Page 4 of Veil of Shadows (Fae of Woodlands & Wild #2)

CHAPTER 4

I paced in my chambers, alone once more now that Saramel had left. My thoughts whirled, moving as rapidly as my pacing feet. From what Saramel had told me, Jax was simply a desperate fairy trying to find the half-brother he loved so much and would do anything to locate. And after exhausting every possibility he could think of to find him, he abducted me as a last resort.

At the end of the room, I spun and walked back to the other side in hurried strides. Fragrant flowers abruptly appeared on a table I passed, filling the chamber in scents of lavender, honeysuckle, mayberry, and juniper. When anxiety coursed through me, it seemed the enchantment loved nothing more than to fill the space with calming scents.

But it did little to calm my turbulent thoughts. Because the entire reason Jax had taken me was because of love . I’d been right when I guessed his reasoning. Love was what drove the Dark Raider, not vengeance.

Huffing, I finally stopped and sat on the couch, my foot tapping on the soft carpet. And with as noble of a reason as that, I now firmly believed Jax would have released me as soon as he’d been able to. It would have been out of character for him to keep me any longer than necessary. Essentially, it was my mistrust that had landed me in my current position.

Grumbling, I threaded my hands through my hair, then fell back on the sofa. “If only I’d waited longer for him to return.”

A pot of tea abruptly burst into existence on the table. I bolted upright, expecting to see Jax casually leaning against the wall again, but the chamber remained empty.

“Is tea your answer to everything?” I muttered.

A bouquet of two dozen yellow roses materialized beside the tea. I snorted. “You’re not very original.”

A hum of magic pulsed on the walls, and then a fluffy kitten appeared at my feet.

I melted when the tiny creature gave out several mewls. “A live creature? You summoned an actual live creature to soothe my anxiety?” Scooping it up, I cradled it in my lap.

A knock came on my door, and my spine straightened, my heart beginning to thump.

The door opened and closed, and then Jax appeared by the arched entryway.

I sagged back against the sofa. “Oh, it’s only you.”

Some of the pounding in my heart slowed, yet Saramel’s words still swirled through my mind. Just hours ago, when Jax had stated I was to remain a prisoner here, I’d hated him. But now I knew about Bastian...

I pet the kitten more and nibbled on my lip. I had no idea how I felt anymore.

“I saw your light on under your door,” he said hesitantly and took another step into the living area. Stopping, he frowned, then eyed the kitten. “Where did you get a kitten?”

“The enchantment gave him to me, but I have no idea from where.”

“Ah, probably from the domal stables. The stable cat gave birth last month.” He walked slowly toward me, his hands stuffed in his pockets. He still wore the same slacks and sweater as he had earlier. Even though it was the early hours of the morning, he obviously hadn’t retired for the night either. “Since your light was on, I figured you also couldn’t sleep?”

I sighed. “No.”

He sat down on the couch beside me, and all I could do was stare at him. According to Saramel, he’d been pacing in the library because of me. He was that concerned about my fate.

But that wasn’t the only reason I stared. It was still startling to see him undisguised and in normal clothes.

I quickly reverted my attention to the kitten and pet it more. Loud purrs emitted from its throat. “I thought you’d be in Faewood by now, searching for that half-breed.”

“I thought I would be too, but such impromptu trips need to be explained, which means I can’t leave until tomorrow.”

“I see.” I swallowed the thickness in my throat. I knew he planned to leave me behind until he could figure out what to do with me. But I couldn’t help but wonder what waiting to leave for Faewood was doing to him. It’d been nearly four days since his calling.

“Did Saramel come to see you?” Jax interlocked his fingers, drawing my attention to his strong hands.

“She did.”

He glanced at the coffee table, now devoid of the supper Saramel and I had shared. A heavy frown snagged his eyebrows together. “Did you not eat again?”

I dipped my chin and dropped a few kisses on the small kitten’s head. “I did. Not a full meal, but I had some.”

A low, discontented sound came from him. “You need to eat, Elowen. It’s not good that you spend so many days not eating.”

I started at the worry and protectiveness in his tone. Once again, it seemed genuine .

Slowly, he inched along the sofa until he sat closer to me, then reached across the distance and scratched under the kitten’s jaw. The feline closed its eyes and purred even more. “They usually like that spot.”

The kitten turned over in my arms, tilting its head up to give Jax better access. I couldn’t help but smile. “Yes, he does seem to like that.”

