Page 42 of Rapunzel Unchained
At my puzzled expression, Rebecca huffed. “I’ll be right back.” She hustled out of the room, tossing me a wary look over her shoulder.
I let my gaze move over them, not having seen any of them since the time we had been intimate. The twins didn’t seem any worse for wear. If anything, they were standing stronger than ever. A small part of me hoped it was my doing.
When my gaze bounced over Zane, I swallowed thickly. I couldn’t meet his piercing hazel eyes behind his eye wear. I had the urge to wrap my arms around my waist and hug myself but, with the council member present, I couldn’t show weakness. “What do you want?”
It was Zane who spoke this time. His voice soft, like a caress against the side of my face. “Gage wanted to come himself, but we convinced him not to.”
“Why?” I finally forced myself to look the Cleric in the eyes. The judgement and accusation I thought I would see in those eyes was nowhere to be found. They crinkled slightly at the edges, his lips lifting on one side.
“We had a better idea. One that Adam and Gage don’t necessarily agree with.” Zane stepped up to the table, a hand on the back of a chair. “May we?”
I shrugged, settling back in my own chair. I swiped my napkin across the table, cleaning up the spilled tea from before. “I’d offer you some tea, but I’m not sure you would take it.” My eyes were on the council member and not on the three men who had touched and claimed my body not too long ago.
Sentinel Nickolai smiled, tilting his head slightly like a cat might do. “You don’t seem the type to poison someone to get what you wanted.”
Once again, I shrugged. “I’m not a hundred percent sure what’s off the table at the moment. I’m having to rely on moreaggressive measures to get events moving the way I want them to.”
The council member inclined his head, a solemn look on his face. “That’s what I’m here about.”
This time, I let my lips spread into a wide grin, mischief filled my face. “Do you wish to be the next of my victims, council member? I never thought one of you would come to me for a house call. I thought I’d have to chase you all down like strays.”
Nickolai laughed. “No, no. I’m not here to fight you. I... we...” He gave a pointed look at the twins and Zane. “We agree with you. While Arch Mage Adam has good intentions, he’s an idealist. He thinks that we can just talk it out and reach a willing compromise. Push this bill here, pass this proposal there, and get what we all want.”
“And what is that?” My gaze stared at him from over my tea cup lip. “What do we want?”
“The humans freed, of course.”
I studied the council member for a moment. Nickolai had been the one voice of reason among the four other members. He’d been the one who spat on Cleric Jetta when he talked about his experiments. Something inside of me told me I could trust him.
My eyes wandered to the twins for a moment, watching them for any sign that what the mage before me said was false. Blake only stared at the table, while Luke gave me an encouraging thumbs up. I resisted the urge to smile back at him, when I searched out Zane’s gaze.
I needed to talk to him. Not just about this, but about what Gage had surely told him I was doing with his demon. Zane pulled his long red braid over his shoulder and inclined his head toward me as if to say it's my choice.
Nice to know someone thought I got one.
Clearing my throat, I focused my attention back on the council member. “Alright, Nickolai, tell me what you think I should do?”
Chapter 22
Before Nickolai could reply, Rebecca hurried back into the room with a flat clear disc in her hand. “Here it is.”
My lips pulled down into a frown at the disc and the interruption. “That’s a tracker?”
“Yes,” she breathed heavily as if she had run to get back to me. “It’s magically undetectable so you wouldn’t have even noticed it unless you knew what to look for.”
She held it out to me to inspect. “I suggest we destroy it though, I suppose the queen is out of the bag so to speak.” Rebecca’s eyes swept across our guests with a haughty air.
Blake snorted. “I do not know if it is a relief that the woman we knew as Rebecca is a fake or to be worried that you were able to fool us so easily.”
“You got that right,” Luke jumped in, eagerness making his hair bounce slightly. “When Gage said you had Eva, we were completely blown away. I couldn’t believe it. None of us could. Like, of all the people in all the world, you would have been the last person we would think was hiding our Eva.”
My heart warmed and sank down to my toes at how easily he claimed me as theirs. “Believe me,” I murmured, letting my appreciation for the woman who saved me flow through my eyes, “it was a surprise to me too.”
Rebecca ducked her head to me. “Should I?”
I waved a hand for her to go on.
The disc dropped to the ground and met with the heel of Rebecca’s stiletto. A small crack filled the air and then the disc was destroyed.
