She balked. “I didn’t mean— I was simply—”
“Hush!” the Tuatha beside her chided again, and then to the king, “Forgive her, Your Majesty. She can only hope that the ailment has an aversion to fools.”
I didn’t know that this ailment was, but ouch.
The king’s attention was on me. “Did you enjoy your sojourn into the outer district today, Blade?”
Fuck. Okay. I met his gaze levelly. “I apologize for any offense caused by my words and actions today. I was overcome and allowed my emotions to get the better of me when faced with the memories of my friends being slaughtered in the name of sport. I can only hope that Your Majesty will be gracious in his forgiveness and attempt to appreciate how devastating such memories can be for those of us with feelings.”
Okay, so maybe I’d gone too far.
Beside me, Aspen groaned, and Palamon sucked in a sharp breath. A ripple ran down the table.
Yep, I’d gone too far.
But the king didn’t flinch. Instead, his smile widened.
“Yes, Aspen,” he said. “I see why this might work after all. Winter’s Blade must be deadly and sharp, and this human is both those things. Once she completes the blood trials, no other court will dare challenge us again.” He clapped his hands. “Eat,” he urged me. “You’ll need your strength for what’s to come.”
The table erupted into chinks and scrapes as the shining ones filled their plates, and my attention slid to the doorway and Slade, to find him looking right at me. He nodded his head ever so slightly, and the look of respect in his eyes kept me warm throughout the rest of that dreadful meal.
* * *
A guard dropped me back to my shitty room and left. I stepped inside, eager to get out of my dinner outfit, only to find Slade sitting on the edge of my bed.
My heart leaped at the sight of him, because if he was here, it meant he’d managed to find me a way into the biotech wing and the lab I needed.
“Lock the door,” he said.
I complied. “When?”
“At twilight. It’s when the ancients sleep the deepest, and the Keep is on a skeleton staff.” He stood and strode toward me, his mammoth frame blocking my view of the room. “You were formidable tonight,” he said. “I had my doubts as to whether you’d be able to help my kind, but not any longer.”
I craned my neck to look up at him. “I meant what I said. I want to help you, and I will get you out of Middale.”
“You said that, but you didn’t explain how.”
Now was the time to trust him. “There’s a weapon, powerful and ancient. His name is Killion.”
Slade nodded. “I’m listening.”
I filled him in on Killion, the weird coffin the Tuatha had been keeping him in, and on his abilities and his confidence that he could bring down the Tuatha once he was recharged.
“He’s coming back for me in six days, then we’ll figure out a way to take you and your people with us.”
He looked thoughtful. “If he’s a danger to the Tuatha, they would have wanted him dead. The fact they didn’t kill him and kept him locked up means they couldn’t end him.”
That’s the conclusion I’d come to also. “He’ll help you. I know he will.”
“I don’t know this Killion, but I trust you.”
His words warmed me. I was so grateful to the powers that be that I’d found him. He already felt like a rock, an anchor in this cutthroat place. And now he was putting his life at risk to help me.
“What now?”
“Now, we wait.”
“Wait… As in here? Together?”
He shrugged. “I’m supposed to be clocked out. If I leave now, I won’t be able to come back for you.”
Yeah, I didn’t want that. “Okay, in that case, have a seat. I need to get out of these clothes.”
I stepped into the washroom and closed the door behind me, but it wasn’t long before I realized that the damn corset thing was a bitch to get off. It was a lace tie thing, and my arms didn’t bend that way. Where the fuck was Blossom? Surely she’d have known I’d need help getting out of this contraption? But then, if she’d been here, Slade wouldn’t have been able to sneak in.
Fuck.
There was only one thing for it.
I stepped out of the washroom with a wince. “Um, Slade… Could you help me with this?” I turned my back to him to illustrate the problem. “If you could just loosen the knot…”
A soft rumble filled the air, and it took a moment for me to realize he was chuckling.
“Oh, you think this is funny?”
“A little. Winter’s Blade bested by a corset. Lucky for you, I have plenty of experience in removing these.”
Huh?
The heat of his body brushed my back, and his fingers grazed my bare skin as he set to work. I bit the insides of my cheeks, ignoring the tingles that his touch sent skating across my skin. It was his shining one mojo that was causing this—primal and heady in its proximity. I’d heard about humans being seduced by the shining ones, lured, and fucked or feasted on. Wait, was Slade one of the Danaan that ate humans?
“All done,” he said.
I pulled away from him quickly.
“Danika?” He sounded confused.
I turned to face him, holding the now loose corset to my chest. “Do you eat human flesh?”
He frowned at the question and sighed. “No. Those of us who feel don’t eat humans.”
I exhaled in relief.
“Although,” he continued with a smirk, “if a human female were to ask me to eat her out, I would happily oblige.”
Wait. What the fuck? My neck heated, and he chuckled again.
“I like the way your skin goes pink,” he said. “It’s pretty.”
“Yeah. Well, I’d prefer you to keep your filthy jokes in check.” I closed the door behind me.
