Page 154 of Taken By Shadows

He looked like black wildfire as he stood silhouetted by the hall lights.

But before he could say anything, Audrie pushed past him and landed herself on top of me and crushed what little air I had in my lungs back out.

“Attempting to suffocate me?” I tried to laugh, but I was shaken from whatever Sapphine had done.

“Sorry.” She pulled away and stood off the bed sheepishly.

I watched Kaed as he hesitated over the threshold. “How did I get here? Why am I in your bed?” I grabbed more of the bedspread and pulled it up around my chest.

“Tymon found you,” Audrie answered before Kaed could. “And Kaedian insisted on here because of something to do with not letting you out of his sight. My room would have been fine. Even your room.” She rolled her eyes.

“Audrie,” Kaed cautioned from the door.

“Is Tymon here now?” I asked, ignoring him as I tried to sit up.

“I brought you home after …” A muscle in his neck popped with the tension in his words. Kaed shook his head. “Tymon will be back later.” His jaw was painfully tight as he spoke.

“It wasn’t Tymon’s fault,” I tried. I knew it wasn’t. He knew it wasn’t. Sapphine was acting in her own interests.

Had that all been to goad Kaed into taking action against the city? He’d said someone was trying to bait him. Could it really be Sapphine? If I died, he might retaliate. Sapphine believed me to be important to him. But she believed it for the wrong reasons. But if she, or whoever was behind everything, wanted to force his hand to action … attacking his soon-to-be wife would be a good place to start.

Or maybe she was just that vile that drugging someone was a reasonable thing to do. My mind was blackening at the edges as I recalled the sensation of my body crumbling in on itself, losing feeling.

“Sapphine. She … The tea …” My hand gripped at my throat. The feeling in my fingers was back, but something lingered under my skin. She had really done that to me.

Kaed shifted, and I didn’t need to say what we both knew. Sapphine had no line. She could have done worse. But she was trying to scare me. To remind me where power truly lay.

“Where is she?” I tried again.

“She’s already left for Gloriya,” Kaed ground out. His jaw looked like it might shatter at any moment with the continued force he was holding it with.

Relief and annoyance surged in me. “So I can’t kill her any time soon, then?” I tried to joke. It dawned on me then that I didn’t know how long I’d been out. “When is the Seeds and Starlight Celebration? Did Tymon get the invites?”

“Two days. And you won’t be going.” Kaed’s tone was emphatic.

I scoffed. “Of course I am. If you’re worried about Sapphine, you just said she’s left for Gloriya already. I’ll be fine.”

Kaed took a step closer to the bed. “That’s not the—” He steadied himself. “I am telling you, you are no longer going.” His words were sharp as they snared me. “She could have people who will be there. You’re recovering. No one will think twice if you’re not there.”

“I’m going,” I ground out.

Kaed was now at the foot of the bed, a hurricane brewing beneath his lashes.

Audrie stood abruptly. “I am the one who is going. Downstairs. Away from whatever this”—she gestured between the two of us—“is.”

The door slammed behind her, and I was suddenly alone with Kaed, lying in his bed.

And he looked like he would murder me, not Sapphine, for what had happened.

“You can’t stop me from going to the celebration. I’m part of this. And I will help.” I angled my jaw for emphasis.

“I warned you once, peach,” he hummed, eyes not meeting mine as he moved to the side of the bed so he was now looming over me. His gaze locked on me. “I would tie you to my bed if I had to keep an eye on you. And you’re already doing most of that work for me by being here.”

I fought a surge of heat at his words and watched his fingers clench around an invisible ball in his hands. Shadows materialised, summoned from deep within him.

I swallowed.

Was he serious?