“I’m going to have to return him to the stables soon. He still needs his mother’s milk.”

I cuddled the bundle of fur closer to me, my heart rate calming even more as the kitten’s purrs continued. “How do you know it’s a boy?”

“Because the stable cat’s most recent litter was all boys. This little guy has three male siblings.” His eyes dimmed slightly, and for the briefest moment, I wondered if he was thinking of his own brother.

I ran my fingers through the kitten’s soft fur, and with a start, realized it was the first time I’d been in Jax’s company since arriving here when anxiety over my future wasn’t claiming me. It seemed the enchantment had gotten it right after all by delivering a kitten.

“Who designed this chamber?” I asked.

“I did.”

My brow furrowed. “But why? It seems like pretty intricate magic to be left abandoned.”

“Did Saramel tell you that detail too?”

My spine stiffened, and I said cautiously, “She did.”

“Did she tell you the original reason I created it?”

“No, she didn’t reveal that.”

He sat back, leaving the kitten for me to pet, and rubbed at his own jaw. Jax cocked his head, and that intensity I was coming to associate with him made an appearance. “What else did Saramel tell you?”

My heart thumped again even though the kitten was rubbing into my palm.

“Not much,” I said too quickly, getting a frown out of him. Rushing on, I added, “Just that she’s Phillen’s wife, they have a child, and that she was sent by you to keep me company. Oh, and she summoned food so I would eat.”

“Is that all she revealed?”

“Why do you ask?” I arched an eyebrow. “Was she supposed to tell me more?”

He raked a hand through his hair. “No, I’m just surprised. Saramel loves to talk.”

“Does she? I never would have guessed that.” I brought the kitten to my mouth to give him a few kisses on the nose. “So, why are you here this time, Jax?”

A groove appeared between his eyes. “Like I said, I’m going back to Faewood tomorrow.”

My hands began to shake. Before I dropped the kitten, I set him down, and the little guy ambled along the carpet until he found a loose string near the fireplace and began to bat it with his paw.

I cleared my throat and entwined my fingers together. “And I’m guessing that you want to leave me here, locked in this cage while you search for your—” I stopped myself even though Saramel had given me permission to tell Jax.

He arched an eyebrow. “Are you sure Saramel didn’t tell you anything else?”

I smiled innocently, and perhaps it made me a horrible fairy, but it was nice to see him agitated for once about not knowing something. “Whatever do you mean?”

He huffed out a breath, but then his expression smoothed. “Anyway, since I’m leaving tomorrow, I was hoping to try something before I left. If you’re willing.” He pointed at my collar, his eyes locking on it. “I would like to command your guardian to release you from that to the best of his ability. It’s long overdue, and the least I owe you. And if I can do that before I leave, I’ll...” He frowned, the gesture so severe that it was practically a scowl. “Maybe I’ll feel less guilty for everything that I’ve done to you, and maybe you’ll have a more peaceful existence.”

A peaceful existence. It felt as though an arrow pierced my heart, but perhaps that was the best I could hope for now. “You want to command my guardian when? Now? Tomorrow morning before you go?”

“Now, if you’ll allow it.” A sad smile tugged at his lips. “It’s the middle of the night. Everyone’s retired, no one’s about, and it’s private here. None of the servants know either of you are in these chambers. It seems like the perfect time and place to demand this of your guardian.”

My breaths sped up, and I told myself it was from the thought of my collar’s debilitating magic being lifted, not from the intense way Jax was looking at me, and not from my fear of what a loosened collar could mean for my magic.

“But...” I sputtered. “I haven’t prepared. What if I become unstable? I could destroy the palace. I could doom us all.”

“You won’t.”

“How do you know? I could blow this place up.”

He smirked slightly, a hint of amusement rolling into his expression. “Are you always this dramatic?”

“Dramatic?” I swatted him on the chest, then curled my fingers into my palm, horrified at what I’d just done, but Jax laughed.

“Such violence.”

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I was... I mean, you were teasing me and—” I hastily ran a hand through my hair, smoothing the chestnut strands. “I’m sorry, my prince.”

“Don’t be. I quite enjoy this side of you.”

“What side?”

“The side where you’re acting like yourself, feeling comfortable in who you really are and not treating me like I’m a prince.” He inched closer to me, and this time, my breath did stop. His eyes, which were always so intensely energized, sparkled as vividly as the sea, and the aura pulsing around him grew, commanding all of my attention.

