Page 22

CHAPTER 22

Quill

“Please,” I begged Sage. “Let me help you.”

Goddess.

I squeezed my eyes shut. I was losing my mind. That same shock of something I’d felt when I’d touched Sawyer’s sister zinged through me as if the woman in front of me was actually the human woman who I’d unknowingly left behind in danger.

My vision had even wavered as I’d stood behind her in the throne room. One moment I saw Sage, the newest arrival to the Garden, her red hair falling in tangled waves down her back. The next, she was Sawyer’s sister, her face pale with shock because I’d said her brother’s name.

I forced my eyes open to look at the fae woman in front of me. I couldn’t let my longing for a woman I didn’t even know affect how I reacted to Sage. They both had red hair… and perhaps a similarly shaped face, but that was all. It was a passing resemblance that my mind was trying to make into more than it was.

And the fae woman needed me thinking clearly.

She still had the blanket clutched tight around her neck, and her cheek was still stained with a vivid purple bruise. My soul screamed to protect her, to gather her in my arms and never let go, that she was mine to take care of. But she couldn’t be mine because I didn’t have any magic. That, and I felt this same urgent need with Sawyer’s sister.

She wasn’t mine.

Never mine.

But I still had to help. She trembled with unfulfilled desire and there was no way I was letting West ease the pressure from her marks.

I glanced at the knight, his posture rigid and his expression stony. I’d pushed him aside to get to Sage when she’d collapsed on the floor. But he had to have let me push him, which meant he either didn’t want to get personally involved or respected the higher rank I used to have.

He was younger than me and had joined the Order of the Sacred Grove after I’d joined the Black Guard so we’d never met. Rumors claimed he was withdrawn even amongst his fellow knights and that he was incapable of smiling.

Of course, people said the same thing about Rider, and I knew that wasn’t true. Rider was just very selective with whom he shared his smile.

That said, a similarity to Rider didn’t mean I could trust West, and until we uncovered everyone involved in Wells’s plot against Sage, everyone was a suspect.

Even my mother.

I shuddered at the thought. She was clearly playing games by soul linking Sage and West, which, from the hushed words of the courtiers, had surprised everyone, not just me.

Given West’s plain appearance, I hadn’t thought my mother liked West enough to try to mate him to Sage, but that was what it looked like she was doing.

Had my mother struck a bargain with Wells and Crane? Had she promised Sage to them? It wouldn’t surprise me if my mother had struck some kind of deal with them.

Sage shivered and her breathing picked up. A strangled moan escaped her lips, wrenching me from my worries back to the immediate problem. I hadn’t seen her marks since the rescue, but they had glowed unnaturally bright. The pressure from them to have sex had to be overwhelming.

That had to be why she’d been hiding them in the throne room. She didn’t want people thinking they could take advantage of her in her vulnerable state.

Someone had to help her, and since it couldn’t be Ash, it had to be me.

“Stay in the sitting room,” I said in my sternest voice to West. “I’ll take care of Sage.”

Sage bowed her head, but thankfully didn’t protest.

“I’m not letting her leave my sight.” West took a step closer, his massive form towering over me with me crouched in front of Sage. Hell, his form towered over me when I was standing, too.

“The lady has started her hunt and needs relief,” I insisted.

“By all means,” West rumbled, gesturing to the bed in the lavish bedroom.

Except Ash had made it perfectly clear that Sage was shy and nervous around men. She hadn’t gone to the courtyard like the other women. It was obvious she didn’t want the attention. I doubted she was an exhibitionist and wanted someone watching. It wasn’t typical behavior among women, but it wasn’t unheard of, either.

“Sir West,” I said, standing and squaring my shoulders.

It didn’t matter that West stood a head taller than me. I was pulling rank.

“As my mother’s son, I command you to wait in the sitting room while I attend to Lady Sage.” I met his brilliant sapphire gaze. “With the door closed.”

Goddess, I hated pulling rank, especially when I no longer truly held any rank of note in the High Priestess’s court. But for some reason, people still recognized me as the High Priestess’s son, despite her public rejection of me the moment I discovered I didn’t have any magic.

The muscles in West’s jaw flexed, the only indication of an emotion beyond grim acceptance.

I cocked an eyebrow, waiting for his response and praying he’d bow to my authority.

Being the son of the High Priestess didn’t really mean much since the goddess selected the next High Priestess, but more often than not at least one of the High Priestess’s sons was mated to her replacement. And mate to the High Priestess was the second most powerful position in court.

West kept staring.

“Sir West,” I huffed. “I helped rescue Sage. I’m not a threat, not physically and not spiritually. I’m also more than capable of protecting her long enough for you to break down the door and give aid.”

West grunted and his gaze dipped ever so slightly, breaking our stare-off.

I took that as permission, dropped back into a crouch before Sage could stand — which it looked like she was trying and failing to do — and swept her into my arms. She trembled against me as I carried her into the large bedroom with the massive bed and shut the door with a gentle kick.

This guest suite was one of the finest in the Divine Residence. It had opulent furnishings, an amazing view of the Garden, and a luxurious bathing room. And it made my stomach churn. Sage had captured my mother’s attention and nothing good ever came from that.

I could only pray my mother would grow bored of this particular game before Sage got hurt.

