Page 19

CHAPTER 19

Rider

Ash and Onyx sat on the wooden bench in the Lord Commander’s sitting room that ran along the side of the wall, while I paced from Phoenix’s closed office door to the open door leading to the hall and back again.

There was no point in even trying to sit. My wolf was too agitated. It needed to hunt down the rest of the men who’d attacked Sage and find her, wherever she was in the Residence. It didn’t want Phoenix to waste its time and draw it into something political.

Minutes later — that felt like hours to my wolf — Phoenix strode into the sitting room.

“I don’t have a lot of time.” He marched across the room to his office.

Ash shot me a glance, his expression wary, while Onyx hurried to follow.

A part of me cursed myself for getting my sister’s mate mixed up in this. Phoenix was his commanding officer, and Onyx could be in a world of trouble, but there wasn’t anyone else in the Order who I trusted.

I strode into the room with Ash a step behind me and dropped into one of the leather highbacked chairs in front of his desk. My wolf heaved under my skin, but I forced it down and feigned a calm I didn’t feel.

Phoenix couldn’t know how I felt and I couldn’t let him think he was superior to me. He wasn’t. We were both Lord Commanders of elite forces — and as much as everyone looked down on the Black Guard because half of the army was human, they were a highly trained force. And in the area of actual combat, I was the more experienced warrior.

Ash took position standing to my right and slightly behind the chair, while Onyx strode to the front of Phoenix’s desk and stood at attention. Phoenix dropped into the chair behind his desk, pushed a pile of papers to the side, and leaned forward.

“Explain exactly what happened,” he commanded.

I summarized the situation, knowing Onyx could fill him in on the details.

“So the Great Rider let some of the assailants get away,” Phoenix huffed, making my wolf’s hackles rise.

“We prioritized the new arrival’s safety,” Ash said. “We?—”

“I didn’t ask for your input, Captain.” Phoenix’s lips curled back in disgust.

Fucking asshole.

I resisted the urge to grow claws and rip off his face. There were too many healers in the Residence so he wouldn’t scar, and injuring him would piss off the High Priestess, which would create problems for me and my entire command.

It was bad enough Ash couldn’t follow Sage into the Residence because his appearance was too unsightly for Her Brilliance’s precious sensibilities. Pissing off Phoenix now could get me, Talon, and Quill banned from the Residence, and then we’d have no way of protecting Sage.

“Her Brilliance wants my best man on this.” Pheonix sat back, his gaze locked with mine. “This new arrival is precious to her and the rest of us. That’s why she assigned Sir West to Lady Sage’s protection.”

His words were meant as a peace offering. But they did nothing to ease the fear and anger churning inside me.

Sure, he’d take Sage’s protection seriously. But only if he and the High Priestess hadn’t been involved in the attack in the first place.

Once I learned who his investigator was, I’d know the truth.

Phoenix’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t get in my investigator’s way.”

My wolf snarled back at him before I could stop it, and Phoenix’s lips curled with the hint of a wicked smile.

Fuck. He thought I was interested in mating Sage. Which meant the High Priestess would think I was interested in mating Sage.

And I was not interested in mating, damn it!

“Dismissed,” he said to me before turning his attention to Onyx. “Your report, Captain.”

Onyx squared his shoulders and I stormed out of Phoenix’s office with Ash at my heels.

Onyx would be fine. He had Phoenix’s trust, and Phoenix knew I’d only gone to Onyx because he was family. And if I told myself that enough times, maybe I’d believe it.

Still. I needed to find my sister and let her know what was going on.

We left the north wing, taking a side door into the Garden and hurrying away from prying eyes and ears again.

I led Ash to a secluded nook that was partially hidden by flowering vines, where dim lighting obscured anyone inside and the lights in the Garden beyond made it easy to observe anyone nearby.

“We need a plan,” I said, keeping my voice low even though my wolf couldn’t sense anyone nearby.

“We need more information,” Ash shot back. “We don’t know how deep the corruption goes. Does it stop with whoever was supposed to guard the sacred pool or are Phoenix and the High Priestess involved?”

I didn’t want to believe the High Priestess would arrange for a woman to be forcibly mated. It went against everything we, as fae, believed in. But Wells, Crane, Thunder, and Addax all had powerful magic. If the High Priestess wanted their loyalty for something, arranging for them to mate would be a way to get them in her debt.

“Do you know anything about West?” I asked.

“Not much. He has personal enhancement magic and it’s powerful. He can make himself stronger, faster, more durable, and more agile than naturally possible,” Ash replied. “Only Phoenix and a few of his captains can win a fight against him and not consistently.”

So if Sage was in trouble, West was more than capable of protecting her. But only if West wasn’t a part of that trouble.

My wolf thrashed against my control, furious and desperate. It didn’t matter that Quill, a highly skilled swordsman, was with her. It didn’t matter that my wolf knew Quill would use every dirty trick he’d learned in the Gray to protect Sage. It needed to protect her, too.

Except going right now would draw more of the High Priestess’s attention and neither me nor my wolf wanted that. Attention from anyone only increased how much danger Sage was in.

“One of us needs to be with her at all times,” I growled.

Ash dipped his head, letting his hair veil the ruined side of his face. “It’ll be up to you and Quill.”

