‘You deserve to know.’ I’m not oblivious to the trust he’s shown, taking my word about my reasons for doing what I did.
He puts his hand on my knee, giving it a light squeeze.
My hands tremble slightly, the remembered panic all too real even now. ‘She was fourteen. She’d left school as normal that day but never made it home. Milo and I flew back to Wales immediately. Our entire dragon flight organised a search for her. We started locally, thinking maybe she’d just gone somewhere and had gotten into some sort of trouble, but within days we were scouring the length and breadth of the UK, searching for any trace of her.
‘Our flight were insistent that we could find her ourselves, but Mum was beside herself with worry. She’s a water dragon so can’t fly, and Dad wouldn’t let Milo or I carry her, insisting she stay home as a central point of contact. She’s usually the calmest person in a crisis, but this just broke her. I couldn’t stand seeing her like that, and was freaking out that Zara had been missing for four days at that point, so I did the one thing our flight should have done from the beginning. I contacted the local BSG task force.’
My hands clench into fists as I pause so I can calm down enough to finish the story. He waits patiently, his hand a firm, steady weight, his eyes full of concern.
‘The BSG Counter-Terrorism Unit contacted me within hours. They’d been watching a location in the Scottish Highlands that they suspected of being a fae military training camp, and a new recruit had been brought in a few days previously that they thought might be Zara.’
‘What the fuck?’ He signs abruptly, his eyes hard.
‘Exactly my reaction. They’d been gathering intelligence to track whether there was a wider network than just that single location, so had no immediate plans to shut the camp down yet. Of course, the kidnapping of a minor was enough of a reason tochange their minds. I asked if they wanted a couple of dragons as backup, and they agreed.
‘Milo was the only one I told. I knew the rest of the flight wouldn’t approve of what I’d done, and would insist I stay behind while the senior members of the flight took over, so Milo and I flew to Scotland without telling anyone.’
Raj’s hand movements are firm. ‘I don’t blame you, although I’m amazed the CTU agreed to let you go along. Government organisations aren’t known for enlisting the help of civilians.’
I shrug. ‘In this case, they had to scramble a team at short notice, only had immediate access to one helicopter, and had no dragon officers available. They didn’t want the fae flying away to escape capture, so they chose to let us help.’
I found out later that the agent who’d made that decision got into a heap of trouble for it. They broke a lot of protocols, letting my brother and I join them.
‘What happened when you got there?’ Raj asks, eyes riveted on me.
‘The team insisted that we stay out of the mountain camp. Our job was to capture any fae who tried to fly away. We’d both have preferred to storm in and find Zara, but since they’d done us a huge favour by letting us tag along, we agreed.
‘As soon as they breached the ward, it descended into chaos. The fae took to the skies, some attacking the team while others tried to escape. We captured as many as we could. I ended up chasing one particular fae around the other side of the mountain and spotted Lance dragging Zara out of a hidden cave. She had a magical collar around her neck to prevent her from shifting, shifter-grade handcuffs, and a chain attaching the handcuffs to the collar. She looked utterly terrified.
‘Lance started firing spells at me, sandstorms and the like, while trying to drag her into his arms so he could fly away with her. She was already resisting, so as soon as she saw meshe started kicking him until she managed to break free. Lance lifted into the air, and I could see a huge spell building in his wings.’
‘Wait, the magic was in his wings? I thought fae cast using their hands.’
‘A fae’s magic is contained in their wings. Their hands are just the conduit to control the direction of the spell.’
He blinks. ‘I didn’t know that. Sorry, continue.’
‘There’s not much more to the story. I snatched him out of the air and crushed his wings.’
He frowns. ‘Is that what put him in a coma?’
‘No, their wings aren’t quite that vital. We were able to get Zara out of the collar and chains, but she was trembling and kept shooting these panicked looks at Lance.’ I’ll never forget the feeling of holding my terrified sister in my arms when we’d all begun to fear she might have already been killed. ‘She admitted she’d met a boy online and had been chatting to him. We didn’t know it at the time, but she’d been getting bullied at school and one day she’d had enough. Instead of flying to her brothers in Birchester, she flew to the address this boy had given her.’
His eyes harden and his hand movements turn choppy. ‘It was Lance?’
I give a sharp nod. ‘It was Lance. She had no idea she’d been talking to an adult fae. Within minutes of arriving he’d put the collar and handcuffs on her and within an hour she was on a private jet to Inverness.
‘Anyway, the BSG teams were having trouble with transporting so many prisoners at once, so we offered to help. When we delivered them to the BSG base near Aberdeen, Lance…might have slipped out of my grasp a little too high up.’
He raises his eyebrows. ‘How high up?’
I smirk. ‘High enough that I got to watch him bounce.’
If there’s a certain amount of glee in my hand movements, I think that’s understandable. It put Lance in a coma and me inprison, and the memory of his broken body got me through some tough nights in my cell.
Raj runs a hand over his stubbled head, his expression troubled. ‘Honestly? I don’t blame you.’
I eye him. ‘Really?’
