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“You’re not making any sense!” I whisper-shout.
He’s rubbing at his chest. “That damned, cute idiot. I’ll spank him when I see him again. And fuck, our horse has run off. We’re on foot now.”
“Were they of the Temple?” I ask. “Did they recognize him?”
“The colors were military,” Taj says somberly. “It was me they recognized. They must have been told I may be traveling with a group.”
“That inn-keeper,” I hiss. “She blabbed at someone about you.”
“Yeah. Beware friendly, nice people. Damn.”
“What now? How do we find him and get him back? We can’t leave him with them!”
“Of course not,” Taj says and that tugs on a spiky shard of panic that’s been digging into my chest, pulling it out, calming me down a little. “We’ll get him back.”
“Where would they take him?”
“The Summer Capital,” Taj says and the words settle over me like a shroud, heavy and oppressing. “Eremis.”
Shit. We were going to avoid the capital, where they’re waiting to execute us.
“We were supposed to teach him how to fuck,” Taj mutters. “We can’t let him die a virgin. I prepared a curriculum for him and Kiaran.”
“A what?” I’m terrified and my heart is trying to pound its way out of my chest and what the hell is he talking about?
“Materials, lessons for them.”
“Goddess, Taj, can we focus on the task at hand?”
“Yeah, we need to move away from this cart and hide somewhere better until we can flee this shitty town and… Kiaran? Where the fuck are you going, man? Come back here.”
“Kiaran!” I yell-whisper. “Where are you going?”
To my relief, he stops, turns back. His pale locks swing forward to shadow his face. At least he’s half-hidden in the shadow of the house porch with its two square pillars. The expression on his face is strange.
“Kia.” I reach out a hand to him. “Come back. We have to decide what to do.”
“My family is here,” he says.
For a long moment I wonder if I misheard. “Your family?”
Am I hearing things? Is this what shock does to you?
“My family.” He thumps a fist on his chest, brows drawing together. “Here.”
“Makes sense,” Taj mutters. “It’s the closest town to the hills where we found him. This would be the place, if it wasn’t one of the villages. Finnen guessed it right.” He nods at Kiaran. “And so what? You gonna ask them to take you back? Nothing has changed. You’re an alpha. Your ears remain pointed and I bet somewhere on your body you have the scales of Fae blood.”
I frown. “I’d have noticed those scales by now, wouldn’t I? And what about me? Do I have scales anywhere?”
“On females, they’re supposed to be very fine,” Taj mutters, his gaze still fixed on Kiaran, “and pale, and sometimes only show once they are with child.”
With child. My thoughts wrap around that image, sending a violent shiver down my spine—apprehension and excitement and panic and joy—when Kiaran turns away again and starts walking.
“Dammit,” Taj hisses, then he’s on his feet and reaching down for me. “Come on. Looks like the Wildman wants to introduce us to his family. So romantic, isn’t he?”
Romantic or not, we have to jog to keep up with his big strides, and he never slows down, leading us through narrow streets and alleys. I keep glancing over my shoulder, in case more riders appear to take us away, but there’s no sound of hooves, just voices, coughs, babies wailing and dogs yowling. Distantly, a cart rattles down a main street.
Incongruously, birds chirp in the half-hidden gardens of the houses we pass by as we rush along, not sure where we’re going and what Kiaran wants to do.
