Me, on the other hand, they had no loyalty to.
“At the end of last summer, one of Orion’s associates began poking around the Greyclaw," I said, the story coming together in my head. “Looking for Iris.”
Play this right, and you can walk away, I thought. Tell them what they need to hear.
I glanced at Beylore, aloof and beautiful, with her warm brown skin, silver braids, and snapping green eyes. Then at Kallen, his big shoulders hunched as he sat across from me, running a hand over his pale blond hair and scruffy jaw. And finally, at Bane, standing a little behind Kal, straight-backed and with his hands folded behind him, like he was standing guard.
No expression crossed any of the three faces.
When they didn’t say anything, I continued, sure they were looking for holes in my story. For now, I’d give them part of the truth. “Luckily, Iris wasn’t in Nordrem.” Nordrem was the biggest settlement in the Greyclaw territory. “She was off in the Burnfur territory, but due back any day.
“I didn’t trust this associate—I’d heard of him. But he seemed like an idiot, so I offered to help him and his crew look for her. I'd planned on leading them astray and figuring out what they wanted. So, I left a note saying I was heading out with a group on a secret mission and wasn't sure when I'd be back. And I changed the date to make it seem like I'd left weeks beforehand." I looked down at my hands, remembering how I'd willed my hand not to shake when I’d written that note. "If I'd be back."
“And these associates believed you?” Kal asked. Not accusing or dubious, but sharp.
“I’d had some dealings with them before,” I admitted. “Trying to get information…anyway, that’s not relevant. They remembered me from the rebel days. Plus, everyone knew how close Iris and I were.” My lips twitched. “It was pretty easy to fool the guys after Iris. They were just lackeys.”
“Calling themselves Bloodfang?” Kal asked. “Skrors?”
“No,” I said. “Actually, they never referred to themselves as anything.”
“So, packless?”
“I suppose,” I said. “I was more concerned with getting them away from the Greyclaw.” A laugh huffed out of me. “Turns out I wasn’t the only one playing games. They’d only pretended to want Iris.” I remembered the dull shock when I’d been bound and gagged, trussed up like a present to be laid at Shauna Lind’s feet, the turning leaves scattering as I was dropped. “They were bounty hunters. They’d wanted me.”
“Why?” Bane asked this now, and the question bit through the air. I saw something like surprise or reproach flicker in Beylore’s eyes as she glanced at him. “Why you?”
“Bait. And blackmail, I guess," I said with a shrug. "Honestly, threaten any innocent life, and Iris probably would've gone along with whatever they wanted. On the other hand, Iris is stubborn and principled. She’d need motivation.” My eyes closed. “Nothing would motivate her more than to keep me alive, and Lind knew that.”
“Did anyone ever tell you why they wanted Iris?” Beylore asked.
“No,” I said with a dry swallow. “But I could guess. Something to do with her gifts. Orion had tossed her aside before, so we thought we were safe. I’d always worried that might change one day, but then he was gone. Or so everyone thought.
“But the problem—well, for them, though good news to my ears—was that Iris had vanished,” I said. Kal smiled a little at that, and I nodded at him. “So, I remained their captive, waiting for a chance to get loose and gathering up information.” A tremor ran through me. “I’m not sure how much time had passed, but one day I overheard Lind saying that once they got the book back and Orion out, they had to k-kill Iris.
“I never thought—I had no idea that’s what the endgame was. I thought…” My knuckles went to my mouth, and I bit down. “I thought even if they caught Iris, she’d be safe, at the very least. Why would they want to kill or hurt her? She’d never hurt a fly; she cares about everyone. I mean, it’s almost infuriating and—” I stopped myself and took a deep, hard gasp of air. Hell, I hadn’t meant to go this far, but all of this was true, it was the damn truth, and any fool would know it. “I knew I had to get out of there and make sure my best friend was safe.”
I paused, suddenly back in Lind’s prison. The crushing darkness of the cell had pressed in on me that day. My scalp itched and burned as though I were there, digging my hands into my hair, sure the panic and horror would kill me.
Beylore let out a soft, sympathetic sound, and I looked up. Kal had turned away, a muscle working in his jaw and eyes closed. I sensed eyes on me and glanced at Bane, jumping a little when I met his dark blue gaze. He was looking right at me, and the lines in his face deepened.
