Page 15 of A Blade of Blood and Shadow (The Ravaged Kingdom #1)

Chapter

Nine

K aden .

Somehow, on top of everything else that had happened that night, the dark fae had found me outside of Imogen’s apartment.

What was it with her place? How had Vince, Gorm, and Kaden found me here? Had leaving Silas activated some sort of magical homing beacon that allowed every troublesome male in the Quarter to track me?

Before I could formulate the question, Kaden had scooped me up into his arms. I opened my mouth to protest, but somehow my head ended up cradled against his strong shoulder.

That intense magic of his hummed against my cheek, but mixed with the crisp smoky scent of him and the steady rise and fall of his chest, it wasn’t altogether unpleasant.

Yet another sign that I’d lost too much blood.

As Kaden carried me out of the alley and around the corner to Imogen’s building, I found myself wishing that the blackness would take me. But I was still agonizingly conscious as Kaden’s arms tightened around me and he began to climb the narrow, creaky staircase.

The shabby hallway faded in and out as he carried me to Imogen’s apartment, but I had the presence of mind to watch as he stopped outside number nine and held his hand over the tarnished brass doorknob.

There was a soft metallic click , and the door swung open of its own accord, as if beckoning him inside.

Kaden strode in as though he owned the place, pausing just inside the threshold to take in the upturned chair and little piles of dirt that had spilled out of the pots Vince had knocked over.

“Not the best housekeeper, I see,” he said conversationally.

The words rumbled through me from every place we were touching. I made to glare at him, but it hurt too much, and I couldn’t quite muster the effort.

He’d only taken a few steps toward the living room when Goose darted out from beneath a table and shot into the bedroom with a hiss.

“Fuck!” Kaden exclaimed, his whole body jerking as he gave a start.

I chuckled, and even that tiny motion hurt my battered bones.

Moving with slightly more trepidation than before, he carried me into Imogen’s living room and laid me gently on the couch. I noticed that he’d magicked away his massive wings — probably to keep them from bumping into furniture as he navigated the cramped space.

I watched through bleary eyes as Kaden took in Imogen’s apartment. His gaze bounced from the rainbow of crystals hanging in the windows to the teal meditation cushion on the floor.

“You meditate ?” He sounded genuinely amused.

“No,” I rasped, somehow managing to sound indignant despite the hoarseness of my voice.

“It wasn’t an accusation. Nor a criticism. In fact . . .” His lip curled as he looked me over. “You seem like you could use a little peace in your life.”

I bristled at his assessment, narrowing my eyes as I tried to ignore the airy, detached feeling in my head. “That isn’t mine. None of it is. This isn’t my apartment.”

Kaden’s brows knitted together, and a muscle in his jaw tightened. “But your scent is all over the place.”

“It belongs to a friend. I was just crashing and —” I broke off with a hiss, the pain in my side exploding.

I had no reason to trust Kaden, and I’d already said too much. What the fuck was he even doing here?

“Well, that explains it,” he said, running a hand through his raven locks and looking around with renewed interest.

“Explains what?”

“Why it’s so . . . cheery in here.”

I just glared at him, though I instantly regretted straining my facial muscles as pain shot through the back of my skull. Then Kaden vanished, and an instant later, he was standing on the other side of the low wall that divided the kitchen and living room.

I blinked. Had he just teleported, or was he really that fast?

At the moment, I was too exhausted to care, and Imogen’s couch was so comfortable.

I wasn’t planning on falling asleep — not with Kaden in the next room — but as my body sank into the cushions, my exhaustion began to overtake me.

A strange herb-and-sulfur scent wafted from the kitchen, tickling my nose, and I allowed my eyes to flutter closed.

But just before the darkness crept in, I felt the hum of Kaden’s magic again. Slowly, laboriously, I peeled my eyes open and found the male staring down at me with something like concern.

I gave myself a little shake. It was bad enough that Kaden was here when I was so weak, but to allow him to get this close . . .

Wordlessly, he pressed a cool glass into my hand and braced my back so I could sit up. The warmth of his touch soaked through my leathers, and I greedily gulped down the water.

The instant it touched my tongue, I suddenly realized how thirsty I was. I thought it might have been the best thing I’d ever tasted.

“You’d better let me heal that gash along your side. It’s still bleeding, which means it must be deep.”

I stopped drinking and glared at him from over the top of the glass. “Why are you helping me?” I asked.

