Page 62 of Tempting the Fae Lord
A growl emanates from low in his throat, more animal than man. Sonja lets out a frightened whimper. The urge to comfort her overwhelms me.
“Please, sir,” I say. “You’re hurting her.”
He points a finger at my forehead. “And she is hurting you.”
I squint. What if he’s right? It does hurt to think. Confusion muddles my effort. “What?”
Amaris pokes her head out from the game room. “Why is everyone acting so weird?”
“Enough of this.” Ezra yanks Sonja to his side and marches them both toward the stairs.
I follow. “Sir, don’t.”
“Where are you taking me?” asks Sonja, voice fierce.
“To the dungeon, where you belong.”
“I’d think twice about that.”
“You’re lucky I’m not digging you a fresh grave, harpy.”
“Lucky.” She huffs a laugh and raises her voice. “Bone caller, come to me.”
Petru rounds the corner on stumbling feet.
“Tell him,” she orders.
The mage trembles. “But you said?—”
“Tell him!”
I watch all this as though through a fog, waiting for things to become clear, but the cloud only thickens. The air grows teeth.
“Leave him out of this.” Ezra stops and swings her around to face him. “Tell me yourself.”
A wicked smile slashes her face. “You took me from my family. What’s to stop me from taking yours from you?”
“Over my fly-ridden corpse,” Ezra growls.
Rocking precariously on shaky legs, Petru lifts his gaze to meet Ezra’s. When his voice comes, it’s barely a whisper, but the effect it has on Ezra is as though he yelled it from the rooftops.
“I know about your cemetery.”
Breath catches in my throat. He wouldn’t dare! Not our family graveyard.
I think of all the evenings I’ve gazed out to the east tower to find a dark form hunched over on a stone bench, flowers in hand. The Gatekeeper. Paying respects to his dead. To his beloved. To those who came before me.
Before all of us.
A quiet fury flares in Ezra’s eyes. His stare hardens.
The air sweeps from the room, leaving behind only stagnant vapor. Each breath is like choking. Pressure builds under my ribs, fear prickles the short hairs of my neck, and magic snaps and fizzles around Ezra’s fingers.
“If she orders it…” Petru quakes but stands his ground. “You can’t stop me.”
Chapter Twenty
TheGatekeeper
