Page 60 of Tempting the Fae Lord
“Yes,” she says, voice firm.
Eulayla gestures to an open chair. “Why don’t you sit down and talk with us?”
I stride past her, grip Sonja by the elbow, and yank her to her feet. She yelps, and Gale barks a protest, but I ignore them. Let’s see what the harpy will resort to when I threaten right back. “You’re coming with me.”
“Sir.” Gale is on my heels as I march Sonja out of the game room. “You’ve got to let her explain.”
“Oh, I plan on it.” From the safety of my dungeon, where she belongs. What I’d like to do is drag her back through the gate kicking and screaming, but I can’t. The blasted portal let her through once. It could happen again.
“You could go about it with more kindness,” says Gale.
“Could I?” I drag her into the hallway. She isn’t protesting, but she isn’t helping either. And the glint in her glare gives me pause.
Gale huffs. “Come on, I was right about Petru, wasn’t I? He isn’t bad, and neither is she.”
“She’s spelled you.”
Her insidious magic circles him like a starving vulture, desperate for a kill. Arguing will help nothing. She’s ensnared him to her side.
Quick-moving footsteps ratchet the tension in my spine.
“Who’s there?” I call out.
“It’s Raglan from the village, Gatekeeper. I bring news.”
For maggot’s sake, what now?
“Come on then, let’s hear it.” I maintain an iron grip on Sonja’s elbow. I’m not about to let the lying enchantress out of my sight.
The villager clears his throat. “An outrider from the queen’s army has arrived at the inn and bid us deliver a message to Gale or, barring that, Eulayla.”
Why would the young queen be sending messages to them and not to me? For that matter, why is she sending messages to us at all?
“I’m Gale.” His face has gone suspiciously ashen. He gestures to Eulie, who has come out into the hall, no doubt to see for herself what all the fuss is about. “And this is Eulayla.”
“To them…only,” says the villager, eyeing me nervously. If he thinks for one second I’m leaving without hearing the message, he’s as wrong as shoes on a fish.
“Don’t be mad.” Gale sends me a sheepish look. “I can explain.”
I’ve heard that before.
Chapter Nineteen
Gale
My head hurts.
Convincing Ezra to let us out of his sight is never going to work. Not with how charged up he is about Sonja being in the castle. He won’t even let her speak.
“Go ahead and tell me,” I say to the villager. “I’m going to tell the Gatekeeper whatever you say the moment you leave.”
Raglan darts his gaze from me to him and back. “You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Rather than reciting some memorized message, he withdraws a letter from inside his cloak and hands it over.
“That will be all,” says Ezra.
