Page 52

The look that Fetrick gives me shows a spark of amusement, and I realize that I haven’t seen that look very often.

I knew that Kylen had something over the others, but I had no idea that he was being controlled by him like I am.

Now that I’m thinking about it though, it does explain why his personality has seemed to clash at times.

He’s always been the one who was the nicest to me.

“One, I haven’t been able to speak about it before now. I don’t know why I can now, and two, I helped to,” he pauses before he finishes his sentence, his eyes clouding with regret and anger.

I remember that we’re being filmed, hopefully everyone is focused on what’s happening up top, but either way, he has been really careful about how he’s wording what he’s saying.

I also realize that he’s referring to the fact that he’s been present and joined in on the torture sessions that Kylen likes to give me.

I study his expression, he’s pissed and grimacing, to be honest he looks disgusted and that’s not the face of someone who wanted to take part in that kind of thing.

“Huh, well, at least you didn’t want to. Besides, if he told you to, then you had no choice. I get that more than anyone,” I say.

“Seriously?” he asks in shock.

I just shrug, we’re getting closer to the top now, and I want to know one more thing, “Are the others as well?”

Fetrick shakes his head, “Nope, just us.”

I nod.

I want to ask questions, like how, and has he been controlled right from the beginning, and all of that, but I can’t do that not right now, not without risking being heard by the rest of the Draconian team, or all of the supernaturals watching.

So I stay silent. There’s not much else I can say.

It’s not like I can tell him that we’ll sort it, and we’ll make sure that he gets freed, because he could pass that information on to Kylen, even if he doesn’t want to.

If Kylen gets suspicious, and since I’ve now saved Fetrick’s life twice, Kylen will think that he has put two and two together, and that we’re in cahoots or some shit, which would just be amusing, except for the fact that it would mean that Kylen will interrogate Fetrick and force him to tell him the truth.

And me.

I can’t risk him asking me about Neith and having to answer honestly.

I am not putting her at risk, or risking them not being able to get me out of this fucking situation.

I know that they’re doing that, although I’m not sure how.

I do have a few ideas since they sent Ribit to have a look at the necklace and I don’t want to fuck everything up because I have no choice but to speak.

So, I don’t say anything to Fetrick, we’re too close to the top now to say anything anyway.

We do, however, share a look. I hope that he recognizes the understanding in my expression and maybe even the hope.

I want him to have hope that he’s going to be his own person again.

He’s been trapped for years longer than I have.

Fuck knows what that has done to him, and his relationships.

I lost Neith when Kylen stopped allowing me to go back to the keep, and of course, I lost the guys before that.

They all thought that I hated them and wanted to be on Kylen’s team because I told them that myself.

Not only that, but if I had family, then I would have been made to cut ties with them as well.

There is a very good chance that Kylen has stopped Fetrick from contacting his family, or even made sure that any familial ties have been well and truly broken.

That sounds like a thing that Kylen would do, and to be honest, I have never heard Fetrick speak of his family.

He’s a shifter, and they always live in packs.

They don’t have to live in packs with shifters of their kind, mixed packs have been known to exist, but tend to present their own challenges and get complicated.

Shifters are always in packs, though. So it’s very unlikely that Fetrick doesn’t have family, if not parents, then there should be aunts, uncles, cousins, all manner of extended family, both related and technically not related, that would care about him.

River is the exception because of the way that Kitsunes' work and because he’s so much stronger than all the other Kitsunes, and that presents a lot of issues. River adopted the guys and me as his pack though, and somehow it works for him.

Although Kylen doesn’t seem to take his anger out on Fetrick like he does on me, and looking back over their interactions, I am reasonably sure that it’s more orders than anything else.

Kylen wants to make me miserable because he hates the guys.

As if he can read my mind, Fetrick speaks up one last time.

“It’s different,” he says, and I glance at him. Trying to be careful, he adds, “Orders only.”

My eyes widen slightly. “Can you read my mind?”

Fetrick grins, he holds his finger to his lips, briefly letting go of the cliffside, “Not usually, but I caught some snippets then, I think because it was aimed at me.”

I nod, “Well, I didn’t know that about you.”

“No one does,” he says, and I hear the meaning behind his words, and incline my head slightly to let him know that I understand and won’t say anything to Kylen and the others. Not that I would be likely to anyway. He continues, “Of course, there’s a chance that everyone knows now.”

I grin, “Yeah, there is that.”

He shakes his head, and we carry on climbing up to the top.

I silently vow that I’m going to help him. I absolutely can’t leave him in the situation that he’s currently in, not if I can help him.

Kylen’s a vicious and ruthless cunt.

Neith

R eed helps to pull Coen over the edge and then reaches down to help Fetrick too, which seems to shock him.

I don’t know what it is about him, but there’s something about the way that he’s behaving that I don’t like.

Not that he’s behaving suspiciously or I think he’s a threat, but rather that he may be under threat.

He’s staying close to Coen, like he considers him to be safe, which he is, but Fetrick should feel like that about his other team members as well, and he clearly doesn’t.

He’s behaving like someone abused, and I am even more convinced that’s the case after Kylen calls for him.