Page 11 of House of Embers (Royal Houses #5)

Chapter Ten

The Interrogation

Tieran dropped Gerrond onto the rock floor with a thud. The Fae groaned and rolled over, clutching his side. Kerrigan slid off Tieran’s back and came face-to-face with her mate.

“What in the gods’ names were you doing?” Fordham demanded.

“Hello, love,” Kerrigan said with a smirk. “I brought you a present.”

Fordham’s eyes snapped to the Fae slowly trying to come to his feet. “Where did he come from?”

It was in that moment that his dragon landed next to Tieran.

“Scout,” she said.

“And you decided to intercede?” he asked, low and lethal.

“He saw us. He was going to report to the Society.”

“I was not,” Gerrond said, reaching for his side.

Kerrigan shrugged. “He called me a bitch.”

“He did what?” Fordham demanded, hauling the Fae up by his shirt collar and holding him in the air.

The male looked wholly terrified. If the use of Wynter’s shadows had scared him, looking into Fordham’s murderous face nearly made him piss himself.

“I didn’t know. You have it all wrong,” the male said. “She threatened to kill me!”

“That is the least you can expect from me,” Fordham snarled.

“Ford,” Kerrigan began. “We can’t interrogate a dead prisoner.”

Gerrond’s eyes widened in alarm. “I’m not against you! I was looking for you.”

“Of that we’re certain,” Fordham said, throwing him to the ground.

Kerrigan returned a moment later with rope and tied Gerrond’s hands behind his back. “Delle, would you do us a favor and have the guards put Gerrond here in an empty, guarded room?”

“Of course,” Delle said, gesturing for guards to take over.

Fordham still looked ready to beat the guy into a bloody pulp for the insult.

He was riled up, and she thought the show was a good one.

They had an audience, and the guards and attendants would spread the story that Fordham was as ruthless as ever.

But she also needed to calm him down away from all these onlookers.

“Brother,” Wynter said as she finally climbed down from Netta. “Your fiancée performed admirably as a rider.”

“Of course she did,” Fordham said. But there was still death in his look. “She is formidable.”

“I saw her intentions and jumped in,” Wynter said, saying enough without saying everything.

“I appreciate that,” Fordham said with a nod.

“Kerrigan,” Tieran said into her mind, “Henrley is saying that we have made an unwarranted mistake here. That he wants to discuss their actual objective. We could restrain him, but I believe Netta and I should speak to him first.”

“Will he flee otherwise?” she asked.

“I do not believe he’d abandon his rider.”

“Then do it,” she agreed.

To Fordham and Wynter, she said, “Tieran and Netta are going to speak to the dragon, Henrley. He’s not a flight risk. He sounds adamant that this is a mistake.”

“It sure didn’t look like a mistake in the middle of the fight,” Wynter observed.

“No, it didn’t.” Fordham clenched and unclenched his hands.

Kerrigan reached forward and put hers over his.

“I’m all right.” She glanced around the room.

She wanted him to be seen as fearsome. For her to seem that way too, to be honest. That was definitely working in their favor, but if they wanted to have a real conversation, they needed to do it elsewhere.

“Let’s go interrogate our prisoner, shall we? ”

Fordham leaned forward until his lips brushed against her earlobe. “Don’t think you’re getting out of a conversation about you using my powers.”

“I’d never expect that,” she said. “But maybe somewhere more private?”

“Assuredly.” He gestured for her to begin walking. “Wynter, you too.”

“Excellent,” she said with a dangerous smile. “I have a set of knives with me. Hopefully, he’ll let me play with them.”

“You’re a bit of sadist,” Kerrigan said.

“And?” Wynter strutted forward. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

Fordham shrugged. “You get used to it.”

Kerrigan followed the siblings through the cavern of Ravinia Mountain until they came to a series of rooms. Wynter ran her nails along the walls as they walked, explaining that these were their father’s interrogation rooms, but the prison was lower, darker, and deadly.

Kerrigan had never wanted to see the interrogation rooms.

“Wynter, wait here,” Fordham said in a voice that brooked no argument. Then he grasped Kerrigan’s hand and dragged her into an empty room.

“What?” Kerrigan gasped.

But as soon as the word left her mouth, Fordham shoved her back against the closed door and towered over her, one arm above her head, caging her in. Her mouth went dry at the sight of him and all his deadly power. Her broody princeling turned king, all sinister energy and unbridled fury.

“Are you completely out of your mind?” Fordham demanded.

“Fully in use of my faculties,” she assured him.

“You used my shadows,” he snarled. “You were going to use them to jump. I could feel it, Kerrigan.”

