“I said, I’m not for sale.”
“As you say.” Sindre snapped his fingers.
A black-haired female with an Irish woman’s creamy skin appeared with two crystal flutes balanced on a silver tray. She crossed the floor with a supple grace that reminded Marjani of a fada, although she didn’t smell like a fada.
In fact, like the big guard, she had no scent at all. And why did the guard look so familiar?
Sindre took the crystal flutes from her tray and offered one to Marjani. “Champagne?”
She shook her head. No way was she going to take even a single thing from this man. “No thanks.”
With a shrug, he took a sip of champagne, and then set both glasses back on the tray. The woman set the tray on a side table and then gathered up the diamonds, placing them in a drawer that opened in the trunk of one of the leafless trees before going to stand next to the big, expressionless guard.
Sindre strolled closer, his gray eyes glinting like sun on ice. She stared into them, mesmerized.
Why fight him? She wasn’t mated. It might even be fun… And he was so fucking beautiful.
Fane cleared his throat. “Excuse me. Frog in my throat.”
But the spell was broken. Sindre scowled, and she realized he’d tried to ensnare her with a glamour.
Inside, the cat angrily swished its tale.
“What about power?” the king asked. “You’re strong. Smart. You must’ve wondered why your brother is alpha instead of you.”
Her mouth moved in a soundless no, but she couldn’t make herself utter it out loud—because it would be a lie. She had wondered. She’d been at Adric’s side from the start. They acted almost as co-alphas, making most decisions together. But the final say was his.
Sindre pressed his advantage. “You could be alpha instead. Your power would be such that your brother would willingly follow you. In fact, you could allow him to remain as alpha of your home clan and rule over all the earth fada clans. Think about it.” Soft, seductive tones. “All you have to do in exchange is stay with me for a little while. No cage—I promise. And then you’d be free to go home and take your place as the most powerful earth fada in the world.”
Her palms were sweating. She tightened her grip on the dagger. Yeah, she was tempted—who wouldn’t be?
But deep down, she knew Adric made a better alpha than she ever would. He wasn’t just strong, he was a natural leader. She might be the one with the Gift of strategy, but he had both vision and the ability to gain people’s cooperation. The clan followed him because they believed in him, trusted that he had their best interests at heart.
And he’d earned her loyalty a hundred times over.
“No,” she said in a clear, strong voice. “I have all the power I need. Just let me go.”
Sindre stared at her for a moment that stretched on and on until Marjani’s nerves screamed with the tension.
“All right,” he said at last. “I have one last offer for you.”
A hush fell over the room. At some point, the snow had stopped falling.
Her gut tingled uneasily. This was it. The offer he’d been leading up to, the one he expected to clinch the deal.
But what could he offer besides wealth and power?
For some reason she glanced at where the man and woman waited by the tree. Their faces were expressionless, the perfect servants. But she could’ve sworn they were urging her to say no.
Fane spoke. “Your highness?”
“What?” Sindre growled.
“Pardon the interruption, but as you know, the woman is the Baltimore alpha’s only sister. It wouldn’t do to make an enemy of him.”
The king brushed that away with a wave of his elegant hand. “But does he want to make an enemy of me?”
“Still,” Fane said. “Lord Adric won’t let this go. He recently did a favor for the sun fae, and the queen might ally herself with him.”
Actually, that favor had been done over six years ago, and the sun fae had paid Adric well. But Marjani wasn’t stupid enough to point that out.
Sindre seated himself on the couch again, his arms stretched along the back like the wings of a large bird of prey. “But if our guest agrees, then how could he possibly be upset?”
Fane opened his mouth to argue, but Sindre cut him off. “Let her answer.” His pale eyes turned on her. “I can gift you with a protection charm that would make you impossible to kill. No one could even touch you without your permission. Think about it. No one could hurt you, ever again.”
She swallowed sickly. “What do you know about that?”
A shrug. “I hear things. Knowledge, after all, is power. Think about it. You’d never be afraid again.”
