“You are connected to something,” he said, voice low and certain.“Something that does not belong here.”He glanced at the fae who’d appeared next to him.“Do you sense it?”
The fae male nodded, but did not speak.He simply continued to stare at her.
Kara’s pulse slammed in her ears.He doesn’tknow, she told herself.He can’t know.Gypsy healers were too valuable to just about any race, and she’d learned the hard way that it was best to keep her race to herself.
Unfortunately, her magic didn’t get the memo and nearly betrayed her.It stirred, restless, rising from somewhere deeper than the healing warmth she used on the sick or wounded.She pushed it down and did something she’d never consciously tried before.Kara grabbed a hold of the other side, the side of her blood, witch blood, cold and sharp, answering the same vibration twisting through the cavern.It coiled under her skin and pulsed back at the realm like a mirror.Oh, that’s not good.
Her mouth was dry.“Okay,” she said lightly, pretending the tremor in her voice was humor.“Now you’re just making me sound way more compelling than I actually am.”
The Troll King’s eyes narrowed further, the flicker of reflected firelight turning his pupils to molten ink.“You will be tested.”
Naturally.Because the universe loved to screw with her.It had been screwing with her since she was born.Why stop now?
Wadim’s calm voice broke across the tension from behind her.“Define tested,” he said, tone so mild it only made the threat clearer.
The Troll King ignored him completely, attention fixed on Kara like she was the only variable that mattered.
“We will see,” he rumbled, “what you truly are.”
The ground answered him.A tremor rolled through the cavern, shaking dust from the ceiling, rattling the chains, making the cages groan.The air grew thick, every breath heavy with stone dust and electricity.
Kara’s eyes shot open wide as that unseen force surged up through her bare feet, crawling through muscle and bone until it cinched around her lungs.And suddenly sheknew.This wasn’t troll magic.This wasn’t even coming from the troll realm.
Something else moved beneath it, something ancient and hungry, and it was feeding.Not on them exactly, but through them.Through the ground.Throughher.And whatever it was ...it had just noticed her noticing.
A cold line traced her spine, sharp as a blade tip.She pressed her palm harder to her stomach, wanting to somehow protect her unborn child as she barely breathed.
“Well,” she muttered to herself, voice shaking only a little, “that can’t possibly be a good sign.”
The Troll? King moved first.Not quickly, not with surprise, but with resolve in his eyes.
Each shift of his massive body rippled through the ground, the weight of him settling like thunder held on a leash.He took a single step back from her cage and lifted one enormous hand.The cavern answered at once: chains rattled, iron groaned, and something deeper in the shadows scraped bone-slow against stone.
Kara’s stomach tightened.Well, this was about to go downhill fast.
“Bring her,” the king said.
She blinked, fighting for nonchalance.“Oh, that’s a hard no?—”
The door to her cage obeyed nobody’s rules but his.Metal didn’t squeal or hinge; it simply parted, flowing open as though solidity had been a temporary suggestion.
Kara went still.That was new, and profoundly unsettling.
Nick hit his bars with a roar that shook the cavern’s bones.Dust rained from the ceiling and rolled down her shoulders like ash.“Don’t!”he growled.“I swear on everything holy, I will destroy your entire kingdom if one hair on her head is harmed.”His voice tore from somewhere primal, half-wolf already, nothing human left in the sound.
Wadim stepped forward, his tone suddenly sharp rather than scholarly.“You take one of us, you deal with all of us.”
Zara’s silence said even more.Her fingers whitened around the bars, her stance angled in the way Kara knew meant violence was only waiting for breath.
Aphid’s voice slid through the growls, cold and measured.His fae power seemed to radiate around him.“This would be an unwise decision.”
Kara nearly rolled her eyes as she muttered, “Understatement.”
The Troll? King didn’t spare them even a glance.His attention never left Kara.“Only her.”
Kara exhaled through her nose and let her hand drift, almost without thought, to her stomach.The gesture steadied her, a small, defiant anchor against fear.It wasn’t weakness; it was awareness.And it reminded her what she carried wasn't hers alone.
“Fantastic,” she muttered under her breath.“Love that for me.”She stayed where she was.But turned to look at Nick.“I’m going to be fine,”she told him through their bond.“Don’t do anything that would get you maimed or killed.”He didn’t respond, but she could see the love for her and their baby deep in his eyes.Kara knew it was killing him not to be able to protect her.Especially after everything that had already happened in her past.Nick never left her side unless she demanded it, and even then, she was pretty sure he was always following her, showing not an attempt to control her, but just how scared he was of her going through any more torture.All she could give him was a smile and reassure him that she would be okay.
