Page 50 of Fated or Knot

17

LARK

Only moments after I had that thought, Tormund came in, announcing himself cheerfully. “Hello, li’l bird! I brought your sandwich. And a triple berry cookie. I know they’re your fav—what’s wrong?”

A plate clinked against the table, and fingertips landed on my shoulder. I released a helpless sob. I couldn’t tell him anything, after all. Stars, there was no avoiding more unpleasantness, was there?

“Nothing’s wrong,” I said, muffled by the fur I’d soaked through with tears.

“Ach. Tell me,” he insisted, rubbing little circles over one of my wings. “Was it Fal? I tell him he has to be a better gentle male. He goes too far sometimes.”

I sniffed and wiped at my face, trying to make my eyes stop leaking. “No, Fal didn’t do anything,” I mumbled.

Tormund shifted uneasily. He scented the air and growled. “I smell fish. Cymora was here.”

My heart lurched at the anger underlying his words. I sat up and forced a dubiously convincing smile on my face, just for itto evaporate the moment I saw Tormund’s expression. One of his eyes twitched, before twin flames ignited in his pupils. “Did she say something to you?” His low voice was full of menace I would’ve thought was unlike him.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I…will be okay.”

In sitting up and swinging my legs to the floor, I’d exposed the rip she’d made in the bottom of my cloak. The afterimages of light in gaze streaked toward the stretch of ruined fibers, and a series of twitches spasmed through his fingers and face. “Tormund, are you all right?” I asked in a frightened hush.

What kind of question was that? He clearly wasn’t. His muscles began to harden and swell, stretching the seams of his clothes and revealing a molten yellow glow of an ignited furnace in his chest.

This kind of transformation was unique to only one kind of fae. I backed away as his fingernails and horns grew several inches spontaneously, developing dangerous points. He opened his mouth, revealing similarly elongated and sharpened teeth. Steam and plumes of smoke escaped his mouth as a guttural roar ripped from him.

I flinched in terror. I’d wondered what kind of fire fae he was, but he and his brothers had never been forthcoming. Stars, no wonder. He was aredcap. And beginning to rage as he snarled, “What did she do? Where is she? I’ll kill her!”

I did the only thing I could think of: I curled into a ball at the end of a couch and cowered. They say if you keep yourself quiet and still, a raging redcap may overlook you by mistaking you for already dead. As his rage mounted, he burned hotter and his form swelled further, exposing more of the white-hot heat inside of him.

He swung toward the door, which opened to admit a blue blur. Marius tackled Tormund’s back and grabbed his arms, pulling them while pressing his knee to the small of the redcap’sback. The kelpie’s skin sizzled on contact. “Calm down,” he growled.

“She hurt the li’l bird,” Tormund roared with crackling power in his voice. He bucked and slammed his skull into his brother’s jaw. Marius reeled and lost control of one of his arms.

“I’m sure there’s a perfectly good expla—” Fal cut off as he sidestepped a clumsy swing of Tormund’s claws.

The redcap lurched for the door, where Kauz stood in the threshold, hands twisting as he directed starry essence into a spell between his fingers. Magic rapidly unspooled from his fingers like a braided rope. Tormund roared and jerked, one meaty arm raised to slash him. I covered my eyes with a fearful wail.

“I don’t wantexplanations. I wantblood,” the redcap boomed, loosing a plume of flame from between his teeth. “Let go!”

I peeked between my fingers. Fal had caught Tormund’s arm, but without Marius’s trained strength behind his trembling restraint, those long claws were still descending toward Kauz in steady jerks. “You can’t just go shouting about blood on a public magirail,” Fal said from between his teeth.

Kauz finished his spell, his magical rope hardening into a shackle of essence that closed around Tormund’s wrist. He listed to the side with athudas if the shackle weighed a ton. Despite the flexes and pulls of his bulked-out arm, he couldn’t lift it. He snarled and snapped his teeth like a rabid monster, straining against Marius to free his other arm.

Fal’s face entered my line of sight, his pupils panicked lines as he leaned over me. “He needs you,” he murmured before scooping me up. I’d made myself into the smallest ball I could, ripe for the plucking.

“What are you… Fal! Ahh!” I protested, my teary voice hitting a high, terrified octave as he jumped over Tormund’s groundedarm and pushed me into his chest. The redcap freed his other arm and swung it around, claws extended, just as Fal released me and stepped away.

Tormund’s arm closed around my torso, crushing me to the hardened muscles bursting out of his tunic. Heat sweltered over me. Just being this close to his chest was so hot, it was unbearable, and I sweated through my clothes. His breath was a mix of smoke and steam as it came out in jerking pants. The white-hot flames in his pupils swung down and fixed on my face.

I’m going to die.I stared into the face of death. It’d take one bite for him to liberate my throat, or just a blast of flame.

What? It’s still Tormund!Somewhere behind those eerily fiery eyes was the gentle giant who’d dusted me off after my fall in the castle gardens. Who held me like I was precious and purred without a hint of embarrassment for wanting to comfort me. The same one who took glee in making sure I had access to more food than I could eat.

And now, somehow, he needed me to call him back from this rage.

“T-Tormund,” I managed, lifting shaky fingers and cupping his cheek. It was like touching a heated plate, and I knew I would gain a burn from it. “This isn’t you. You have to calm down.”

Vibrating with unchecked fury, Tormund still tilted his head into my touch. He closed his eyes and breathed out smoke and embers. His body deflated and cooled, and his newly sharpened bits shrank until the only edged teeth in his broad mouth were his alpha fangs. Tormund cradled my sweaty body one-armed, nuzzling my hair and inhaling, trying to catch a hint of my scent.

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