Lykor’s explosive laugh bounced off the damp cavern walls. The girl’s eyes widened as she faltered in her furious splashing to the water’s edge.
Let me have dinner with his clan.Aesar rose from the couch. Clenching his fists, darkness whirled through the atrium.It’s not like you ever keep company, so I’m not interrupting yourplans of lurking in the Aerie alone.
An icy ball of irritation coalesced in Lykor’s chest.HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THAT IF I DIDN’T HAVE TO WAKE UP IN KAL’S BED, I’D BE MORE AMENABLE TO LETTING YOU TWO FUCK AROUND?
Lykor blinked. The elf had made it to the shore, stalking toward him. He swiped sopping hair out of his eyes, now as thoroughly soaked as her.
Aesar’s brow furrowed before dipping his head in agreement.Very well. We’d be more effective if we worked together.
THAT WASN’T A BARGAIN,Lykor scoffed.I DON’T NEED YOUR HELP. WHY CAN’T YOU HIDE LIKE YOU WERE CONTENT TO DO THESE PAST DECADES?
There’s too much at stake now.Aesar squared his shoulders, still ready to quarrel.We have one Heart, and it’s possible another is somewhere in this fortress. I think there could be one in the druid jungle too.
Lykor crossed his arms.AND YOU’RE SHARING THIS REVELATION WITH ME NOW?
I’ve been thinking about it. It makes sense, doesn’t it?Aesar paced the atrium, shadows billowing around him.That unnatural pocket of trees in the Hibernal Wastes has to be important. Vesryn and I suspected it was an abandoned druid city when wediscovered it.He traced his lower lip, lost in thought.Have Serenna help—she’s tied to this now. If we could bring more than one Heart to—
SHUT UP, I GET IT. STARS, I NEED TO DEAL WITH THIS SHAMAN SPAWN BEFORE SHE TRIES STRANGLING ME WITH THAT FUCKING MOSS.
The elf straightened when Lykor’s attention focused back on her. He tracked her cautious steps until she stood in front of him.
“If you ruined these leathers,” Lykor growled, leaning down to her level, “I’ll patch them with your skin.”
Lips pursing, she wore an attempt at a brave face before swallowing. Holding out the glowing plant, she asked in a voice pitched with false sweetness, “Would you let me bind your hand?”
Lykor flashed his fangs before glancing over her head at the water receding back into the channel. Fed up with her persistence, he thrust his fist into her chest, knocking her back a step.
She glared at him before taking his claw, roughly coiling the moss around his palm. Lykor clenched his teeth at the pressure, releasing a hiss when she tied the plant into a knot. Tighter than it needed to be.
Torchlight flickering from one of the tunnels drew Lykor’s attention away from the elf. Kal’s hovering illumination and his band of warriors entered the caverns. Wordlessly leaving the girl behind, Lykor prowled to the group. The soldiers parted around him like a shoal fleeing from a shark. Searching the wraith, he locked eyes with Fenn. Lykor jerked his head for the lieutenant to join him.
Fenn stooped to hear his words. Lykor lowered his voice anyway, so it didn’t pitch to the others. “Take the elf to the Aerie and consider yourself elevated to her personal guard. Keep her tethered and away from Mara. I don’t want the girl learning of her presence.” The last thing he needed was the two femalesputting their heads together behind his back. Mara already meddled enough on Aesar’s behalf.
Lykor provided a brief update of the elf’s earthen abilities he suspected—and figured out firsthand—that she possessed. He left Fenn with orders of determining whatever else she could do with those shaman powers along with extracting any information about the elves’ military. Fenn rivaled his father at useless driveling—surely his ferreting would get the girl talking.
Retrieving the knife at his belt, Lykor sawed the slimy moss away from his palm, discarding the plant. “Douse the torches in my tower.” He didn’t glance over his shoulder as he strode away. “I don’t want her fucking around with any fire.”
CHAPTER 28
SERENNA
Serenna unconsciously retreated a few paces when one of the wraith split away from the gathered ranks. Her back collided with a wall of spongy lichen, knees locking when she recognized the hulking soldier who’d tethered her.
Aesar had assured her that she wouldn’t be harmed, but he wasn’t exactly present at every moment. Serenna reminded herself that Lykor’s wraith hadn’t hesitated when they’d attacked Centarya.
The torchlight carried away by the departing warriors flickered against Fenn’s sharp cheekbones, highlighting his indigo skin. Rings in his brows, ears, nose, and lower lip shimmered in the fading light, swinging as he swaggered toward her. Serenna cringed at the excessive jewelry, touching her face.
Unwilling to be pinned against the rocks, she swallowed her nervousness and stepped back to the center of the cavern. Serenna eyed the quiver of short arrows at his side and the bandolier of knives crossed over his spiked armor, wondering why he bothered with daggers when his talons were just as sharp.
Anxiously tracing the golden manacle latched around herwrist, Serenna clung to the hope that the prince would find her if she figured out how to unlock the tether. Stranded in the Wastes, she had no other option without portaling.Vesryn needs to know what happened to his brother and who the wraith really are.
The intermittent, thin braids woven through Fenn’s hair swayed when he halted in front of her. Crossing his arms, he planted his boots under his shoulders, dominating the space. Serenna’s gaze darted down the tunnel as the specks of illumination disappeared around a corner.
Clenching her jaw against his intimidating posture, Serenna lifted her chin, meeting his conflagrating gaze head on.I can deal with the likes of him.
As she hunted down a tactic, her stomach dropped instead as he continued to evaluate her with a disturbing intensity.Well, that is, if he’s not like Lykor.She’d already quickly discovered that she couldn’t press her captor in the same defiant ways she had with the prince.Lykor might actually kill me if I’m too much trouble.
The steady dripping of water from her soaked leathers was the only sound as Fenn regarded her, his eyes flaring like a flame consuming tinder. Serenna suppressed a shiver, the chill from her plastered clothing seeping into her skin.