His gaze fluttered to my collar, my hair, my face. I felt stripped raw in front of him.

A flash of something grew in his eyes, the same flare I’d seen in his expression so many other times. Hunger perhaps? Or... want ? But it was gone in a blink. Whatever that look meant, similar to the times before, it’d disappeared as quickly as it started.

Voice low, he asked me in a hesitant tone, “Will you trust me, Elowen? Never in any of my studies or information I’ve acquired from the scholars I consulted have I found that without a collar a lorafin’s magic is unstable. You may be surprised to find you’re the same.”

My eyebrows scrunched together as Jax’s inherent spicy pine fragrance billowed around me. Stars and galaxy, the male always smelled so good .

“What if you’re wrong?” I whispered.

“I doubt I’m wrong. If I had any concerns that I might be, I wouldn’t try to reassure you.” He inched even closer, his aura so warm and potent it wrapped around me. “Will you trust me?”

I could only stare at his beautiful irises, a dazzling display of bright blues and navy. I’d thought I’d been a fool to trust him at all after he locked me in this room, but he was once again showing me that he was trying to do what he thought was right. Trying to free me in the only way he knew how. It wasn’t just trusting him to follow through with his promise. He was also requesting that I trust his judgment.

And I’d been wrong not to trust him before. It was ultimately why I was in my current position.

“Elowen?”

A stirring began in my belly, a swirling emotion that climbed up my chest and filled my heart with a swelling pulse that made me want to trust him. Want to believe him. Want to have faith that not everyone was out to hurt me. But can I? And more importantly, should I?

I’d blindly trusted my guardian, someone I thought had cared for me, and that had turned out disastrously.

My throat bobbed in a swallow, brushing against my collar. A hum of power vibrated from it, and Jax’s attention shifted to my neck.

“Please, Elowen, please trust me.”

“I—” My words caught in my throat. “I . . . I don’t know if I can. Trusting others, for me, is . . . difficult.”

His hopeful expression evaporated, and a flash of disappointment washed over his face. But in my next blink, his expression returned to that of the prince. Closed off, resolute, and impossible to read.

Jax was gone, and Prince Adarian had returned.

A swell of pain crashed through me, but it was too late. The moment between us had broken, and there was no getting it back. But it was probably for the best. Not trusting others meant I stayed safe.

The prince straightened, and his tone turned formal when he said, “If you’re willing, I’d still like to try having your collar removed.”

“And if you’re wrong, and I become unstable?”

“I can always command Alleron to return the stifling power of that collar if needed, but I’m confident that won’t be necessary.”

I took a deep breath and looked away from him, to the little kitten. The tiny feline had fallen asleep, curled against the stone fireplace. He looked so small, so fragile. Is that how I looked when Guardian Alleron took me from my mother in the Wood?

I thought of my guardian, someone I’d trusted completely to keep his word, when I shouldn’t have. Then I thought of Jax, a male who was terrifying on some levels but was also inherently...good. He was trying so hard to do what was right by me.

Perhaps I could at least trust that, even if I couldn’t trust him completely.

I took a deep breath.

Swallowing, my throat bobbed against my collar once more, but I found myself nodding. “All right. Fine. I’ll trust you about my collar. Let’s try to lift its power.”

Jax returned the kitten to the stables and then came back to my chambers with my guardian in tow, except this time, Jax was once again dressed in disguise. A mask covered his face, hiding his identity from my guardian. The familiar black bandana draped over his features, concealing his nose, mouth, and jawline. Once again, only his dazzling cerulean eyes were visible.

I couldn’t help but wonder how difficult it was to always keep track of who knew his identity and who didn’t. Since I’d discovered the true male beneath the mask, Jax no longer had to hide from me, but if my guardian ever learned who he was and broke free, it could spell catastrophe.

Jax shoved him forward, and Guardian Alleron’s lip curled at the Dark Raider. Mussed hair covered my guardian’s head, and from the looks of it, Jax had likely pulled him from sleep.

The fairy lights were fully lit in the seating area, and those sparkling rays reflected off the hatred glittering in my guardian’s eyes when he assessed me. Something told me he knew why he was here—his precious lorafin would finally be stolen from him.

