Page 43 of Kingdom of Faewood

I eyed my guardian again. He was still tied to the tree. No food had been offered to him, and he was staring at me as though all of this was my fault, which it was.

My stomach sank, and as the minutes ticked by, I grew tenser and tenser, yet the easy quiet continued. Everyone finished their meals, and other than Jax silently watching me, nobody seemed to even care that I was there.

The only thing that seemed out of place was that nobody fed Guardian Alleron.

“What about him?” I finally asked when my guardian’s angry gaze practically burned a hole into my back. I knew he had to be as ravenous as I’d been.

“You want me to nourish your slave guardian?” Jax cocked an eyebrow.

“I’m sure he’s hungry. He hasn’t eaten all day.”

Jax set his bowl to the side. “No, Elowen. He won’t be eating.”

Before I could ask anything further, Jax rolled to his feet and prowled toward Guardian Alleron. I tensed and shot to standing, but Jax only crouched at his side.

The Dark Raider whispered something, and a cloud of magic lifted from my guardian.

The second it did, Guardian Alleron sucked in a breath and spat, “You’re a cunt of a male!”

It took me a second to register that Jax had just removed his Ironcrest magic from my guardian, and my guardian’s first words to him had been an angry curse.

The Dark Raider glanced nonplussed over his shoulder as everyone else began to clean up. “Did you hear that? I’m a cunt of a male.”

The others all laughed or chuckled, and a moment of unease stole through me.

A spark of energy simmered around the Dark Raider. His aura felt like a storm that had begun churning over the sea, the waves beginning to rise as the clouds rolled.

Jax exhaled, his posture calm and non-threatening, but in my next blink, he had his hand locked around Guardian Alleron’s throat.

I shrieked, but Jax ignored me and said in a low, lethal tone, “I hear there’s a device you use to control her. Where is it?”

Guardian Alleron kicked, but the stinging magic tightened around him. “I don’t have it.”

“That’s a lie. She said you always carry it.”

My guardian shot me a glare, his eyes narrowing to slits. Ice sped through my veins. I knew that look. Punishment was coming, usually in the form of a full dousing from the collar when he looked at me like that.

I’m sorry, I mouthed.

Jax growled and jerked my guardian’s chin back in his direction. “You don’t look at her. You look atme.”

Guardian Alleron spat right in Jax’s face. Unfortunately for my guardian, it landed on Jax’s mask and not his skin, andin a whisper of Jax’s magic, the spittle fizzled and then was gone.

“Bowan?” Jax said calmly.

A rush of magic clouded the air, and the bands encircling Guardian Alleron disappeared.

But before my guardian could begin swinging, Jax hefted him up and slammed him to the tree, dangling him a foot above the Wood’s floor.

Everything happened so fast it was as if it happened simultaneously.

Jax’s hand tightened more around my guardian’s throat as he held Guardian Alleron aloft, and my guardian clawed at him but to no avail.

“I’m not asking again,” Jax said in a deadly calm voice. “Where is the device?”

Feeling entirely helpless, I twisted my hands. “Please stop! Please don’t hurt him, Jax.”

But the Dark Raider ignored me.

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