Sage.
I closed my eyes and breathed deep, easing my pulse and the threat of a panic attack. I could almost feel the gentle patience and adoration in his touch and hear that deep tenor of my mate’s grounding voice.
Arren chuckled as he grabbed a fistful of my hair and twirled me around. His left hand pulled my pelvis against his hip to brace me while he yanked on my hair again to bend me backward enough to meet his eyes. Pain lanced up through my torso from the awkward angle I was forced to lean at. It radiated through my neck and stung my scalp as he used my hair to support my weight.
I laid eyes on my cousin for the first time in centuries. He was bare-chested, and his lower body was covered by foliage and animal fur that he had grown from his skin. We both looked uncomfortably like my father with vivid green eyes and auburn hair. Although mine was loose and wild while his was oiled and finely braided. Our skin was a similar fawn-brown tone, markedby faint white spots and stripes that were displayed across Arren’s corded arms and chest. His wooden antlers were full and covered in vibrant Summer foliage while mine had just three small tines that were barren after my time in Autumn Court.
“I look forward to seeing Laisren remind you of who you belong to. Do you not remember when he proved it in the arena in front of all our people?” my cousin taunted.
His disgustingly casual reference to an assault that had utterly wrecked me made my stomach knot in revulsion.
I will not allow them to do that to you.
“Oh, I remember,” I assured him, swallowing the bile and dread and striving for confidence. “I also remember splitting his face open and leavingwithouthis mark.”
Arren tsked as if I were nothing but an errant child.
“A mark can still be placed. I meant this,” he advised, shifting the hand that was bracing my hip around to the front of my pelvis. Over where my womb had once been. “He proved thatthisbelongs to him.”
“Then it should please him to know that I ripped it out of me the day I escaped him,” I hissed through my teeth, losing every ounce of my composure.
Ihatedhim. I hated themallwith the kind of violence that felt like it could set me on fire. I could combust from the ferocity of it roaring in my heart and my blood.
A cold and uncannily familiar expression slipped over Arren’s face that chilled me down to my bones. I had told Sage that I could not remember the faces of my family, which was true at the time. But seeing Arren had opened the floodgates of my memories, and when he looked at me like he wanted to choke the life out of me…
All I saw was my father.
I expected the hit, but the force of it still startled me when he backhanded me hard enough that I tasted blood in my mouth before I even hit the ground on my stomach. With my limbs still bound, I could not put my hands out to catch myself, and theair was knocked out of me.
“You disgusting wench! You will regret—”
I heard him take a step toward me and tried to regain my senses enough to roll away before the kicking to my stomach began. But thankfully, I did not need to.
Fire burst up between us and blazed around Arren to keep him corralled away from me. I recoiled in fear that we were being attacked, but then a sob of relief instantly burst from me when Ciaran stepped out of his shadows.
Who could have ever predicted I could be so fucking glad to seeCiaranof all people?
He was wearing his armour made from thorn and bone with his skull-faced helmet hung on his belt. There was a wicked smile on his face, which I knew right away should make Arren nervous. Especially when Ciaran swung his right arm forward and dragged another fey out of those shadows to kneel beside him.
Finn Lann a’Chridhe. Arren’s younger brother.
It took me a moment to recognize him, not because it had been some time since I saw him, but because his face was a burned and bloody mess.
“Release my brother, you elfin scum!” Arren snarled at the grinning rider furiously.
“This brother?” asked Ciaran in feigned innocence as he pulled Finn’s shoulder back to lift the male who gave a groan of pain. “No, I think I want to hang onto the both of you for a while longer. Besides, I have some friends that would be very interested in meeting you.”
“How did you even catch him?” I asked, jerking my chin at Finn who had sagged forward again with his head hanging between his shoulders. “I did not sense them.”
“Your kind might be able to hide yourselves from ears and eyes and noses, but my shadows will always know when something is hiding in them,” Ciaran said smugly. He was so proud of himself for capturing my enemies that I could not help snortinga laugh. “I knew that they would show themselves if you were left here alone,” he added, which immediately soured any gratitude I had felt.
“You used me asbait?!” I seethed.
“Calm down, it was a brilliant plan, which you would appreciate if you thought about it for a moment.”
“He could have taken me away through the Tithriall to Sumarra and then what?” I demanded, scowling at him.
Ciaran merely rolled his eyes as if I were dramatic and extended a hand toward me. A flicker of fire magic seared through the vines binding me so I could get to my feet.
