“You’re wondering why we don’t just plan to kill him outright?” He hums and gives an approving nod, clearly misinterpreting my dumbstruck expression. “I appreciate the bloodthirsty attitude, love, but I’m afraid it would be too messy. Killing him in person will cause an absolute load of hassle, and that’s the last thing we want, don’t you think?”
That... wasn’t what I was thinking. Not even remotely.
My voice comes out slightly strangled as I reply, “Uh, yeah. Probably a bad idea to kill the king, unless we did something like make the entire kingdom forget he ever existed.” I let out a huff of laughter, but Finch blinks at me, cocking his head to one side in that curious movement he has every time he’s either intrigued or baffled by something.
“I wasn’t serious,” I rush to tell him, because he’s not laughing or telling me that would be an insane idea.
“Come on, I really was joking,” I insist. “Surely it’ll be hard enough to get close to him so that Kit can curse him without at least one of us getting arrested.”
“It’ll be challenging, that’s for sure,” he says. “Although, who says Kit has to be face to face with him? He can simply curse the entire city.”
‘Simply’ seems to be doing a lot of heavy lifting in that statement.
I’m still struggling to reconcile that this is happening again. We’d barely got Kit back and now he’s disappeared again. And this time we have even less of a clue what’s happened to him.
When I delve into my chest and prod the golden thread linking me to him, he doesn’t seem upset. Instead, he’s calm. Almost too calm.
Jack’s bond is quieter than the others; more muted. But my exhaustion is dragging me down, making my head fuzzy and my thinking slow, and maybe that’s affecting things.
“Anyway.” I slap my thighs and then freeze. For the life of me, I don’t know why I’ve suddenly taken on the mannerisms of someone’s grandad. “It’s late, we should—”
“It’s curious, though.” Finch doesn’t seem to realise he’s interrupted me as he continues his line of thinking. “I don’t know the who or the how, but the more I think about it, the more I have the strangest feeling that we’ve missed something very obvious.”
Blinking at him, I rub my tired eyes. “How do you mean?”
“Who else could have worked fast enough to kick things off while we were all distracted?”
My stomach pitches as I twist my fingers in front of me. “I still don’t think I understand what you’re saying.”
He gives me a smile that I haven’t seen before. One that’s far too soft and kind, like he knows all too well that I understand what he’s saying; I just don’t want to.
“Surely it makes most sense for it to have been someone in that room.”
One of my freshly minted mates, he means.
“You think one of them is working with the king?” I shake my head. “That can’t be right.”
Can it?
“We can literally feel each other’s stray emotions and I’m sure I’ve heard a random thought or two,” I say. “How would any of them hide something like that?”
Finch cocks his head to the side again, leaning forward and taking hold of my hand again. “You can feel our emotions?”
“I think so,” I say. “Not all the time. And it’s hard to work out exactly who they belong to. I thought I was just going insane for a little while, but I’m pretty sure that’s what was happening. I was catching snippets of each of your thoughts and feelings.”
“From all of us?” He presses the point, still not letting go of my hand even as warmth rolls through me at the unexpected contact.
I focus on the tangle in my chest, trying to parse through my memory of the time right after the bonds formed. “I only got the odd glimmer of yours,” I tell him softly.
Something about the words causes a shutter to form over Finch’s eye as he leans back, losing contact with my hand.
We did hear something, Noush says, giving me a mental prod. I then have the strangest sensation, like she’s actively tugging a memory forward to the front of my mind. It’s incredibly disconcerting, like someone else has their hand inside my head and is giving it a swirl.
She’s right, though.
I remember that voice.
“What did you do?” I repeat their words to Finch, my eyes going wide as I lean forward to grip his knee. “I remember someone’s voice saying those exact words right after that light appeared.”
