She was scared, worried for him, just like I’d been. It was inexplicable for me, since I kind of hated the guy. He was a traitor and a cocky arsehole making my life miserable. I shouldn’t have cared. I’d been wracking my brain while I’d waited for the others to arrive. Why had I fought so hard? Why had I gotten his literal blood on my hands trying to save hislife?
It didn’t make any sense. And yet, when I looked at him wounded on the floor, I felt that twinge deep down inside of me again. The urge to help. The desperation to keep himalive.
Maybe that was his power. Maybe it wasn’t skill with a spear atall.
Maybe he was able to command unwavering loyalty and devotion in his subjects. It would explain why he’d made his owncourt.
“Axel, what are you thinking?” Saoirse asked the sorcerer, who had knelt beside Lugh to examine hiswounds.
The sorcerer gave her a grim smile. “Unfortunately, Moira was right to be concerned. Whatever was used to cut him has been doused in magic. It prevents healing, so there’s no way to stop the blood or close thewound.”
My heart hammered against my ribcage. “So, you can’t fixhim?”
“Oh, I can fix him,” Axel grunted. “I can counter the magic with something of my own, so that he can begin to heal normally. But if you hadn’t called mein...”
I glanced at Saoirse whose face had gonepale.
“Right,” she whispered. “Do what you can for him,please.”
“And I’ll get mypayment?”
“Of course.” Her eyes flashed as she stared down at him. “Have we ever not paidyou?”
He shrugged. “Nope, but I have to check. I’ve been stiffed by others enough lately that I can never be toosure.”
Interesting. So, this sorcerer took on a lot of work. “You happen to be hired to make a blue smoke bomb thingylately?”
He cocked his head inconfusion.
“Sapphire,” Saoirse added. “She got hit withone.”
He grumbled. “No, I don’t touch that shite. You’re probably looking at Jezebel for that kind ofthing.”
Jezebel? Arching my brows, I turned back to Saoirse. If we could track down the sorcerer creating the smoke bombs, maybe she could lead us to the traitor inside thecourt.
Wait a minute. What was I thinking? I wasn’t here tohelpthe Court of Wraiths. I was here to take themdown.
Who cared who made the damn Sapphire when that mysterious cauldron was out there, waiting to take down myQueen?
Saoirse gave a quick shake of her head. “We already looked into that. Jezebel loves making Sapphire, but she’d never sell to a fae. She hatesus.”
With that, Axel snapped open a leather bag he’d brought along with him and extracted a grimoire. “Worry about your Sapphire problems later. I need to get towork.”
While the sorcerer did his thing to Lugh’s wounds, Saoirse dragged me down the hallway so that we could have some privacy. “Tell me whathappened.”
Deciding not to go into detail about the whole clothing situation—particularly since I’d made up a few white lies involving her, I explained that Lugh and I had taken a field trip into town. When we’d reached the High Street, he’d noticed someone tracking us. Everything became a whirlwind afterthat.
“I couldn’t see their faces,” I explained. “All of them were wearing cloaks and hoods and masks. One of them was a female fae. I think she was the leader. The others were male, I think. Not all of them spoke, so it was hard totell.”
Saoirse frowned. “You disobeyed hisorders?”
Bollocks. Maybe I should have left out that part. It was going to come back to bite me in the ass, wasn’tit?
“I’m a warrior at heart,” I tried with a shrug. “Sometimes, my urge to fight takesover.”
She cocked her head. “So, you rushed in to help him fight these tentraitors.”
“I guess,” I said warily. “The important thing here is, who were they? Lugh didn’t seem surprised to see them. He even mentioned somethingabout—”
