Page 113 of Caged Kitten

“Right,” the fae prince muttered, wiping the dust from his armor with a frown, “sorted.”

In the storm, there was distraction. Rollo had released Lloyd at some point—and made no move to cuff him again. After all, the warlock’s usefulness had run out, the task completed, which left him free to—

“Ah, ah, ah,” Lloyd sneered, snatching up a disoriented Tully by the scruff of his neck. My familiar yowled, flailing, claws out, and my heart pitched into my gut as Lloyd wrapped a hand around his head. Wild grey eyes darted to Rollo, and he clutched Tully tighter when I scrambled toward them, my familiar’s neck so vulnerable, so easily broken with one sharp jerk. “Move and I snap his neck, kitten.”

Fucker. I stilled, the tiny room made even more claustrophobic by the panic clawing up my throat, the mounds of shattered crystals at our feet.

“I have no quarrel with you, fae,” Lloyd insisted tersely. “Take your brother and go, but the girl comes with me. By a blood deal, she is my property.”

Rollo said nothing, did nothing, just looked back to me with a slightly quirked brow. Shit. Fae respected contracts; they dealt in them regularly. If I nodded, I was done. The connection I shared with his brother probably wouldn’t even matter—I belonged to this sadist, and that was that.

The prince exhaled softly, almost disappointed, and I realized my eyes, my wobbling lower lip, had betrayed me.

Tully, however, didn’t give two shits about the legalities of a blood contract. A guttural growl rumbled through him, muffled behind Lloyd’s hand. His tail suddenly poofed and slashed about, and seconds later Lloyd dropped the enormous black cat, both hands flying to his own throat instead. The warlock collapsed to the ground, colorful dust gusting around him, and scratched at his neck, gasping, red-faced and panicked.

Beyond pleased with himself, my spoiled familiar sauntered away like he was wiping his hands clean of Lloyd Guthrie for good, tail up and hooked at the end as he made his way to me.

Flicking his feet like he’d just taken the world’s biggest dump in his litterbox.

Gods did I ever love him.

Elijah, Rafe, and Fintan might have had my heart, but Tully Fox would always and forever be my main man.

Wordlessly, Rollo swiped a blade from his side and offered it to me by the handle. At least nine inches in length and forged of pure silver, the handle mirrored the star constellations patterned on his broad chest plate. I stared at it for a beat, then looked up at him, everything inside gone quiet. My heartbeat steady. My hands still. My knees strong—nowhere near buckling anymore.

Tully eased up on his unseen hold of Lloyd’s throat, and the warlock gulped down a strangled gasp as Rollo faced me.

“Free yourself, Katja,” the prince said softly, his blade hanging between us. “Take it or not… The choice is yours.”

I didn’t hesitate.

I took the blade, coiled my fingers around the ornate handle, and gripped hard. My familiar released Lloyd from his magic, allowing the warlock to topple over, gasping and heaving, coughing into the rainbow dust all around him. Barefoot, I marched right up to him, crouched down, and shoved him upright against the wall. Gritted my free hand into his shoulder, nails digging into his expensive suit jacket.

In his hateful eyes, I saw my mom’s face, the one I only knew from photos—taken from me too soon. I saw Ewan and Jackson, my best friends, my brothers, stolen, their lives cut short. I saw Dad, my rock, my protector—heard his death rattle and felt him slipping away from me.

“Kitten,” Lloyd rasped, his hand suddenly on my thigh, stroking my bare skin with his thumb. Too intimate. Too familiar. Like he still owned me. “Don’t do something you’ll always regret—”

I thrust the blade into his left eye and didn’t stop until its tip thunked against the wall. Fae-forged, it cut through his eye, his brain, his skull, and right out the other side. While I shook when I let go, falling back on my heels with a stuttering breath and staring at a listless monster, I knew for the first time in my life… I was free.

And I regretted nothing.

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