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Chapter 9
Bree
When Bree awoke,she found herself staring up at a tiny square window, the glow of the silver moon brightening up the incredible darkness that had consumed her mind. A strong hand encircled hers, holding tight. She twisted her head to the side to see Rafe hunched overher.
He gave her a smile, those bright silver eyes of his lighting a fire in her belly. Even though she hurt all over, there was something about his face that made her feel as though everything would beokay.
“There she is.” He squeezed her hand. “How are youfeeling?”
“Like someone blasted a rocket at mychest.”
“I am going to assume that means something painful,” he said with a slight smile. Sometimes, Bree forgot just how little the Dark Fae knew about the human realm. There were no rockets or satellites or space stationshere.
“Let’s just say I feel like I’ve been shot.” She winced as she tried to move, pain lancing through her entire chest. “How bad isit?”
“Fairly bad.” The smile vanished from Rafe’s face. “If you were not a shapeshifter, I might be concerned this wound would be yourlast.”
A fancy way of saying she could die fromthis.
“Do I have some special healing powers I don’t know about?” Bree asked, feeling a little bit more hopeful than she’d felt seconds before. Kael and the other Light Fae had never mentioned a healing ability to her, but maybe Rafferty knew something theydidn’t.
He winced as he gave her a smile. “Yes and no. You have a special way of healing yourself, but I am afraid to say it will be just as painful as the originalinjury.”
“How fun,” Bree said with agrimace.
“And you will have to undergo the pain a few times in order to fully heal. Perhaps six or so based on what I can see of thiswound.”
“Six times?” Bree winced as she attempted to move again, pain lancing through her entire body. She felt as though she was about to be split in half, and her left side would just fall off if she attempted to move again. Hell, she probably wouldn’t mind if it did, just as long as it meant this pain would stop. “You know what? Fine. What do I have to do to fixthis?”
“Shift into your beastly form. And then shift back. Every time you do this, your body will remake itself, slowly healing the wound until it is fullygone.”
“I have to shift into the beast? Like this?” Bree gazed up at him, desperately hoping she’d heard him wrong. “You can’t beserious.”
“I am afraid so, Bree.” He took her hand in his and squeezed. “If it helps, I have undergone this pain myself. I was attacked by several members of the Wilde Fae. I was good enough for dead, and I thought the last thing I would see was my blood on theirteeth.”
Shivers coursed through Bree, a sensation that caused the pain to rip through her once again. “But you healed yourself? By shifting into your raven andback?”
He nodded. “And I had to do it far more than six times. My wounds were numerous. I truly thought my entire body would be split into a million pieces, but I made it out on the other side. I no longer even have any scars. The attack on me is now nothing more than a distant memory, just as yours willbe.”
The attack. Two words that snagged in Bree’s mind. In the midst of all the pain, she hadn’t even thought about the reason for the wound in the first place. Someone had shot her with an arrow. Someone wanted herdead.
Or someone wanted her to suffer greatly. That spark of hatred flared to life inside her gut. Had the Prince ordered this? Had he wanted her to endure this horrible amount of pain? Just because she’dkickedhim?
“Who shot me?” she asked. “Was that part of my punishment? Did the Prince do this tome?”
Rafe’s eyes widened. “Of course not. You are far too valuable to Taveon, and he is not that kind of fae to cause such suffering in anyone, even hisslaves.”
“I find that hard to believe when he ordered me to dance until I collapsed fromexhaustion.”
Rafe pressed his lips into a thin line. “His hand was forced. He could not let you get away with it. If you had kicked him behind closed doors, that would have been one thing. But you did it in front of other members of the Court. In front of LordDagen.”
Bree closed her eyes, both from the pain of the wound and the pain of his words. She didn’t know why she was upset that Prince Taveon was willing to inflict so much pain on her, but she most certainly was. It was one thing to lock her up in a cell and force her to train with Rafe, but it was another thing entirely to make herhurt.
And he probablydelightedin hersuffering.
“That’s exactly what I mean, Rafferty,” she said in whispered words, clenching her teeth against the pounding in her chest. “I forced his hand. He was already causing me pain. Maybe he didn’t think it was enough. Maybe he thought an arrow to the chest would really put me in myplace.”
Rafe fell silent. He was probably the only fae in the entire Court who actually felt remorse about what she was enduring. She could see it in his eyes. It was written all over the furrowed lines on his face.Hewanted to help her. And no matter how much he wanted to think it, Prince Taveon didn’t. Bree had noted hisabsence.
