Something like warmth moved through his eyes—friendliness, unguarded and infuriating, considering he was one of my captors.
“You remember.”
The way he said it, like it was a compliment I’d given him, only sent irritation rushing through me. “I don’t think I’ll forget you. Not since you helped kidnap me.”
“Rescue,” he corrected.
Thorne gave me a look as if to say, “See?”
A third figure pushed past them both—female fae, brown skin, dark braids coiled at the nape of her neck. A scar nicked one eyebrow; another bisected her lower lip and tugged one corner downward in a perpetual frown.
“This is her?” she asked the others.
Her gaze landed on Amanti behind me, who must have offered silent confirmation. The female fae frowned at me.
“I’m Keres,” she said, breezing past without waiting for my response.
She carried a wooden tray with a steaming bowl and a mug that smelled like crushed mint and bitters. She set them on the low table near the sofa and glanced at Amanti in a way that was not deference so much as fondness curbed by discipline.
“Eat. You’ll stop shaking.”
“I’m not—” I began.
Keres cocked her head. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
I watched in mild shock as the Aine warrior lowered herself to the chair and took the mug Keres handed her.
“Thank you,” she told Keres.
Keres nodded once and moved to the hearth, where she checked the clean bandages drying on a rack set near the heat of the flames. Her back was turned to me, which made her either formidable or naïve.
Weighing my chances for escape, I stole glances at the others. Thorne remained in the doorway, watchful. Daegel took three steps into the room and stood with the patience of an old tree, not to mention the solidarity of one. Whatever this was—rescue, kidnapping—they weren’t letting their guard down.
“How long have I been here?” I asked no one in particular.
“Two days,” Amanti said. “Nearly three.”
“Two days?” I blinked. “And the journey here took…”
“Another three days before it,” Daegel said.
Keres hissed at him for it.
“I’ve been drugged for five days,” I said, wondering what I’d missed. What state the realm was in now. With Duron gone, with Callan likely now king… and with so many witnesses to my furyfire that night. A power imbued by Hel itself.
Would the realm have guessed me a demon’s daughter by now? Would they turn on me for it?
“They had no choice.” Amanti’s eyes softened with that damnable patience. “Heliconia’s scouts have doubled. We couldn’t risk you slowing them down in any way.”
“Ah. Well, I wouldn’t want to burden you with my slowness while you were busy kidnapping me to another kingdom.” I glared at each of them one by one. Daegel and Thorne looked slightly sorry, but Keres didn’t even blink.
“Where are we?” I asked into the tense silence.
Keres said nothing. At least she didn’t hiss. Apparently, that was all the permission Daegel needed.
“At the edge of the Trolech Forest,” he said. “Just south of the city.”
The city. Did he mean Ravenna? The capital city of the Midnight Court?
