“Kailia. Where is she?” he demanded, scanning the area, the horses, all of it.
“She was with Wren.”
“She’s not with me,” the Fae answered, looking up from where she was pressing a wet cloth to Razik’s brow, the male’s wings already banished.
Ariadne’s brows crashed together. “But I thought?—”
“Where the fuck is she?” Cethin demanded again. He turned, advancing on Wren, and she scrambled back at the same time that Razik lurched to his feet.
“Back the fuck up, Cethin,” Razik growled, his eyes shifting. Cethin knew the male was moments away from shifting fully, and then they’d be having an entirely different type of brawl. One with power thrown about and likely causing massive destruction in a sacred space, but he didn’t give a fuck.
“She was the last one to see her!” Cethin bellowed.
“I didn’t!” Wren cried, peering around Razik, her eyes wide. “I swear it to you, Cethin. I didn’t see her. The others left to see what the commotion was. I stayed to finish packing up everything. I thought Kailia went with them.”
“She doesn’t know, Cethin,” Bram said, his tone coaxing as he stepped next to Razik to shield Wren. “Take a beat andthink about this. Get yourself under control. Kailia isn’t her responsibility to look after.”
No, it wasn’t. It was Razik’s, who’d insisted on having a conversation about things that were none of his godsdamn business.
“Cethin,” Bram said again, sharper and more forceful. The male looked pointedly at the ground, and Cethin looked to find pools of inky darkness at his feet, creeping along the ground.
“We’ll help you find her,” Fallon said gently, taking a step towards him but stilling at the magic. Jarek was tense beside her. They were all tense. All of them waiting to see what their king was going to do next. All of them waiting to see if they were going to have to intervene in some way.
Inhaling sharply, he pulled his power back. His words were jagged and raspy when he said, “Don’t bother. I’ll find her myself.”
Then he was striding through the trees. A few called after him, and he heard others say to “let him have a minute.” He knew they’d follow from afar. None of them would let the king go too far without additional protection.
As if he couldn’t handle himself.
As if he hadn’t trained with them for centuries.
As if he weren’t just as skilled.
As if he were indeed the incompetent king that Razik claimed he was whenhewas the one who’d failed to keep tabs on her. The one person he was supposed to watch and guard with his life. It was his one fucking job.
Unable to keep his power completely contained anymore, he let some of the darkness out. It trailed him, leaving a path of dying foliage in its wake. He tried to keep it as subdued as possible, but with his attention and focus homed in on something else, it was the best he could do.
Why would she wander off? Was she testing him? Seeing just how true his words about always finding her were? Was she trying to prove a point of her own?
Because he could find her, and he would. He could sense power. It was a gift few knew he possessed, one his family had purposefully kept a secret, but he could feel someone’s power and the strength of it. It was how he knew that Razik’s power was only partially refilled, and it was how he knew she hadn’t moved among her smoke and ashes halfway across the continent. It was how he was tracking her now. How he’d known she’d been watching him for months.
He could feel her. It was fleeting, as if her power was flickering in and out like when she moved among her magic, but he could still sense it. It was all he needed to be able to follow her path.
They’d stuck to the eastern edge of the forest, slowly making their way from the Elshira castle to his family’s old estate. The home he’d lived in for so many decades with his parents. It was the same path they took every year, but she wouldn’t have known that. And she was moving deeper into the trees. Deeper into sacred spaces guarded by more than the spirit animals.
Why couldn’t she give just a fucking inch? He was trying. Trying to make her feel at home. Trying to acclimate her to what her new life would entail. Trying to get to know her, to make her comfortable. Trying to include her. To show her the people and lives she would save by agreeing to use her power to help them. What kind of person didn’t want to save thousands and thousands of lives?
She accused him of wanting to lock her away in the castle, and now he was beginning to think that wouldn’t be a bad idea. At least until they came to a new understanding.
He continued his search, a new and different kind of hunt from what these days had started out as, but a hunt nonetheless.With long strides, he moved, homed in on her power and the call of her magic. Feeling it more acutely the nearer he came. It consumed him.
Until he heard the scream.
Then he was running because he’d only known her a short time, but she never screamed. She never asked for aid. She was annoyingly self-sufficient. More than that, she was as skilled with weapons and combat as the warriors in their company. In fact, the only time he’d heard her scream like this was when Razik had been holding her in an attempt to subdue her.
Which meant someone was touching her.
Every primal piece of him snarled in fury. She may not be his wife yet, but he had still claimed her. She was still his. No one touched her.