Fuck. If West didn’t let Sage out of the Residence, Ash couldn’t be with her, and Talon couldn’t take a shift because he couldn’t risk being mated to her. She wouldn’t understand the nature of his shadow and the High Priestess could execute him if she learned the truth.

Talon and Ash would have to support us by taking up the slack in the Black Tower.

“At least Sage said she only manifests in the Garden at night,” Ash added. “Hopefully, it stays that way and it won’t interfere with the novice training.”

“Or we teach her how to control her manifesting.”

New arrivals often struggled with controlling when and how they manifested in the Garden, and from what Sage had said, it sounded like she had that problem. But if we could teach her how to control it, she could avoid the Garden until it was safe.

Goddess, that would make everything so much easier.

Everything except earning her trust and figuring out where she was in the human realm.

My wolf internally snarled and clawed, and I paced to the back of the nook, needing to take action, move, do something!

“You and Quill can work out the details for guard duty tomorrow morning.” Ash watched me march back to the nook’s opening. “Right now you need to let Lark talk to your wolf.”

My wolf opened my mouth to tell Ash I was fine, but I snapped it shut before the words came out. I wasn’t fine. I hadn’t been fine even before Sage had been attacked.

“Quill said the magister was going to meet him at the entrance to the Sacred Grove,” I said. “Talon was supposed to meet him.”

“I’ll wait for Talon there. If he doesn’t show, I’ll tell the magister that Sage is in the Residence. He’ll be able to find her if he asks a servant.” Ash pulled his hair forward again.

I hadn’t seen him hide this much when it was just us since the first time he manifested in the Garden and he’d realized his spirit form was scarred like his physical form.

“Once that’s taken care of, I’ll return to the sacred pool,” Ash said.

“Good idea.” I was great at noticing scents and following prey, but Ash was the tracker and spymaster of the Black Tower. There was a chance he’d find something I missed. Something whichever knight was assigned to the investigation might miss. “I’ll join you.”

His dark eyes narrowed.

“After I talk with Lark,” I added, and not just because I needed her to help my wolf calm the fuck down.

By now, she’d have heard about Onyx being summoned to the throne room, and without a doubt, she’d have questions. It was only fair I answered some of them.

I left Ash in the nook and went in search of Lark. By now, Dale’s concert was over, but given how Talon had summoned Onyx and that Onyx was probably still with Phoenix, I doubted my sister and her other mates had gone to the after-concert celebration. They were probably worried.

A flicker of guilt soured the taste in my mouth. I didn’t want to worry my sister. She was distressed enough at trying to get pregnant, and added worry about her mate wouldn’t help her situation.

But there wasn’t anything I could do about it, and I wouldn’t have done anything different. Sage had needed to talk to someone I trusted, someone who I knew wouldn’t scare her, and Onyx had been the man for the job.

I found Lark in a private sitting room at the edge of the east wing of the Residence. Plush furniture and lush greenery filled the luxurious space, and the air was thick with the scent of blooming flowers. The relaxing smell stood in stark contrast to the tension radiating through the room, and my guilt churned my stomach.

Lark sat curled on a velvet couch with Flint and Dale on either side of her, while Blaze furiously paced the room. The tiger shifter’s gaze jumped to the entrance the moment I stepped into sight.

With a snarl, he leaped at me, grabbed the front of my leather tunic and heaved me inside. “What the hell is going on? If Onyx is in trouble?—”

My wolf surged forward, and I shoved Blaze back. Blinding fury roared through me and my consciousness was shoved aside. I threw myself at him, my spirit form tearing apart and reforming into my wolf.

If Onyx was in trouble I’d protect him like I’d protect Talon, Quill, and Ash. Something hurting Onyx hurt my sister and neither me nor my wolf would stand for that.

Hell, I’d even protect Blaze no matter how much I wanted to kill him right now.

Flint yelled something, but I couldn’t hear him past the rushing in my ears.

Mine. Mine mine mine.

The word kept ringing in my ears over and over again.

Blaze scrambled away from me, his tiger flashing bright gold in his shocked amber eyes. Between the two of us, he usually lost control first, but my wolf just couldn’t take it anymore. It needed to hunt, to kill, to protect.

It had lost its fucking mind. The novices were out of control, the childish men in the Garden were out of control, and the High Priestess liked to play games my wolf couldn’t control. It needed something solid and certain within its grasp and it had ridiculously — foolishly, childishly, insanely, please Goddess only temporarily — decided Sage was how it was going to regain control.

And it didn’t have time to fuck around with Blaze. It had to ensure Sage was safe. Now now now.

I lunged, forcing Blaze back until he hit the wall, then surged forward. I shifted back into my human form and pinned him against the wall with a clawed hand at this throat.

“Enough!” Lark screamed.

My wolf leaned closer to Blaze to ensure he’d stay put then looked at my sister.

“Enough, Rider,” she repeated, her tone softening as a thread of her magic wrapped around me and whispered directly with the wolf spark buried in the core of my being.

I didn’t know what was said, only that my wolf huffed and jerked me away from Blaze.

My wolf was still on edge, still desperate for a fight, but somehow Lark had convinced it to trust me. I would give it a fight. But we needed to fight the right people, and Blaze wasn’t one of those people.