Page 82 of Hidden

But he let the door fall closed, cutting off his view of the woods. He looked down at Lila again. She stood tall but somehow dimmed, as if she’d spent all her magic waking his kin. The thought shook him all over again. This was no time to leave herself vulnerable. Surely she knew that?

“You belong with your pack,” she said. “You don’t have to stay.”

“You didn’t have to free them, but you did.”

“They were my responsibility.” She made a weary gesture. “I had to make it right. It was the least I could do.”

Generosity. Fair play. Accountability. He never expected any of those from a fae. Her gesture caught him between joy and the profoundest grief. She had an inner beauty invisible to her own people.

“Come with us,” he said. “You’d have a grateful pack to protect you.”

“I can’t.”

“What are you staying for?” His words sounded impatient. He hadn’t meant them that way.

“I’m not free until my own pack is healed.” She looked away. “That won’t happen until Farras is stopped. And the Magician.”

With an effort of will, Rafe set aside the yearning to be with the wolves. He’d come here to hunt the fae hurting his pack. Lila might have freed him, but he wasn’t free of his mission.

Rafe descended the steps, acutely aware of the shrinking space between them. The scent of the wolves was on her, mixing her natural sweetness with their wild musk. “Then I’m not free until you are. You saved my kin. Wolves don’t leave a debt unpaid.”

“There is no debt,” she said.

She would have said more, but he took her by the shoulders and drew her close, his lips finding hers. He didn’t want logic. He wanted her taste. He wanted to know her in ways that didn’t need words. Lila moaned into his mouth as he ran his hand down the curve of her spine.

The vibration of her voice ran through him, sending a thousand shocks to intimate places. He pushed her against the wall—another steel door, cold beneath his palms. The kiss went on, the heat between them mounting to an excruciating pressure. Something dark inside him chuckled. This fae was as feral at heart as any beast.

Then she froze, suddenly breaking the kiss. Rafe reined himself in with difficulty, expecting a lecture about timing and danger and how he should know better when there were madmen on the loose.

But when she looked up with wide gray eyes, that wasn’t what she said. “There’s someone in this cell. A fae.”

Rafe stepped back, giving her room. “Friend or foe?”

“I can’t tell. Not yet.” Lila examined the door and made a noise of frustration. “It’s got a different locking mechanism than the others.”

Rafe fished in his pocket and held up the key ring, holding the bundle by the large iron key he’d used to free Teegar. “Try this.”

The door looked the same as Teegar’s cell, and it was in the same corridor of the dungeon. It stood to reason this was where the special prisoners were kept. He hoped it also meant the security systems were the same, because he’d listened closely when Ademar had opened the captain’s cell.

Rafe took several tries to recreate the code. But, between that and a variety of keys, they eventually opened the door. The cell was pitch dark, but Rafe could hear the rub of fabric as someone shifted positions. This prisoner was not asleep.

“Wait,” he said, catching Lila’s arm.

Light bloomed above her palm, and she sent it floating along the cell’s ceiling. The illumination was weaker than the lights she’d made before, a sign of how much energy she’d used up. Even so, the figure hunched on the bed shielded his eyes with a strangled cry.

To Rafe’s eyes, the male fae looked like a jumble of bones and rags. Lila grabbed Rafe’s arm for support.

“Father?” she gasped.

CHAPTER 29

Lila launched herself forward, dropping to her knees in front of her father. Grief welled up as she took him in her arms. Grief and molten outrage.

Lord Gareth of House Fernblade had never had the stern elegance of some fae nobles, but he had shared the light fae’s natural good looks. Now his cheekbones stood out, shadowing a wan complexion. His dark-blond hair lay in thickly matted hanks.

“Father?” Lila murmured, cupping his face.

Her hands trembled, both from the fatigue and fierce emotion. He’d always been her protector, the one who took her side in any family dispute. He’d encouraged her to follow her curiosity and move to the city. No one else had believed she could survive on her own. But now? Now he was barely recognizable.

---