“Forced or consensual?” Kieran asked, his stomach tightening. “Can you tell?”
“Consensual,” Mordecai replied. “She got where she was going. I don’t scent the same for him.”
The breath left Lexi in a gush. “Oh.”
“Stockholm syndrome?” Kieran asked.
“In only a couple days?” Lexi replied.
“No.” Zorn stood in the doorway, looking over the room. “She’s resistant to Stockholm syndrome. It would take a lot longer for her to break, and in that time, there would be a lot of bloodshed.”
“How do you know?” Lexi asked.
He looked her dead on as he said, “I’ve never taken her on a cruise. I used that excuse for training you wouldn’t be fond of.”
Her fingers tightened into fists, and Kieran lifted his eyebrows. He hadn’t known. Zorn had kept it to himself so Kieran wouldn’t be in an awkward position between him and Lexi, for which Kieran was thankful.
“You…did…what?” Lexi dragged out.
“I challenged her,” Zorn said, “and I should’ve stepped in more quickly, because she ended up slitting her abductor’s throat. An abductor I had hired and paid and should’ve looked out for better. It took me a second to find and recover her.” He motioned at the cramped space. “If she chose this path with the fae, there is a reason. A seduction or a closeness we don’t have all the facts to understand. The main thing is that she is alive—or was when she was here—and her captor seems to be fond of her. If that’s the case, he won’t want to kill her. Let’s take that as the gift it is.”
Zorn had a point.
“She won’t break,” Mordecai said, heading for the door. “My sister will not break. She’ll hang on long enough for us to get to her. I know she will.”
Kieran could hear the desperation in his voice. The desperation they all felt.
Hang in there, Daisy,he thought, heading out to continue scouting with the others.Hang in there.
20
Daisy
That is a veryhandsome jacket you have there, Lennox,she thought with a smile.(For someone with no taste.)
Niall spat out laughter, sitting next to Lennox on the couch with blankets draped over it. In three days, Tarian and Daisy had graced every available surface with their lovemaking. TheFallen,upon learning this by walking in on them, hadn’t taken the news well. They’d been downright disgusted, actually. Now they wanted something between their butts and the “ruined” surfaces.
Lennox narrowed his eyes at Daisy. She’d thought the first at him and Niall, and the second only at Niall. Helped by theFallenand the contraptions, she could split her thoughts much better now. She could also hide most of her thoughts in the void. It was a place that didn’t register to a mindgazer. The thoughts weren’t behind walls or shields or tucked away in a forgotten corner. Not that Tarian could find at any rate. Not even that Eldric could find. They were just…not there.
This was not welcome knowledge to Eldric, who’d never heard of such a thing. He was hard at work within his chaotic library, researching what was going on and why he was excluded from her mind. The rest of theFallenthought it was a human side effect.
It wasn’t. It was because of the nulling magic. She was positive. The moment she swirled even a whiff of that magic, delighting in the earthy scent and feeling the hum in her body, her thoughts drifted away from prying minds. They weren’t stored at the edge of her brain for someone to pluck out. They existed for her and her alone.
“What’d she say?” Lennox asked as Daisy tugged at his magic, siphoning it delicately. So very delicately. Any faster and he’d notice and attack her. Then the rest of theFallenwould have to jump in his way as Daisy took off.
The trigger in a fae was immediate and intense. She had to beverycareful with that magic, which wasn’t great because, while she’d developed an instinctual use of it, she’d only been at it for three days. She was a fast learner, but she wasn’t a genius, as Eldric loved to point out.
“She probably said your beard tassel is ridiculous,” Revana said, adjusting her top bun as she passed behind the couch.
“Nah.” Kayla grinned. “It was that your braids are all crooked. Why are you still so bad at those?”
“I think she noticed that you’re too soft to be a Thornborn,” Gorlan murmured, standing by the door.
Lennox put up his hands. “Really? We’re all taking shots?”
“I mean, when it’s so easy,” Kayla replied.
Daisy stood for a distraction and fixed her hair, siphoning a little more. She passed by Lennox, giving him a slap on the shoulder as she went. Proximity boosted her magic’s strength. Physical contact distracted them from what was happening magically.