But when he spoke, the edge had left his voice. “Where did they keep you?” It was an oddly soft and kind question. A different kind of tremble went through me as I looked at him. “Tiani.”
“Um, different places,” I babbled. “We traveled a bit, around the eastern edge of the Farthing Mountains and the western border of the Tiselk. I was blindfolded a lot, so it was only glimpses or what I heard.” I paused and then burst out, “You have to understand. I got away from them months ago and went south to shake them off my trail. First, I went back to Nordrem, and then I came north. It took forever with the storms and everything else.” I was swaying a little, not even sure I was making sense. “Now you know why I didn’t go through the gates—if someone saw me, if it got back to Lind…
“If Lind finds out I’m here, she’ll know this is where Iris is, and she’ll figure out some way to get to her. I'm not doubting your capability, but her cruelty and cunning are exactly why she's Orion's right hand. Please, you must let me go.” My hands gripped each other, and I trembled all over, hot then cold. “Don’t tell Iris—not yet. Not until I’m far away. I’ll make sure to have someone spot me on the other side of the Tiselk. That will keep Iris safe, I think.” Keep her safe from my mistakes, I hope. I looked from Bane to Kal with imploring eyes. “I’m begging you.”
“Tiani, listen—” Kal started to say, but Bane shook his head.
To my surprise, Kal shot his friend an ugly look and settled back, a muscle working in his jaw again. His face pulled into a deep frown. They were arguing telepathically, I could tell.
“Here,” Beylore suddenly said and handed me a warm mug. A delicious smell lifted from the mug, and I sniffed at it, not sure I trusted this Riftborn. “I swear, it’s only soup. Eat this and settle down. Nothing is going to happen to Iris.” She paused. “Or you.” Giving me a small smile, she said, “Anyone who sticks it to Lind is welcome in Winfyre as far as I’m concerned.”
Sipping it, the warmth soothed the frantic galloping in my chest and warmed my cold bones. At this point, though, I wasn’t sure I’d thaw until summer. Glancing up, I saw the silent communication between Kal and Bane had gone from heated to calm. They’d reached some kind of conclusion about me, and my stomach lurched.
Kal met my eyes. “Well, I have some good news for you. Lind hasn’t been seen in the Northern territories in about three months.” He gave me a grim smile. “Not since Iris, with some help from me and others, foiled her little plan to bring Orion back.”
I went still, palms pressing into the hot porcelain of the mug, and a wave of shock crashed through me. Three months? Lind had been stopped by Iris three months ago?
When I didn’t speak, Kal went on, explaining how he and Iris had met. She’d gotten caught up in a double-cross between the Greyclaw and Lind, as well as Billy Sarrow, what was left of the Skrors, and packless. After almost getting auctioned off, she was rescued by Kal and brought north.
I’d suspected she’d been in Winfyre for some time when Bane had recognized her name and called her a friend, but still. She’d been here almost half a damn year? The whole time, Iris had been up here, safe with her mate? If I’d only known, if I’d only come looking sooner…
Guilt twisted through me as Kal delicately explained how Iris had had the Northbane looking for me. M
eanwhile, she’d also worked on translating Orion’s book. As she did so, Iris had found out about his research and plans but had also begun to grow in her abilities.
Later, there'd been a serious attack on Winfyre involving her, but Kal didn’t go into details, merely saying she was okay. However, the way his knuckles went white told me it had been a close thing. Not long after, Lind had shown up, holding my life up as a bargaining chip for the book and Iris.
At that point, I made a pained sound. “Please tell me you didn’t let her go. I was free by then. Damn that evil woman, I should’ve known Lind would do something like that.”
“You know Iris would never stand for that,” Kal said. “You know that under all that sweetness is a steel that could slice the earth in two.”
I wanted to throw my mug at him. Of course I knew that. Kal did, too, apparently, and had opted to make a trade he knew Lind would go for at the last minute. He’d offered himself in Iris’s place.
“We had a plan to get you out that didn’t involve Iris,” Kal summed up.
“You didn’t tell her that, though, did you?”
