, and his lips curve just enough that I want to cry.
But, at the same time as he finally notices me, Rys takes advantage of his tiniest distraction.
It all happens so fast after that. The whole time he was squaring off against Dusk, he was still holding onto his dagger, though he kept it concealed under his cloak. Not anymore. He does something to it and, suddenly, the crystal dagger shimmers and transforms. A second later, Rys is holding one of the diamond-edged swords that all of the soldiers and guards in the Seelie Court carry.
For the first time since I’ve known him, I finally understand who Rys truly is.
The soldier.
The guard.
The killer.
And my hero.
The fae are fast. How often did I see one of them move and marvel at how quickly they can go? But, as Rys swings his sword, aiming right for Dusk’s neck, I realize that, even then, they were holding back. He’s a bronzed blur, leaping up through the shadow, his sword slashing so violently quick that it’s still whistling even after Dusk’s head hits the icy ground with a sickening thud.
And I mean sickening. My stomach rebels, picking up on what I saw before my brain can process it. I close my eyes and, only when I’m surrounded by complete darkness, I realize that Dusk might’ve screamed when I set him on fire, but he died without a sound.
Doesn’t mean it’s quiet, though. Somewhere off to my left, I hear gagging followed by someone throwing up loudly.
It takes me a moment before I can open my eyes again without the threat of puking myself. I swallow a couple of times, making sure my stomach is holding its own, before quirking one eye open, then the next.
Rys is standing over the two halves of Dusk’s body, busying himself with cleaning the silver ichor off of his blade. When he sees that I’m looking up at him, he gives me a solemn nod, then goes back to what he’s doing.
Okay, then.
I figured the puker would be Riley and I’m right. She’s o
n her hands and knees, leaning up against Nine as he rubs her back soothingly.
“Riley… uh, you okay?”
She doesn’t answer me, but from where I am, I can kind of see the way her gloved hand lifts high, showing me one finger. It’s either a thumb’s up or she’s giving me her middle finger.
Yeah. That doesn’t really help.
“She’ll be just fine,” Nine assures me, sounding completely unaffected that Rys just decapitated Dusk like that. Come to think of it, why aren’t I freaking out as much as I could be? Then again, after you set a guy on fire, chopping his head off as quickly as Rys did is probably a kindness… and I’ve been in Faerie way too long. “Riley can be a little squeamish. I didn’t get to warn her in time.”
“I had to take my shot. I couldn’t risk Dusk going after Elle.”
“I understand. But this? This is exactly why Oberon had to take Melisandre’s head. As good as she is with a sword, my Shadow’s not a killer.”
“No. She’s not.” Riley’s voice is shaky. “I want to get up now. Nine. Can you—”
“Of course.”
After patting her back one last time, he rises gracefully from his crouch beside her. Throwing his long, shadowy duster back, Nine bows over Dusk’s body. I can’t see what he’s doing—and, hell, maybe I shouldn’t still be watching—but when he straightens again, the body is gone. His head, too.
The shadows have swallowed him whole.
I know without understanding how that Nine didn’t just cover him up. It’s almost as if he gave Dusk’s remains to the shadows and, yeah. That’s a lovely thought.
I kind of wished I hadn’t had it.
12
It’s finally time to put this horrible, shitty day behind us.
Riley recovers from her queasiness enough to conjure three small, cozy, warm tents for us before she slips inside of hers to lie down.
Nine heads out into the darkness, disappearing for a couple of minutes, then returning with a jar full of crystal clear Faerie water and some kind of plant that I’ve never seen before. He nods his good night and joins his mate.
Because Nine’s not about to risk burning himself, it’s up to me and Rys to carry Jim inside of one of the other tents. Rys tries to tell me that he’ll do it himself, but I’m capable. Besides, if I help hoist Jim up, that’s less contact Rys has with him. Less burns.
Freed: A Supernatural Prison Romance (Imprisoned by the Fae Book 3) Page 11