Page 51

CHAPTER 51

BOWEN

“A re you going to tell Auria?” Flynt asked as we walked through the throng of citizens. Fae of all different backgrounds pulsed around me, their powers practically beaming out of them with the concern they held for their lives.

They had such doubt in their ruler that they believed I might let them die under King Tenere’s wrath? I’d just have to make it clear to them that I’d do anything to keep that from happening.

I shoved through the brothel’s front doors. “No.”

“Glacies won’t be able to get to her?—”

In the middle of the open room, I spun on him. “Do you think I don’t know that?” I’d given him a quick rundown of what Glacies had told me and Vulcan regarding her bond with Auria. I didn’t want him taken off guard if Glacies put up a fight when King Tenere arrived to take his daughter back.

Patrons, men and women alike, quieted their tones as they sent nervous glances our way.

“It could sway Auria to stay,” Flynt said, lowering his voice to not draw more attention.

“If she doesn’t already wish to be here, I don’t need to try to change her mind.” If not for me, I highly doubted she would stay for a dragon she hardly knew. The creatures were new to her. I couldn’t tell her, and have her leave and wonder for eternity what the bond meant.

Glacies and Auria could survive apart from each other, but after a while, they’d feel as if a hole had been dug through the center of their chests, wishing to be filled. Auria would likely believe it was her mourning the life she had experienced for such a short time, while Glacies would know the truth. She’d ache, call out for her, want nothing other than her other half, but she’d never cross the chasm. It was impossible, even if she wanted to.

But if Glacies got hurt… No matter how far Auria was, she’d feel it.

It wouldn’t make any sense to her, but I had no fucking clue what to do, and it seemed Glacies didn’t either.

“You’re just going to keep it from her, then?” I heard the accusation in his tone loud and clear.

Turning, I set a hand on the worn metal railing and climbed the spiral staircase. Flynt’s boots echoed a beat behind mine. “It’s not for me to tell. The bond is between Glacies and Auria. If Glacies is keeping it from her, then she has her reasons. I won’t put myself on her bad side for the sake of persuading Auria to stay.”

As I approached the top, the flames in the sconces on the walls flickered shadows along Triss, one of the brothel’s original courtesans, who stood on the edge of the wooden porch, overlooking the town. She wore a flamboyant red dress that had a slit all the way up to her waist on one side, exposing her sheer thigh-high stockings. Her brunette hair sat in a bun atop her head, and as she turned to me, she puffed the lingering smoke from her cigarette between her lips. The smoke curled around me, avoiding contact with my skin as my magic sensed its presence.

“I need your perch. Should only take a moment,” I said to her as Flynt stopped right at my back.

“I suppose I won’t be upset you’re not here to request my presence,” Triss moped.

I glanced behind her to the people below. “Never am. You could take Flynt here off my hands, though.”

Triss’s eyes found him over my shoulder, a devious smile cresting her painted lips. “He might be a fun ride.”

“Triss, honey, I mean no offense by this, but I don’t do…” A hand ghosted my back as he presumably tried to pull the right words from the air.

“Men with feelings can have their fun, too,” Triss purred, puffing on her cigarette. “It’s not a crime.”

“Not much is in this town,” I reminded her, sliding past her to set my hands on the cold railing. On the horizon, gray clouds cluttered the near-black sky. A storm was coming. One I hoped we were prepared for.

Triss waved a hand to the crowd. “Take your time. The perch is yours.” She left Flynt and me to the ruckus below, making sure to close the double doors behind her.

“Bowen—”

“I can’t think about that right now, Flynt.” I kept my voice calm as I turned to him. We both ignored the eyes of the crowd turning their attention on us. “Glacies will tell her when she’s ready.”

“And if Auria decides to go before she can tell her?”

“Then that is the consequence Glacies has to live with.” And Auria would feel the ramifications of it as well. Was it really something I wanted to hold back from her? I brushed the thought away. It wasn’t my secret to tell.

Understanding shone in his eyes that I wouldn’t make the decision for the dragon.

We both faced the street below. It was littered with irate people demanding answers.

