Page 7 of Faerie Fate (Fae Academy for Halflings #7)

Chapter Five

“ E nough of this, Grimaldi. You’ve had your fun.”

Like wiping away spilled milk with the swipe of a few fingers and a cloth, Dorian lifted a hand. The powerful punch of fae magic lifted my blindfold to neatly set it back into place.

Darkness replaced light. The fabric knotted itself with his spell, tighter than ever, and I gasped, encapsulated by the strength of his Unseelie spell.

He had covered my eyes. Almost like he knew about my power. Had he and Kendrick spoken about it?

“She almost had you,” Dorian continued.

“I don’t like this,” Kendrick grumbled. “It’s a sloppy solution. I want to see her face.”

“You like seeing the way she hates you?”

They were like two men having a casual conversation in a store. In a park. It felt easy and light.

I did hate them.

“I feel her hatred,” Kendrick corrected. “It gets me off.”

Dorian crept closer, the stench of his magic giving him away, and in a blink he replaced the blindfold with a pair of dark sunglasses. A shadowed, dim world was better than seeing nothing at all, but if the sight was Kendrick’s face, Dorian’s face, maybe I’d rather be in the dark.

“She can still see but they’ll protect you. Do you understand?” Dorian explained.

Kendrick dwarfed Dorian, although the fae male stood over six feet tall. His dark hair shone with an almost purple hue around a rectangular face. Despite the stubble and his strong chin, he was a child compared to Kendrick’s features.

Dorian’s deep-blue eyes shone with a manic light, ringed with dark lashes and thick brows.

He’d swapped the trousers and shirt for a neat mortal suit, although the silver and gold threads of his jacket were still present, those immodest details.

He was a debonair man out of time. And ancient, I realized now.

As old as Kendrick or older.

The two of them stood shoulder to shoulder in front of me, considering me like an animal kept safe behind glass and a barbed fence in a zoo.

Kendrick leered at me. “This is the one who gave you so much trouble. Right?”

Dorian nodded in confirmation. “Yes. She threw my entire camp into chaos. And before she took off, she freed many of the Seelie working for me. She left nothing but bedlam in her wake.”

It was the wrong thing to say, and spurred the anger in my head that had quieted to whispers before.

“Working?” I forced myself to say the word and winced at the pain in my throat. My voice sounded different. “Is that what you call it? Other people might term it slavery .”

“She won’t be a burden any longer, brother,” Kendrick promised. He clapped Dorian on the shoulder. “I have her under control now. The deal stands?”

“Absolutely, yes,” Dorian agreed.

The two shook hands to seal the details of their cryptic agreement. I pulled against the chain, furious, trapped. The simple movement exhausted me but I didn’t stop.

What the hell had they wagered on? Something clearly made prior to my arrival. Neither of them gave anything away in their expressions. They were masters of their games.

“It’s funny how you hate the fae until it’s time to work with them,” I told Kendrick.

They were officially in cahoots, that was all I knew. And I was in a lot more trouble than I ever thought.

“Some are better than others,” Kendrick corrected with a snap.

He pulled the mate bond tight and pain sizzled through my head in a reprimand.

“Especially when they offer such a tantalizing arrangement for me. How could I resist?”

“True.” Dorian sniffed again although his attention remained on me.

Even through the shades, his manic glee was unmistakable. The same sort of infatuation I’d seen in him when he described his grandiose ideas to me in his tent bolstered him now.

“Are you sure you have this under control?’ Dorian spoke as though he still doubted Kendrick’s abilities to keep me fully in check.

“I could offer you several spells, if you’d rather.

I know a few delightful options that will keep her subdued.

It doesn't have to be this form. A bird, perhaps. Something easy to cage.”

“Not necessary,” Kendrick replied, convinced of his superiority. “I like it when they fight back.”

Despite the ache in my stomach and the voice in my head screaming at me to stifle my fear, I gasped. Both men heard it. Only Dorian acknowledged it.

He tilted his head to the side, staring at me, and chuckled at whatever he saw. “Are you sure? This one is tricky. It may be smarter to clip her wings now.”

He said it like the mate bond might not hold but it was wishful thinking on my part.

Kendrick’s growl rumbled through both of us. My fae powers might be blanketed but my wolf was free.

Free enough to be smashed under Kendrick’s absolute control.

“I’m sure.”

My heart quickened. Those violet eyes flashed to my face and Dorian ran a hand over his jaw. Our gazes met. “Just a thought. I don’t want my efforts to be meaningless.”

