Page 58 of Power of Draken

Mercer’s hand flies up, readying to strike and I brace myself.

"Do as you are ordered," Kai tells me harshly, lowering himself on an overturned crate. I obey, my cold fingers fumbling with the metal before securing it on Kai. His whole goes taught at my touch, as if I’m prodding him with a branding iron. I may not be a trained healer like Collin, but even I know that something is very wrong. The bastards got—and wasted—auric steel arrows. Did they put poison on them too?

I’m careful to keep my thoughts to myself as Mercer orders me to shackle my own legs in turn, watching intently until the mechanism shuts with a dull click and hobbles me to a distance of about eighteen inches.

“Mercer,” one of the mercs calls gruffly and looks pointedly at the door. The others are shifting in their spots as well, all looking anxious to get back outside and hunt. I can’t blame them. They just got here and don't want to give up the element of surprise. Once word gets out that the mercs are here, no one will go anywhere near Doverly.

Mercer lingers for a beat longer, but quickly grunts his assent to the men. With a final order to lock the door, he leads his hunting party back to the prowling grounds, leaving us alone. For now.

The moment the cellar door slams shut, leaving only a torch against the darkness, Kai is up and shuffling to the door.

“They locked it,” I say into his back.

He tests it anyway, then checks the other one we’d come through, nearly falling on his way back.

I carefully shuffle over to the torch, bringing the light closer to the overturned crate. “Let me check your leg,” I say, securing the torch.

“I’m fine.”

“And I’m a mystical fae warrior who eats human children for amusement.”

“Hilarious.” Kai moves around the room, picking out some odds and ends. I’d be grateful for his fighting attitude if he didn’t look a step away from collapsing. The hand he keeps on the wall for balance isn’t fooling me. “The mercs are going to stay busy for a bit. They’ll want to make the most of the element of surprise and the darkness to see who else they can capture. That gives us time. Us and Logan."

Logan. "Where did he go?" I ask.

"Down the side of the building."

"I don't remember seeing that. One moment he was there and then... then he wasn't."

Kai gives me a small irritated sigh. "Because he wasn't there. He left. I'm happy to go with your Logan dissolved into thin air theory, so long as the rest of this can stay grounded in physics. Point being, I trust Logan to work out where we've been taken and help get us out. But we are going to have to survive until then. Do you understand?”

“Do I understand?” I cross my arms, that anger from the alley boiling up again. Or maybe that’s fear. I can’t tell. “I am not the one trying to kill myself, Grayson.”

“I’m—”

“If you say you are fine, then I’m going to punch you in the face. And given how you are wobbling, that may actually be a genuine threat.” I rub my face with my hands. Kai may be lethal, and gorgeous, and in command of our entire fusion year, but he was also a stubborn asshole. And I’ve already learned my lesson about trusting him blindly. About trusting any of the triad.

“I was going to say that I am as I am. There is nothing you can do.” He leans his back against the wall, the faint light from the flickering torch casting long, ominous shadows over his features. “The bleeding isn’t life threatening. You try to pull the arrowhead out, and it might become so. Basic battlefield medicine.” He spits the last few words out aggressively.

I cross my arms over my chest. “That’s auric steel in your leg. Or did that detail slip your mind?”

"Auric steel affects fae, not humans. Unless you think that’s what I am? Because then we’ve bigger problems than a piece of steel in my calf.”

That heated anger roils through me again, driving up my pulse. “I was going to tell you to quit being condescending, but that would mean attributing to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.” I take a step toward him, forgetting that I’m shackled and promptly trip.

Kai shoves away from the wall, somehow managing to catch me. A grunt of pain escapes from his throat and he drops to one knee, breathing deeply.

“Right. You are fine,” I mutter. “You are as fine as I am coordinated.”

I pull away from his grasp. “First off, auric steel isn't something that's just laying around. Someone with enough connections and money to get auric steel weapons is not beyond dipping them in other things. And from the way you are deteriorating, there is something on that arrowhead that is wreaking havoc with your body. And second,” I poke my finger into his chest, finding it rock hard beneath his wet tunic. “I’m an alchemist. That’s my steel in there. I can get it out. So stop being an ass, shut up, sit down and give me your gods’ damn leg before you are unconscious and I’m left here all alone to deal with whatever Mercer has up his sleeve next.”

I don’t realize that I’m crying until a tear slips down my cheek and lands on the floor.

I wipe it angrily from my face. “Sit the fuck down Grayson,” I order.

And this time, he does.

Chapter 29

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