My thoughts tumbled, and I crossed my arms protectively around myself. This was the male I’d once considered my father. My trusted guardian. The one who’d promised to free me if I only did as he asked until I reached thirty summers. The male I thought would then view me as his cherished daughter.

Yet, this was the male who murdered my mother, destroying the blood family I once had. And he’d lied to me about everything .

“Here’s the adaptor.” Jax tossed it to him, and a pulse of his Ironcrest magic lifted from Guardian Alleron.

My guardian gasped, then brought a hand to his throat. He grabbed the adaptor, lifting the metallic wand that held a magical gem embedded in it. “Are you wanting her to do another calling?” My former guardian’s voice sounded raspy, as though his throat was raw from trying to scream through Jax’s magic all day.

Jax’s eyes narrowed. “No. I want you to remove that collar’s hold on her to the best of your ability.”

My guardian gaped. “But that’s incredibly dangerous. Removing most of its magic from Elowen could render her unstable. It would be remiss of me not to warn you.”

I twisted my hands, my fingers gripping painfully around each digit.

Jax scoffed. “And where did you acquire this vast knowledge about lorafins?”

“I’ve acquired my knowledge from knowing her for her entire life.” Jax’s eyes narrowed, but my guardian pushed on. “She was uncontrollable as a child. When she grew, her power grew with her to the point that she was a danger to those around her. If you knew what she did when she was five?—”

I paled, just as Jax snarled, “You’re saying she deserved to be collared as a child ? All fae children have to learn to control themselves when their magic emerges. No other children are enslaved because of it.”

Despite his vulnerable situation, Guardian Alleron puffed his chest up, his self-righteousness filling the room. “But she’s not like others. It’s why lorafins are allowed to be enslaved. You’re going to doom us all by demanding this here and now. She’ll destroy this house.”

House . Guardian Alleron thought he was in Jax’s home. He had no idea he was in Stonewild’s palace. He still had no idea who Jax truly was.

But I did, and because of it, I would never be free.

“Don’t do this, Dark Raider,” my guardian hissed. “You’re going to kill us all.”

A flash of a distant memory surged in my thoughts. My tiny hands. Shadow creatures. Screams. Endless death.

“Oh stars, he’s right.” Heart racing, I knotted my fingers even tighter until they turned white. “We can’t do this. Just leave my collar as it is. I’m not ready for it to be removed. I need to be fully prepared, and I’m not.”

Jax closed the distance between us and placed his hands on my upper arms. “Don’t listen to him, Elowen,” he said gently. “Don’t listen to any more of his lies.”

Guardian Alleron scoffed. “It’s true. She’ll?—”

Jax’s magic speared through the air, right for my former guardian. Guardian Alleron open and closed his mouth. No sound came out. Once again, Ironcrest magic wove around him, robbing his voice. Lip curling, Guardian Alleron seethed at Jax.

“Elowen?” Jax said quietly to me.

I wrapped my arms around my middle even though Jax’s hands now ran soothingly up and down my shoulders. “We shouldn’t?—”

“Elowen. Please . Trust me.”

His plea was so quiet, so gentle, that my rapid breaths began to slow. I glanced between him and my former guardian, but the second my attention shifted to Guardian Alleron, Jax stepped in front of me, forcing my focus away from the male who raised me.

Swirling energy danced around the crown prince, and he slid his hands down my arms to entwine his hands with mine.

The feel of his rough palms sliding over my skin reminded me of so many things. The night he took me. The night he slept at my side, his arm looped around my middle before Lordling Neeble’s attack. The day he slid those palms over me in the enchanted bath. His masked face and startling cerulean eyes only made those memories more acute since he now stood before me as the Dark Raider.

“I would never do anything to hurt you,” he whispered. “Never.”

I took a deep, steadying breath and met his eyes. A storm raged in his irises, the potent, vivid power of this male swirling through his aura.

Brow furrowing, I recalled every time he’d asked for my trust. The truth was, each time he’d asked me to trust him, his promise had held true.

Some of the tension in my shoulders eased, and the painful beat of my heart lessened.

I didn’t know if I could trust him completely. Didn’t know if he would ultimately abandon me, as so many others had, despite his concern that a Mistvale fairy might command me to reveal who the Dark Raider was, but in this task, I thought maybe I could believe him fully.

“Elowen?” he said gently.

Finally, I gave a single nod and hoped I wasn’t making the biggest mistake of my life. “Okay, Jax. I’ll trust you.”