“Probably a wise decision,” Flynt said. “If the citizens of Deadwood have you stressed, imagine facing the wrath of a snow dragon.”

“I wouldn’t be stressed at that point.” I adjusted my grip on the metal railing, thinking through what I’d say to them. “I’d be dead.”

Flynt’s lips rolled together before he raised a hand, and the crowd went silent.

I let a breath of a moment pass before speaking. “As you are all aware by now, King Tenere is on his way here as we speak.”

Hushed murmurs flowed through the crowd as eyes remained glued to me. One look confirmed that none of the people from Auria’s group was among them. They were likely hiding away in their temporary housing, fearing they’d be at risk of harm from the frantic townspeople.

“I don’t know what his intentions are, past coming to retrieve his people, so I won’t pretend that I do. We gave them sanctuary until the bridge was repaired, and as of a few hours ago, the crossing has been restored.”

“When will he arrive?” one of the men asked.

“Late tonight,” I answered, which earned more whispers rolling amongst the people. “He has guards with him, likely for his safety.”

“What if they find out we’re fae?” a woman with a baby on her hip asked.

The sight of the two of them caused a wave of uncertainty to hit me. Not only was Deadwood a refuge to criminals, fae, and anyone that needed a place to rest, it was also a home to many families. Families that had felt safe enough to settle down here. The determination to do everything in my power to keep them safe had me saying, “They won’t. Not unless we make it known, which is exactly why everyone must give their utter respect and act cordially. All this is is one leader visiting a town to bring his people home. It is not an act of war. No one will be harmed.”

The group remained quiet after my words ceased echoing through the street. Slowly, a murmur began, and I was thankful for it as I turned to Flynt. “Siara?—”

He dipped his chin. “It’s done. She’s made sure the dragons know to stay away tonight.”

My chest eased the slightest, knowing they would be out of the crossfire should anything happen. Humans didn’t have an alliance with the dragons, other than believing they took care of the fae population. The last thing we needed was King Tenere aware they were aligned with us should he discover what we were.

“We should go down,” I said, glancing back at the town.

“Bowen.”

Flynt’s voice had me turning to him.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

The question had me swallowing my doubts. I wasn’t sure if I was, but the people of Deadwood were counting on me. “I have to be.”

“It’s okay not to have all the answers,” Flynt said, a crease forming between his brows. He might get on my nerves from time to time, but Flynt had a heart. On the days I worried I’d lost my own, he reminded me it was still beating stronger than wings on the wind.

“Not today it isn’t.”

After making our way down the spiral staircase and letting Triss know she and her coworkers should stay inside the building the rest of the night, we waited. Lander showed up shortly after we exited the brothel and stood cast in shadow by one of the buildings, not uttering a word to anyone. I scanned the area for Paxon but didn’t find him.

After three hours of waiting, I ordered the citizens to return to their homes, unless they were in the brothel or the saloon. The entire time, all I’d wanted was to go to Auria, to make sure she was sleeping well and not sitting in bed terrified of what might happen tonight. I would have hours ago, but the last thing I needed was the town to create another riot and King Tenere to show up early. I also wasn’t sure if I’d be able to keep myself from hiding Auria away where no one could find her. So instead, I stayed standing, my feet planted like twin anchors in the dirt.

On the fourth hour, I debated sending the guards still standing tall in the street to refuel with food and water, but I thought better of it when my magic sprang to life with the scent of smoke in the air.

They are near , my smoke whispered, satisfaction coursing through the tendrils in my veins with the hope of attacking them. I let it anticipate the worst, knowing this could go haywire fast.

It was a miracle the sandwalkers hadn’t torn the group’s limbs from their bodies the moment they stepped foot in the desert. The only things keeping the shadowed creatures at bay were the lines of torches on either side of King Tenere’s horse-drawn carriage. As the group got closer, I became certain he was comfortably inside while the others were exposed to the monsters that lurked in the dark.

Before entering the town, the guards at the head of the group stopped. They stood with straight backs, squared shoulders, and their torches held high. The driver pulled the reins on the wagon, and once the horses slowed, I spotted a second carriage behind the first, more elegant one. Only two horses pulled the smaller coach, compared to the four on King Tenere’s.

