Page 49 of Hidden in Plain Sight (Rocky Mountain Wolves #3)
~Evalina~
The tiny packets of sugar that Calista gave me felt like they were made of stone against my side as I sat on the bed next to Tarron. Like I tried to assure Felix in the glance we exchanged, I had a plan. It might not be perfect, but it would have to do.
I had the sugar and I had the admission Tarron made earlier that he still didn’t know what kind of magic I possessed. He knew I did something to help Felix escape before but he didn’t know exactly what I did.
So, my plan was simple: distract Tarron with the sugar, free Felix from the cage with my magic, decide what to do with Tarron while he couldn’t fight back, and get as far away as possible. We could disable both the portals, the one we used to get back into Etta and the one on Felix’s pack’s land, and that should limit any immediate threat of a backlash against the werewolves from the fae world.
Hopefully, I hadn’t missed anything.
Before any of that, though, I needed to get Tarron to release Calista and the others, and for that reason, I went through the motions of negotiating my agreement with him. Only once, when he mentioned keeping Felix for weeks or even months, did true fear grip me. If Felix had to eat, forcing him to stay in the fae realm forever, of course I would stay with him, but I didn’t want to. I was ready to start a new life with Felix in his world. The way his pack worked together, everyone valued and accepted, felt like a warm embrace compared to the way my whole life in Etta, everyone’s lives, revolved around the royal family.
Returning home and seeing Tarron again had only made the contrast starker, reinforcing what I’d already begun to feel: there was nothing left for me in Etta.
After reassuring myself that it couldn’t come to that, I returned to my negotiation. Tarron needed to believe I would agree even though I had no intention of it. No matter how much I wanted to spare Felix pain, no matter how much I’d give up to keep him safe, his intense stare through the bars of the cage told me that he would rather die than watch me give in to Tarron.
Which meant the time had come to put my plan into action.
“To be clear: if I agree to stay willingly, you’ll release the other werewolves immediately, and prove it. Once you have what you want, you’ll release both me and Felix. Felix won’t be harmed as long as I stick to the agreement. Is that all correct?”
Panic flared in Felix’s eyes, but I shot him a warning look, silently pleading for him to stay quiet. Tarron needed to believe I meant it. He needed to trust me and let his guard down if the rest of it was going to work.
“That’s correct.” The prince’s glittering eyes held my gaze coolly, assessing me as if he could read my sincerity in my expression. “And if you don’t agree, they all die.”
“Yeah, we got that part,” Felix muttered, his voice hoarse and strained, though still laced with sarcasm. His shoulders slumped more with each passing minute. Despite his bravado, the silver clearly weakened him. I had to get him out of there soon.
“Alright.” I gave a firm nod, trying to convince myself I was making the right move as much as attempting to make my reluctance believable for Tarron. “I’ll do it.”
“No.” The word came out of Felix in a strangled gasp of pain and my heart clenched. Did he know I was bluffing or not? I honestly couldn’t tell.
Tarron, however, smiled in triumph. “That wasn’t so difficult, was it?” He spared a condescending smirk in Felix’s direction before getting to his feet. “We’ll begin immediately.”
The growl that rumbled from Felix shook the bed beneath me and I stood too. “You’ll free the others first. You promised.”
“Of course.”
With a wave of his hand, a shimmering veil of light appeared in front of us. It looked similar to the see-through glimmer of the portal, but through it, I could see the pens and the guards standing in front of it. They didn’t seem to be able to see us, but they moved and spoke to each other normally.
What kind of magic was this? I’d never seen anything like it.
Felix leaned closer, examining the strange portal as I did the same. “You’ve got a video chat? I guess you’re not quite as backwards as I thought.”
He tried to sound as sarcastic and easygoing as usual but his voice trembled, in fear or in anger, or maybe in both, and it undercut the humour in his words. He didn’t fool anyone.
“They can’t see me,” Tarron explained, his tone dripping with smug satisfaction. ‘But they’ll hear me when I speak. I’ve picked up all kinds of magic, as I told you.”
I couldn’t argue with that, not with the proof right in front of me.
Pressing the fingers of his left hand to his temple, Tarron spoke in a stern, commanding tone. “This is Prince Tarron. Release the prisoners. They are free to go.”
The men in the portal immediately straightened to attention, and once Tarron finished speaking, they hurried to the doors of the cells.
Incredible.
As we watched, the doors were opened and Calista, Leo and the others walked out into the open, blinking against the brightness of the sun after their time in the dark pens.
Tarron spoke again, his words directed at the werewolves. “You will leave our world immediately. If you refuse to go, your lives are forfeit.”
To back up his point, the guards all pointed their weapons at the werewolves. Calista looked around, trying to find Tarron, but when she came up blank, she spoke to the air instead. “We’re not leaving without Evalina and Felix,” she said, her voice sharp with defiance. “Release them, and we’ll leave in peace.”
“You’re not in any position to negotiate,” Tarron sneered. “If you don’t leave now, you won’t be leaving alive.”
I shot a worried glance towards Felix but his eyes were glazed over, letting me know that he must be trying to communicate with Calista through their telepathic link. I didn’t know how far it would work, especially in his weakened state, but when his eyes cleared, he gave me a quick nod.
“Fine,” Calista said through gritted teeth, tension coiled in her voice but confirming what I’d just gathered from Felix’s nod. He must have gotten through to her, at least enough to tell her to take the chance and go. “But we won’t forget this insult. You came onto our land and abducted one of our pack members.”
“After you came onto my land and took three of my subjects,” Tarron reminded her. “I’d say we’re even.”
With another wave of his hand, the portal disappeared, vanishing into thin air as if it had never been there at all.
“Wait!” I cried. “I want to see them leave. I want to know they’re safe.”
“You asked for proof that I released them, and you have it. Whether or not they take advantage of the reprieve they’ve been given isn’t up to me.”
Unfortunately, he had a point, and I had nothing left to offer to force him to give me any other concessions. I would just have to trust that Calista and the others could take care of themselves.
The time had come to put the second and most important part of my plan into motion, but as my hand moved towards my pouch and the sugar packets held inside it, Tarron moved towards me and grabbed both my hands, pulling me flush to his body.
“Now that the details are settled, we can begin. I’ve waited a very long time for this, Evalina.”
Before I could respond, he seized my chin and crushed his hungry lips against mine.