As carefully as I could, I laid Sage on the bed. Her grip on the blanket had slipped when she’d tried to stand, and now I could see some of her marks.

My pulse stalled.

Not a hint of magic flickered within them. They were flat, lifeless.

My gaze leaped to hers and for a moment all I could see were shocked brown eyes flecked with impossible green.

I had to protect her.

I needed to know she was safe.

It didn’t matter that she was human.

My soul wept for her.

Then the green bled over the brown. I stared at Sage again, and the urge to protect her was just as strong as the need to protect Sawyer’s sister.

Damn it. Concentrate.

I brushed a finger over her marks near her jaw, making her gasp and jerked back from me.

“Whatever Wells did,” she said, her voice strained, “it affected my marks.”

My fingers stalled on a green mark.

This one was also lifeless but it had clearly changed from her hair color to her eye color. Had the goddess actually bonded her to Wells?

No, if the goddess had, the mark wouldn’t be green. It would have been gray because Wells was dead. Rider had confirmed that. Which meant the goddess had bonded her to someone else.

It had to be Ash.

Sage was closest with him. She’d asked for him when I’d insisted she address her desire, and it had broken my heart to tell her my mother wouldn’t allow him in the Residence because of his scars.

A part of me was jealous that Sage would bond with Ash. I’d yearned for a mate for over a century, ached with the need as irrational as that was. That was why I was losing my mind, feeling connected to Sawyer’s sister and now Sage. My soul was so desperate that I’d cling to anything even when it wasn’t true — in the case of Sawyer’s sister — or couldn’t happen — in Sage’s case.

The churning mix of emotions soured in my mouth. I shouldn’t be upset the goddess bonded Sage and Ash. Ash needed a mate. He connected with fae women on a soul-deep level that other fae didn’t, and he’d been broken since that horrible night that had scarred him.

But he still had magic. It didn’t matter if he wasn’t handsome. The goddess didn’t care about looks, only that a spark of true love existed and that the man possessed magic.

Except Ash hadn’t acted like he was newly bonded. A newly bonded man wouldn’t let his mate walk away with two other men into a place he wasn’t permitted. He would have insisted going with her and being the one to protect her. When my mother had soul-linked Sage and West, Ash should have completely lost his mind.

Which meant Ash wasn’t her mate… or because she didn’t have any magic in her marks, the bond wasn’t alive and he didn’t know.

Sage drew the blanket back over her marks and hugged herself as if that was the only thing holding her together.

“It’s all right.” I opened my arms, offering her comfort from my body.

She stared at me for so long I was sure she was going to reject me before she sagged forward into my embrace.

“Zinnia put my marks to sleep,” she murmured, her voice heartbreakingly soft and uncertain. “I won’t find my mates until they reawaken.”

I opened my mouth to ask how long that would take, but she shook her head before I could get the words out.

“I don’t know when they’ll reawaken,” she said as if she could read my thoughts. And maybe she could.

I didn’t know what magic she possessed, maybe it was mind reading. But even if she couldn’t read my thoughts, my question was the next most obvious one. A woman’s mating marks were essential. She couldn’t mate without them… and she couldn’t conceive.

And the High Priestess’s fury when she found out would put Sage at risk.

My pulse picked up. I had to protect her.

I hadn’t thought her huddled in the blanket, still looking bruised and bedraggled was the best look for an audience in the throne room, but if she couldn’t change her spirit clothes, then fully covered had been her safest option.

I glance at the closed bedroom door. The spirit anchor ensured Sage manifested beside West wherever he was. If Sage couldn’t change her spirit clothes, he was going to see her marks and tell my mother.

Fuck.

Without a doubt, Sage’s spirit was going to return to her body the moment Magister Aster removed the bracelet trapping her in the Garden. Rider needed to know the second after she left. We needed a plan to contain West by either getting him on our side to protect Sage from everyone, including my mother, or finding a way to silence him.

Goddess be damned. I’d thought I was in a nightmare when I saw Sage hanging on the waterfall’s jagged rock wall.

“I don’t know when they’ll reawaken,” she said. “Zinnia says a few might have changed color because of the magic she had to use to put them to sleep.”

Except I could see in her eyes that she didn’t believe that, and she was terrified of what would happen when her marks did reawaken.

I tighten my grip, my body curling around her a little to offer more protection.

For a moment, she stiffened, and my pulse stalled. She was going to reject me even though she needed me. Then she relaxed and leaned her trembling form back into my embrace.

“Zinnia also said I might have desire spikes for a while.”

Which explained what was happening now.

“But it’ll stop soon,” she added.

“Even if your marks were awake, the goddess wouldn’t bind our souls together.” I shifted so I could look her in the eyes. “It’s safe for me to help you through this flare up.”

“I know.” A mix of fear, yearning, and sadness filled her brown— No, green eyes.

My soul ached for me to be her calm, her shelter, her protection against all the men who would hurt her. I could see the struggle in her gaze, the battle between her desire and her uncertainty. She was strong, yes, but everyone had their breaking point, and she’d reached hers.

“I won’t hurt you,” I whispered, my voice barely more than a breath, a promise. “I just want to help.”

She nodded, a tiny, almost imperceptible movement, but it was enough. It was consent, a fragile trust that I vowed not to shatter.