My pulse throbbed at the thought of Slade with his head buried between a woman’s thighs, but then the head was Killion’s, and the thighs were mine, and I was wet with longing for him.
I shook my head to clear it.
I needed to focus.
I had a lab to infiltrate.
8
The twilight Slade was talking about was just before sunrise. The gray period when the Tuatha slumbered so heavily that a herd of elephants wouldn’t wake them, but it was several hours away.
Slade insisted I sleep and that he watch over me, and I had no issue trusting him to protect me. There was something sincere, honest, and safe about Slade that even his monstrous features couldn’t take away from. It was all in the warmth of his deep brown eyes.
I settled on the bed. “Aren’t you tired too?”
He shrugged a massive shoulder. “I’ll live.”
“The door’s locked, and the bed can take the both of us.” I looked down at it, then up at Slade. “Okay, maybe not.”
He raised both brows. “Not unless you want to snuggle. I’m a snuggler, but I can’t promise I won’t get aroused pressed to a pliant female body.”
Wow, okay, at least he was honest. A little too blatant, but still.
“Fine, then we take it in shifts. Wake me in two hours.”
He nodded. “Agreed.”
I kicked off my boots, allowing them to fall to the ground with a soft thunk, and closed my eyes.
I opened them to a hand on my shoulder and a gentle shake.
“Wakey wakey, snoring beauty,” Slade said.
I snorted and sat up. “Huh? Two hours up?”
“Five, actually. It’s time to go.”
“What? You didn’t wake me?”
“And interrupt your solo symphony? No, I was enjoying it way too much.”
He said it as if he meant it, but he had to be joking, right?
He handed me my weapons belt. “Hurry, we have less than an hour.”
I clipped the belt on, pulled on my boots, and followed him out of the room.
He navigated like a pro, and we didn’t come across a
single Tuatha or guard.
It was obvious he’d done his research. “You know the patrol rotation, don’t you?”
“I know which corridors will have guards at this time, yes.”
I lost track of the turns and stairs we took, but soon we were in an area with metal-grilled floors and no frills, as if the decorators had gotten to this point and thought, ah, fuck it.
“The lab is up ahead,” Slade said. “We get in, add your data, and get out. We’ll need to find another night to get into the red zone and grab your sister. Best to leave her actual retrieval until you’re ready to get us out.” He arched a brow. “When will that be, exactly?”
“Six days, if all goes to plan.”
“Then we need to organize an exit point for my people too.”
He led me around a corner before backtracking quickly, pushing me up against the wall and shielding me with his body.
The shock of his taut frame pressed to mine forced the breath from my lungs. “What?”
“Guard.”
“I thought you said—“
His hand was in my hair, tearing at the tie to set it free.
“What are you—”
“Just go with it,” he growled, then his mouth was on mine.
I bit back a yelp, expecting the tusks to hurt, but they bracketed my mouth, leaving his soft, firm lips to capture mine. I froze, protest trapped in my throat, as his hand came up to cup my face.
“Slade?” a rumbly male voice said. “I thought you clocked off for the night.”
Slade pulled back from me slightly, but his hand blocked my face from the guard’s view. “Kinda busy here, Jonus,” he said before turning back to my mouth again.
I gasped as he claimed my lips once more, plucking at them in a sensuous way that had heat spiraling low in my belly. Fuck, no. I squeezed my eyes shut, determined to endure not reciprocate, but my body responded, mouth parting to kiss him back.
His groan vibrated against my torso, then his hot tongue licked mine, and I wanted it. I fucking wanted to suck on it.
The guard chuckled. “I’m off on break. Feel free to use the guards’ room if you want to rut. It’s empty.” The sound of his boots retreating was barely audible through the rush of blood in my ears because Slade’s tongue was sweeping across the inside of my mouth, and my lips were closing on it, sucking on him as my moans joined his sexy groans.
His hand slid up my waist toward my breast. Shit. No. What was I doing?
I broke the kiss by turning my head to the side, and Slade released me immediately. His brown eyes were lighter, like warm honey, and his pupils were dark and liquid.
“I’m sorry,” he said gruffly. “I got carried away.”
I shook my head. “No, not your fault. Let’s just… Let’s get this over with.”
He led the way round the bend and onto the main corridor, past a silver door, and up a short flight of stairs to a metal door with a panel by it.
Shit. “How do we get in?”
He pulled a keycard from his pocket. “I have someone on the inside. She told me how to program the system with your data.”
“What if someone finds my biosignature in the system?”
“They won’t.”
“How can you be so sure?”
He swiped the card and pushed open the door. “Like I said. I have someone on the inside.”
He ushered me into the room first but was close on my heels. Lights flared to life as we entered, and my hand went to the dagger at my waist.
“Calm down,” Slade said. “The lights are motion activated.”
Motion activated, as in they came on when they sensed movement? Interesting.
The room itself was shaped like an egg, with smooth walls and a domed ceiling that rose to a peak. Strange equipment lined shelves, and several monitors with touch keyboards were built into counters.
Slade made a beeline for one of them and started tapping things into it. Symbols came up on the monitor. Stuff I didn’t recognize.
