I nodded and closed my eyes. Kellee’s heated presence burned so close I could feel him. Cool iron kissed my neck and then, with a click, the collar was on. Fluttering my eyes open, I fell into Kellee’s gaze.
“I’ve lost everyone,” he whispered. His hand pushed into my hair, tilting my head back. “I can’t lose you.” His mouth sought mine, brushing painfully close, the promise of a kiss stoking desire. A tiny voice told me this was wrong, a mistake, but I shoved the doubts far away and pulled Kellee down, kissing him like I’d wanted to since I’d seen his out-of-place prettiness in the sinks. I was distantly aware that we’d shoved the table back, but I was even more aware of Kellee’s hand diving around my waist and down my back so he could pull me into him. The press of his thigh against mine, my leg caught between his, and his growing hardness digging into my hip—I soaked up every touch, groaning a small, treacherous sound as I threw my head back and let his mouth burn down my jaw and my neck. I wanted more. I wanted all of him, wanted the attack, knowing he wouldn’t be gentle.
Kellee’s warm hands found my face and held me still. “We finish this…” he growled, the beast sharpening the trick of hazel and greens in his eyes.
Nearby voices drifted through the sounds of our panting, making me aware that we were pushed up against a table in a public place. I lunged in and nipped at his mouth, darting my tongue in, teasing him quickly and delighting in the warning growl that trembled through his body.
He pushed away, swallowed and drew in a deep breath.
Running my tongue over my top teeth, I smiled crookedly as his gaze tracked the suggestion.
If the two miners hadn’t wandered into the room, he might have taken me up on my offer to run my tongue over him. Instead, he chuckled and picked up the second circlet. Handing it out, he nodded. “Later.”
A stab of guilt struck fast and deep. “Later.” I forced a smile through the pain, knowing there likely wouldn’t be a later, not for us, and took the second circlet.
Chapter 27
Kellee ventured into Arcon ahead of me. With instructions from me, Talen had already split off to seek a good vantage point among the abandoned buildings inside Arcon’s shadow. The three of us were linked by comms. I sought out the same seat by the window in the eatery opposite Arcon’s main entrance. The silence was thick. Nothing moved, no wind stirred the air, no crowds chattered. I didn’t hear any of the typical metallic Calicto sounds. The place was a metal corpse and so very different from the bustling brightness of nine months ago.
I slept through the death of a world.
This silence awaited the rest of the human systems if the fae weren’t stopped. I couldn’t stop them all—just one.
I’d found a long coat in the mines, torn and covered in dust, but it had a few pockets I could use, and it concealed my new magnetic whip.
Now that I was alone, I wished I’d taken Talen’s offer of magic, but it wouldn’t be enough to stop Eledan and would only reveal the fact I had a fae at my disposal. It would have spooked Eledan, and I needed him to feel in control.
“I’m in and I’ve got company approaching,” Kellee said through the comms.
“Understood.” I touched the thin iron circlet clasped around my neck. As protection went, it was better than nothing. Eledan couldn’t pull me into any dreams with him, but that didn’t stop me from swallowing too much saliva as it pooled in my mouth or stop my heart from racing. I had to do this.
“Hello, Messenger.” Eledan’s sweet voice spilled from Kellee’s comms and coiled around my confidence, chipping off the edges. I closed my eyes and listened to the pause, listened to the moment before it all began—and ended. There was no going back.
“I have something of yours,” the fae prince said.
Kellee. He would be okay. The marshal knew what he was dealing with now. This wasn’t like before. He would have been careful. Eledan was mine.
“Something you’ll want back.” There was laughter in the Dreamweaver’s voice, laughter I had relished in. I shoved those memories away.
“What?” I whispered. “What gift do you have for me, Prince?”
The marshal was stubborn and brash, but he wouldn’t risk this for blind revenge. He was too clever for that.
“K-Kesh?” a woman’s voice stammered.
It took me a moment to unwrap the past few months and find the memory of that voice.
“Don’t come, Kesh!” she screamed. “Don—”
A resounding crack cut her off.
No!
I shot to my feet, burst from the eatery and dashed across the abandoned street and up Arcon’s steps. “Hulia, hold on!”
Eledan’s laughter filled my head, and when I shoved through Arcon’s cracked doors, the liquid laughter rolled through the abandoned foyer and echoed far into the empty building.
Chapter 28
Tree roots as thick as my arm had grown along Arcon’s glass corridors, sending spider-web cracks through the glass walls. I jogged the floors and climbed the stairwell, knowing exactly where he had her.
Was Kellee there too? I couldn’t risk calling to the marshal, and I would find out soon enough anyway.
Sota’s data held information on Hulia. After everything that had happened, I’d forgotten about Kesh Lasota’s old friends, her old life, but Eledan hadn’t.
I flung open the meeting room door and walked in, head up, shoulders back. The prince sat on his oak throne, only now the throne had speared its roots through the floors and walls. Atop his braided black hair, he had fashioned himself an oak crown. And Hulia lay sprawled on the long oak table, writhing. She clawed at her clothes, twisting off fabric strips in her fists. Her back arched, and her eyes rolled back.
“Stop it,” I snapped.
Eledan leisurely rose from his throne. “But her mind is such a delightful place to be. She is nama, did you know?”
Hulia let out a pleasure-laden groan.
“Eledan, stop.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Nama were one of our first creations. We made them out of the spirit of the wild meadows. Can’t you tell?” He beamed at her, so pleased as she twisted and clawed at herself. “We made them sing for us. Won’t you sing, dear Hulia?”
She screamed, so loud and so shrill, that I thought it might shatter my skull.
I lunged for Eledan. He whirled away, caught my wrist and yanked me hard against him. Bucking, I tried to unravel myself from his grip, but he clamped his arms around me tighter.
“We made them dance for us,” he purred, then flung me away and turned on the spot, hips rocking to the music in his head.
“You’re insane,” I hissed. I had known, but I hadn’t really seen it, not like this.
“Oh, they danced for years and years, until we grew bored, and so we made them pleasure us.” He snatched Hulia from the edge of the table, hauling her into his arms, and kissed her like he had kissed me, like he’d been starved of what she was giving him. Hulia lifted her legs and hooked them around his waist, grinding against him. She fell back, letting him cradle her as he trailed his mouth and tongue down her neck to the rise of her breasts. Her eyes were clouded over with what looked like frost. And I knew she was dreaming—dreaming like I had. Had I behaved like that? Clawing at myself, drenched with madness and need? Somewhere in all the terrible memories, in all that fantasy he had poured into my head, I knew I had.
“I’ll do it,” I blurted. “Just let her go.”
Eledan turned his head. Hulia clawed at his shoulder and sank her hands into his hair. He pushed her off and regarded me with a new hunger. “You will?”
As though I had a choice. “Let her go, okay? Let her go, and I’ll fix your heart, just like you wanted.”
“Hmm…” He clicked his tongue. “If only it were that easy to trust the worthless word of a saru.” Lifting his hand, he clicked his finger and thumb together. “Ah-ha! Sota, bring him in.”
Kellee marched into the room, his hands held at shoulder height. Behind him, Sota hovered. The drone had his weapons drawn and sights locked on the back of Kellee’s skull.
Oh, Sota… no.
Kellee…