Page 27 of Given to the Fae (The Dark Realms #3)

‘Don’t you dare!’ I growl. ‘Not now!’

‘What are you doing?’ he hisses. ‘How else are we going to get her out of here? It’s just to calm her.’

I practically bare my teeth at him. ‘You’ll do more harm than good.’

‘You’re an expert on human females, now?’ he counters with a sneer.

‘I don’t need to be. Help Jak. Use magick to start the blaze if you’re so eager to work a conjure.’

He sighs but moves away.

I snatch the dress Bryn was wearing from the floor and kneel in front of her, taking care not to touch her.

‘Female,’ I start and then cringe. ‘Bryn.’

She looks at me and I hold out her dress. She takes it from me immediately and puts it over her head. Her shaking fingers fumble with the laces. She can’t tie them.

‘May I help?’ I ask quietly.

She swallows hard and then nods, and I carefully tie her dress together for her, making sure I don’t touch her even once.

She stands, using the wall heavily to rise. Her breathing is shallow, and tears leak from her eyes. She walks forward, shying away from the block, and not looking at it as she passes it.

Her knees give out on the fifth step, and I catch her.

‘It’s finished. You’re safe,’ I whisper as I pick her up.

Bryn shudders in my arms, not making a sound.

I cocoon her in my thick cloak and take a final look around the room with revulsion while Jak swipes the gold coins littering the table into a pouch.

Flames are beginning to lick the walls as we leave quietly via the front door.

I feel Locke’s magick wash over me, no doubt making our faces forgettable in case the guards are called to question bystanders about the fire.

It’ll be put out quickly with magick here, but hopefully by the time it is, Warrior and the demon will be naught but charred flesh.

I frown as I see movement out of the corner of my eye by the side of the building in the alleyway, and I could swear I see a flash of a red cloak, but when I look, it’s just a couple of coughing bulls escaping the smoke through the other door.

I see no others so the human slaves barely register in my mind.

The walk back to the inn is short, and yet it seems to take an age. The mulling crowds around the market and those going about their business have my body coiling, and if I wasn’t holding Bryn, I’d be pushing them out of my way, growling insults into their faces.

When we get to the courtyard, I feel my body relax a bit, but it’s not until we get to our rooms that I begin to truly calm down.

As I do, my fury increases, and it takes all of my self-control not to wrestle Locke to the ground.

I blame him for this, for leaving her open to what’s been done.

For not protecting her. Almost as much as I blame myself.

Locke paces the room, glancing at me and the girl I hold at regular intervals.

‘We knew he was a cruel cunt,’ I grate out, but Jak hushes me.

‘We’ll speak about it once we’ve made sure she’s not been harmed. Put her on the daybed.’

I try to do what Jak suggests, but the girl grips onto me, not letting go. She wraps herself around me, with a whimper and I stop trying to put her down immediately. Instead, I sit with her in my arms and give Jak a helpless look.

‘Bryn?’ he asks quietly. ‘I’m a trained healer.’

I feel her scoff.

‘It’s true,’ I say.

‘Then why was I taken to that female pixie?’ she says from inside my cloak.

Jak looks to me and then to Locke. ‘It’s a long story,’ he says finally. ‘Not one I can tell you.’

‘I don’t believe you.’

Locke lets out a breath. ‘Have any among the three of us hurt you, girl?’

‘No,’ she whispers after a moment. ‘At least not...like other masters.’

Locke flinches at the telling words.

‘Jak is a healer. I vow it. Let him look at you.’

She doesn’t move.

‘Get a vial of healing potion,’ I say.

‘She might not need...’

When he sees my expression, his words peter out and he puts his hand up in placation. ‘Fine.’

‘Would you like a bath, like the one in the first inn?’ I ask her.

I feel her hesitant nod.

‘And conjure a bath in my chamber,’ I call to Jak, who nods on his way through the door.

He brings the vial a moment later and her small hand makes its way into the open to retrieve it. She drinks it and then hands the empty container back.

I hold her for a few minutes more, waiting for the potion to work. I know when it begins to because she shifts, and her breathing deepens.

‘Are you all right?’ I ask, shaking my head at my own stupid question.

‘I’ll be fine,’ she says. ‘May I...bathe, my lord?’

‘No more of that,’ I say with more fervor than I mean to, and I wince as she freezes against me.

‘No more ‘my lords’, I mean. Call me Morgan. And call Locke and Jak by their names as well.’

‘What if someone hears?’

I let out a sigh. ‘Warrior is dead and it’s still two weeks before we meet up with the others. No one else knows us. They won’t interfere.’