He grabbed a pen from a clip on the counter and turned to me. “Your finger.”
I held it out, and he pressed the nib to my fingertip. It bit me, and I pulled back with a yelp.
Shit, I was bleeding. “You stabbed me.” I sucked on my finger while glaring at him in accusation.
“I needed the blood,” he said with a chuckle. “Winter’s Blade, afraid of a tiny prick.” And for some reason, that made him laugh even louder.
“Shhh, for fuck’s sake, do you want someone to hear?”
He shook his head slightly, and I noted the golden highlights in his chestnut hair. “The room is sound-proof.” He turned to me with an arched brow. “So that no one can hear the victims scream.”
Huh?
He frowned. “Seriously? I thought humans had a sense of humor.”
He pushed the pen into a hole by the monitor and tapped more stuff into it. A light beam appeared to my left.
“Stand in the light,” he instructed.
I did as he asked and waited as it pulsed over me.
Slade tapped the monitor, and it went dark. “You’re all done.”
“Wait, did you get the right door?”
“There were three biometric doors, so I programmed you for them all, just to be on the safe side.”
“That works.”
“Let’s get out of here before the cold ones wake up.”
“Is that what you call them?”
“Among other things.”
I wanted to know what other things, but he was herding me out of the room and back out into the corridor.
“Stay close,” he said. “If we come across anyone, let me do the talking.”
“Oh, so you’ll talk this time and not just shove me against the wall and…” I trailed off because his warm brown eyes had returned to a honey shade, and it was fucking beautiful.
“I could do that if you like,” he said.
I cleared my throat. “No. Talk is fine.”
We made good time and were almost out of the biotech wing when Slade came to an abrupt halt.
“Fuck,” he said.
“What?”
“Umbra.”
Shit. “We don’t have clearance for this sector. Jonus may have looked the other way, but an Umbra won’t.”
I hadn’t seen a single Umbra while being here, and I’d almost forgotten they were a threat, but now my skin buzzed as if bees hovered beneath the surface.
A dark shape rose out of a patch of shadow on the wall, and white eyes popped open in its head.
“This area is restricted, even to the Airm Marfach,” the Umbra said.
Slade shrugged, nonchalant. “I was giving Winter’s Blade a tour of the Keep, and we lost track of where we were headed. As soon as I realized we were in a restricted zone, I turned back.”
“The Airm Marfach makes no mistakes.” The Umbra drifted closer. “Airm Marfach knows his place.”
Slade’s shoulders bunched. “So, what will you do, Umbra? Report me?”
The Umbra’s gaze slipped over Slade’s shoulder and fell on me. “No. You may go.”
Slade tipped his head to the side. “Go?”
“Leave,” the Umbra said.
Slade reached back and grabbed my hand. I allowed him to take it and draw me along with him, past the Umbra. It leaned in as I passed, its phantom breath kissing the shell of my ear.
“Tell him we awaken. Tell him we wait.”
What? Tell who?
Wait. I turned back to ask him, but he was gone, and we were passing through the sliding doors out of the restricted sector.
9
Thank goodness for the five hours’ sleep I’d gotten earlier, because by the time I got back to my room, it was sun-up. I barely caught two hours before the scent of coffee woke me.
“Blossom?” I sat up to find a stranger in my room.
A Tuatha female with severe eyebrows and a slash of a mouth stared at me like I was a rare specimen to be examined.
I stared right back. “You’re not Blossom.”
“No, I’m Rose. At your service, Mistress. Would you like me to run you a bath?”
What the fuck? “Where’s Blossom?”
She started at me blankly. “I have no idea, Mistress; I was assigned your service this morning.”
I shoved the covers off as a strange foreboding crawled to life in the pit of my belly. “And who assigned you?”
“Matron Yew.”
I dressed quickly. “Take me to this Matron.”
Rose stared at me as if I’d asked her to stand on her head.
I bridged the distance between us and peered down my nose at her. “Are you deaf, maid?”
“No, Mistress.”
“Then don’t make me fucking repeat myself.”
She bobbed a curtsey then headed for the door.
Fuck. Blossom, please be okay.
* * *
The Matron was in the kitchens, a vast area of the Keep that was filled with technology I couldn’t even begin to wrap my brain around. Small Danaan dressed in neat cream aprons and hats ran about in coordinated chaos, and various scents mingled in the air to create a heady aroma.
Matron herself was a whippet-thin Tuatha with eyebrows that threatened to kiss her hairline.
“Winter’s Blade, what can I do for you?” she asked.
“I want my maid, Blossom, back.”
She wiped her flour-dusted hands on her apron. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”
Okay, Dani. Stay calm. “And why not?”
“Blossom has been relieved of her Keep duties and sent home.”
She said the words evenly and without any telling inflection, but there was something in her eyes that set alarm bells ringing in my head.
“Then I’ll need her address.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Who does?”
“I don’t know.”
Lies. All lies, and now my stomach was in knots because Blossom was in danger. I could feel it. I needed to find Slade, and I needed to find him now.
* * *
Feel My Power: The Iron Fae book 2 Page 5