Bane, Kal, and Beylore chuckled. “No,” Beylore said. “I think she clipped Tristan in the eye with her elbow when she realized what the Alphas had planned. Then she went charging into the fracas and leaped onto Kal before Lind could whisk him away.”
Kal picked up the story again, explaining how Iris’s powers had stymied Lind’s plans and saved his life. She’d stopped Orion from coming back and figured out how to undo his plans to make the Bloodlust a reality.
Bloodlust. A false shifter condition made up by the Stasis Bureau after the Rift occurred. The Rift was a cataclysmic event that had unleashed an unknown energy, rewriting the fates of a good majority of the population. Some became shifters, others became Riftborn, and the remaining, the “unchanged,” were called stasis. The Stasis Bureau had been one answer in the aftermath of the chaos when cities were being torn apart due to massive energy failure and panic, while refuges popped up in the wilderness.
One of the reasons that refuges had to exist was the Bloodlust rumors. They had induced panic and vitriol towards shifters in the Rift aftermath. Worse, even, than in the days right after, which had been filled with confusion and chaos. People had turned on each other, willing to sign away children or family, or simply look the other way while shifters were rounded up for “medical studies.” In reality, those studies were little better than detention in a laboratory crossed with a prison.
But the SB said shifters couldn’t handle the strain of both human and animal, and people who were stasis wanted to believe. More and more, I’d heard how shifters couldn’t resist giving in to the animal, that they’d become rabid and possibly cannibalistic. Stasis became the ruling, desired element in society before the eventual collapse.
Only now, after several years had passed, had it become clear that the stasis were either hiding their gifts or late in coming into them. No one had been unaffected by the Rift.
My head ached, and exhaustion made my shoulders crumple as I put this all together. I hadn’t been helping anyone; I’d just been scaring my best friend and wasting Winfyre’s time.
“I’ve been running from a ghost these past few months?” I asked in a shaking voice and nearly upset the mug with an equally shaky hand. Placing it next to me, I had the absurd desire to pull up my knees and cry. “I…”
I am such an idiot.
All those long weeks, running and hiding, sure Lind was breathing down my neck. Waiting for her to pounce and drag me back, to watch as she used Iris to let Orion out and then kill her. The horror now seemed to mock me, like childish nightmares revealed to be shadows.
“I think any of us would’ve reacted in much the same way,” Kal said with unexpected warmth. “You were trying to stay alive, to protect Iris. A best friend on her level, I see.”
I nodded tightly, trying not to let the pressure in my throat or eyes get to me. “Yes, at least Iris was—is—safe.” A hard breath blew out of me, and I clamped my arms around myself to try to hide the shaking. Fear clawed into my throat. Somehow, once again, I was disposable, dangerous. “Do what you want with me, then. I understand. I shouldn’t have come here.”
“Yeah, looks like you’ve run from one danger into another,” Bane said thoughtfully, and I flinched. “Although now that I have the whole story…”
“Xander,” Beylore said reproachfully, and she shot him a look like a peeved sibling.
For a moment, Bane’s mask slipped, and I saw something else there. Confusion and compassion. But it vanished a moment later as he looked at me.
It was Kal, the Ice Bear and Dread of the Northbane, who once again surprised me. “Tiani, listen, we’re sorry about all of that, the questions and the whole threatening rigmarole.” My entire body jerked up as the gruff blond gave me a sheepish smile from the depths of his beard. “We put you through the wringer tonight, huh? Have to be careful, though, even if Lind hasn’t been seen in months and Orion is ‘gone.’” His tone became bitter, and he spoke slowly. “Don’t you worry. We know Lind’s special brand of self-serving nastiness and torture. She’s the worst of the worst.”
“Oh,” I said, my emotions getting pulled every which way. And now I was starting to fall for the Northbane do-gooderism, dammit. “Um, okay, thank you.”
Beylore smiled at me, too. “You’ve been through hell and then some.” She stood up and gave me a lingering, piercing look. I had the sense she hadn’t quite opened her arms as wide as the ice bear’s. Which, given Kal’s reputation, made me wonder about her. “I hope you feel better.”
“Thank you,” I said, a little confused.
