Page 53 of Magic Forsaken

This was his territory. He’d promised to keep these prisoners safe for questioning. The idea that someone might have touched them without his permission…

In the following moments, I could see the difference between the two men as clearly as night and day. Callum moved like a predator who’d suddenly sensed an enemy. Confident and deadly, scanning the room for threats even as he glided forward, allowing his anger to sharpen his focus.

Faris moved like a landslide. No slowing down. No altering course. No fear of who might be watching or what their intentions might be. Whatever got in his way would be destroyed, buried, annihilated—without question and without mercy.

They both headed for the nearest steel door, sharing a quick glance that somehow acknowledged their shared jurisdiction before Callum grasped the handle. Looked through the glass.

He swore. For a moment, I was afraid he was simply going to break the door down, but Faris shoved him aside and unlocked it. The door swung open, and Callum charged through…

Even my human nose could smell it then—the stench of blood and death pouring from inside that room. Part of me needed to know—needed to see for myself what had happened—so I followed them, with a slightly nervous glance towards the darkest corners of the basement.

But there didn’t appear to be any effective hiding spaces other than the rooms themselves. Everything was orderly and well lit. Only glamour would serve to conceal a lurking assassin, but it couldn’t conceal their smell. Surely if anyone else were down there, Callum would have known.

I reached the door and took in the room at a glance—a bed with a sturdy metal frame, a metal chair, and a light fixture flush with the ceiling. Beside the bed was a small shelf with a pitcher of water—plastic, not glass. Otherwise, the room was bare, with nothing that could be made into a weapon.

Faris stood in the center of the floor, arms crossed over his chest, while Callum knelt over a body. Or at least I assumed itwas a body. All I could see was gray fur and blood—the wolf, or what was left of it.

I already knew the answer, but I moved almost mechanically to check the next room. The only difference was a much larger body this time—tawny rather than gray, the floor around it drenched in red from wall to wall.

Someone had entered the building, unlocked these doors, slaughtered two shapeshifters, relocked the doors, and then left again without anyone seeing or hearing them. They’d risked being discovered not only by Faris, but by the shapeshifter king and a former fae assassin.

And they’d done it this morning. Right under everyone’s noses.

I returned to the first room, but could only linger in the doorway, feeling the hairs on my neck stand on end with apprehension. Who or what could have that kind of skill? That kind of confidence? Not to mention the opportunity…

Almost as if they’d heard me thinking, Faris and Callum rose in unison from inspecting the body of the wolf.

Turned towards me.

Faris’s expression froze over.

“Raine.” His tone was harsh, almost grating. “Care to tell us what brought you to The Portal this morning?”

I could feel his fury and frustration like a crushing weight—pinning me to the wall. Callum, too, was projecting a palpable sense of rage, and I almost couldn’t move from the combined pressure of their unwavering regard.

But strangely, I felt no sense of physical threat.

I’d seen Callum throw a lion across the room only yesterday, and it was clear he could have torn me to shreds if he believed I was guilty.

But he was holding back. Waiting to pass judgment.

“Just answer him, Raine.” His voice was soft and level. “Did you know anything about this?”

Somehow, that quiet, unhurried question held the same flavor of magic as the roar he’d used the previous night. The words were simple, but they resonated with power and authority, along with a hint of command.

And when I remained silent, he took several steps closer, glowing gaze fixed on mine as the flames rose higher and higher inside my head.

But just as it had the night we’d met, his magic accomplished nothing but adding steel to my spine.

“Last night you said you trusted me,” I reminded him bitterly. “You promised you wouldn’t let them hurt me. Now you want to accuse me of murder? Make up your mind, Your Majesty.”

“I’m not accusing you of anything.” His voice was still quiet and uninflected, but somewhere behind the fury I saw in his eyes, I began to glimpse just a tiny hint of… pain. Something about this was hurting him, and I had no idea what it could be. “We are standing within the jurisdiction of the Shadow Court. Which means it is within Faris’s rights to ask whether you were involved.”

Apparently, he still didn’t trust me enough to defend me. Nor did he say whether he would believe my answer.

“You had access,” Faris stated coldly. “This happened sometime in the last hour, while you were in the building, unsupervised. Why were you here so early?”

“Faris!” Kira’s cry from the doorway finally cracked through the tension in the tiny room. “Stop it. Raine didn’t do this.”

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