Kaden lifted an eyebrow. “Would you rather I didn’t?”

“No, I —” I broke off, pressing my lips together and trying to breathe through the blinding pain.

I knew the wound in my side was deep and that I’d already lost too much blood. If Kaden was offering to heal me with his faerie magic, I wasn’t in a position to refuse.

His mouth twisted into a scowl. “That’s what I thought.”

Without giving me another chance to object, Kaden reached for the button at my throat and tugged my jacket open.

I shivered as his fingers brushed my collarbones and slid the zipper down my middle.

I hissed as he started shucking it off, and warmth flooded the side of my body as hot blood seeped from the wound.

Kaden sucked in a breath between his teeth, turning me gently onto my uninjured side. I didn’t protest as his fingers found the hem of my tank top and tugged it up just beneath my breasts.

Cold air raced over my clammy skin, leaving goosebumps in their wake, and I glanced down. The wound was at least three inches long and deep enough that I could see the stark white of bone. Bile rose in my throat, but I swallowed it down and squeezed my eyes shut.

Seeing it somehow intensified the pain, and I was so preoccupied that I didn’t immediately notice Kaden’s fingers drifting up my exposed side to the scars along my back. “What the —”

My eyes flew open as one warm fingertip brushed the edge of the most prominent scar that marred the flesh of my back. He started to turn me for a better look, but I jerked away from his touch.

“It’s nothing,” I rasped, reaching for my tank top to tug it back down. “Just a scar. Not uncommon in my line of work.”

“It’s not just a scar,” Kaden retorted, his voice low and deadly.

His grip was firm but gentle as he unclenched my fist, lifting my shirt once again to expose the lower half of my back. I winced as cool air prickled over the scarred skin, and Kaden went unnaturally still.

“What the fuck is this?” His voice was little more than a growl as he took in my scarred back, and I felt a pulse of that terrible power ripple over my skin. “Who did this to you?”

There was both a threat and a promise that laced those words, and I shivered despite the heat that immediately flooded my cheeks.

“It’s none of your business,” I choked, my throat swollen with anger and embarrassment as I turned to glare at him.

I hated that he’d seen that part of me, but I didn’t owe him an explanation. I didn’t owe him anything.

Something dark and terrifying swirled in those gray eyes of his, but he didn’t press the issue. A muscle ticked in his jaw as he regarded me, reaching down to place a warm hand over my still-bleeding wound.

The effect was instantaneous. I shuddered as his power hummed through me, seeping into the torn flesh and burning with an icy heat that made me gasp for air.

It only lasted a few seconds, pulsing through my whole body before fading to a soft tingle.

Once the pain had ebbed away, along with Kaden’s magic, I looked down and stared in disbelief. The laceration in my side was completely healed — the skin smooth and unblemished.

“You seem to be very good at getting into trouble,” Kaden observed, his jaw still tight. “Want to tell me what happened?”

“Not really,” I muttered, yanking my shirt down the rest of the way and draining the water from my glass.

His eyes flashed dangerously. “That’s twice I’ve saved your life now.”

I scoffed .

“I think you at least owe me a good story . . . and your name.”

“I make it a habit not to owe faeries anything,” I grumbled, snatching my jacket off the couch and getting to my feet. My head swam dangerously as I stood, and Kaden reached out to steady me before I slumped back down. My heart skittered erratically in my chest, and I felt suddenly weak all over.

“Easy,” he said. “My magic can’t replace the blood you lost. Not that I’ve tried since I made the last guy explode.”

The last bit he added almost as an afterthought. My horror and disgust must have shown on my face, because a dark chuckle rumbled through him. “Try this.”

He held a steaming cup of something under my nose — whatever he’d been making in the kitchen, I guessed.

I gagged as I stared down into the yellowy liquid, where bits of burned herbs and grit floated near the surface. “What is that?”

“Just an old folk remedy. Females back home drink it after giving birth to help the body replenish blood.”

By “back home,” I guessed he meant Anvalyn — the faerie kingdom in the Otherworld.

“I think I’ll pass,” I croaked, glaring down at the murky tea. Kaden might have saved my life, but I still didn’t trust him — certainly not enough to accept a strange concoction from another realm.

“Suit yourself. I just thought it might be prudent to get you back to full strength as quickly as possible, given that so many seem to be hunting you.”

