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I bit out a laugh, harsh enough I hardly recognized it from my own lips. “Does that mean you intend to?”

Arran raised one dark eyebrow. “Perhaps.”

That did surprise me—even after what Gwen had told me about the merciless way Arran had beheaded the humans in the Shadow Wood.

“Let me question him first,” I said.

“You mean torture.”

I inclined my head. “If necessary.”

He didn’t respond.

“You want to help me avenge Arthur. That human may have information.”You have to let me question him. I didn’t say it aloud, but I knew that Arran heard the words clearly, as if I’d spoken them directly into his mind.

He was silent for so long, I thought he would not answer. I half expected him to grab me by the arm and drag me back up the steps to my bedroom. If he threw me down on the bed, I knew I’d open my legs for him first and seek revenge later.

“Fine.”

I blinked twice, not sure I’d heard him correctly, that I’d imagined the clipped word. But the expectation in his face as he tilted it down to me convinced me it had been real. I responded with a sharp nod.

I was already down the next ten steps when I heard Arran’s next words.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

I paused long enough to glance back over my shoulder, touching the goldstone wall to keep myself from pitching forward as I smiled wickedly back at him. “Keep up.”

42

ARRAN

Down the staircase, to the narrow opening at the bottom. We slithered through on our stomachs, no better than serpents, our bellies coated with red dirt. My beast wanted to lick it off of Veyka’s soft stomach. I wasn’t much better.

Instead of slaking my lust, that one night had set fire to the desire that had been burning within me since that first meeting in the clearing. I’d never experienced such desire. I’d wanted females, of course. Lusted after them, even. But always, that need fizzled out once it had been met. I’d never bedded the same female twice. I’d never needed to. There was nothing interesting enough about them to warrant it.

But I wanted to know every curve of Veyka’s body. I wanted to hear every sound she made and feel the way her climax shuddered through every limb. I told myself I’d have a lifetime—a fae lifetime, at that. Hundreds of years. Perhaps a thousand, if her hidden powers were even close to those passed down by the Pendragon line for centuries.

Now, I needed to focus on Annwyn. I needed to get her through this scourge, drag her from the depths of despair, and onto the throne.

If that meant following her through the mountains surrounding Baylaur as darkness fell, then so be it.

After the second hour of climbing, I asked again: “Where are we going?”

Veyka flicked her moon-white braid as she turned and gave me that wicked smile of hers. My cock hardened instantly.

“You recall what Jax said. The Blasted Pass is not the only way through the mountains,” she said, smile still in place. As if that statement made any sense at all.

“You are tromping through the mountains, looking for… something… based on the words of a male who tried to gut you in his next breath.” I stopped, folding my hands over my chest. I’d help her avenge Arthur. I would not allow Veyka to get herself killed running through skoupuma territory on a whim.

She seemed to read my mind, for when she paused, she glanced around the sparse trees, scanning for threats. Something I’d been doing every minute as we’d walked for the last two hours. Stubborn ass princess.

“If there is another way through the mountains, then we must find it. The Shadows are smugglers—and if what I’ve gleaned so far is correct, they’ve smuggled humans more than once.”

The determination was set in every line of her face. The clear blue eyes, softened by the moonlight, the lips that pursed now in a straight line. She placed a hand on each hip and squared her body to mine in silent challenge.

But I didn’t want to spar with her—not now, not here.

But there was an obvious flaw to her logic. “Why would they smuggle humans into Annwyn? They cannot be sold at market.”