“Get the hell out of here, fae. Shoo . Back to whatever it was you were doing when you called,” Kendrick said. “I don’t need you now.”

Magic lifted, filling the air with the scent of static before the first bolt of lightning. Dorian bobbed his head. “Then I’ll say goodbye for now. I’ll be seeing you soon.” That part was for me. “Both of you.”

He stepped out of my line of sight, the magic flaring with a surge of gold light soon swallowed by darkness.

He must have left through his own portal. Likely he had a Faerie key too, although his probably hadn’t been issued through the king. So whose key was it? And why was Dorian able to use it without dying?

My head spun with a monstrous hiss.

Kendrick’s pleasure was horribly apparent once we were alone. I didn't need to look at him to understand it. I felt his vicious glee inside of me and it churned my stomach until every breath was painful and filled with an unbearable heat.

“Dorian knows what he’s talking about,” Kendrick said after a long pause. “He’s been around long enough to tap into the darkest magical arts. But it’s so much better when he’s not around. Now we can start things properly. Can’t we, Tavi ?”

I hated the way he said my name. The way he reached out to smooth my hair behind the arm of the sunglasses. Proprietary, demanding, with the casually loaded glide of his index finger along my temple.

“I plan to do all sorts of wonderful things with you. You’ll like it. I meant what I said.” He leered at me, flashing teeth. “I’ll have you pregnant and swollen with my pups soon enough.”

Speech was impossible. My muscles strained and every part of my body begged me to get the hell out of there now.

Jaw clenched, I turned away from him. The disgust at that picture, the lust flickering down the bond, would have brought me to my knees if I could move.

“I think five pups, to start. We’ll see how we do raising them. I have to make up for several of my other less fortunate progeny. Our pups will be powerful. Mark my words. And we will have so much fun making them.”

Kendrick grunted, feeling my struggle, not caring.

Mike, where are you?

Kendrick and Dorian working together… The two of them were a disaster waiting to happen. Their combined powers spelled destruction for everything, everyone.

Mike was somewhere in the academy. He had to come. He had to get here fast.

The air around me shifted. My gorge rose higher when Kendrick stepped up to press his chest against mine, groaning. Sickeningly, my heart slowed to match his rhythm, the mate bond forcing the beast into time.

“Hmm.” He drew in a breath, lazily rubbing the tip of his nose against my face but careful not to disturb my glasses. “The way you smell, we might have to have ten pups. You’re strong, young. You’ll be able to carry them without trouble.”

My tongue tied itself in knots as sickening heat fused my spine straight. “So you can use me until I die?”

He chuckled. “The idea has merit.”

He touched me like he owned me, like he had a right to the things I refused to give him. With the bond between us…he did. I had to submit to him.

The door opened again and although Kendrick didn’t move, he stiffened. The bulk of his massive shoulders blocked out the view and his stench made it impossible to distinguish the newcomer.

My heart lurched against my chest. Mike? Had he shown up to save me?

But Mike wasn’t the one who pulled Kendrick off of me. It was Uncle Will.

His eyes bulged. “Grimaldi, you have my niece in chains. She’s covered in blood! Let her go.”

I sucked in a breath. “Uncle Will, help.”

A long, uneasy pause followed, and Kendrick’s face curved into an obnoxious half smile. He slid his hand down my chest and rested it over my heart. “Problem, William?”

William Alderidge, my uncle and my alpha. At least he had been, until the mate bond with Kendrick clicked into place.

Uncle Will vibrated with power. “Let her go.”

“She’s not yours to control anymore. She’s my bitch now.” Kendrick took fierce pleasure in reminding Will of the situation.

My uncle got me into this mess but I stared pleadingly at him. Help me . My mouth opened to call his name again but no sound made it past my strangled throat, nothing besides a small squeak.

Please do something .

He’d already done something. He’d sold me into this nightmare and now it was too late. My stomach plummeted. The bond was in place and there was no way to break it.

“The chains are unnecessary.” Will stepped up and clapped Kendrick on the shoulder.

Shrill alarm ripped through me as Kendrick froze. He glared at Will’s hand on his shoulder but Will only dug his grip in deeper.

“Release her, now. She’s already mated to you,” he demanded. “Don’t treat her like a prisoner.”

My uncle looked exactly the same as when I’d last seen him.

Almost, I realized on closer inspection.

He might wear the same double-breasted suits he preferred when he slayed his enemies in the courtroom but there were now dark circles underneath his eyes, shadows where none used to exist. None he’d ever let me see, anyway.