His eyes dart around the cave. His fingers are still locked around my wrists, and his breathing won’t slow.
“Where are we? What…ahhh…what happened?” He frowns.
“The shifterfae helped us,” I tell him, keeping my voice steady and even. “After the battle. They brought us here, to their court. You’re safe. We’re fine.”
Something shifts in his expression. The wildness recedes, just a fraction, replaced by confusion. His grip on my wrists loosens.
“The shifterfae?” His voice is a raw scrape from disuse. “The shifterfae are my enemy. They would never help me. We are not safe, Isla.”
“They rescued both of us, or we would have died out there.” I ease one wrist free and touch his face. His skin is warm beneath my fingers. “They brought a healer to tend to you.”
“There will be an ulterior motive,” he says. “We need to go.” He tries to stand.
I press both hands against his chest and push him back.
“No. You need to rest. You almost died, Sebastian. Your body has been through something terrible. The Shifter Court is strange, and I don’t trust them entirely, but for now, we’re safe. Once you gain back your strength, we can decide what to do. Besides, we wouldn’t make it halfway down the hall before we were stopped. I’m not even sure I know the way out.”
He searches my face for a long moment. Whatever he finds there must satisfy something in him because he stops fighting me. He leans back against the furs, his jaw tight.
“Tell me what happened after I lost consciousness,” he says. “Tell me everything.”
I shift off his lap and sit next to him, cross-legged on the pelts.
“You went after Snow,” I begin. “You used your power against her, but she took it.”
He nods. “I remember. It was terrible. I couldn’t do anything to stop her. She drained me until there was nothing, and then she kept on taking.” His face pales.
“She took your life force and would have killed you if...”
His face hardens. A muscle works in his jaw. “If what…?” he asks.
“You collapsed,” I continue. “I knew that she was going to kill you right there in the mud.” I swallow. “So I…um…went after her.”
His eyes snap to mine. “You did what?”
“I attacked her. I used everything I had. Fire and shadow; all of it. I hit her square in the chest, and it worked.”
“Isla, you shouldn’t have—”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“You could have died.” He cups my jaw.
“That’s just it,mymagic worked against her, Sebastian. I knocked her back far enough that her hold on you wavered. My magic was strong against her. She couldn’t take it or drain me.”
“That’s very interesting.” His eyes lift in thought.
“Once I started to weaken, she would have had me. She offered great rewards to anyone who could get my head.”
His eyes flare with rage. “That is why you should have left well alone.”
“The shifterfae sent their dragons in to keep her occupied and rescued me…us. They brought us here. They saved us.”
He’s quiet for a while, turning it over. I can see him working through the pieces, putting the battle back together from the fragments I’ve given him.
My mother is alive.
Not only that, but she’s also the shadowfae Ruler General.
