Page 73
Sav
W e found Creig in the map room, scanning a document. He looked up, rolling the parchment and wrapping a bit of silk around it. Larak released me, but Yolmar squeezed my arm tighter, as we came to stand beside his father.
“Creig.”
He held up a hand. “I know what you’re going to ask, Love, and I wish I could say yes—”
“Then say it. I won’t stand by while they hurt him.”
“Lord Hawthorn told you of his father’s connection to them. Do you think he’ll let ISHFA kill Jack?”
“Dad.” Yolmar laid a hand on his father’s shoulder. “We have to try.”
Creig hissed through his teeth. “We don’t owe the human our lives and that’s what we’ll be giving if we go into ISHFA headquarters bent on taking one of their prisoners.”
“Dad,” Larek echoed.
Craig slammed a fist down on the table. “This isn’t some secret mission against humans. The ISHFA is backed by some of the most powerful fae royals. And they have Morgan. There would be nowhere we would be safe.”
Yolmar and Larek glanced at me. Each harsh word he spoke was a knife to my chest, but he was right. I wouldn’t trade any of them for Jack. Only I had been responsible for putting him in danger and only I could get him out of it. I nodded.
“Sav.” Creig held a hand out.
I stared down at it, watching the edges blur. “You’re right. I would never forgive myself if you were arrested.”
“You can’t go, Love.”
I wiped my cheek, squaring my shoulders as I met his stare. “I understand your concern, but it’s not your decision. I won’t bring him here. I promise.”
“A trip to ISHFA headquarters is one way, Sav.”
The memory of Jack’s breath, hot against my mouth as his lips crashed into mine surfaced, and my heart fractured. We’d only just begun to explore what could be between us. I couldn’t leave him there to die. Maybe. Maybe it was a one-way trip, but there was something I could do to even the odds.
“I owe you, Creig. For everything you’ve done, and you’ll never know how grateful I am that you were always there for me when no one else was.”
He shook his head but made no move to stop me as I untangled my arm from Yolmar’s.
“Sav, you can’t go alone.” Yolmar said, as I turned.
“We’ll come with you.” Larek called, as I reached the door.
“Like hell you will,” Creig growled, and I didn’t turn to see if either of the twins would argue.
I raced from the room, rounding the corner and stopping outside a door at the end of the hall. No one followed and I knocked softly before entering. “Juniper?”
I stepped in, glancing around the dark space and flipped on a light.
I dropped to my knees. “Juniper?”
She didn’t blink. Her eyes locked on the wall. Her curls were brushed, but her body was frozen.
I touched her wrist.
Quickly, too quickly for even my mind to process, she moved and I gasped at the pain. Releasing her, I wrapped my hands around cold metal protruding from my side.
Juniper moved again, grabbing another blade from the sheath around my waist and raised it to strike. I reached for her arms, but she swiped at me, just as she had at Foxglove in the prison and blood welled along my fingers.
“Juniper, stop!”
She swiped again and I ducked out of her path, grabbing two of my daggers.
Creig had pinned her to the wall with one of his axes, narrowly missing skin, but I wasn’t sure my aim would be as good when she moved like some possessed creature, and I threw up my blades just in time to deflect her next attack.
“Juniper. It’s me. Sav. We saved you. You’re not at the AFF anymore,” I panted, dodging another blow.
She swiped again and I backed up, grunting as the pain in my side radiated down my leg. My finger wounds were healing quickly, but I feared the one in my side had struck something vital. She’d meant it as a killing blow.
I reached the doorframe and slipped out into the hall. “Someone, help! Help me with Juniper!”
Heavy steps sounded down the hall, and I dodged two more blows before Foxglove appeared and wrapped his arms around Juniper. She struggled in his hold and he glanced over his shoulder at me. “Get the knife.”
I lunged forward, tearing it from her iron grip. It clattered to the floor and he backed her into the room, not looking back again. I watched as he sat her down in the chair, binding her in invisible magical rope. Long fingers caged her face, and he stared into her eyes.
“Juniper. Look at me. Sav is your friend. We don’t harm friends.”
“What’s wrong with her?”
Foxglove’s gaze never left Juniper’s as he spoke. “She’s been drugged. Something magical that implants false motivations in her mind. I’ve seen it before.”
Gingerly, I touched my side, wincing at the searing pain radiating from the knife. “Can it be reversed?
“With time. And quiet.”
I leaned against the doorframe, inhaling shallowly
Foxglove glanced at me. “Go get that taken care of. I’ll stay with her.”
I nodded, swallowing as I backed into the hall and frowned. Foxglove’s jaw slackened as he brushed a knuckle down Juniper’s cheek, his voice dropping to a whisper I barely heard. His fingers trembled.
His soothing words followed me down the hall as I stopped in the medic room, scanning the empty space. With so many injured fae in residence, I hadn’t expected anyone to be here, but a fae could hope. Alone in the room, I ground my jaw. This was going to hurt.
Tearing the shirt free of the wound, I gagged as it bumped the edge of the blade protruding from my side and tossed the bits of fabric down on the counter. Scanning its surface, I found a bowl of crushed spadeleaf already prepared and scooped a handful of the paste onto my fingers.
My vision tunneled as I pulled. The pain was white hot, and for one excruciating moment, I forgot how to breathe.
I slumped against the table, inhaling shallowly as the worst of the pain ebbed. I lifted a shaking hand, scooping another handful of paste out of the bowl and smeared it over my wound.
Retracing my steps down the hall, I glanced at Juniper’s room before moving to my own. I changed quickly, tightening my bodice, staring at my reflection. A crown of daggers. A dress of lies. If this was what it took to get him back, I’d wear it all.
I was willing to sell my freedom—for Jack. And not just because he mattered to me. Because the deeper truth I couldn’t say out loud was this: I didn’t believe he was human. And if I was right, that changed everything.
Foxglove and Creig would help Juniper. But for what I had to do next, I’d be on my own.
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