Which meant she was either dead . . . or was a couple of days away from House Devereux, maybe a little less if she lucked out and didn’t run into any trouble.
Hesitation fluttered through my thoughts, but I realized it wasn’t mine; I’d been staring at the floor, unseeing, while contemplating all the possibilities. When I looked up, I found Samara’s heavy gaze on me, then that flicker of doubt rolled through me again.
“You might as well tell me what you’re thinking.” I laid my hand flat against my chest, over my heart. “Because I can already feel it,mate.”
Her gaze dropped to my hand before returning to my eyes. She didn’t deny that we were mates or say something caustic to me, so I considered that a win.
“In order to set the plan in motion, we need to let Carmilla discover where we are.” Samara held my stare, even as Cali grumbled something about hating this plan. I didn’t blame her. If things went the way we expected, as soon as Carmilla learnedour whereabouts, she’d enact her strategy to remove Cali as a player.
And we were going to let her do it—as long as the Furie’s life wasn’t in danger. Samara’s plan would only work if Carmilla believed she was winning.
I would have been pissed too if my friends were going to enact an absolutely insane plan that could fall apart in so many ways and I wouldn’t be there to help them.
Cali had been the one to read that message first though, so she knew what was at stake. We couldn’t let more innocent people die. This plan might have been crazy, but if we pulled it off, it would also limit the bloodshed.
Samara let her words hang in the air, then opened her mouth to speak before closing it again and looking away from me. Fear echoed down the bond before suddenly being cut off. She was walling off her emotions from me, trying to hide.
I knew what she wanted to ask me. To find Tamsen, if she was still alive, and get her to safety. It wasn’t hard to figure out because, of those gathered here, I was best suited for the task. Traveling through the Lunarian wilds was literally my job. Draven could probably do it, but he was needed here, as Erendriel would no doubt show up again, and even with the magic binding his tongue, the prince’s knowledge of his father would be useful.
But still, Samara didn’t ask. Frustrated rage swirled inside my gut, and based on the way she flinched, I knew she felt it.
She believed I would betray her. Even now, after everything I’d done, Samara didn’t trust me to do this.
“Roth,” I said evenly. “Write a note to your family asking them to protect Tamsen—even if they throw her ass into the dungeon. As long as they don’t lop her head off because she looks at them funny.”
“Vail—” Samara took a step towards me.
“It’ll likely take me at least four days to find her,” I cut her off and stalked towards the table with the Fae weapons. On the off chance I ran into some wraiths, these could be useful. “Maybe up to a week depending on how well she’s covering her tracks.”
Kieran quietly snuck out of the room. Everyone else remained silent, eyes bouncing back and forth between me and Samara.
“Vail.” Samara closed the distance between us until she stood next to me at the table.
I ignored her.
“Carmilla is likely watching House Devereux, so I can’t just walk Tamsen up to the front gate—that would be too obvious—but I’ll make sure she gets there and then double back a bit.” I grabbed a second sword harness and strapped it on before sliding a Fae sword next to my regular one. Then I swapped the daggers on my thighs for Fae ones. “Carmilla will only send out her best rangers looking for us. I’ll leave just enough of a trail that they can find it but make it look like I was trying to cover my tracks.”
“Marshal,” Samara said more firmly.
I wanted to look at her but also knew doing so might weaken my resolve—because I didn’t want to leave. But it had to be me. If Tamsen had truly defected, we couldn’t leave her to the wolves. Plus, Samara’s plan to deal with her aunt would only work if Carmilla didn’t know she was walking into a trap.
“Here.” Roth held up a folded-up letter. “She probably won’t get the best treatment, but they won’t kill her.”
“Good enough.” I walked over and took the letter from them just as Kieran strode back into the room, holding a bag.
“We’re getting low on food, but I packed what we could spare and some water. You’ll probably have to restock somewhere.”
“Once I get out of the badlands, there are ranger stashes I can use.”
Kieran nodded as I took the bag from him, then I headed towards the door without a backwards glance.
“Stubborn fucking asshole,” I heard Samara growl, but I kept walking. My long strides were eating up the distance as I went up the stairwell and then stalked through the temple. Whatever it took to prove my loyalty to her, I’d do it—even if I was pissed that she didn’t even seem willing to give me a chance.
Yes. I’d fucked up. Massively.
But I’d also helped get her out of that dungeon. I’d done everything I could to keep her alive while we’d been on the run. Cali was clearly teetering on losing it, but I hadn’t said one damn word about it. And I wasn’t bitching about the fact that I’d have to share my mate with four others—part of me was actually relieved by that because it meant there were four other people in this world who would love and protect her as much as I would.
None of it mattered though, because apparently, she still believed I was one breath away from betraying her again.
