Page 39 of Twist of Fate

Luke pulled Connal’s arm over his shoulder and took some of his weight. Connal accepted the support without arguing. That alone confirmed how badly he’d been hurt.

Once they were farther from the warehouse, Luke stopped and closed his fingers around Connal’s wrist. His pulse skipped beneath Luke’s fingertips, raced for several beats, then caught again. Luke knew enough field medicine to recognize that something was wrong, but none of his training covered fae warriors struck by magic.

“What did it do to you?”

Connal glanced toward his brothers, who had formed a protective perimeter around them. “The magic persists, but I am not impaired.”

The pulse skipping beneath Luke’s fingers made the denial impossible to believe. “Can you stop it?”

“I am containing it.”

“For how long?”

Connal didn’t answer.

Luke held his gaze. “You nearly went down twice, and whatever you’re containing isn’t getting better. We need to get you out of here.”

“Not without you.”

“I’m coming.” Luke looked back at the warehouse. “I was supposed to deliver something. The first location was compromised, and someone prepared that building before we arrived. I don’t know yet whether the same people were responsible for both.”

“Then we eliminate the threat.”

Luke released a short breath. “Sure. We’ll hunt down people using magic I didn’t know existed yesterday. Easy.”

“It is a threat,” Connal repeated.

“No argument there, but we’re not doing anything but getting out of here while you can barely stand.” Luke considered his rapidly shrinking options. He couldn’t return to the hotel, and contacting Hale before he understood what had happened could expose him further. “We need somewhere safe while I figure out who knew about that location.”

“We return to my home.”

Yesterday, Luke would never have considered a magical castle in an impossible realm the safest available option. Today, it offered armed allies and an escape route ordinary surveillance couldn’t follow. He couldn’t call it safe, but it offered more protection than any hotel or safe house he could reach.

He hated that the decision made sense.

“Fine,” Luke said. “Temporarily.”

Connal’s gaze narrowed. “Temporarily.”

Connal clearly disliked the condition, but he didn’t argue.

Luke would take the win. He adjusted his backpack and moved beside him. “Open the portal.”

Connal raised one hand. Magic shimmered through the air, opening a path back to the Unseelie.

Luke kept hold of him as they stepped through together. The transition hit harder this time. The world blurred around Luke, and his steps faltered as the bright corridors of the Unseelie settled into place.

“Yeah,” he muttered. “Still hate that.”

Connal’s brothers followed them through before the portal closed. Luke forced himself to assess the corridor. For once, his mind didn’t reach for a head injury or drugs to explain what he’d seen. The warehouse had stripped away the last of that denial. Magic was real. Luke didn’t understand its rules, but ignorance only made it more dangerous.

He could have an existential crisis later.

Right now, Connal needed him.

The corridor remained crowded with fae preparing for the celebration Luke had interrupted earlier. Conversations faltered as those nearest them noticed Connal’s condition. Luke straightened instinctively beneath their stares.

Don’t look like prey.