I rolled my eyes. While it was hard to argue with that logic, I wasn’t drinking any faerie brew. Hunters, even half hunters, were gifted with quick healing. And with the laceration along my ribs already healed, I’d be better by morning.

“What were you even doing here?” I asked, annoyed that Kaden had seen me at my worst not once, but twice. “And don’t tell me you just so happened to be in the neighborhood . . .”

The corner of Kaden’s mouth twitched. “It that so hard to believe?”

“Yes.” I narrowed my eyes. “I could believe you ran into me once by chance, but twice feels a bit stalker-y.”

This time, his lips stretched into a full-on grin. “You think I’m stalking you?”

I shrugged.

“You must think very highly of yourself if you believe every male out for an evening stroll is stalking you.”

I gave him a deadpan look. “Faeries stroll ?”

“We do.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“About the strolling or the stalking?”

“Either.”

Kaden stared at me intently and attempted a casual shrug. “If you must know, I sensed that you were in peril and flew here as fast as I could.”

“You sensed it?” I shot back. “What do you mean you sensed it?”

“Exactly what I said.”

“How?”

He blinked, and somehow I just knew he wasn’t going to answer my question. Just because faeries couldn’t lie didn’t mean they had to offer up the truth.

“Why did you help me? ”

Kaden cocked his head to the side. “Part of me was curious what you’d gotten yourself into this time.”

“Well, thank you for your concern. And the healing. But you can go now. I’m fine.”

“And deny myself the opportunity to ask what business you had with the Ringmaster tonight?”

I blanched. “You were following me.”

He rolled his eyes. “If I were following you, would I admit to what I’d seen?”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Did you really think a huntress visiting the faerie circus would go unnoticed? Because it didn’t. The fae talk, tiny violent one. So tell me. Why were you there?”

“That’s none of your concern.”

Kaden’s expression turned to steel, and for the first time, I saw the dark, malevolent thing that he was peeking out from behind that handsome mask. “On the contrary, little huntress. A predator like you sniffing around my kind is very much my concern.”

At those words, something inside me snapped. I might have been a natural predator, but so was he. And so were those faeries at the circus tonight. “If I’m such a threat,” I countered, “why bother saving me at all? Why not just let me bleed out in that alley?”

That muscle in Kaden’s jaw tightened again, and those stormy gray eyes flashed in warning.

“Let me make one thing very clear. If I thought you were as bloodthirsty as the rest of your kind, Gorm and those bastards never would have gotten their filthy hands on you.” He lowered his voice.

“I would have let that demon rip apart your mind the first time I saw you. I would have let him toy with you, control you, break you until you were nothing but a soul trapped in a feeble husk of flesh. Then I would have let the rats gnaw on your rotting corpse as those demons dragged your soul to the Otherworld.”

My mouth went dry.

“Fortunately for you, I do not make snap judgments based on one’s race. There is a part of me — a foolish part, perhaps — that believes you are different from the likes of Silas.”

Something in my expression must have slipped, because he added, “Yes, I know you work for him. I also know he doesn’t let his hunters off their leashes to go to the circus. So I’m going to ask you once again: What — were you — doing there?”

A thousand answers flitted through my mind, but I didn’t allow myself to latch on to any of them. I’d once heard that very powerful fae could read thoughts, but only if those thoughts were left unguarded. I wasn’t going to let Kaden know that I’d left Silas — that I was alone and unprotected.

The fae didn’t do anything out of the goodness of their hearts. Kaden wanted something from me — of that I was certain. I just didn’t know what that might be yet. So I shoved the thought aside and pictured a series of iron doors slamming shut on my mind.

Kaden sighed as if he realized what I’d done. Or maybe I was just that easy to read. “Where’s your friend?” he asked.

“ What ?” I snapped.

“Your friend.” He gestured around the apartment. “The one who cares for that demonic cat.”

I had to fight back a smile at our shared dislike of Goose .

“You know, I’ve never known a witch to keep the company of hunters, and I’m fairly certain Silas never met a witch he didn’t have a use for.” Kaden raised an eyebrow. “It’s a risky game you’re playing, if you value your friend’s life.”

Immediately, my smile vanished. Fury bubbled in my gut, and my fingertips crackled with power.

Kaden glanced down at my hands as though he’d heard it, but when he met my gaze, I merely narrowed my eyes. “Thank you for your help. You can go.”