“That was cunning of you,” he said, assessing this version of her. Not only clever, but bold.
Her lips flattened. “We were getting nowhere. I had a narrow window with Arun.”
“I told you that relic is forbidden,” he said, feeling particularly spiteful. “And you risked yourself anyway. Gave him whatever you did to put that on him.”
Colour rose in her cheeks. “I gave nothing. And he didn’t notice a thing.”
Reagan searched her face. The indignation was real, etched into every line of her expression. However she put that relic on him, she hadn’t used herself to do it.
It was like a vice had lifted from his chest, and a dark, territorial heat surged in its place.
She frowned at him. “It’s alright when you have your clever plans to trick Scions in the woods, but when I have a plan, it’s not alright for me to do it?”
She stepped closer. The defiance radiating from her made his pulse hammer.
Against his will, his eyes dropped to the ripe curve of her mouth. His hands itched.
He wanted to kiss her. Wanted to lay her on her back in the adjoining room and take her with all the savagery his jealousy demanded.
Her cheeks flushed a deeper red, some of the tension ebbing from her body, as though she had read his thoughts.
“Caed,” she murmured, close enough that he caught the whisper of her breath. A breath he could have swallowed whole. “It’s better to have Arun as an ally.”
With half a step, he towered over her. Jane didn’t move an inch, the left side of her face illuminated by a sudden white glare.
Reagan pivoted towards the silver light flaring at the edge of the room. An elegant deer formed on the rug beside them.
“Jane.” Cerridwen’s voice emerged from the familiar, and both of them turned. “Your father is awake.”
Chapter 37
Reagan
Reagan flung her back to Mountheim and returned alone. His head hammered from the compounded distance travelled in such a short span, but Jane needed to be with her father. When the familiar had spoken, a weight had lifted from his chest. Jane’s eyes had reddened, and she didn’t speak, as though her words had failed her.
But he needed to stay.
His fingers itched with restrained frustration, his mind already turning to what he would have to deal with next.
He headed down the corridor toward Finn’s room. The moment Reagan told him Jane’s father had woken, Finnegan’s thoughts had clearly drifted elsewhere. Things between him and Finn were still strained. Reagan hadn’t fully forgiven him, but Jane was safe, and that was all that mattered.
They encountered Iqbal and Eldar in the dining room. Both looked at ease. There was no sign of Arun. Apparently, the elven warrior was playing along with Jane’s plan.
“You look like you had a bad night, Reagan,” Iqbal drawled from where he lounged in his chair.
“I wish that were the case,” Reagan replied and sank into a chair.
Iqbal’s brows lifted. Maith and Eldar both stared at him, the former flicking a glance toward Finn.
“I don’t like my affairs shared,” Reagan said, leaning back on the chair. “And I only share when it’s necessary. So imagine my disappointment when I learned that the very people we’ve been trying to ally with have been betraying us.”
“That is a serious allegation,” Eldar said solemnly. “How exactly have we betrayed you?”
“By doing precisely what I’ve been asking of you,” Reagan said, “only for my enemy.”
“All this time,” Finn added grimly, “you’ve been feeding information about us to a Scion named Cahir. Isn’t that right?”
Iqbal’s eyes narrowed to slits.
