Page 7 of Denied

“I don’t.” She looked out at the shimmering water. “But Ryan and I proved that I have some Fae blood. My father was human, so it had to come from my mother. I haven’t seen her in almost twenty years. She abandoned us that night, when the Blackstones left Tara in my sister’s place. After what Fallon told me, I think it’s possible she had another reason for leaving. Maybe to get my sister away before the Blackstones could take her.”

Jannon’s brows drew together. “You mean they came to switch Tara–”

“For the sister they really wanted,” Kayla finished for him. “Maybe she’s the spellsinger.”

CHAPTER 4

J ANNON WATCHED KAYLA head off with Ryan and Wallace to discuss the dragon’s revelations, and considered looking for another bottle of wine. The men had transported most of their stores through the portal, and he wouldn’t sleep tonight unless he drank himself unconscious. It was that or brawl, but no one would throw a punch his way now. His brothers all watched him, but their eyes held only pity. Tara had turned him into the camp’s wounded pup. He shouldered another hay bale.

“Playing the stablehand, Ferguson?” a cool voice asked.

Jannon dropped the bale before he faced Gavan Waterson. “What are you doing here? You were left to guard the changeling.”

“Aye, and I would, except she bleeds now, from her scalp.” The other man touched the back of his head. “I cannot tell if the wound is genuine. She will not let me near her. But there is too much blood for it to be a scratch.”

“She’s in chains,” Jannon said flatly. “She can’t stop you.”

Gavan grimaced. “She weeps, and says no one but you may touch her. Since I am not wont to force any female…”

“You and your soft heart,” he said, pointing to the cottage. Jannon fell into step with him. But when Gavan led him to the cottage that Colm had assigned to him, Jannon jerked him to a stop. “You put her in my quarters? Are you daft?”

“She is in chains,” the other man reminded him. “What difference does it make?”

He looked into Gavan’s dazzling eyes, and saw they were slightly unfocused. “Go and fetch Wallace, brother. Bring him to me.”

He waited until Gavan strolled away before he entered the cottage. Tara lay across his armchair, her eyes closed and her head resting on a blood-stained towel. Iron chains crisscrossed her thin body from neck to ankles.

Jannon didn’t want to go near her, but the blood looked as real as the snowy paleness of her still features.

“You sent for me, changeling?”

She opened one eye. “Is that going to be my name now? Why not ‘bitch’? I like that better. It’s shorter than ‘evil little bitch’, too, so everyone will remember it.”

The thready whisper of her voice drifted around him like the soft leather of a snare.

“You stole your name from Rowe’s sister.”

“Guilty as charged, but I didn’t have one of my own.” She pushed herself up into a sitting position, her movements slow and shaky. “Other than Blackstone, I mean. They never gave me a first name.”

Jannon couldn’t stand to look at her another moment, and went to the bathroom to find the first-aid kit. He then realized how ridiculous that was. As Dark Fae, she could heal only through pain or blood. He returned to the front room.

“I will not wound myself again to help you,” he told her.

Tara smiled wanly at him. “Pain and blood, right. But there’s another way. Come and take these chains off me, and we can do that.”

Even clad in spellbound iron, the pull of her magick tugged at him. “You made yourself bleed. Heal your own wounds.”

“I didn’t do this.” She shifted to show him the bloody towel. “Being dragged through that portal did. For your information, it nearly killed me.”

Unable to resist, Jannon took a step closer. “Yet somehow you still breathe. Forgive me if I choose not to believe yet another lie.”

The defiance in her expression changed to hurt. “I’m not lying, Jan. It felt horrible. Like it was trying to rip me in half.” With difficulty, she pushed up her left sleeve, and showed him the large bruises that nearly covered her forearm. “It’s like this all down my left side.”

He crouched down in front of the chair to examine the marks closely. “Did something strike you from this side?”

Tara shook her head. “I felt something come after me. It grabbed me and tried to pull me back out of the portal.”

His eyes narrowed. “We would not do such a thing to you, girl.”