CHAPTER 7
Talon
The dimly lit passage outside the hidden conception suite stretched before me as my shadow writhed beneath my skin with a rage more powerful than I’d ever felt before.
Somehow it had kept itself contained when we’d rushed the red-haired new arrival to the hidden suite, pulling itself and its allure into a tight ball around the spark in my heart. But the minute I’d stepped back into the passage, it had roared to life, exploding from within me with dark, writhing lashes of shadow. The force of its rage was so strong, I had to press my shoulder against the vine-covered wall to keep standing.
I didn’t understand its reaction. I knew why I was furious. No man should ever attack a woman and certainly shouldn’t tie her up and do whatever the hell Wells had done to her. But my shadow didn’t have the same sense of morals as I did. Hell, I didn’t even know if it knew what morals were.
For the longest while, it seemed like my shadow only had base emotions: hunger, contentment, rage. But its repertoire of feelings had grown over the years, suggesting it was more than just a base, mindless creature.
It felt sympathy and frustration over my love for Quill and my decision not to ask him to bond with me. And when we’d seen the new arrival, Sage, it had recognized her or something within her, and I’d been flooded with a confusing ball of emotions while it squeezed itself so tight inside me not even a flicker of allure oozed from my body.
Now I burned with a rage unlike one I’d ever experienced before that consumed all underlying feelings my shadow might have.
I hear you, I thought to my shadow even though we communicated through emotions and not words. I want to kill every last man who thought they could hurt her, too.
But that would have to wait. Rider was a better tracker than me, and my job was to protect Sage from the uproar that was sure to follow the moment the fae nobility learned the attack happened in the sacred pool. Not to mention protect her from anyone in the Order who’d been involved.
And to do that, I needed my shadow to calm the fuck down. I couldn’t go to Onyx to ask for help with my shadow billowing from my body and releasing an ocean of allure.
We need to do this for Sage. Please.
Surprisingly, it snapped back under my skin and curled into a tight ball in my chest without any more begging. Its rage still sizzled through my veins, but I got the feeling it understood what I needed to do and wasn’t going to get in my way.
Thank the Goddess.
I couldn’t afford for people to ask questions. It didn’t matter that I could brush it off as my magical ability to control darkness. It looked like my control had slipped, and I could be detained until I proved I had my magic under control.
And right now would be a terrible time to be detained. I needed to help protect the new red-haired arrival. Even if my honor as a fae man didn’t demand it, my shadow did.
Grateful it was going to help me, I manifested in the antechamber outside the smaller of the Garden’s two concert halls. The room was wide with a soaring ceiling, vine-covered window and door arches, intricately carved wooden walls, and a polished stone floor.
Ahead of me stood the elaborately carved doors leading into the concert hall where we — Rider, Quill, and I — were supposed to have joined Lark and her mates for the concert.
A haunting melody drifted from within, lutes and shawms weaving together in perfect harmony and striking a chord deep inside me, making my chest ache with hunger and longing. They were playing Quill’s favorite song. The same one that had been playing the moment I realized I was in love with him.
I shoved that emotion aside and opened one of the doors to the concert hall. I couldn’t afford to feel sorry for myself on top of all the other emotions raging through me. I had to focus on the job at hand: protecting Sage.
The door led to a dimly lit hall that ran along the back of the concert hall to stop light from the antechamber disturbing the performance. I hurried to the archway at the end and stepped into the chamber. Five hundred seats, only half full, sat in neat rows on a gently sloped floor facing a three-foot high stage at the front. Like many of the proper rooms in the Garden, the space was carved half from the living wood of the massive tree at the Garden’s heart, and half from stone created by an Earth Master able to manipulate the earth with his magic.
I scanned the crowd and found Lark and her mates near the back surrounded by a bunch of empty seats that they’d most likely held for me and the others in case we wanted to join them.
A part of me wished we could join them. Rider certainly needed time with his sister. His wolf had been on edge before Wells and Crane had attacked Sage, and it would be a miracle if the beast let Rider transform back into a human after he searched the sacred pool’s chamber for the attackers’ scents.
But joining Lark and her mates meant abandoning Sage, and there was no way in hell I was going to do that.
The music swelled and Dale, one of Lark’s mates and the leader of the quartet on stage, broke into a quick-paced swirl of notes on his lute with the kind of fingering that awed even his fellow professionals.
I hurried down the aisle while the music was louder and slipped into a seat behind Onyx. The song ended, everyone clapped, and two of the musicians switched instruments for the next song. I leaned forward and caught Onyx’s eye.
