Page 31 of Hell Fae Warden

Ajax’s jaw clenched. “I—we—wrongly took that frustration out on her. If she’s telling the truth, which I think she is, then she did nothing to earn our anger. We should have been helping her figure out what happened rather than considering torturing the information out of her.”

My beast snarled at the wordtorture, confirming that Ajax was definitely trying to die. There was absolutely nothing he could say now that would—

“Let her take out her revenge on me,” he said, making my bird go still. “If you kill me, you will be hurting Camillia. Because she wants to hurt me, too. She’s angry. So let her punish me.”

My Phoenix tilted my head to the side, probably making me appear somewhat crazy and birdlike. But I supposed that was an accurate appearance.

“Punish?” my bird forced me to say, my fingers still against the hilt of my dagger despite the pain lingering in my veins. “Cami punish Ajax?”

My beast liked that idea.

He wanted towatch.

“Yes,” Ajax confirmed, making me groan inside.

This isn’t going to end well.

Especially since I could feel my animal’s glee over the prospect of presenting Ajax to Camillia as a gift. He’d probably give her a dagger, too.

Agony burned through my chest as my Phoenix finally tore the blade out completely, whatever spell Ajax had used to keep it there disappearing. “Cami punish Ajax.”

My bird used my hands to grab Ajax by the nape.

And started dragging him toward the old Midnight Fae Council building.

Fuck.

CHAPTER8

CAMI

I staredat the food on the bed, uncertain of whether or not to touch it.

My stomach seemed on board with the plan, the hungry rumble echoing in the small cell chamber.

But my mind wouldn’t stop shouting what-ifs at me.

What if it’s a trick?

What if it’s spelled with something nefarious?

What if it’s poisoned to kill me?

I glared at the plate, irritated by the questions it inspired. It felt like a taunt. Or maybe even a dare.

Ajax had conjured it before disappearing without a word, leaving me alone and confused and really fucking pissed off.

I’d given him the only truths I had. What more could he possibly want from me?

Did he not think I was equally concerned about missing thirty days of my life? That maybe I was a little terrified by the prospect of the source hallucination having been real?

No. He didn’t care about any of that. He was too bent out of shape over his tainted reputation.

I crossed my arms with a huff while the food stared back at me with invisibleEat Meeyes.

“Are you not fond of spaghetti?” a silky voice asked behind me, making me literally jump out of my chair.

“Melek,” I breathed, placing my hand over my heart. “You scared the crap out of me.”