Page 220 of Fated or Knot

Together we got the carriage turned around and away from the worst of the heat.

59

FAL

It was Marius who pressured Ellisar the most. With his twin axes in hand, he was leaving gouges behind in every tree that Ellisar touched. He’d picked his weapons tonight for wood cutting, and our enemy had to move hastily to keep from being split.

The kelpie had the best nose out of all of us. However, I could smell the barkfolk too. More specifically, the bitter odor of faebane poison that wafted from him. He could assimilate into as many trees as he wanted, but he wasn’t getting away, and the scant minutes he had left were ticking away as he fled.

As the poison spread through his bloodstream, he grew sloppy, until he remained against a tree long enough for Kauz to reach out with magic and rip him away. It looked remarkably like peeling a leech from a wound, except it was a Seelie fae off of something natural. Ellisar thudded on his back into a patch of grass and was instantly surrounded by all four of us.

I held up my hand, stopping Tormund before he incinerated the barkfolk.

I inspected Ellisar off the light of an essence lamp bobbing just over Kauz’s shoulder. His lips and the inside of his mouth were already turning gray as he laid there, panting. His head turned back and forth from dizziness, and he probably couldn’t see a single one of us clearly. A pity.

Faebane was a mix of two poisons. It went for the nerves and a fae’s essence reserves, delivering a swift but agonizing death. A fitting end for the male that’d tormented my mate for so long. But if he wasn’t already afflicted with faebane, I would’ve opted to have him die far more slowly.

“Why don’t we let Lark have this kill?” I offered the idea to my brothers and read their immediate reactions in the pack bond. I needed to stop calling a consensus amongst us rare, as they all seemed to like it.

“She stabbed him?” Marius asked Kauz.

“Better. She used the dagger-throwing trick you taught her. His bark ruined the weapon, but she hit him with enough force to pierce through to his skin.”

The kelpie practically purred. “I’m so fucking proud of her.”

That made four of us. As Ellisar wheezed and twitched from the poison assaulting his nerves and draining away his magic, he was ringed by four Unseelie smiles.

With his means of death secured, I recovered from the insane levels of bloodlust that’d spiked between me and the other two alphas in our pack bond. I turned to stare at Kauz. He wasn’t supposed to be here…he was supposed to be protecting Lark. That was hisonlyjob tonight. Yet he’d run a distraction, gotten himself injured, and here he was now, gloating over our mate’s fallen enemy.

None of us were with Lark.Fuck. I took hold of Marius’s shoulder. “You’re in charge here. Make sure he dies,” I said briskly.

Before they could ask questions, I spun around to sprint back the way we’d come. I was able to see in low light conditions without trouble due to my race and the cat’s eyes I’d inherited from Mother’s side of the family. My sight adjusted after I left the halo of Kauz’s lamp. The forest was bathed in shades of gray and I used this to weave around undergrowth, roots, and trees while barely breaking my stride.

I ran toward the smell of smoke, as it was the most obvious indicator of where we’d left her. There should be no danger left to threaten her, but her scent was undisguised and she had to be afraid.I should’ve never left her side.

Several worst-case scenarios flashed through my head as I ran. Hopefully she didn’t flee up a tree, as we’d originally discussed as one of the options for her to avoid any fighting. I had to skirt a serious amount of fire to find our makeshift battleground. All this smoke made that the worst place for her to hide.

“Lark?” I called in a panic. “Lark!”

She didn’t hear me, but I spotted her. She had Marius and Tormund’s horses by their reins in either hand, and was making encouraging noises at my noble steed to try to get him to back away from the growing blaze. Villi had somehow turned the carriage around, and had pulled it a safe distance from the fire.

I stopped just out of her line of sight and watched her for a moment, both relieved and impressed. Most omegas would’ve completely fled after watching several fae die right in front of them,especiallywith a heat so close. And even though the undisguised scent of her was filling me to the brim with lusty thoughts, she still wasn’t in heat. Her scent had not fully changed.

More significantly, she wasn’t acting lost and overcome by her own body, as she had during our last dance. Without knowing if she’d perfumed or not, I’d been sure she’dsuccumbed. I was beyond glad she hadn’t. Just the idea of her so vulnerable while enduring the events that’d occurred after we left the revel…I shuddered at the thought.

Nay, add in that my father wanted me to keep her in the dark about the plan and push her into heaton purpose. That was unconscionable. My mouth ached from how hard I’d been clenching my teeth. I was going to look into the mirror when we got home and see dozens of gray hairs from the stress of putting her into this situation at all.

I was ready to give my father a piece of my mind, even though he’d brush it off. I already knew what he’d say. Lark was fine, her enemies were dead, and I was in rut, so of course I’m feeling overly protective.

After we helped her through her heat, I was giving him a piece of my mindanyway.

With that decided, I was done staring at my mate wistfully. I emerged from the forest and Lark’s head whipped my way, before she breathed a visible sigh of relief. “You’re back.”

I forced a lighthearted smile for her, while my horse trotted up to me as soon as he spotted me. Taking his reins, I said, “You know, when a beautiful female makes kissy noises at you, you go to her.”

Lark made a few of them at me, on cue. I went to her immediately, taking in her state with a once-over. She was scraped along her right side, and her once-beautiful dress was torn and dirty from a fall. But she regarded me as calmly as could be expected. Her star-flecked eyes darted with nerves and she was tensed to bolt if anything else went wrong, but she wasn’t seized by feral panic.

“Fal, where’s the rest of the pack? The fire’s getting out of control.” She gestured toward it.

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