It was as if I electrocuted him. The boy I knew and loved dropped away; the man his father was trying to create stepped in. He jerked back, his form stiffening, the gun shoved roughly at my temple.
“Shut the fuck up, traitor.” Caden’s tone was icy and aloof. “You know nothing about me.”
“I know you better than anyone.”
“The girl I used to know knew everything about me. The one I trusted and loved,” he seethed, emotion slipping through his teeth. Most might not catch it, but I knew all his tells. The way his cheek twitched when he was so pissed he couldn’t speak. The way his voice sounded when he was happy, sad, annoyed, and turned on.
He cleared his throat. “But that girl is gone,” he said coolly. “To me, she died the day she hopped on the back of the fae’s bike. Became a traitor.”
“It’s not so simple,” I replied. “You don’t know the whole truth. Your dad?—”
“I saidshut up!” His finger pressed firmer on the trigger, making my body stiffen. He shoved me forward. “Move.”
“No, I don’t think she will.” A voice spoke from the other end of the alley, the charm in his voice twining around us like vines, twitching my lips in a smile. “I’d let her go if I were you.”
Caden wrenched both of us around to the intruder, keeping me locked in his hold, the gun to my temple.
“Two can play this game, right?” Ash’s green eyes glinted, stepping from the shadows.
Caden’s muscles tightened, but it wasn’t the gorgeous tree fairy who made him react. It was the hostage Ash had at gunpoint in front of him, his hand over her mouth.
Hanna’s eyes were wide with fear, her body trembling. HDF trainees were all ego and pompousness, bragging about how they’d kill fae like rabid animals. But if they were actually face to face with the fae, most would freeze up. We weren’t trained to consider or fight fae glamour, probably because we had no defense for it. They used it as propaganda, turning the fae into even more soulless monsters and humans the helpless victims.
Ash took a step closer.
“Stay back, fae,” Caden snarled, adjusting the gun at my head like he was ready to kill me.
“Please,” Ash smirked. “We both know you are not going to shoot her.”
“You don’t know anything about me. Or what I will do.” Caden’s chest puffed up.
“I can feel the binds you have to her.” Ash inched him and Hanna closer. “You love her. You won’t shoot her.” He moved even closer. “So how about this? We make a trade, like going to market. Your girl for my girl.” Ash’s eyes glinted, looking at me with a wink, knowing he was getting a rise out of me. “You know, you’re probably getting the better deal.” He flicked his chin at me. “That one is quite lippy and a realpain in the ass. Never listens... always getting into trouble andwanders offwhen she shouldn’t...” He tipped his head, making the last point clear.
I glared at him but couldn’t deny it. Yeah, I was all those things.
Ash moved him and Hanna closer still, a mischievous smirk twisting his lips. Hanna’s eyes went wide, fear blasting through them like stars, her head shook, her screams muffled.
“I saidstay back.” Caden pressed me closer to him. I could feel him becoming rattled, not knowing how to get out of this without sacrificing Hanna or me. The need to please his father would override his decision. Between saving a soldier or losing me? Istvan would have made his choice clear on that. Hanna would be sacrificed. “And I don’t makedealswithfae.” He spat the word like it was dirt on his tongue.
“That’s a shame,” a gravelly voice rumbled behind Caden. The gruff sound slithered over me, instantly igniting fire in my veins, rushing life through my body, coiling between my legs.
Fuck, that man . . .
The sound of metal cracking against flesh and bone echoed off the walls. Caden’s frame dropped away from mine, plunging to the ground with a thud.
“Caden!” Whirling around, I dropped down next to my old friend, checking to see if he was still breathing after being pistol-whipped. His head gushed with blood; a large wound cut into his scalp. “Basszus,Farkas!You could have killed him!”
“But I didn’t,” Warwick grumbled, pulling my gaze to him. Aqua eyes scorched through my soul, his massive physique heaving with adrenaline and fury. Blood and cuts covered his face; his lip curled up in a snarl. “Yet.”
I could feel his wrath, the line of death he still walked, his fury at me and at the boy who laid next to me. I could also feel his walls shutting down the link between us.
The pounding of footsteps hit the alley, whipping Warwick around, his gun pointed.
“No,” I exclaimed, rising to my feet, already knowing who was running up.
Scorpion, Maddox, Birdie, and Wesley came around the corner. It was subtle, but I watched Scorpion’s shoulders drop in relief the moment his eyes met mine.
“Oh good, more of your fan club,” Warwick muttered, running his hand through his tangled hair, his eyes rolling back.
