The rest of the fae had moved in close enough to surround the car. I had no chance now of reaching my phone.
I didn’t give a fuck about giving up the key to the high court vaults, but Lady Sarhin wasn’t being a martyr when she said she’d die before giving them up. The high court members who knew how to access the vaults signed a blood pact. She couldn’t give Melhak the information even if she wanted to.
But I could.
And because I’d interrogated him using my magic, Melhak knew it too.
The rest didn’t though, because he’d signed his own pact. One that prevented him from telling anyone about me. I wondered what he’d told the others to make them think this was a viable plan.
Unless they’d known before Melhak was arrested.
I glanced from one to the other, but none of them seemed familiar. Z said he hadn’t told anyone about me, but had he lied?
Sweat ran down my back and my hands shook as I let go of Talis and slowly stood. “My magic doesn’t work here like it does in the Fae Realm.”
Melhak laughed. “You expect me to believe that?” He tapped his head. “You managed just fine a moment ago.”
“What’s he talking about?” one of the fae asked.
“Nothing,” Melhak snapped, walking closer until he stood in front of me. Hefting his crossbow, he set it against Talis’s temple. “Unless you want me to end it now, tell me what I want to know.”
“No!” I moved in front of Talis, ignoring his groan and weak attempt to push me back. “You’re notlisteningto me. It’s different here, you know it is.” I spoke quickly, trying to get it all out before he decided to shoot Talis anyway. “You must feel how much slower your magic responds here?”
“Yes, but it stillworks.” He brandished his crossbow as evidence and I caught the edge of a tattoo on his chest.
“Well, mine doesn’t. Not like it should.” He stared at me, not as sure as he’d been before, but I knew he didn’t fully believe what I was saying.
“It worked before,” he repeated.
“Yes, but I have no control overwhenit works.”
Understanding dawned, for all the good it did us, because Melhak stepped back and gestured for the other fae to come closer. “Get them all inside. Looks like we’ll be in for a bit of a wait.”
Probably longer than he anticipated because I also couldn’t control what I saw in a person’s mind. Only they could do that. And I doubted Lady Sarhin was going to sit there and constantly think about the key to the vaults in the vain hope that my magic would decide to work.
In Melhak’s interrogation, we’d used other means to force him to think about the memories we needed. If he thought I could do that on my own, then he was in for an unpleasant surprise. And that didn’t bode well for anyone.
* * *
Talis
Fuck, it hurt.
My chest throbbed with a dull pain from the arrow tip lodged in there. I’d been so fucking stupid to snap it off like that. Blinded by rage when they shot Axel, the only thing on my mind was the urge to shift and tear them all apart for daring to fucking touch him.
My wolf wasn’t all that rational and now I had a hunk of silver stuck inside me that stopped the wound healing and wouldn’t let me shift.
But that was the least of my problems. Because while the silver in my chest would kill me slowly if it wasn’t removed, the fuckingfirespreading out from my belly would do it ten times faster.
And the pain… Goddess, help me, the pain was excruciating.
It was all I could concentrate on and I was useless to anyone like this. I wanted to protect Axel, protect all of them, but ithurt. Hurt so much it took all my strength not to curl up on my side and howl for someone to put me out of my misery.
But I couldn’t do that.
Couldn’t leave him to face this alone.
Axel spoke, his voice filtering through the haze of pain. I couldn’t parse the words, but it was enough to pull me back from the brink of giving up.
