Page 93 of Fate and Flame
“He stabbed a guard before those two got him,” Murtad said as Rhogan dropped him at the door, his wings pounding the air.
I rested my hand on the dagger at my waist. There was familiar comfort in the carved handle. “Do you have serum left?”
“It’s in the room you’ve let me have.” Rhogan stepped around Murtad. “I brought it back with me last night.”
Fen nodded. “Grab it. And meet me back here in ten minutes. Murtad, I’ll send a report with what we find.”
“Oh good, I was hoping I wouldn’t have to sit through a boring interrogation.” He moved backwards, strolling down the steps to the castle.
I don’t think I like him.
I don’t think anyone really does.
“I’d prefer you to come for the administration, if you don’t mind,” Fen asked the healer. “It might not be pretty though.”
“You won’t have to force information out of him. He will have to answer anything you ask.”
“That doesn’t mean I won’t punch him in the fucking face,” I said as Gaea grabbed onto me.
“Do you need to know where Greeve took him?” Fen asked, already watching the hall for Rhogan to return.
“I can sense Greeve. Don’t ask,” she said as we spirited away and landed in a large, empty stone room, save a single chair in the center.
The traitor was already tied down while Greeve stood before him like a statue, the wind from his power blowing through his hair as he clenched and unclenched his iron fists, waiting for an excuse to use them. He hadn’t even registered our arrival.
Gaea looked to him and moved carefully across the room until she reached out and gently touched his arm. The wind beating around him vanished as he finally looked away and into his mate’s face. They didn’t speak a word as I stood, awkwardly watching. He blinked and his shoulders relaxed a fraction.
The door to the room slammed open, and the three other males burst in with the force of a gale, knocking the door from its hinges. We stood in a half circle around the traitor, watching his chest rise and fall until finally Temir spoke.“I can wake him if you’re ready.”
“Should we make a plan?” Gaea asked.
“Wake the asshole. Find out what he knows. Kill the asshole,” I answered.
Greeve and Rhogan nodded.
At least someone agreed with me.
Temir reached forward, placed his hand on the traitor’s forehead, and within seconds, his bloodshot eyes opened. Greeve grabbed his fuzzy head and yanked it back as Fen poured a vial full of liquid down this throat.
He spat it out, coughing.
“Don’t worry,” Temir said. “He’s gotten enough of it down.”
Suddenly the traitor was laughing, full-belly, shoulder-shaking laughter as the group of us stood around him ready to murder. The golden bracelets stacked up his arms rattled, drawing me in; something familiar about them still tapped my mind.
“You’re a lesser,” Gaea said. No pretense, just point blank.
“So are you, traitor,” he answered. “Our king wasn’t giving it to you hard enough so you had to come searching for a better tumble?”
Greeve’s hand was at his throat before I blinked. He lifted the traitor off the ground as a smile crossed his face. Even I was scared of him in that moment.
“Stop.” Gaea placed her hand on Greeve’s arm. “He wants you to kill him. Don’t you see? He’s baiting you so he won’t have to give up information. Put him down.”
Greeve dropped him and paced behind us as the fae gasped for breath.
“What is your name?” Fen asked first.
He pinched his mouth shut, biting down on his own lips so hard he began to bleed, but still, he couldn’t fight the magic.“Throng.”
