AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What? Why?” Holly was confused.
“We need to go. You need to be checked out.”
“They have healers here, and it’s fine. I’ve got some herbs in my bag. I can sleep it off.” It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to it.
“We need to go to the Fae lands,” Kallan said again, in full Fae-commander mode, but he didn’t elaborate further. Holly shared her own look with Synora, which she was sure meantMen, am I right?
Holly turned back to Kallan. “It’s fine. We need to stay focused on the mission. Claire is counting on us.”
“She’s right,” Synora said, backing Holly up. “We need to stay focused on the mission and trust Holly to tell us when it’s too much.” She looked at Holly, who bit the inside of her cheek as she nodded. She could handle it. Yeah, being sick wasn’t fun, but that was just a side effect. She would be careful not to use it again for the next few days.
“What about a compromise?” Kieran suggested. He was falling easily into the role of peacemaker in their group, and Holly appreciated it. “Sadara and Bryson have secured the troublemakers who shifted and tried to get away. We’ll help with the interrogation and see if one of them could be our right-hand person or know who is, and then we can go to the Fae lands.”
“Fine,” Holly said. She would rather not make a detour when Claire was counting on them, but she could compromise.
Kallan looked like he wasn’t going to agree, but Kieran not-so-subtly stepped on his foot, and he grunted before nodding. “Fine.”
“Let’s go then,” Synora said, bringing her hand to Holly’s back. “The faster we finish the interrogation, the faster we can go.” Holly had thought Synora would be on her side, but the Elf was clearly still worried about her. They didn’t need to worry, this was normal.
They left the trees, and Holly led the way toward the pride’s dungeons. She figured Sadara and the others would have ended up there. Behind them, the gathering had dispersed, and the acrid smell of smoke from the doused bonfires tickled her nose.
Up ahead, Zack strode down the path toward them. “Good, there you are. Come on, we got the prisoners secured.”
They followed Zack through the village to a large stone building. The upper levels served as pack meeting spaces, but the lower levels housed the prison cells. Sadara was standing outside the door.
“Are you good?” she asked Holly, her intelligent golden eyes assessing her.
“Fine,” Holly said breezily. “All the travel and the different diets caught up with me.” She could feel the sharp eyes of her mates on her, but she didn’t look their way.
Sadara nodded and led them down to the dungeons. “There were two who attempted to flee the gathering, and the one shifter, a wolf, who attempted to attack. We have them separated right now, but Bryson and I agree the two who attempted to flee are likely not worth your time. It’s the wolf that is interesting. He comes from a prominent shifter family but is the second son, which means he’s not in line to rule. He could have been attracted by Roland’s promise of power.”
“We’ll still want to talk to all three of them,” Kallan said. “But I agree, let’s start with the wolf.”
“Holly’s the Ambassador,” Sadara said. “I think it would be wise if she led the conversation.”
“Holly doesn’t have experience in interrogation.” Holly kept her face neutral. It was true she didn’t have the experience, but something inside her stung with the lack of confidence her mate had in her.
“Holly has her own experience,” Sadara said sharply. “Besides, shifters respect authority, and right now…”
“He thinks I’m the right hand to Claire,” Holly finished.
“Are you not?” Sadara arched an eyebrow.
Holly smiled and shrugged. “We all have seats at the table.” And that was true. Claire didn’t favor any one of her friends over the others. “But I see your point,” Holly continued. “If he sees me as the authority and he’s already angry at us for foiling Roland and Vanya’s plans, I might be able to bait him into revealing something.”
Kallan caught her elbow. “You will not use yourself as bait.”
Holly felt like she had whiplash from Kallan’s mood changes. Not trusting her one second, overprotective the next. “If that’s what it takes…” She stopped when his face got even stonier. “I won’t take unnecessary risks,” she said, “but we need to get answers. And you all will be in the room with me.”
Kallan didn’t say anything, but he did drop her elbow, and Holly took that as his agreement.
“Let’s go,” she said, stepping after Sadara.
Two shifters stood sentry outside a large metal door. They bowed their heads as Sadara approached and held the door open for them to pass. “Two of you will have to stay out here,” Sadara said with a wicked smile. “Our cells aren’t known for their space.”
Kallan placed a hand on Holly’s back and nodded at the others, who stepped to the wall opposite the two shifters. Holly hesitated briefly, as the shifters hadn’t been super friendly toward her mates earlier, but yielded to the pressure from Kallan’s hand. She put on her dinner mask—a neutral expression she had perfected from her father’s dinner parties—and stepped into the musty room. Shallow windows at the top of the walls let in a small bit of light. Not enough for her witch eyes, but the shifters could probably see perfectly.
She kept her movements slow but steady as she took a seat in front of the restrained shifter and took him in. His muscles bulged, and Holly could count the veins in his arms. Bryson must have forced him to shift back to his human form. An angry expression was still set on his face, even as his dark hair fell into his eyes. His hands were chained to the table in front of him, but the metal creaked as Holly settled into her chair.