“I have to go now.” She gave me another once-over. “Welcome to Winfyre.”
As Beylore walked out, she laid a hand on Bane’s arm, and something passed between them. Not even telepathic, just a look that meant they’d known each other for years.
“I’m going to go, too,” Kal said and stood up. To my surprise, he extended a hand, and I took it. It was rough and warm, enveloping mine easily. “Nice to finally meet you, Tiani. I’m sure Iris and I will be seeing you soon. Come by the house anytime.”
“Uh, nice to meet you, too,” I said, nonplussed, and watched him exit the room, shutting the door behind me. “Iris and Kal—they live together?” I asked, and Bane nodded. “Damn, Iris, don’t waste any time.”
Bane chuckled. “It was Kal, too, believe me.”
“I do,” I murmured, wondering why it was the two of us. My heart began to act up, and I fiddled with my lank hair. Several seconds passed before I got out, “What, don’t want witnesses?”
“When’s the last time you slept?” Bane asked, taking Kal’s vacated chair and studying me.
“The other night,” I said with a shrug. The look in his blue-gold eyes was so unnerving, I almost wished Bane would go back to his metaphorical mountain and glare dispassionately down at me. “Or two nights ago? Maybe three. Definitely not more than four.”
“No wonder you’re rambling and dead on your feet. Why don’t I get you a nice bed and—”
“What-what is happening right now?” I interrupted, panicking. “Why a bed? Why—what?”
“We can talk more in the morning,” Bane said patiently and avoided my eyes.
“Aren’t we ignoring the giant dragon in the room?” I blurted out. “Aren’t I in deep shit?”
Every last muscle in Bane’s body tensed, and his chest expanded with a deep, controlled breath. Staring at the wall, a slight furrow between his brows, he said, “It’s complicated.” I snorted. “It is. You’ve put me in a difficult position, Tiani Elkhadi.” Something like a laugh escaped him, and he looked at me. “I can’t let you go.”
Even though I knew he didn’t mean it like that, the timbre of his voice sent a tingle down my spine and stirred up heat in my belly. His clean, masculine scent wasn’t helping. There was a hint of something smoky and warm, too, like the dragon fire that burned in his veins. It fi
lled my nose and caused crazy ideas like steal his jacket to flit through my head. Swallowing, trying to get a grip, I nodded. Only then did I notice I was fidgeting, and Xander did, too. Suddenly, I wished I didn’t look like something the dragon had dragged in.
Oh God, no, stop that.
Seeing Bane in the firelight, though, watching it flicker over the hard lines that made up his ridiculously gorgeous face, was not helping. But still, he wasn’t within reach. Bane was a storm on the horizon you could only watch. All of the fury from earlier was nothing but distant, silent bolts of lightning locked behind his eyes. This man was stern, efficient, and polite.
And for once, I was too afraid to push. Because, goddamn, a bed sounded nice.
“I don’t particularly want to lock up one of Iris Lisay’s closest friends,” Bane finally said. “Iris rendered Winfyre an enormous service. Plus, we’re not typically in the habit of locking people up in Winfyre.” His lips curved up slightly at the corners, and suddenly I found myself, rather inanely, wishing he would smile. “That might surprise you.”
“Well, you did just spend the last half-hour trying to scare me,” I said.
“Hm, it didn’t work, did it?” Bane asked, and the curve of his lips grew a bit more when I shook my head. “Have to try harder next time.”
“I mean, I knew I couldn’t lie,” I admitted. Only skip over some details.
“Yes, and to be fair, you weren’t acting like an innocent person.”
I snorted. You have no idea. “Thanks. So, what’s my punishment?”
“It’s for your protection.” I gave Bane a look and noted a faint glimmer of mirth in his eyes. I’d never met anyone who held themselves at a distance like this. Almost like it was a challenge. “All right, it’s both.” It was also incredibly annoying.
“Can you just tell me already?” I asked.
Bane scratched his jaw and sighed, settling back in the chair with his arms folded across his big chest. For a second, those blue eyes ran over me as though trying to read the depths of my soul. The heat in my stomach intensified, yet in contradiction, I shivered.
Dragon's Oath (Northbane Shifters Book 5) Page 5
