Page 59 of Magic Hunted
“Not by our definition.” Taredd chuckled, but the sound held no humor. He looked over at the training pits and the pairs of elves swinging their swords. “He was a member of what was called the police force at the time. Most who worked in the police force were honorable humans, seeking to keep the peace, but Titan worked against his own people. He got criminals off jail time by hiding evidence, killed witnesses, took payment for helping keep the guilty out of jail.”
The elves overseeing the pairs walked between the clusters, offering advice. He issued a command to a pair of elves. They jogged to the tunnels the warbugs had skittered into.
Taredd’s eyes glowed as he pinned us with a hard stare. “They all knew each other before the portal was torn between our worlds. Titan, the dirty cop, worked with Esoti, the head of a mafia syndicate. Britheva was a lawyer who helped them avoid trial if they were apprehended. Drisella made people disappear and tampered with evidence. Christian was a smooth businessman, successful because he blackmailed banks and corporations to fund their criminal activity. Atrus was the worst. He has no soul. Only the will to do whatever he pleases when it pleases him. Power-hungry. Immoral. He trafficked weapons and people, including females and children. Nothing was off the table. Everything was a commodity to be bought and sold. Alone they were formidable, but together they were unstoppable.”
A group of warriors jogged behind us in formation, sweat glistening off their bare chests. I gripped the entwined vines of the railing as the elves led two warbugs back onto the field. The commanding elf gathered the group while he held the reins of one of the warbugs. The creature was massive, towering over the elves, whose heights were only half that of the warbugs. The creature’s antennae wavered, the rustling sound turning my stomach.
Taredd turned to us, lines gouging his deceptively youthful face. “They corrupted the magic with their immorality. Human bodies were never designed to house such power, but even so, The Six were corrupt before they stole our magic. They were driven by greed and power, and still are.”
My stomach hollowed when I thought of the river of my green magic flowing through me. One touch of it, and I’d nearly killed a millennia-old elf. I wasn’t innocent. The Six had committed crimes, and so had I. “What if I corrupt my magic?”
Taredd placed his hands on my shoulders. I hadn’t noticed how tall he actually was. Or how broad his shoulders were. He was a warrior, his body honed to perfection and trained for war. “Youaredifferent from them. You were bornfrommagic. You’re not human so stop trying to judge the world around you as though you are. You didn’t steal any magic. You were born with it running through your veins as naturally as your blood.
“As it did your parents, their parents and so on from the moment the imposters created the first shifters to fight in their army. Fae magic created you. A new race of shifter, neither elven nor human, each generation stronger than the last. You’re one of the strongest, Haera. Strong enough to wield the magic to match. The Six didn’t understand it when they stole the grimoire and created shifters to fight Fae, but when they created your race, they created the only means to their end. We merely had to wait for your race to grow strong enough for both worlds.”
“And then you lost the grimoire. You lostus,” I said.
Taredd looked at the training pits as two elves seated themselves on the warbugs. I thought he wasn’t going to answer, he was so lost in thought. I tensed when he unsheathed his sword but then he flipped it and held the handle out to me. The top of the hand was molded into the head of what I thought might be an eagle. Its beak was open, screaming in rage, and its eyes flashing with blue gems. The intricate design followed over the handle and around the base leading to the shining blade. The silver gleamed as though Taredd polished it every day. He cared for this sword and he was offering it to me?
“Consider this an apology for the way you were brought here. If I had known who you were…How important you are…” His lips twisted. “This is yours, if you’ll have it. I want you to feel safe here. If I can take back how we first met, I would.”
He was serious. His hand didn’t waver. A sword was a precious thing. I’d never owned a weapon before. Had definitely not been offered a personal sword like this. I slowly took it from him, gasping as the metal tingled in my hand. It was so much lighter than it looked. I tested the weight, surprised when it flowed in my grip as though it were a living thing. The metal must have been imbued with magic because it was too light for the size of it. It sang in my grip, moving with me like an extension of my arm.
“This is…” Words fled.
I must have had a look on my face. “Take it as the gift it’s meant to be. You are precious to us, Haera. One of us. Stronger. Never forget that. We’ll protect you however we can. My sword. My warriors. They’re yours. Let me find a suitable holster for you. Mine will be too big.”
I looked at the intricately decorated holster around his hips, snug over his warrior leathers. Perhaps one day, I would ask for similar armor for my mates. They would be just as imposing as the General.
Taredd led us to another hut close by. He held open the door and strode inside. I glanced at my mates who looked as stunned as I felt. Gripping the sword, I followed Taredd who was sorting through leather holsters. He held one to me. “This will be your size.”
I took the leather from him and set it around my hips. Ashir adjusted it and clipped the buckle into place. I swayed into his chest before I caught myself, but didn’t miss his smirk as I pulled away. I busied myself sheathing the sword, which fell smoothly into the holster with a whisper of steel against leather.
Taredd gestured to the swords slotted into a wooden casing and faced the alphas. “These are our warriors’ swords. You’re welcome to help yourself if you wish.”
“I won’t say no,” Savvas said. He took a sword and weighed it in his hand. I’d spied on these shifters when they’d trained and they knew how to use swords. Not that they weren’t highly trained predators in their own right.
Ashir and Dias both selected swords. The handles were plain and functional, but no less sharp than Taredd’s. Now we were all armed. As dangerous as the elven warriors. If Taredd was handing us weapons, I wondered if he’d take this a step further. “How do you feel about training us to ride a warbug?”
Chapter Thirty-One
I stared at the broad stream that flowed on the outskirts of the village. Luminous blue danced over the water, glittering from peak to peak as the water flowed past. I sank my toes into the water, letting the coolness absorb through my skin.
I longed to dive into the cool depths to ease my muscles. True to his word, Taredd had trained us to ride the warbugs. The sound of their antennae still sent shivers up my spine, and I had a new appreciation for how the elves handled and fought using the creatures.
They were intelligent animals, and to my surprise, had been gentle when I’d first sat atop one. I think Taredd gave me the gentlest, a fact he didn’t tell me of course. Out of the four of us, Ashir had the most proficiency riding them and could control a warbug to spin on the spot. Dias and Savvas were a close second.
“A bit tender?” Dias chuckled when he caught me rubbing the sore muscles of my behind.
He was free with his smiles and his tenderness. They all were. True to their word, they hadn’t forced anything on me in the past couple of days beyond touches that left me leaning into them, grazes that left me yearning for more and attention that made my panther preen.
I’d lost myself to Taredd’s form of training. Using my body to the point of exhaustion. Being cared for by the alphas. Fed. Bathed. Falling asleep with them with their purrs in my ear and their arms around me.
We were on our way to the bathing hut, but the cool depths of the river called to my aching muscles and the languid heat that bubbled in my blood.
As attentive as they were to me, I couldn’t stop from watching them, either. They fed me, but I passed them food. They bathed me and I reveled in their touch. They were a drug that was fast becoming my choice.
“No more than we all are,” I said, pointedly dropping my gaze to his behind. He was walking in a stiff-backed way. “Especially after I pushed you off three times today.”
