Page 56 of Kingdom of Faewood

He groaned under his breath and slammed Lordling Neeble to a tree, but he sagged and took several deep breaths. Moonlight shone off his complexion, highlighting the pale skin around his eyes.

The domal danced more beneath me as my worry grew. “Jax...you’reinjured.”

“Still healing,” he rasped, then turned his attention back to the noble. “Who are you?” he demanded on a low growl.

But Lordling Neeble just kicked and thrashed, and my worry tripled even though Jax continued to dodge his blows.

“He’s Lordling Neeble from Faewood Kingdom. He rules one of the ten Houses,” I said in a rush. “The king sent him to retrieve me when Guardian Alleron failed to make contact.”

Jax’s eyebrows drew together. “You know him?”

I gave a swift nod, and a sharp swell of nausea roiled my stomach as the memories of how I knew him hit me anew. “He’s...used my services before.”

Jax inhaled sharply, his eyes narrowing in my direction.

The domal pranced more, and I rubbed my hand along the animal, trying to soothe it since I was still tied to the poor thing.

“Elowen?” Jax growled. “Did he do more than use your lorafin powers?”

My brow furrowed.How can he know that?

Somehow, I managed a nod. “When I woke from his calling, he was...touching me. Guardian Alleron wasn’t in the room. I was alone with him.”

The air around Jax completely stilled, and the Wood grew entirely silent.

Magic suddenly pulsed from the Dark Raider, growing stronger and more potent with every breath he took. The male felt like a storm brewing and writhing, growing and swirling as the power within him threatened to unleash.

Leaves rustled from the north, and then Phillen, Trivan, Bowan, Lander, and Lars appeared. All were coated in bloodand smelled of death. Yet even though every single one of them had been stabbed, they were all still breathing.

“Did you take care of all of them?” Jax growled in a beastly tone.

“The bastards are all dead, on their way to Lucifer’s kingdom as we speak,” Trivan said, a smirk in his voice even though he slumped against a tree and breathed heavily.

“Untie Elowen,” Jax replied. He released Lordling Neeble, and in another cloud of magic, the noble gasped.

Lordling Neeble blinked rapidly and gazed around. “I can see again!” he whispered more to himself than anyone here.

Jax clutched his stomach and staggered back before righting himself. I had the most ridiculous urge to go to him, even though I couldn’t since I was still tied to the terrified domal.

Forcing himself to stand tall, the Dark Raider prowled toward the House noble. “Yes, you can see, Lordling Neeble, and I intend to have you keepallof your senses. Because I plan to ensure you experience every bit of torture I’m about to inflict on you.”

Hours later,the sun was rising steadily over the Ustilly Mountains. We were back at camp, and Jax and all of his friends had eaten a mountain of food, probably diminishing their supplies completely. But the food seemed to assistwhatever magic healed them. None of them appeared tired or weakened anymore.

I sat before a fire that Lars had silently lit. Lander had given me a jar of cream, telling me it would help with the quickly healing welts on my legs. Bruises had formed on my upper arms from the guard who’d roughly handled me, and I’d had a swollen lip from the vicious slap across my face, but those were already gone. My magic had taken care of that.

Around me, the tents were still standing, but everything else was a mess. Lordling Neeble’s raiding party had trampled over all of the supplies, leaving dirty footprints in their wake.

Across the fire, Jax watched me, and I could have sworn that his eyes glowed as he meticulously sharpened a blade against a rock. He observed every dip of my hands into the salve, every spread of the blessed cream over my wounds. His expression, what I could see of it, was entirely indecipherable, but his motions with the blade increased as I tended to each cut.

Strangely, though, I didn’t feel fear when I gazed across the fire at my captor. Despite the dark energy strumming around him, it wasn’t directed at me, but rather at the male who’d been stripped bare and was currently dangling from a tree branch by a rope that cut into his wrists.

Lordling Neeble’s body swung slowly in circles. With his arms overhead, bound at the wrists, and the long rope holding him aloft so his feet couldn’t touch the ground, he was entirelyvulnerable.

The other five stag shifters all prowled around the camp. They’d washed the blood away from their clothes and hands and now waited for whatever was to come.

“Tell me what he did to you,” Jax said in a low tone, breaking the quiet. His knife continued to move languidly across the stone, the scraping motion the only sound apart from the quietly snapping fire.

My hand stopped mid-movement from dipping into the cream again. I set it aside, trembling. To hide the movement, I wrapped my arms around myself. Before I even knew what I was doing, I was rocking silently. Memories I didn’t care to ever relive threatened to rise.

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