She stared at him. To never feel afraid again. Never to feel helpless. That would be a gift indeed.
Temptation sucked at her, seductive as Sindre’s glamour.
Because those feral river fada had stripped her bare in the worst possible way. They’d tricked her into drinking an aphrodisiac, a powerful magical drug. She’d started out fighting them, but in the end, she’d lost all her pride and begged for more.
Suha had explained it was the fault of the aphrodisiac. The drug made you crave sensation—the pleasure of sex, the bite of pain…
“You survived, honey,” the healer had told her, over and over. “That’s the important thing. No one could’ve held out against the dose they gave you.”
But Marjani couldn’t shake the shame. That she’d lost control, begged her rapists for more…she, a soldier and Adric’s second-in-command.
“No.” She backed toward the exit, dagger out, hoping no one saw the tremble in her hand. “I can protect myself.”
“Can you?”
The click of high heels sounded behind her. Marjani spun around as the bodyguard moved to intercept the newcomer.
“It’s Lady Blaer,” said Sindre. “Let her in.”
The guard inclined his head. “As you wish.” He ushered in the fae lady with a flourish just this side of mocking.
“My lord.” She crossed to where Sindre sat on the couch and placed an air kiss on each of his cheeks before turning to Marjani. “So you found the other fada.”
The other fada? Marjani glanced at Fane, but he seemed as puzzled as she was.
“You’re trying to strike a bargain with her, aren’t you?” Blaer’s black gaze moved over Marjani.
An icy sweat trickled down her vertebrae.
“And if I am?” Sindre said.
“Perhaps I can help.”
“Be my guest.”
Anger flared in Marjani. Typical fae, discussing her as if she weren’t there—as if she were somehow less than them. Well, fuck you, too.
A growl vibrated her chest. Inside, the cat tried to claw its way out. She was tempted to let it, but first, she needed more information.
Blaer’s eyes narrowed. “It was you in my tower earlier, wasn’t it? If you’re here to free Corban, I might take you in his place.”
Marjani stared back stonily.
“Not him, then.” The fae woman nodded—and went for the jugular. “But what about the big brown wolf?”
Marjani’s heart skipped a beat. “What big brown wolf?”
“I didn’t get his name. Yet.”
Marjani’s stomach hollowed. Please don’t let it be Luc.
She’d been half-expecting him ever since she landed in Iceland. When she hadn’t seen him, she’d figured Adric had held him off, that her brother had trusted she could handle this herself.
She should’ve known better.
Blaer’s pink lips stretched in triumph. Meanwhile, Sindre looked on detached, like they were pawns on a chessboard being pushed around for his amusement.
Marjani’s fury spiked. Inside, her cougar spat and snarled. Luc might not be her mate, but he was a friend. A good one.
“Look, bitch.” She stepped closer to Blaer, crowding her. “It’s one thing to cage a man who’s turned his back on us. But mess with the brown w
olf, and you’ll be sorry. We’ll hunt you down.” She touched her dagger to Blaer’s stomach where the poison from the iron would do the most damage.
“Is that a threat?” the mixed-blood fae hissed back.
“Yeah.” She let the cat blaze into her eyes. “It is.”
“But your clan tried that already, remember? When Sindre hired you to find me. Your brother sent Corban after me, and look how that turned out.” Ignoring the dagger, Blaer leaned closer. “Do. Your. Worst. Fada.”
“Blaer, min,” Sindre interrupted. “You don’t have my permission to bargain with the fada.”
“No?” Blaer slanted him a smile. “I’m only trying to help, my lord. She’s worried about that brown wolf. He’s a friend, maybe more. You could use him as leverage.”
“So I gathered.” He raised a blond brow at Marjani. “So what do you say? Will you trade your freedom for his?”
Her limbs locked.
The king’s mouth curved. He’d won, and he knew it.
She fingered the dagger. Sweet Goddess, she wanted to thrust it into his conniving heart. “I want to see this wolf first.”
“Your highness.” Fane again. “Let her go. This is beneath you.”
