Page 62 of King of Storms and Feathers

My hands wrapped around Ari’s slender throat.

“Arrow,” Raiden said.

“Be quiet,” I warned him, focusing on Ari. “Next time you can’t find Leaf, alert me immediately or I’ll send you packing to Auryinnia, the first bonded gold reaver to be dismissed by a Light Realm king. Where have the guards searched?”

Ari swallowed, her golden gaze not meeting mine. “As I said, I wanted to speak to you before I raised the alarm.”

“Ari, she could be dead. Crushed by a cart. Stolen by any number of fae leaving the city.”

Raiden marched toward the elevator. “If she’s still alive, I’ll find her, Arrow.”

“Not without me, you won’t.” I used magic to draw my armor and cloak through the air toward me, tugging them on as I walked. “But first, I need you to tell the guards that if they find Leaf, no one has permission to touch her. No one but me will lay a hand on her. Understand?”

“As you command.” Raiden dipped his head, his mouth grim.

As the elevator’s barred door closed, I stared at the Sayeeda, my glare promising she would pay for her unforgivable inaction today. By doing nothing after Leaf jumped, Ari may as well have pushed the girl out of the window herself. And now, my human was alone, vulnerable prey in a city of hunters.

With Esen, Raiden, and a small party of soldiers, we searched Coridon from top to bottom, no bale or stone left unturned.

Where the fuck was Leaf hiding?

As night fell, our horses stamped the dust near the city gates, and I wheeled Yanar around, a flash of light on the horizon catching my eye. Dark energy tore through my gut, and I knew without a doubt where Leaf was.

Fucking Bonerust.

Somehow, she had escaped the city, a near impossible feat for a human. Perhaps she’d hidden in a cart or begged a ride with a traveler who was foolish enough to think they could use her, then discard her broken body in a ditch. If I found her in the possession of such a man, fae or human, I would fill his veins with lightning, boil his brains, and crush his bones to a pulp.

A storm gathered in the sky, thunder rumbling, and my horse reared, his front legs lashing the air. “Raiden, you and three others come with me. Esen, remain here and continue searching with the others. Scour every surface of the foundry again. Earlier, I felt an energy disturbance on the balcony that overlooks the vats. It held remnants of the human.”

Esen recoiled as if I’d shot an arrow through her breastplate, her cheeks flushing. Then she turned without a word, and her horse galloped toward the center of town, several armored riders following in her dust trail.

I spurred Yanar through the gates and rode as fast as the wind allowed, not stopping until we arrived at the corroded spiked gates at Bonerust’s entrance, smoke and the stench of roasting meat thick in the air.

Two guards bolted forward as Yanar stamped the dirt and blew hard through his nose.

“My King,” said the brawniest guard, his heavily bristled face partly visible beneath his helmet. He was human, which surprised me. They weren’t considered strong enough to guard the entrance to a fae town, and I wondered briefly how he got the job. “Welcome to Bonerust. It is an honor to—”

I urged Yanar forward until he loomed over the guard, tendrils of storm magic curling from his nostrils. “A slave girl escaped from Coridon. Has she passed through your gates?”

“A whore was found sneaking through the gin gates on the eastern wall, Your Majesty.”

A muscle twitched in my jaw. “A whore, you say?”

“She wore a fine neck cuff but had a mouth on her like a Port of Tears sailor. Guards who found her said she didn’t sound like a court servant.”

Sheet lightning flashed across the sky as I leaped off Yanar and wrapped my hands around the guard’s throat. “Who has the girl?” I snarled.

Magic seeped from my pores, blue ripples circling my limbs, and the man squirmed in pain as the contact burned his skin.

“Who found her? How long ago?” I asked. “Lie to me, human, and I’ll snap your neck.”

Words garbled through his spit-flecked lips. “The blacksmith. About three hours ago.”

The fucking blacksmith scum, who called himself the Rust King, was about to learn that my dominion over all things in the Light Realm included him, the slobbering son of a goat lover.

“You better hurry,” wheezed the guard, his neck muscles straining beneath my grip. “He finishes smithing about now and will be turning his attention to his new acquisition.”

His acquisition. Leaf was my property. And the blacksmith would pay the price of presuming otherwise.

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