“They wouldn’t kill him for that,” the young one replied, all earnestness. “They’d kill him for assaulting and abducting a civilian with the intent to cross territory lines. And for abandonment of duty, of course.”
Her mouth dropped open. In a high, squeaky voice, she exclaimed, “He didn’t doanyof that! I mean, not the way theythink. He— he saved my life and then took me somewhere safe. The only reason he tried to leave the territory or abandoned his post was because he believed I’d be taken from him!”
Her breath shuddered as she looked around, desperate for her only potential allies to understand. “He didn’t want to leave you. You’re his family. He just didn’t think he had another choice.”
“Your story will be more believable if you don’t look quite so awful,” pixie cut noted. Holding out an ungloved hand, she offered, “I’m Johanna Titus, the healer assigned to this unit. With your permission, I can heal your wounds and lend you more credibility.”
Elvish healers?Cecilia shook her head. That was something to think about later, when Sloane wasn’t stuck in a cell and being accused of crimes he didn’t even commit.
“Sure, fine,” she replied, dropping her hand into Joanna’s. A warm tingle rushed through her as a peculiar kind of magic permeated her very cells, knitting things back together and fading bruises like they were nothing. “And for your information, no, we haven’t… bonded or whatever. He kept his helmet on.”
The bearded one’s eyebrows lifted. “Why would he do that?”
“To give me a choice,” she answered, horrified to find her chin beginning to wobble.
Vesta caught her eye. In a low voice, she asked, “Is heyourchoice, Cece?”
Do I want to be with Sloane forever?She could hardly imagine what that even meant. She’d only known him — really known him, not just his shadow or a flicker on the roof — for a few days.
But something in her knew something in him, and when she tried to imagine leaving him to go about her life like it was before, she couldn’t. She just couldn’t.
Whatever their future looked like, she damn well intended to see it for herself.
“Yes,” she answered, meeting Vesta’s seafoam green eyes with a stubborn tilt of her chin, “he’s my mate. I won’t let anyone take him from me.”
Johanna set her hand down on the arm of her chair. “Good. Then our plan might just work.”
Cecilia slammed her hands on the table. “Plan? What plan?”
All at once, the elves seemed to lose some of the starch in their spines. They folded in around her, all liquid, catlike grace, to fall into the chairs closest to her.
The young one leaned his elbows on the table when he said, “I’m Cesare, by the way. I’m very excited to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too, Cesare,” she replied, carefully pronouncing his name ascheh-suh-ruh.“Now please explain to me how I can get my man out of jail.”
All excitement, he gushed, “The Starsbury Protocol is all about prevention, but there’s no rules in place for what happens if the protocol fails because no one’s gotten around it before. That means that there’s no precedent in the event that a member of the unit isalready bondedto their consort.”
“Legally speaking, it’s pretty cut and dry,” Johanna butted in. “The sovereign didn’t think to make a provision for us when he passed the new laws. Anyone who seeks to separate an elf from their bonded consort, elvish or Other, can be charged with attempted murder, and no institution or authority is exempt from the law.”
“They never think to plan for us,” Cesare whispered, like he was confiding a hilarious secret.
Cecilia eyed him warily. She wondered just what kind of crimes they got up to that an entire governmentoughtto consider how each individual law might be used by seven individuals.
“If we can get you inside his cell, he can begin the process of fully bonding with you,” the bearded man explained. “It won’t necessarily absolve him of the crimes against him, but it will be illegal to separate you.”
A soft breath escaped her. “You… want to break into wherever he’s being held and sneak me in?”
“If you’re willing,” Vesta answered.
Cecilia gripped the edge of the table. It was one thing to take a lifelong mate on a whim, but it was another to break into what she could only assume was some sort of jail. If she did that and she got charged with something, her career as a teacher would be flushed before it ever even floated.
Throat constricting, she asked, “And you’re willing to do this for him, too? You could get in serious trouble.”
“He’s one of us,” Johanna replied.
“And we want consorts,” the bearded one added, a grave note in his deep voice. “If he gets one, we all get one.”
Something indescribably sad passed over Cesare’s youthful face. “We don’t want to feel like we have to run. We should be together. And we want Sloane back.”