‘All right,’ she says.

I stand up and hear her small gasp. ‘I’m just taking you to the bath.’

In my chamber, I put her down, sitting her on the bed in case her legs won’t hold her.

She unwinds my cloak from around her and, thankfully, is dry-eyed for now.

I move away. ‘Everything is there.’

She nods, but then frowns, looking away. ‘Would you...stay? In the room, I mean? I... I’m...’

‘Yes.’ I nod, my fists clenching in anger at what Warrior has done...what others have done.

I turn away as she loosens her dress, and it falls to the floor. The water splashes and I hear her grunt as she gets in and lowers herself into the large bath with a sigh.

‘I...can’t reach the soap,’ she says.

I turn to face her, not looking at anywhere lower than her face, and I grab the nearby pot filled with a paste. As I hand it to her, her fingers brush mine.

She looks up at me. ‘Warrior said... He said that Locke knew what was happening, where he’d brought me and why.’

I shake my head. ‘That’s not true. When we woke, you and he were gone. We didn’t know where the cunt had taken you.’

‘Then how did you know where I was?’

I glance at the door. ‘Locke. He’s a?—’

‘A mage. Yes, I know. He’s used his power on me.’

I nod, my lips thinning. ‘Well, he has some spell he can put on a person. It makes it so he can always find them. He had one on Warrior, thank the gods.’

She nods and begins to wash. I look away, sitting on the bed as she scrubs at herself. I notice the discarded dress on the floor, and my lip curls at it. I don’t want to see her in that thing. I don’t want it anywhere near her.

I grab it and thrust it under the bed where it can’t be seen any longer, and then I unlace my pack and delve into it, pulling out one of my white, long-sleeved undershirts.

I scrutinize it and decide it will be long enough to protect her modesty.

There’s certainly more to it than the rags she was wearing when she was in The Barrack.

I glance at her. She’s still scrubbing her skin, a look of focus on her face. Her flesh is red raw.

I go to her without thinking, and I take the rough sponge from her hand. She looks up at me and the hopelessness I see in her eyes devastates me.

‘Here.’

I take the jug from the side and rinse the soap from her. Then, I pick up a bath sheet, made for one as large as I. She stands and I wrap her in it, picking her out of the bath easily, and setting her down beside the bed. I dry her and turn as I hold the shirt out.

‘Where’s my dress?’ she asks in a small voice.

‘We’ll get you something else to wear. Until then, put this on.’

She takes it after a moment and puts it over her head. When I turn around, I’m not prepared for how seeing her in my clothes makes me feel, and what it does to me.

I snarl at myself internally. After what happened to her this morning, I shouldn’t be feeling anything like that . It isn’t right.

I urge her to kneel on the bed with her back to me, which she does without question.

And it occurs to me that she’d never have turned her back voluntarily on Warrior, which makes me feel a little better about being in here with her.

She doesn’t think of me as she did him, and she doesn’t seem fearful of me, or uncomfortable.

I dry her hair gently with the sheet, and then I get my comb. I get the tangles out of her hair while it’s wet and I plait it loosely. When I peek up at her, our eyes meet in the reflection of the looking glass.

She has an odd expression on her face, as if she’s trying to decide something.

‘What is it?’ I ask.

‘I... Why are you so kind to me?’

I don’t say anything, not sure what Locke will decide we can reveal to her. Perhaps he’ll be adamant that we tell her nothing at all. I hope not, though. It’s becoming more and more important to me that she knows I’m not one of these cruel masters, nor a flesh merchant.

‘What will your price be, I wonder,’ she mutters almost to herself, and then looks away with a pained expression that I wish I could banish from her countenance forever.

Still, I don’t answer. What promises can I make to her? None. And why would she believe me? I didn’t even keep her safe when I said I would.

‘Come,’ I say, holding out my hand to her.

She takes it and I help her off the bed, seeing that my shirt comes almost to her knees. Gods, she’s tiny compared to me. I try not to like the sight.

In the main room, both Locke and Jak are drinking wine. I give Jak a look, but he just shakes his head.

‘After this morning...’ he mutters and leaves it at that.

Both sets of eyes take in the girl at my side, their gazes moving over her. Jak swallows hard and casts an incredulous look at me. Locke’s jaw ticks and he looks away from her.

‘Sit,’ I murmur, planting myself on one of the upholstered seats.

She sinks to the cold floor next to me and I growl.

‘No, in a chair, Bryn.’

Her mouth opens and closes at least twice. ‘You want me to...sit with you...like a master sits?’ she finally asks, sounding shocked.

‘Aye.’