Raiden stood to my right as Flynt flanked me on my left. Siara was behind all of Deadwood’s guards that waited behind us, ready to alert the town in the event that chaos ensued. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but King Tenere was unpredictable. I’d almost expected him to send only his guards to retrieve his daughter, but maybe the man was smart after all and was finally coming to learn that his men weren’t the best trained. Obedient, sure, but prepared for battle? Hardly.

Out of the near hundred men that flanked the two carriages, one moved, opening the door to the first. Meanwhile, movement to my right caught my attention, and I turned to find Paxon finally joining us. I hadn’t a moment to wonder where he’d been as King Tenere stepped out. Even in the flickering flames, the bags under his eyes were all too noticeable. The slightest bit of satisfaction coursed through me at the thought of him losing sleep over the daughter he treated like he couldn’t care less if she lived to see another day.

How terrible it was to lose a gem you had never once valued.

Smoke twirled around my fingers, itching to creep into the people of Amosite and suffocate them where they stood. I reined it in, keeping it hidden beneath my skin. If I didn’t have a town behind me I needed to protect, I’d let my magic have its way with every single one of King Tenere’s guards, stealing the oxygen from every lung, infecting their blood and stopping the beating of their hearts.

As soon as King Tenere’s polished boot touched the ground, Paxon and Lander were moving, leaving our group to join theirs. I was nothing other than fucking relieved to see their retreating backs. They could have them, but I’d be damned if they touched Auria.

Three guards emerged from the shadows of an alley, two limping and the other clutching a dangling arm, his wrist swollen and blue. We’d offered them aid, but all three had refused. Either because they loathed Deadwood or feared their king wouldn’t approve of them seeking further help from the enemy.

King Tenere watched as Lander sidled past him, but rather than sticking with his brother, Paxon paused to mutter something in the king’s ear, facing away from me so I couldn’t try to read his lips. With the dip of the king’s chin, Paxon continued on, joining his brother near the three guards behind the second carriage.

“Bowen.” King Tenere regarded me as he stepped away from his guard, facing me and my group with a bored stare.

“King Tenere,” I replied blandly. “I’d say it’s nice to see you again, but I think we’d both rather skip the false pleasantries, with all the creatures waiting to demolish your group just beyond the line of light.”

He didn’t fall for my threat, but many of his men did, turning to nervously glance around them. Every couple seconds, when the breeze caught a flame, it’d illuminate the sandwalkers waiting on the outskirts of their lights. A few of the men shifted on their feet, likely thinking they might die tonight.

They were right to be scared.

One wrong move, and their torches would snuff out. A mistake they didn’t know they had made, given my smoke was more than eager to be released upon them. All that stood between their life and the afterworld was those little tendrils of smoke pouring from the tips of their flames. A shame they decided on the old-fashioned way of light rather than magic. But I assumed that was due to resources running thin with Auria being gone so long. I had no doubt she’d be worked nearly to death upon her return, and it made me all the more inclined to stay quiet about her whereabouts.

“Where is she?” King Tenere asked, doing his best to sound civil but utterly failing.

I cocked my head in question. “Who?”

“My daughter,” he gritted out, his tone taking a bit of an edge.

My eyes narrowed in thought. “Sorry, you’ll have to be more specific.”

His teeth ground together. “Auria.”

With her name, my brows raised. “Ah, I remember her.”

“I am not a fool, Bowen. I know she’s here. I received word that she and my guards took refuge in this pit of a place. Where is she?”

“Asleep, along with the rest of this town. You should really think about coming in uninvited at a more reasonable time if you desire an audience.”

His hands flexed at his sides. “It is time for her to return home.”

“Is that what Auria wants?” I asked, folding my hands together behind my back. Despite the casual stance, my magic thrummed in my veins to the beat of my heart, thrashing inside me wildly, like it sensed danger and needed to get out.

Something wasn’t right.

“She is needed back in Amosite, so that is where she will go,” King Tenere declared.

“Is that so?”

