Page 15

CHAPTER 15

Sage

“First though,” the High Priestess said as if my safety was second in consideration to whatever she was going to say next. “Tell me of your family. Are any of them here in the Garden?”

My pulse picked up and sweat slicked my palms as I clutched the blanket.

This was a trap. It had to be.

The whispers of the courtiers grew louder, and their gazes burned into me from all sides, hungry and expectant.

Except I had no idea what to say. I didn’t want to lie. Everything within me screamed that she’d be able to sense an outright lie.

“Why…?” The High Priestess continued, her previous soft expression — or as soft as I’d seen so far — sliding back to her serious, firm mask. “Why haven’t you been fully healed and properly attired? Why didn’t you pay me the appropriate respect when you first entered the Garden? Everyone, including my court, has been abuzz with talk of you for days.”

My stomach twisted tighter. I didn’t know which was worse: her sudden dangerous rage, or this cool, feigned compassion. In fact, everything about her felt like an act.

Everything except her power.

The magical strength and command radiating from her was real, and she had everyone in the room exactly where she wanted them.

“Y-Your ah…” What had Onyx and Lord Rider called her? “Your B-Brilliance…” I stammered, my soft words devoured by the cavernous throne room.

“Speak up, child,” the High Priestess said in a sing-song, making me feel even more like her plaything.

More whispers skittered through the crowd, and a shiver rushed down my spine at the hungry expressions from the men closest to me.

This was why I’d avoided the courtyard. I didn’t want anyone looking at me like that.

Well… I wanted my Fantasy Man, Ash, to look at me like that.

And the part I was damn well going to ignore wanted Lords Rider, Quill, and Talon to look at me like that as well.

Be strong, I mentally hissed at myself.

Except what could I say? I didn’t want to confess I needed to keep my injuries or that I couldn’t change my spirit clothes like everyone could. And I hadn’t known I was supposed to introduce myself to the High Priestess when I first arrived. I hadn’t known anything.

Hell, I still didn’t know anything.

“I-I apologize, Your Brilliance,” I forced out, my stutter echoing around the chamber and ringing in my ears. Father, why couldn’t I speak normally in front of the dangerous, powerful woman? “I didn’t mean any disrespect. I?—”

“Your Brilliance,” Zinnia said from her kneeling position beside me, her head still bowed in respect. “If I may speak?”

The High Priestess’s clear gaze leveled on Zinnia. “Speak.”

Zinnia raised her head. “Lady Sage suffered a blow to the head during the attack, and her memories are muddled. Combined with the shock of the assault, it’s unclear when her full faculties will return.”

I resisted the urge to stare at Zinnia or let my mouth fall open in shock. The woman was lying to the High Priestess, the highest power in the fae realm, to protect me.

Sure, she might pity me because she thought I was a slave in the human realm, but she was still risking everything.

Something dark flickered in the High Priestess’s gaze, once again there and gone in a flash, but her expression didn’t change.

“That’s a very troubling condition,” the High Priestess replied.

“It is,” Zinnia agreed. “Head injuries are complicated and working on Sage’s has taken most of my power.”

The High Priestess raised a sculpted, delicate eyebrow. “Surely she’d have her memories to show for all your hard work.”

“Sadly the best anyone can do, is to stabilize the injury,” Zinnia replied.

“You must continue to monitor her condition.” The High Priestess slid her gaze back to me and her eyes narrowed. “Some of the assailants who desecrated the sacred pool are still at large.”

A hint of her rage from before burned through her mask, and my mouth went dry.

She was back to blaming me.

And from the murmurs coming from the courtiers, they’d noticed it, too.

“While my knights conduct the investigation, you’ll need protection,” she said, her tone turning to that unsettling purr again. “Since you don’t know of your family and no one has stepped forward and claimed you as their daughter?—”

“Your Brilliance,” Lord Rider said, brazenly interrupting her. “I volunteer myself and my captains to protect Lady Sage whenever she’s in the Garden.”

