Page 91 of Caged Kitten

I sputtered up at him, standing my ground when he tried to tug me forward. “What? But you told everyone else—”

“I’m not wrong,” the fae insisted with one of his cavalier shrugs, eyes blazing with mirth—with a fire of his own, green flames sparking and snapping like I’d never seen before. “If they overwhelm Guthrie, they can take down the ward and free everyone. Let’s be honest—inmates outnumber security. But the ward also opens and closes at the main gates for shift changes… We don’t need Guthrie for that, and I have a lot of money. Prince, remember?”

I groaned. “Oh my gods, Fintan, now is not the time to pull this—”

“Now is precisely the time to buy our way out,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows and then shouldering through the main doors before I had the chance to object. Fingers still entwined, I had no choice but to follow him into the sunshine, met with a blast of cool, dry air as I jogged in his shadow, clutching my scissors like they might actually do something.

Like I had the stones to use them on a guard as Fintan had.

Never gonna happen.

I couldn’t… stab them into someone’s face.

Or leg. Or shoulder. Or whatever. It wasn’t me.

I couldn’t…

Do you want to die here?a stronger me whispered from the black depths of my mind, the butterflies in my chest pounding their wings, circling as one swirling mass. Do you want to lose to Lloyd? Toughen up, sweetheart. We’re just getting started.

I rubbed at my ear with my shoulder, unsure of where all that had come from—only that it had a familiar tinge to it, a whisper of my dormant magic, as if all the energy, the power, the ancient wisdom brewing inside me had finally taken on a life of its own. Concerning. Without my wand, casting on a good day was a bit of a crapshoot. If I somehow got the collar off without frying, I’d probably explode.

Crouched low, Fintan snuck us along the edge of the greenhouse, then darted down the side and out of sight of the main building. Just as we rounded the corner, I glanced back over my shoulder and spotted one of the wolf shifters on patrol near the heart of Xargi. With a sizeable spiked collar of his own, the enormous white wolf stood watching us, ears up, alert, then resumed sniffing the foundations of the main building.

Not all the wolves out here were volunteers.

Some were prisoners, same as the rest of us.

“Now, I know someone monitors the western exterior fencing—”

“Wait.” I planted my feet and ripped my hand away, forcing Fintan to stop and loop back for me.

“Katja, we all know what you’re doing,” he remarked lightly—almost like he was choosing the best words to spare my feelings. “It’s too late to pretend we don’t know each other, but it’s just the time to make a move.”

“No, I just…” Embarrassment warmed in my cheeks and plumed all the way down my body. By purposefully distancing myself from the guys, I had tried to assert my own agency… Now here was Fintan coming to the rescue, and I was the damsel all over again. Not the heroine. Never the heroine. Just a helpless girl the heroes carried on their shoulders all the way to the end.

No. Not happening. I had a say in this, even if it wasn’t what any of them wanted to hear.

I had a voice, damn it—and it was time to use it.

“We can’t leave without Elijah and Rafe,” I said firmly. “And Tully… I’m not going anywhere without him. Ever.”

Fintan’s smile stretched the gauntlet in a matter of seconds, from obnoxiously patronizing to strained acceptance. “We will of course immediately return with the might of the Midnight Court at our backs—”

“No.” Whether the offer was real or not, I couldn’t risk it. “I’m not leaving them behind.”

“Katja, we could be out of here this evening—”

“We don’t leave them behind,” I stated, rising above a heated whisper to assert my point. “Because if we do, we’re leaving them here to die.” My eyes stung at just the thought of abandoning the others to Xargi’s clutches. “This is nonnegotiable, Fintan. You go find a guard to buy off if you want, but I’m going back in there for them.”

His eye twitched. The way Fintan loomed over me and then glanced along the chain-link fence that caged in the property, it was like he was gauging whether or not he could just scoop me up and go. If he did, I’d never forgive him.

“You know,” he started, hesitating briefly before exhaling a sharp breath, “the wolves could pick us off before we even get back to the main building. Two inmates, unescorted… that alone could be suicide.”

At the sound of doors crashing into the greenhouse glass, we crept along the side wall and peered around together, almost comical in the way our heads aligned, one over the other. What wasn’t comical was the mob of inmates moving at a steady clip toward the main building; with so many green-thumbed supers inside, there were fewer egos to contend with, which made elves and fae, witches and mages, the ideal type to start a rebellion—more willing to work toward a common goal without jockeying for alpha.

For now, anyway.

“I think we’ve found a distraction,” I muttered, which had Fintan chuckling behind me. As soon as an alarm erupted from the main building, however, he fisted the loose fabric at the back of my jumpsuit and hauled me out of sight.

---