Page 130 of Lady of Starfire

Nuri. The wicked, cunning female who had been playing her master from the very beginning. Who had somehow found the one seraph who was doing the same.

She was still fucking insane.

After Nuri had told her to run, Mordecai had scooped Talwyn into the sky and taken her to some hideaway in the Dresden Forest on the Toreall and Witch Kingdoms’ border. Because somehow, inexplicably, the seraph could Travel. Talwyn had sat for nearly three days until Nuri had returned with him.

“Sorry for making you wait,” Nuri had said, gliding into the hidden clearing with Mordecai behind her. “You’ll be happy to know it wasn’t for the sake of dramatics.”

“No,” Talwyn had sneered. “The dramatics were making me think you were going to chase me.”

“You could say thank you.”

“Thank you?” Talwyn had repeated incredulously.

Mordecai had been removing a few weapons before taking off his jacket and beginning to roll back the sleeve of his tunic. Quick, efficient movements. He was every bit the warrior he’d been trained to be.

“Yes. Thank you,” Nuri had replied, pulling her hood back and removing her gloves, tossing them atop Mordecai’s jacket. Her hands went to her hips. “You’re alive. You’re free of Alaric. You’re welcome.”

“You told me to run so that you wouldn’t have to lie to Alaric?” Talwyn had asked in realization.

“I can’t lie to him.”

“But you told me to run.”

She’d rolled her eyes, appearing to fidget in agitation. “I can’tlieto him. I told him you ran. Not that Itoldyou to run. Again, this is where you say thank you.”

“What of Briar?”

“The Water Prince is safe for now,” Mordecai had replied, grabbing Nuri’s elbow as she’d begun to pace in a tight circle. He’d lifted his now bare arm with the sleeve folded up to the elbow, and Nuri’s fangs had immediately sank into it with a feral moan as he’d gently tugged her closer. “Alaric is withholding blood from her as punishment for losing you,” Mordecai had said at Talwyn’s arched brow.

“You were not punished?”

“Of course I was,” he’d retorted, one of his wings curving protectively around Nuri.

“And I am to believe the two of you are working against him?”

Talwyn had then listened to a tale that she would not have believed if she had not witnessed so many of the moments herself. It explained everything. How Nuri had always known where to be and when. How she’d always known exactly when and how to rile her master. How they’d worked closely with Juliette—who would warn them of things she had seen—and in turn, the Witch Kingdoms. How Nuri would play her master with just the right words to work around her Blood Bond most of the time. How they’d been part of preparing a rebel army of mortals and Witches and Shifters to fight alongside Scarlett and the Fae when they returned. How Mordecai had a small band of rebel seraphs helping in all of this too.

Yet despite all their cunning and secrecy, they had still been forced to commit their own atrocities to keep their cover. The Blood Bond. Killing the Contessa. Fighting in the various battles and slaughtering those they were trying to aid.

Suddenly Nuri’s insanity was a bit more understandable. How did anyone stay sane when forced to do so much evil against their will?

She’d fed the entire time Mordecai spoke. He’d eventually lowered them to the ground, and slowly her limbs had relaxed.

“Has he starved her this whole time?” Talwyn asked, eyeing the vampyre.

“Yes,” Mordecai said darkly. “This is the first time I have seen her since the prison. He has had her locked away in a room of sunlight to drain her even more.”

They’d sat in silence after that while Nuri had fed, and when she was finished, Mordecai had Traveled Talwyn to the Witch Kingdoms before he and Nuri had to return to Alaric. Juliette had warned them the next day of the impending attack on Siofra. That they had two days to prepare, and when they were getting ready to depart, that was when the warning about the order to kill Ashtine had come.

That was when Talwyn had learned just how much time the Witches and Shifters had been buying for Scarlett, trying to hold the lines while she went for aid in Avonleya.

Hazel approached the bed, one vial uncorked in her hand. “She needs to take this. If she will not eat, the babes need extra sustenance.”

“I will see that it is done,” Talwyn replied tightly, reaching for the vial.

“You also need to go see your griffin,” Hazel added. “The bonding is imperative if you wish to fly with him in battle.”

A griffin. She had a godsdamn griffin. Sort of. She wouldn’t if she didn’t train with him. It had been a rough flight to Solembra. She was sure the griffin had only followed orders in the end because Arantxa’s griffin made him fall into line.

---