Page 37 of Magic Claimed

Well, that was the dumbest plan I’d ever heard.

“And he only sent eight people?” I turned to look at the woman lying on the ground at my feet. “To kidnap a dragon?”

Kira gave a nasty chuckle. “The only thing most people know about bronze dragons is that our scales are impervious to pretty much everything. So once they find out I’m tiny, they think they can just pick me up and carry me off.”

“Unfortunately,” Draven said, “this isn’t why I’m here.”

I sensed his words were aimed at me, so I turned and somehow managed to hold his star-eyed gaze.

“Callum was at court this morning during the claimant debates. An assassin attempted to lock down the court and murder Rath, and Callum was close enough to stop him. However…”

No. No, no, no.

I couldn’t let him say it.

I didn’t want to hear hishowever.

As weird as it was knowing that there was a person who could sense my feelings and almost hear my thoughts… As difficult as it was trying to figure out all these strange emotions and sort out our wildly different backgrounds…

I couldn’t bear it if I lost him. My vision turned to dark tunnels, my pulse thudded ominously in my ears…

“Raine, it’s okay!” Kira’s scaled shoulder was suddenly under my elbow once more, preventing me from falling. “He’s not dead. Can you hear me?Callum isn’t dead.”

Not dead. Whatever had happened, he wasn’t dead.

“Are you sure?” My voice was raspy and sounded a million years old.

It was Draven who answered. “He is alive. But he was stabbed with a poisoned blade meant for Rath. He’s unconscious, so he can’t shift, and we haven’t… convinced the assassin to tell us what poison was used.”

If he couldn’t shift, his natural shapeshifter healing wouldn’t be much help.

“It’s not safe for him at the Fae Court,” Draven continued. “He’s got no one to watch his back, and when we called Angelica, she seemed to be giving us cryptic warnings not to take him to New Mexico either. So we decided to bring him here. We were hoping that if you could make contact with the herbalist, she would agree to assess his condition. Unfortunately, someone either intercepted the message or spied on our conversations and got a team here ahead of the meeting.”

Kira turned to glare at him and whacked him with her tail, hard enough that he staggered a few paces. “I love you, but how could you hide this from Raine for this long? If someone knew you were hurt and didn’t tell me, I would give them to Mom for an after-dinner snack.”

“Where is he now?” I was proud that my voice didn’t waver.I was solid as a rock. If rocks had knees made out of jello and arms like overcooked pasta.

“On his way to The Assemblage. We decided his place would be the safest.”

“Does Faris know?”

Draven shrugged. “Possibly. I didn’t want anyone at the Fae Court to know where we were going, so I waited until we landed to send messages to Tairen and Morghaine. Angelica met us at the airport, and I headed straight here to tell Kira in person.”

But nowhere in all of this had anyone thought to tellme?

The oversight stung—particularly coming from Draven—but I didn’t have time to be butthurt. We had fae prisoners to deal with, a pixie herbalist to find, and I had decisions to make.

The first thing was to call Faris, since I was the only one with normal fingers at the moment.

He picked up after the first ring.

“Trap?” he rumbled menacingly.

“Sort of. But we have eight fae, about three of whom are still breathing.”

“And the herbalist?” He sounded grim.

“Nowhere in sight. Must have seen the ambush and freaked out. You know about Callum?”