He inhaled a deep breath, then raised a hand, signaling a guard. The man moved, walking past the horses to the second carriage. We watched as he opened the door and reached inside. A muffled protest came from within, and then a woman was being yanked from the coach. She stumbled on her feet, despite looking fine otherwise, and with a closer look, I recognized her instantly.

He had brought Auria’s best friend, Taylin, along for the ride. Auria had briefly told me about her, and it was no secret the two meant a lot to each other. This was about to get ugly rather quickly.

Taylin slumped into the guard as her worn shoes tripped on each other in the sand. Flynt must have realized that she was drugged—heavily—at the same time as me because his stance stiffened, his hand moving slowly to the dagger at his side.

“I didn’t want to involve her little friend,” King Tenere began as the guard brought Taylin a few feet from the king. “But she has left me no choice.”

He was desperate. Barely a few words exchanged, and he was resorting to manipulation.

“Sure. Torturing Auria’s best friend will definitely make her want to go back to Amosite with you,” I said before I could catch myself.

King Tenere’s brows peaked at that. “She does not wish to go, then?”

I shrugged, trying to keep up the fucking casual act and feeling anything but. “Not my decision. It’s Auria’s.”

“She doesn’t get a choice. I am her father,” he boomed back as a guard rifled through a long, cylindrical bag to his left. Taylin swayed on her feet slightly as she continuously blinked, likely trying to get ahold of herself.

“Everyone has a choice,” I replied.

The busy guard pulled a short, thin stick from the bag, and I quickly realized it was a small arrow. The tip glowed a bright orange, casting a hue across the man’s face.

He proceeded to hand it to another guard with a bow. Beside me, Raiden’s hand went to his dagger, ready to take aim and put the blade right between the man’s eyes if he nocked it back in our direction.

“Not everyone,” King Tenere said.

The guard with the bow pulled back on the string, the tip of the arrow pointed at the sand.

Then, as his aim shifted, Flynt moved to step forward, but I set a hand out, his chest slamming into my palm. “Don’t,” I muttered, despite my instincts screaming at me to do something .

Flynt began to protest, but the words died on his tongue as the guard aimed at Taylin and released the arrow. It flew through the air, crossing the short distance in the blink of an eye, and landed in the center of her thigh.

Her scream filled the night air, echoing over every inch of the valley. Flynt’s dagger was out not a moment later, taking the hit Raiden had meant to claim himself as the tip of the blade landed in the back of the guard’s neck. He fell, his face buried in the sand as blood pooled on the ground around him.

The guard with a hand on Taylin’s arm kept her standing as tears rolled down her cheeks, groans of pain ripping from her trembling form. The arrow stuck straight out from her flesh, and her entire body leaned to one side, her exhaustion craving the reprieve of the ground.

“Let her go,” I called out. If he didn’t, I feared a war would be started over Flynt’s desire to protect every soul.

“I want my daughter, Bowen,” King Tenere replied, that confident lilt back in his tone as he gained the upper hand.

My lips pressed together as everything inside me begged not to, but I had no choice. I couldn’t let this town be ransacked and Taylin be tortured. But I also couldn’t let Auria go back.

Gods help me.

“Siara,” I called out, keeping my gaze trained in front of me. “Fetch the king’s daughter, would you?”

But she knew in the way I had phrased it that she would only warn Auria, not bring her to us. Siara would hide her before King Tenere could send his guards into the town. Staying inside her home wouldn’t be protection enough. Would I be either, though?

Auria , I called to her silently as my eyes stayed glued to Taylin where she struggled.

When no response came, I assumed she was either too far or deep asleep.

Flynt looked about ready to destroy the very earth King Tenere and his guard stood upon, and I had half a mind to let him. Paxon and Lander both stood to the side, not making a move. As if I didn’t have reason enough to regret letting them stay in Deadwood temporarily. Lander at least had the sense to look worried, like he wanted to do something but knew it’d be no use.

I was feeling the same right about now.

Tense silence carried across the empty space between Amosite’s people and Deadwood as we awaited Siara’s return, the only noises penetrating our ears that of Taylin’s suffering, making it all the more gut-wrenching to stand by and watch.