“I need your help,” I whispered, drawing Lark, Flint, and Blaze’s attention as well. “Garden business.”
Blaze’s eyes narrowed and he wrapped a protective arm across Lark’s shoulders. If we hadn’t had the relationship we did, I’d have been hurt by his need to protect his mate from me. But I knew the tiger shifter couldn’t help himself. He was almost as strong an alpha as Rider and his possessiveness, while a little higher than normal for a fae with an alpha animal form, was expected.
The muscles in Onyx’s jaw flexed as Lark raised her eyebrows. I could see the questions in her eyes and I prayed she wouldn’t ask. Rider didn’t want his sister involved and I really didn’t want to piss Rider off right now.
“Garden business?” Flint asked. It was his night off as the primary healer in the Black Tower but I knew he’d send his spirit back to his body in a flash if we needed him.
“Just the Garden,” I said.
Dale started another song with two strong chords followed by the rest of the musicians.
“I don’t want to disturb the concert.” I gave Onyx a pointed look.
“Outside,” he hissed.
He turned to Lark and kissed her then stood and followed me back into the grand antechamber.
“This better be good. Lark needs me right now.” He turned back to the intricately carved doors, heartache flickering through his expression.
“It didn’t take?” Shit.
Lark had been so hopeful only a few days ago. The High Priestess had blessed the sacred pool, and Lark and her mates had spent her entire conception cycle trying to get pregnant. Unlike humans, fae woman could feel the spark of a new life within them almost immediately. Unfortunately also unlike humans, it was hard for fae to get pregnant, and Lark had been trying for decades.
“It is what it is,” Onyx said. “We love her regardless, but if you can take this to someone else, I’d appreciate it.”
“I wish I could.” I glanced around the antechamber to make sure no one was eavesdropping. “Have you heard about the new arrival?”
Onyx gave a tight nod. “Lark said she met her. Says she’s sweet. She was surprised to find Rider talking to her.”
I huffed. I was surprised Rider had talked to her long enough to get her name. The only time I’d come across them together, I’d scared her away so she wouldn’t get caught up in my shadow’s allure, and I doubted he’d had enough time to catch her name then.
Which meant he had to have talked to her at least another time. It would also explain why he’d been obsessively looking at that bench while we were having our meeting about the novices in the Black Tower.
“Her name is Sage. Wells, Crane, and a bunch of other men attacked her.” I met his gaze. “In the sacred pool.”
“They what?” Onyx’s frustration from being taken away from his mate turned to fury. He was a Knight Captain in the Order of the Sacred Grove, and he took his job of protecting the Garden and the High Priestess seriously. “That shouldn’t have been possible. Someone should have been on duty.”
“Which is why I’ve come to you,” I said. “I can trust you.”
“And you don’t know who else in the Order you can trust.” He smoothed a hand over his long, black hair, his gaze unfocused telling me his thoughts were whirling. “Maybe it was dereliction of duty.”
“Maybe. But I still don’t trust a random knight to interview her. If she was shy to begin with she might be terrified of people now, especially unmated men.”
“Of course.” Onyx straightened his back, and his shirt and pants turned into his green, gold, and white knight uniform telling me he was only here in the Garden in his spirit form. “Take me to her. Does she need medical attention?”
“Quill’s got that covered,” I replied. “We’ve got her in a conception room. Meet you at the entrance to the grove.”
Onyx nodded and his body turned to smoke as he sent his spirit to the entrance to the Sacred Grove. I closed my eyes, imagined myself there, and manifested beside Onyx in front of the arched entranceway, then we strode into the maze-like passages, the softly glowing flowers lighting our way.
“If it wasn’t dereliction of duty…” Onyx said.
I could feel the weight of what he left unspoken. The knight order was supposed to protect the Garden and those within it.
Had it just been one knight who’d turned a blind eye or — Goddess-forbid — participated in attacking Sage? Or did it go deeper than that? Someone had stopped Sage from sending her spirit back into her body by trapping her with an artifact. Was that something members of the Order knew about? It was a pretty handy tool if you wanted to hold onto a criminal’s spirit long enough to retrieve their physical body.
We reached the dead-end hall and the secret entrance to the hidden conception room. I reached to push the catch and open the door but stopped and turned to Onyx.
“Ash says she’s been avoiding the courtyard and thinks the men make her nervous,” I said, trying to reiterate my point that she could be terrified of him.
The rage and seriousness in his eyes softened. “I understand.”