Without taking his gaze from her, Sindre flicked his fingers. Magic hummed in the air. She gasped as frost spread up Fane’s legs. He sucked in a breath and locked his knees.
Blaer watched with an avid expression, clearly feeding on his pain.
“Accept the bargain,” the king told Marjani. “Or Fane dies.”
No. Hell, no.
Fane was nothing to her. The man had been lying to her ever since she arrived. Maybe not straight out, but lies of omission were still lies. He’d let her think he was on her side when the whole time he’d been spying on her.
The ice covered Fane’s chest and crept toward his throat. He moved his mouth but the only sound he could make was a croak that raised every hair on her body.
His eyes met hers, desperate and yet stoic.
She swung back to Sindre. “Enough,” she gritted. “I said I’ll bargain with you. But first, I want to see this wolf.”
The king cast a pointed look at her dagger. Without taking her gaze from his, shebent and shoved it into its sheath.
“Happy?” she growled as she straightened back up.
“Very,” was the silky reply.
16
It had been a long time since Fane had been subjected to one of Sindre’s punishments. He’d forgotten how much it hurt.
And the king was a master at dragging out the torture.
His feet went cold, and then hot, as if they’d been plunged into an ice bath. Then they went numb. The ice crept up his body as Sindre sucked energy from vital molecules.
It was like being buried alive. His heart and lungs slowed. He couldn’t move or speak.
Panic galloped up his spine, and he couldn’t even beg for mercy because his fucking vocal cords wouldn’t work. He stood there, frozen in place, hoping he wouldn’t lose his balance and topple to the floor.
Just when he thought that this time Sindre meant to kill him, the king waved his hand and the ice melted. Now the real agony began as his frozen limbs came back to life. First, his hands and feet pricked like a thousand needles were being driven into them, then the nerve endings lit up like he’d been set on fire.
He put his hands on his thighs and bent over, sucking in oxygen and shaking so hard his teeth clattered like castanets.
“Come.” Sindre held out a hand to Marjani.
Fane jerked up his head. “No,” he rasped as the king teleported her out of the room, followed immediately by Blaer. “You bloody bastard.”
The terms of the geas bound him to obey Sindre’s direct orders in return for his generous pay—he was a millionaire in the human world—but the king hadn’t thought to forbid Fane to follow. Probably figured he wouldn’t dare.
What could he do against two fae as powerful as Sindre and Blaer? But he couldn’t just return to his room without trying to help Marjani. He felt enough of a coward as it was.
Pushing himself upright, he staggered to the door and leaned against the jamb, lungs heaving.
Gods, he’d never hated himself so much as when he’d confessed to Marjani that he’d been spying on her.
That was the problem with a geas. You never knew when it would turn around and bite you in the arse. Back when he’d made the agreement with Sindre, it had seemed like a good idea. He was forty years old and his human mom had just died. He’d been making a living as a fisherman in Newfoundland. His dad had set him up with his own boat, and he had a crew of two, men he’d grown up with. But already his friends had started to comment on how Fane never seemed to age.
And he’d itched to see more of the world.
Then he’d discovered he had this Gift for moving fast…and disappearing. When he’d shown his dad, Arne had invited him to the ice fae court to meet Sindre, saying, “The king can always use another wayfarer.”
A fae king’s envoy? Fane had jumped at the chance. Hell, it was an opportunity most men would’ve killed for—and Fane felt a little as if he had.
Only the man he’d slain was himself. As the king’s envoy, he’d seen things that had made his blood curdle.
He’d never directly harmed someone, but no one would call him innocent. With each decade, a bit more of him died, until he was becoming as jaded as a pureblood.
But he’d be damned if he’d let Marjani get sucked into this world.
Think. He pressed a hand to his pounding head.
He couldn’t ignore a direct command from Sindre, but the king hadn’t ordered Fane not to help her. So he had to get her away from the king before he could invoke the geas.