An eternity later, Siara appeared at my side, holding out a hand. I grabbed the object she held out to me and did a double take at the delicate piece of jewelry that dangled between my fingers.

She’d given me Auria’s necklace.

“She wasn’t there, Bowen. I found this outside your house,” Siara said quietly.

My eyes moved to her, searching for the truth behind her words. We’d planned this out—she’d get Auria to a safe, hidden place, and return with no sight of her. But the way she’d said it…

So minuscule a move, she shook her head, and I knew for sure she was being honest. Auria had gone somewhere, and we had no idea where.

Auria , I called to her again. I need to know you’re safe.

Still, no response, but then I remembered she hadn’t done it again after the spring. She didn’t know how.

I silently cursed as my fist wrapped around the jewel and chain.

“I don’t see my daughter,” King Tenere said, the warning clear in his tone.

“She’s not here.” And this time, I was certain of it.

With a twist of his hand in the air, King Tenere sent his guards flooding into our town. We held our ground, letting them pass in the hopes they wouldn’t touch the people. They were just looking for Auria. She wasn’t here.

This was useless.

“You’re wasting your time,” I said to King Tenere. “Taylin will bleed out, and it will all be for nothing.”

He didn’t spare Taylin a glance as she let out a whimper at my words.

“She is not my concern,” he replied.

“She should be.”

King Tenere loosed a sigh, like it was such an inconvenience to hear me speak. “Why is that?”

My jaw clenched. “Because she is one of your people.”

Rage seemed to seep into his bones as he stepped forward, his anger shaking the loose flesh of his neck. “My daughter is one of my people, and yet, you will not give her back.”

“As if she is a pawn to be handed off?”

“She—” He sputtered, but I cut him off.

“Tell me, King Tenere, why don’t you ever use her name?”

He blinked, taken off guard by the question. “I do.”

I tried my best to ignore the shouts of men, women, and children in the distance as Amosite’s guards broke into their homes, searching for Auria as they ripped doors off their hinges, shattered windows and tore apart furniture. Still, Deadwood wouldn’t fight back, not unless I gave the signal. They would be safe. We could replace materials. It was their lives I needed intact. “Never when speaking respectfully of her.”

His nostrils flared.

“Auria is not here,” I repeated. He needed to leave so I could stop wasting my fucking time and find her. “Call your guards off.”

“I’d be a fool to trust an imposter leader.” He intended for the words to hit where he wanted, but they didn’t land. Unfortunately for him, I never missed.

“Better an imposter than corrupt.”

Before he could lose himself to the anger building inside him, a guard approached him, coming from the town. He muttered something to the king, then stepped to the side.

“Drop her,” King Tenere ordered without so much as a glance Taylin’s way.

The other guard let go of Taylin’s arm, the only thing keeping her up, and she collapsed to the ground on a sob, landing hard on her side. Her hand instantly went to her leg, hovering near the wound as she squeezed her eyes shut. Her clothing was soaked through with blood. She was losing too much of it. Flynt kept his eyes trained on her the entire time, watching her every move, his muscles straining as he held himself back.

“Let this be a message to my daughter,” the king said as more of his guards began returning to surround the carriages once more. In the distance, the sky began to lighten, indicating dawn was near. “If she is hiding, I will find her. And the longer she takes to come home, the more innocent people will suffer.”

King Tenere retreated to the comfort of his carriage, and once he was tucked inside, the large group of guards began moving, heading back in the direction they had come.

As soon as the last man was barely ten feet away, Flynt moved, not wasting a second. His sheath bounced against his hip before he crashed to his knees in the sand beside Taylin’s shaking, sobbing form. Two of Deadwood’s guards joined him, attempting to assist him in calming Taylin down so they could get her to the infirmary. I wanted to help her, but I couldn’t, knowing that Auria wasn’t here. I had to go to her. Above all else, I had to find her.

“Siara,” I called.

She spun from where she stood discussing something with a distraught woman.

I held the necklace out in my palm. “Take me to where you found this.”