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“No.”
Chastain shrugs. “Well, we could try the Abyss if you think—”
“You know what I mean. No to all of it.”
“This would never work.” Beth puts a hand on her hip. “Gareth is powerful, but he’d be up against hundreds of slavers at the mines.”
“He wouldn’t be alone.” Parnon rises, the joints in his knees popping. “I’m going.”
“I’m not even entertaining this.” Dragging my mate into another conflict? Not happening. “We’re already running headfirst into danger to rescue Clotilde. Once that’s done and Beth is safe in the winter realm, I will speak with Leander about aiding your cause.”
“We need aid now.” Silmaran opens her arms wide. “Look at what we’ve already accomplished. If we keep this momentum, the mines can be liberated, and the slaves freed. Not in a year or more. But now.”
“I want to free them.” Beth looks up at me, her big brown eyes cajoling. “With Parnon—”
“And me.” Chastain crosses his arms over his chest. “Along with a contingent of skilled warriors.”
“See?” The hope that lights in Beth’s eyes is dangerous.
“Beth, please.” I gently take her elbow and pull her away from the table, though I almost trip over Phin who scuttles around my ankles. “This is a suicide mission. The slavers at the mines are the most vicious in all of Arin. You think Byrn Varyndr was bad? The mines are worse, far worse. And the masters there won’t surrender, won’t agree to coexist. They will slaughter every last slave if it means winning. If it means getting another crop to send into the depths of this world to dig up its riches.”
“No wonder Zatran and Cenet are headed that way.” She nibbles her lip as she thinks.
I don’t want her to think. I want her to leave with me now before Silmaran does any more damage. “We should go. Remember Clotty? Remember the reason we’re here?”
She nibbles some more as Chastain and Silmaran wait, their eyes on her. They hang on her words just as I do.
“We’re leaving.” I put as much vehemence in it as I can. “Now.”
“If I were a slave in the mines, would you only free me, or would you destroy every slaver there?” She meets my gaze as the sting of magic sizzles along my tongue. Our deal has snapped into place, and now I must answer or suffer the consequences.
Spires! Why is my mate so clever? I keep my lips wed to each other. The answer is there. I already know what it is, and the gleam in her eyes tells me she does, too.
A million answers would be better than the one I’m compelled to give. But my mouth will not form a lie, my breath will not give life to one, and I simply cannot utter anything except the truth. So I say nothing at all despite the pain that builds and scorches.
“Well?” She tips her chin up and peers deeply into my eyes. “Would you simply free me or would you wreak havoc on the slavers? I know what I would do if I could, if the situation were reversed. If they’d hurt you?” She rests one palm over my heart. “I’d burn every last one of them.”
The certainty in her words sends a pleasant chill down my spine, and the feral unwinds within me, purring with approval. Too bad my tongue is on fire and my lungs feel as if they are going to explode.
“Just tell me.”
As if I could ever deny her. My answer comes out on a quick, painful breath. “I would kill every last one of them, turn their bodies into dust, and raze the ground so that none of their kind could ever seek to rebuild their evil.” The feverish weight lifts, and I can breathe again. “But that doesn’t mean we should go along with this rash plan.”
“I’m a slave, Gareth.”
“No, you—”
“I am.” She rests her forehead against my chest, her voice low. “I’m free now, because of you. But they aren’t. We have to help them. Just like we helped the slaves here. Clotty isn’t enough. Not when we have the chance to free them all.”
“I won’t risk you.”
She turns her head, pressing her cheek against me. “Sometimes you have to risk it all if you want to do what’s right.”
“You have risked and suffered enough, my beloved.” I kiss her crown.
She sighs. “Maybe.”
“I will stick to our agreement for Clotty.” I keep my voice level. “But I will not agree to take you into a warzone.”
“I understand.” She wraps her arms around my waist and tilts her head back. Her mouth is utterly tempting at this angle.
“Good.” I lean down, needing a taste of what’s mine.
“But that doesn’t mean Parnon and Chastain and a few of their friends can’t tag along with us.”
I stop. “Beth, that’s not what we agreed.”
“It is what we agreed. We are going to save Clotty. End of. But we can’t stop the others from travelling with us. And the Abyss will be safer with companions who know the way, right?”
“Parnon knows the way,” Chastain pipes up. “Every step.”
Parnon gives his customary grunt of assent.
I grind my teeth as I look around the table. Chastain and Silmaran set a trap for me, and Beth sprung it. My need to claim her seems to have erased my reason, because I can’t find a good argument to avoid travelling with Chastain’s force.
Spires!
Silmaran is smiling, though sadness is still etched in her eyes, and Chastain gives Parnon a nod of approval. “Get packed. We leave as soon as possible.”
Parnon stomps from the room with Chastain at his back.
“We aren’t going there to free anyone but Clotty,” I say the words, and Beth nods in agreement, but we both know that I’ve been had. “We aren’t.” I give her a little shake.
“Stern.” She grins. “Just the way I like you.”
Her mischief will drive me mad. “We are freeing Clotty, getting out, and then Chastain can enact his foolish plan. We’ll have nothing to do with it. I mean it, Beth.”
“I know.” She gets onto her tiptoes and cranes her neck toward me, her lips parted.
“I won’t be cowed with a kiss.” I say the words even as I drift closer, my feral purring and my gaze straying to her mouth.
“I know.” She darts her tongue out and wets her lips.
“Damned clever changeling,” I growl and give in, kissing her hard and lifting her onto the table
.
She clutches my shoulders, her legs spreading so I can nestle between them.
Silmaran hurries from the room and closes the door behind her.
“I still don’t agree to this.” I rest my palm at her throat as she dots kisses along my jaw.
“All right.”
“I will not risk you.”
“All right.”
“I’m serious.” I pull back and tighten my grip at her throat, then use my other hand to fist her soft hair. “You and Silmaran can scheme all you want, but when it comes down to it, you are my only concern.” I pull her hair until her lips open on the hint of a moan. “Do you understand, my beloved?” I lick across the seam of her lips. “I will take you to get Clotty, and when that’s done, you will be in the winter realm, in my bed, until I see fit to release you.”
“How long will that be?” Her breathy question goes straight to my cock.
“As long as I like.” I pull harder, and she arches her back, her taut nipples showing through her shirt. Leaning down, I capture one in my mouth despite the fabric.
“Gareth.” She digs her nails into my shoulders.
“And you will take everything I give you. Again and again. Do you understand?”
When I nip at her with my fang, she gasps. “Yes.”
“Good.” I return to her mouth and take it in a rough kiss that leaves no doubt. I will make good on each of my claims. She may have gotten her way on our journey to the mines, but I will always be the one who masters her body and feeds her soul.
10
Beth
Gareth is even more gruff than usual as we stride through the fractured Cranthum streets. I’m just happy he hasn’t disintegrated the small force that follows at our backs. Up ahead, the slave market is nothing more than a pile of rubble, and we have to pick our way around it to continue toward the southern gate.
He helps me over the biggest chunks of destruction, lifting me with ease until we’re clear of the debris.
“Don’t be so grumpy.” I hook my arm through his.
He gives me a glower.