The black-haired guard opened the door for Fane. A Portuguese river fada, he was under a geas, too, along with his Irish mate. The Irishwoman came up on Fane’s other side.
“Go after her,” she hissed. “Before it’s too late.”
Fane lurched into the hall and started toward the east tower.
There was no way he could use his Gift to race to Marjani. Even a slow walk was agony, each step spiking pain up his legs. He gritted his teeth and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.
The maze was suddenly in a forgiving mood; or more likely, Sindre was too distracted to play his games. Instead of hindering Fane, the path led him straight to Blaer’s tower.
By the time he arrived, he was covered in a cold sweat. The three flights loomed before him like a steep mountain. He clutched the banister and started climbing. By the second landing, his heart felt like it was about to explode out of his chest. He halted to catch his breath, and then grimly continued up.
The thick oak door was shut tight. No chance of sneaking in.
The hell with it, then. He shoved it open.
Marjani stood between Sindre and Blaer, staring at the new fada. Fane’s stomach twisted. She looked so small and defenseless between the pair of tall, blond fae.
Blaer flicked him a speculative glance, but Sindre’s gaze was locked on Marjani, his lean face hungry. Like she was a special treat, one he intended to savor for long hours.
Nearby, the black wolf lay on its side, eyes closed and tongue hanging out of its mouth, panting softly. But Marjani only had eyes for the rangy earth fada crouched in the cage next to the black wolf’s. He was naked save for his quartz. Deep scratches and bites marred his teak skin—the poor bastard must have been caught by the goblins—and his face was bruised, his eyes swollen shut.
Marjani bit her lower lip. “Oh, Luc.”
At her voice, the man started. “Jani?”
“Yeah.”
He pulled himself up to his full height, glaring at Sindre and Blaer from beneath swollen lids before looking back at her. “You’re here.”
The king set a hand on Marjani’s arm, but she shook him off to move closer to her friend. To Fane’s surprise, Sindre allowed it. But then, he was a canny man, and patient when it suited
him.
She shook her head sorrowfully. “You had to follow me, didn’t you?”
Luc’s bloodied mouth turned up in a lopsided grin. “You knew I would.”
She blew out a breath. “Yeah. But I hoped I was wrong.”
“You’re all right?” The fada moved as close to the iron bars as he could without touching them. “Those motherfuckers haven’t hurt you?” His fierce look included all three of them: Sindre, Blaer and Fane.
“I’m fine. But you…”
The fada’s hard face softened. “Don’t worry about me.” He reached for the bars and then stopped himself from grabbing them just in time. His hands fisted.
“Let her go,” he growled at Sindre. “You’ve got me and Corban. I’ll agree to anything you say if you just let her go.”
Blaer’s dark eyes glowed, lapping up his fear and anger.
“No!” exclaimed Marjani. “Don’t make any promises. Let me handle this.”
“Actually,” the king said, “Marjani and I were about to make a deal.”
“Like hell,” Luc snarled. His claws slid out and his teeth lengthened so he looked barely human. “Let me out of this fucking cage. Fight me like a real man.”
“Is that what real men do?” Sindre asked, interested. “Fight?”
“You win.” Marjani whirled to face him. “Let him go. I’ll stay here in his place.”
“Jani, no!” The fada rammed a shoulder against the cage’s iron door. It seared his skin with a sickening hiss, but he did it again and again before giving up to stare helplessly at Marjani. Red stripes from the bars marked his shoulder and arm, and the stomach-turning odor of burnt flesh filled the tower.
“No.” Fane was across the room before he’d realized he moved. He grabbed Marjani’s arm. “Bargain with him. Make him set a time limit or you’ll be here the rest of your life.”
Sindre’s brows pinched together. “You become tedious, Fane. Step away from her.”
He clenched his fists—and then obeyed. Because he had to.
“Bargain with him,” he muttered one last time.
“Come, your highness.” Marjani crossed her arms and tilted her head to one side. “Surely you don’t think a fada can best you in a bargain? What are your terms?”
Charming Marjani Page 11
