“The pain in our chests is dull,” Darian said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, the siren obviously having come to the same conclusion as Locke. “As long as the pain in our chests doesn’t get worse, we’ll know Raine is going to be all right. I was stung twice as well, and we’ll just have to hope for the best.”
“Well, thank you, strange magical bond,” I said, blowing out a breath. I likely sounded sarcastic, but I truly was thankful. I was growing used to the magical bond that tied me to the spirited little female. The constant pull I had toward her, and the desperate need I had to protect her, was almost becoming comforting in a way. As long as the pain in our chests didn’t worsen, I knew Raine wasn’t going to die from the venom of the insects.
“It could be only a matter of time,” Kade growled, shattering the calm I’d managed to find.
Groaning sounded behind us, and we all turned our attention to where Prince Azaren was starting to wake. Locke was the first to reach the fae, though my vampire brother’s movements were slower than usual. Instead of him being at the fae’s side almost instantly, a few seconds passed before he’d made it there.
Locke gripped the prince’s throat and pulled the male into a sitting position.
“My head,” Prince Azaren rasped, opening his bloodshot eyes. His body tensed as he took in the scene around him, but when his gaze settled on Raine, he visibly relaxed.
“Try to use magic and I’ll rip your head off,” Locke snarled in his ear, but despite Locke’s threat, the fae’s lips curved upward.
“It’s you,” Prince Azaren said, ignoring Locke as he kept staring at Raine. I shifted my massive body to block his view of her. I had no idea what magic the fae wielded, and I didn’t like my Sharachi in his line of sight. Raine lifted to her feet, limping around me, and I tried to rein in my annoyance at her complete disregard for her life as I followed her closer to the fae.
“You found the books,” Raine said, and the fae prince’s smile softened.
“It was as easy as baking bread,” he responded with a confident smile.
She raised a brow and looked up and down his beaten body. “I didn’t realize baking bread was such a difficult task,” she commented.
“Oh, you’d be surprised,” the prince quipped back, then added, “So…I faced some hurdles but nothing I couldn’t handle.” I hated how he was speaking to Raine like they were fond friends. In reality, he’d only seen her once when she’d saved him from Warrick’s lab.
I was close to opening my mouth to say something stupid when the fae acknowledged the rest of us. “And I see you’ve found your bonds,” he observed.
Locke gripped the prince’s throat tighter. “What did you just say?”
“What do you mean, my bonds?” Raine asked with a frown, and again the fae only responded to her.
“I’m weak, but I can still sense the magic. I told you I could sense you were bonded to others. I’m assuming you want me to break whatever magic is binding you to these four? Your attempt to free me was relatively poor, but that steel bar did the trick and you’ve brought me to my realm, so a deal’s a deal.”
“What the fuck? Did he just say, ‘break the magic’?” I blurted, not sure I’d heard correctly. From the reactions of my brothers, I had.
“What the hell is he talking about, Raine?” Kade growled, his voice echoing throughout the cavern as his gaze narrowed on her.
“You didn’t say anything about a deal, lovely,” Darian said, a glimmer of hurt in his blue eyes.
Claws peeked from Locke’s fingertips, and he pressed them against the soft skin of Prince Azaren’s neck. A trickle of fear finally entered the prince’s expression as Locke’s claws came dangerously close to breaking his skin.
“Tell us about this deal you made with her, Prince,” Locke snarled.
Raine blanched. “We’re not here to break the bonds,” she said quickly to the fae. “We’re here to find a way to break the curse on Katakin.”
Prince Azaren stared at her quizzically.
“Don’t look at her,” Locke spat, digging his nails in until blood dripped down the prince’s neck. “Tell me about the deal.”
Prince Azaren’s expression became uncertain as he looked at Raine and then at me and my brothers. “I told her if she freed me, she could come with me when I returned home, and I’d remove the curse that’s binding her soul to others. I–I didn’t know who she was bound to then. I didn’t know you want the bonds to remain.”
I’d been so focused, so unexplainably angry as I glared at the prince, that I hadn’t seen Raine draw a dagger until it flew through the air toward Locke. It would have missed him and sliced a line into the shoulder of his black leather cloak, but Locke caught it before it made it that far.
“I never made the deal,” she seethed as she walked closer to Locke and the prince. Kade stopped her with an arm around her waist before she could get within striking distance of the vampire. Undoubtedly, it was more for her safety than Locke’s. “I freed him because I thought his return would stop a war from breaking out. And if he can break the bonds, isn’t that a good thing? I thought you wanted to be free of your ties to me.”
I understood where Raine was coming from, but it didn’t stop the hurt that twisted inside me like barbed wire, wrapping around my heart.DidI want my bond with the little human to be broken? I knew it’d make life simpler, but deep down I also knew it would make my life emptier as well. She was supposed to be with us. I could feel it in my bones.
Locke stayed deathly still as he stared back at her, and his eyes darkened until they were pure black. He bared his wicked fangs that were now protruding from his mouth. “You don’t make any deals without talking to the rest of us first. Is this why you wanted to come to the fae realm? Why you wanted us to keep the fae alive?”
At Locke’s last question, fury rocked Kade’s body.