“That was the plan, yes.”

“Do you understand how dangerous that was? How fucking terrified I was for you when that hit me?”

“Ford…”

“No,” he growled. “Listen. I spent decades training my shadows, Kerrigan. We’re stronger together.

It won’t take you that long to figure it out.

I can show you how instead of you fumbling through it like I was forced to do by my father, as Wynter was forced to do.

But you will not jump into them unaided. ”

She dropped her bravado at the serious look on his face. “Okay. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You think of nothing but what is right in front of you.”

She pushed against him. “I was in the middle of a fight,” she snapped. “I did what I had to do.”

“You have enough of your own power . Use that. That jump could have killed you. You could have simply ceased to exist without proper training. I wasn’t there to keep you safe.”

She put her hand to his cheek. “I can keep myself safe.”

“I’m serious, Kerrigan. At least let me train you so it doesn’t send me into a blind panic in the middle of a meeting with Barron Laurent, who has made it clear he wants to see me dead.”

Her anger deflated, and she let her hand drop. “You were in a meeting with Barron?”

“He was there, yes. And he called my ability to lead into question. I could barely contain how much I wanted to kill him so I could get to the door to you.”

“I’m sorry,” she said as she melted against him.

“The only benefit was that I snapped at Prescott, who tried to stop me too. I didn’t want to do it, but hopefully it is the start to getting him in with Barron.”

“I hate Barron.”

His arms came around her back. “I feel the same. But mostly I wanted to be out there to keep you safe. Thank the gods that Wynter was there and could see what you were about to do.”

Kerrigan nodded. “So when will we train? We don’t exactly have spare time around here.”

“We’ll figure it out,” he said as if her acquiescence appeased him. “Now, this interrogation. Shall we begin?”

“You’re speaking my language.”

He matched her grin and opened the door.

Wynter made a face at their appearance. “Are you done already? That was quick.” Her expression was deadpan when she looked at Kerrigan. “I apologize for my brother.”

Delle snorted and turned her face down to cover it.

Fordham narrowed his eyes. “I take offense at this.”

“Don’t worry,” Kerrigan said with a wink. “I have no qualms with his stamina.”

“Please stop talking as if I’m not here.”

Kerrigan nudged Wynter. “How are you finding Dozan’s stamina?”

Wynter’s face went blank. “You would know, wouldn’t you?”

Fordham bared his teeth at his sister at the insinuation.

“That was a long time ago,” Kerrigan said. “He’s not one to wait though, so…”

“Another point of conversation,” Wynter said blandly.

“Interrogation instead?” Kerrigan asked.

“Anything but this topic,” Fordham said to the ceiling.

He nodded at Delle, who promptly yanked the door open with a pointed “Your Majesty.”

“Not a word,” he said as he stepped into the darkened room.

Kerrigan tossed a ball of light into the room to illuminate the dark space.

She was surprised that Gerrond hadn’t done so until she saw the magic-dampening manacles around his wrists.

She winced at the sight. She’d had her magic completely taken away from her, and she would always hate anything that could do it again.

Wynter slid into the seat across from him, a knife in her hand, a twisted smile on her face. “So, Gerrond, is it?”

He eyed her knife skeptically. “This is all a huge mistake.”

“So your dragon said,” Kerrigan said.

Fordham leaned against an opposing wall and watched with catlike eyes and grace. “Tell us what you were doing here.”

“Looking for her,” Gerrond said, gesturing with both hands toward Kerrigan.

Kerrigan frowned. “Me? I thought you said it was a misunderstanding.”

“It was ,” he insisted. “The Society sent out a call to arms to locate you, and I answered it.”

“I’m not seeing what you think is a misunderstanding in that,” Fordham said.

Wynter flipped her knife, catching it and throwing it skyward again. She let it embed itself in the wooden table. “If you’re a Society goon, then I will have no qualms slowly peeling your skin off with this knife.”

The male blanched. “I…I… Please, I don’t want that. That isn’t why I came through here. I mean, yes, I was looking for Kerrigan. That was the mandate by the Society, but I wasn’t doing it to hurt her. I wasn’t even sure she was really alive.”

“Your poor choice of words said otherwise,” Wynter said. She plucked the knife out of the wood and began to pick at her nails.

“My apologies,” he said quickly. “Sincerely. If you were alive, I wanted to ally with you or at least find out if you were worth allying with.”

Kerrigan frowned. “Why would you run if that’s what you wanted?”

“A dragon comes hurtling after you, you get out of the way,” he said with a defeated shrug. “I didn’t know it was you until too late, and then you were talking about killing me. What was I supposed to do?”

“I asked you to land.”