"If you aren't going to work with me on this, I might as well give up and leave," Delphi argued back.
Tenebrys was suddenly looming over her. "Tonight isnotthe night to push my patience, female."
Delphi narrowed her eyes. "I'mtryingto help you, and you go from giving me books and saying that maybe I can break the curse, to you snarling at me and telling me to mind my business. What do you actually want from me, Tenebrys? Do you even know?"
His expression was all beast as he leaned in closer to her. "I want you to stay in the château and not test me tonight."
"And if I don't?" Delphi asked. His eyes turned so feral that a flicker of adrenaline shot through her veins.
"Just fucking try and leave this place and see what happens," he snarled before storming away.
"Asshole." Delphi's breath whooshed out of her, and she swore again. She was sick of Tenebrys hating her one second and then making her feel things she shouldn't the next. She was done being pushed around.
Delphi grabbed her dagger and slid it down the side of her boot before picking up her cloak. She was so tired of feeling powerless and having men telling her what to do. She had to get away from the lab and all it held before she burned the fucking place to the ground.
She needed to do what she always did on nights like this and go outside and scream at the full moon just to keep herself from breaking. It was when she had always drifted the closest to the Mistwood, far enough away where no one could hear her.
Maybe being under the moon's light would help calm the irritable current under her skin that made her want to tear it off and yell at Tenebrys some more.
The halls were empty as Delphi slipped out of her room and down to the kitchen. She ignored the meat Tenebrys had left in a cloth bag on the counter and went out the back door and into the garden. The moon had begun to rise, casting enough light to see by.
Delphi walked slowly through the gardens, trying to let the coiled energy inside of her relax.
Before long, she came to a stone wall that separated the garden from the rest of the grounds. The wooden door that led out of it had long since rotted away and was covered partially by thorny brambles. Delphi wrapped her cloak tighter around her shoulders before pushing her way through.
"Damn fucking skirts," she snarled, the fabric snagging in the vines' thorns. They scratched at her bare legs, and she hissed. She would have to clean them up before she went to bed, but in the pale light, she could see they weren't bleeding much.
The gardens she found herself in were wilder than the ones she came through. Overgrown trees and bushes that may have once been hedges were broken up by the occasional bit of statuary.
Delphi followed what remained of a white stone path and tried not to jump whenever she encountered a snarling lion statue or a scantily clad nymph.
The path looped around until she came to the stone road Tenebrys had carried her along. The Mistwood loomed ahead of her, and she knew she had come to the edge of the boundaries. Tenebrys had demanded that she not leave the château, and technically, she hadn't.
Delphi turned back toward it when a man appeared on the bridge behind her. He was as pale as the moonlight with black eyes.
"Are you lost, lamb?" he asked in a sweet voice.
"No, I live here," she replied, backing away.
How in the hell had he found this place? Her hand itched for the dagger in her boot. She was good in a street fight. She had learned the hard way how to defend herself, and she wasn't afraid to stab a man that had it coming.
"You smell that, brothers? Sweet, sweet life. Magic like pure sunlight," a voice said, making Delphi whirl around. Another figure had moved out of the shadows and behind her. He bowed elegantly. "Carrier of the witch fire. Life giver. Our lord will do great things with your power. Bring the land back into bloom."
"I don't know what you're talking about. You're trespassing on private property, and the master of this place tends to eat people he doesn't like," she warned, edging away.
Two more had emerged on the road in front of the château.
"Oh, sweet pea, we know more about the master of this place than you ever will. Time for you to come with us," the first man said, moving toward her. He smiled, showing two rows of sharp, pointed teeth. "Be a good girl, and we won't have to hurt you."
Fae.Run!The voice inside Delphi screamed. For once, she listened to it and bolted.
16
Tenebrys stood on his balcony and glared at the rising moon. It was sacred to both shifters and fae, and it sent all of them into blacked-out rage spirals if they weren't careful.
The gateways were the easiest to pass through without assistance from a stronger fae, so there was a sentry posted at every one of them. Felix and Tenebrys usually patrolled between them all in case they needed backup.
Seven shifters for five gateways. They couldn't last against the fae in the long term, especially if the number of raiders trying to get through kept multiplying.