More murmurs rushed through the crowd, this time loud enough for me — and Lord Rider from his scowl — to hear.

“Rider volunteering?”

“—has chosen to mate.”

“Does this mean?—?”

“—so disrespectful?—”

“It has to be his wolf.”

I stared at Rider’s wide, straight back as he rumbled a low, dangerous growl.

Just like everyone else, I couldn’t believe he’d volunteered to protect me. Him and the other guys saving me from Wells and Crane could be written off as a one-time thing, something their honorable natures compelled them to do. But being willing to meet me every night and stay with me for as long as I was in the Garden was something completely different.

I just didn’t know what it meant. It went against everything I’d learned about them. Before being attacked, Lord Rider had only said a few words to me in the Garden before fleeing. Talon had said even fewer words and had been mean about it because he couldn’t afford to be mate bonded and have his mate discover that a shadow entity was trapped within his body.

The only one who’d been nice to me was Lord Quill and, just like with Talon, we’d barely exchanged words.

As for Ash, I caught him tensing when Rider volunteered him which made my throat tighten with disappointment.

I wanted him to want to protect me.

Hell, I ridiculously wanted all of them to protect me.

But Ash also hadn’t met me every night I’d been in the Garden.

I didn’t know what he did for the Black Guard — I had yet to meet him in the Black Tower — but not meeting me every night might mean his job kept him busier than even the others’ jobs.

And really! The more time I spent with them in the Garden, the more likely it would be they’d figure out my secret.

I didn’t want to be constantly near them all the time…

Even if I did want to be constantly near them all the time.

The High Priestess tsked, jerking me from my thoughts.

“Lord Commander,” she said as she dismissed him with a lazy flick of her fingers. “Your duties and your captains’ duties to the Black Guard require all of your attention. The protection of the Gray and the Gates of the Realms against the shadows is paramount.”

That gleam flashed in her eyes again.

“We must assign a guard who can be available at all times.” Her lips curled back in a smile that I was sure was supposed to be kind but wasn’t. “Sir West.”

Something heavy thumped from far behind me, the sound echoing in the chamber, and I turned to see a massive figure in a knight’s uniform emerging from the shadows against the wall near the back of the throne room.

He strode to the center aisle and marched confidently toward the throne, his footsteps thundering in the suddenly quiet chamber.

He was enormous, a monster. He was taller and broader than even Rider, and his long, coppery hair was tied back in a severe ponytail, accentuating his square, blocky face, and his grim expression.

But it wasn’t just his size that stunned me. He was the first fae I’d seen who wasn’t shockingly beautiful. He was barely handsome by fae standards.

The only thing stunning about him were his brilliant sapphire eyes.

He strode past me without even looking at me, then past Lord Rider and Talon, and dropped to one knee beside Onyx and bowed his head.

“Your Brilliance,” he rumbled.

I stared at him and shivered, fighting the terror rising within me.

He’d moved with a predatory grace like Lord Rider, and I couldn’t help wondering if he was an animal shifter, too. Regardless, it didn’t matter if he could turn into an animal, or even if he could wield the two massive swords hanging from each hip — which I was certain he could — Sir West could kill me. He probably wouldn’t even need his hands. Just a finger would probably be powerful enough.

On top of that he looked young — not that it was easy to tell a fae’s age. But somehow I just knew he was unmated and couldn’t help worrying if he’d been involved in my attack.

I didn’t recognize him, but that didn’t mean Wells and Crane hadn’t planned to add more men to my pack of unwanted mates after the initial forced bonding ceremony.

Even if West hadn’t been involved. If he decided he wanted me to satisfy his needs, I wouldn’t be able to resist him.

Wells had proven not all fae men respected and treated women with kindness, and from Sir West’s grimace, I feared he was the same.

And this was the man the High Priestess wanted to stay with me every time I entered the Garden.