“These are my brothers,” she says, holding her hand out to the male panthers, who nudge up against her. “They, too, are dark elves of the House of Dark Dreams, cursed at the same time I was. I would tell you their elven names, but they are very difficult to pronounce in your tongue.” She smiles at me. “They won’t mind if you don’t use their original names, though, because like me, they prefer the names you gave them.”
“Riot. Rumble. Strife.” I murmur each in turn as the male panthers bow their heads to me.
Seemingly in unison, they all turn to the keeper, staring up at him expectantly.
He blinks back at them for a long moment.
Then his expression darkens.
“No,” he says, seeming to regain his spirit as he glares down at them. “One explosion was enough. I don’t care if you’re all cursed. I’m not doing that again.”
They huff and roll their eyes at him.
I can imagine how badly they want to return to their original forms. Being trapped in the body of an animal would be like being trapped in a cage. But I also understand why the keeperwouldn’t want to cause three more explosions like the one we just endured.
I reach out to press my hand to his arm, drawing his attention to me. “Maybe when it’s safe?”
He capitulates. “Of course.”
“Soon, then.” Anarchy sighs as she drags her gaze away from her brothers to take in the room and all of its disarray. “Now that we’ve got introductions over, what are the chances that the humans in this building will have been alarmed by the explosion of power?”
“None,” the keeper says, sounding confident now. “I contained its impact. They won’t have felt a thing.”
“Good,” she says. “Why don’t we clean this up, and while we work, I can answer any other questions you have?”
I clear my throat, squinting at her. “How about I get you some clothes first?”
Her forehead creases. Then clears. “Oh, that’s right. I need clothing in this form, don’t I?”
“You certainly do.” I nod my head firmly and gesture toward the bedroom. “Hopefully, something will fit you.”
She may be taller than I am, but she isn’t as skinny. Until I ate my first proper meal, the first in my life, my stomach had been caved in from malnourishment. It’s rounded out now and I’m loving it. I’ve eaten as much as I could since then and I’m hungry again now, but I tell my stomach to wait just a little longer.
As I move to step away from the keeper, he sweeps his hand across his chest and I’m not sure what he’s doing until the feather he removed from my shoulder materializes in his hand.
“You may want to put this in a safe place,” he says.
It’s only then that I remember, with a shudder, that I left the other feather in the wall of my father’s lair. I’d ripped my hand through it to free my arm.
Damn.
My stomach sinks to my toes.
That feather can be used to kill me, and I’ve left it in my father’s hands.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Veda?” the keeper asks quietly.
My voice is strained, but I force myself to speak. “That feather is very dangerous to me. But there was a second feather that I left behind.”
“Do you mean this one?” He moves his fingers, adjusting his hold on what I thought was a single feather, revealing that he is, in fact, holding two feathers.
My heart leaps to see them. “When did you retrieve that?”
“While you were trying to convince me to save your brother.” He smirks at me. “Since one of these had been rammed into your shoulder, I assumed your father enjoyed using them against you. I also smelled your blood on the feather in the wall. I wasn’t about to leave a weapon like that behind for your father to use in the future.”
I slip my hands around the keeper’s waist and rest my head against his chest. “Thank you.”
