Page 29 of Veil of Shadows (Fae of Woodlands & Wild #2)

We slammed back into the prince’s private residence in The Silver Hand, everyone appearing at once. Phillen still held Bastian draped over his shoulder, but he released him and set him on the nearest chair.

Bastian fell onto it in a heap. His eyes remained open, and he bounced a few times, but it was as though he was unseeing. Not even aware of his surroundings.

Jax tore his mask off and kneeled in front of his brother before I could blink.

“Bastian?” he said urgently, smacking his cheek lightly.

Nothing. No response.

“Bastian!”

I undid my own mask, the others doing the same, and I pulled my bottom lip into my mouth, gnawing on it in serrating motions as I watched my mate try to rouse his brother.

Jax continued calling and shaking Bastian, but no matter what he did, Bastian didn’t respond.

I kneeled at his other side, then lifted the bottom of Bastian’s trousers. A flash of metal gleamed in the light.

The anklet that Esopeel and the semelees had told us about was indeed around Bastian’s ankle. “Jax, look at this.”

The prince stopped his frantic movements. A low growl rumbled in his chest, and when his finger ran along the anklet’s metal and stone, a chill ran through me.

Because the gem staring back at me—the gem the semelees had said was controlling Jax’s brother—was a purple stone. It was encased within the anklet, and it appeared to be the exact same stone that was locked within my collar.

“What do you think it means?” Jax paced in the living room. All of us had changed out of our dark clothes and were sitting together in a circle.

For the past hour, we’d tried everything we could think of to rouse Bastian, but it was no use. Whatever that anklet was doing to him was like my collar. No amount of effort could disengage its suppression. Magic held it in place. Powerful magic from the feel of it.

Bastian had sat numbly through everything we’d tried, and he was still unmoving. Still despondent. He lived physically, but it was as though he no longer existed, and even though he was with us, it was like he wasn’t there at all.

I knew Jax’s heart was breaking. It was as though his baby brother, the male he loved and cherished, was no more.

And the semelees warning that he was being controlled by another chilled me to the bone. There was nothing to say that Bastian wouldn’t suddenly become animated and try to kill us.

Jax placed his hands on his hips and eyed my collar and then the anklet on his brother. “Elowen, what did the semelees say about Bastian’s anklet?”

“When I asked how we could take it off, they said we would have to venture to where it was created and have the creator remove it. That doing so was the only way, and that we couldn’t remove it ourselves.”

Bowan sighed. “Please tell me they gave you more details than that.”

“They did. The gem comes from the mines of Harrivee’s floating meadows on the Solis continent, and they showed me what its creator looks like. A female Solis fairy forged Bastian’s anklet.”

My mate’s aura flared, and his attention fixated on my collar.

I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. I’d been thinking it ever since I saw Bastian’s anklet.

I raised a finger to my collar, and a pulse of magic emitted from it. “The gem on Bastian’s anklet looks identical to the gem in my collar.”

Jax’s throat bobbed. “It does.”

Tears threatened to spring into my eyes. “Do you think the fairy who forged Bastian’s anklet also forged my collar?”

Jax’s eyes gleamed, and our mate bond hummed with his heightened emotion. “We can only hope they did.”

Magic swelled inside me. Potent, powerful magic. The semelees had shown me the face of a female who resided in a land far away. A female with silver hair, crystalline blue eyes, and small black wings. She was the female who had forged Bastian’s anklet, and we needed to find her. She was the only one who could remove it.

And a part of me, a trembling, hopeful sliver of my soul, hoped it was possible that she’d created my collar too.

I didn’t want to get my hopes up, though, and I knew that we needed to focus on Bastian, not me. Yet a part of me couldn’t help but dream.

Bowan arched an eyebrow. “Does this mean we’re going to the Solis continent?”

The aura around Jax grew, and for the first time since learning the depth of my guardian’s betrayals, a flash of possibility ignited inside me.

A fierce look of determination stole over Jax’s face. “That’s exactly where we’re going. Because if someone is mining magical gems on the Solis continent to control my brother and other half-breeds on our continent, then we need to stop them.” His attention flickered to me, his eyes burning like sapphires. “And since Bastian’s anklet looks strikingly similar to Elowen’s collar, then it’s possible that many summers ago, the same fairy forged Elowen’s necklace, and maybe, just maybe they’ll know how to remove it too.”

Thank you so much for reading Veil of Shadows.