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Chapter 14
Bree
The first orderof business was finding Eurig, as much as Bree hated the thought. Taveon might be certain that his old friend had nothing to do with this, but Bree would not believe it until she found the true culprit behind theattack.
She stopped by her own quarters first and grabbed the dagger she kept hidden underneath her mattress. It was the dagger that Dagen had snuck to her during her first few days in the realm. She had never had an opportunity to use it before now, but she had a feeling that would change verysoon.
She wrapped her fingers around the golden hilt and examined the engravings. Wings upon wings upon wings lined the handle, sparkling under the light of the fireplace.Dagen, Bree thought, her heart squeezing tight. He would be among the fallen in the Great Hall. Before she left, she would have to check on him, even if there was nothing she could do for him, and even if there was no way for him to hear the soothing words she wished to whisper into hisear.
She felt a strange sense of loss when she thought of Dagen having fallen like all of the others. It was a feeling she did hadn’t expected to have. It was Dagen, after all. He had done so much against Taveon, and she hadn’t been able to trust him ever since. But…he had tried to make up for it, hadn’t he? And she felt so drawn to him regardless of anything else he had done. That moment they’d shared in Midas’s quarters haunted her like a misty ghost just out ofreach.
Did she care for him? The same way she cared for Rafe and Taveon? Surely not. Surely she was just confused. Dagen had been the enemy, or at least he had seemed to be the enemy at one point in time. His motivations had always been cloudy to her, but in the end, he’d still stood by the King’sside.
As she shoved the dagger into a leather belt she had slung around her waist, the door to her quarters creaked open. She whirled, eyes wide and heart banging wildly inside herchest.
Eurig eased through the crack in the door, his hands held up high before him. “Don’t stab me with that. I have not come here to attackyou.”
“Then, whatareyou doing here?” Bree said, slowly raising the blade up before her. “You ran off before, so why come backnow?”
“Because I did not do it.” Eurig took another step inside and slowly closed the door behind him, as if it made any difference. No one would hear them. No one else inside the castle had the ability to hear at the moment, except for Taveon. And he had gone silent through the bond, seeing the situation unfold through Bree’seyes.
Bree held herself steady as she stared at Eurig. “Let’s just pretend for a moment that you did not put a curse on the entire court. What would be the point in coming to me now? In my opinion, the only reason you would come here now was if youdiddo it. You didn’t realize that I would be immune to whatever you did. So, you’ve come to finish thejob.”
“If I wanted to finish the job, Bree, I would have come here as my shape-shifted beast. I would not be standing here, holding my hands up before you, and making myself far more vulnerable than I’ve ever wanted to be.” He raised his hands even higher, as if to illustrate his point. “I came here to talk to you about what happened and to come up with some kind of plan goingforward.”
“Plan?” Bree asked, arching her brow. “You actually expect me to believe that you, of all fae, want to come up with some kind of plan to fix this? Ever since you got here, you’ve acted like you could not care less about this Court, let alone the King, even if he is supposed to be yourfriend.”
“I came to this castle because I owe a favor to Taveon. I came here to help him. He thought making me undergo ridiculous training with you would be the way I pay my debt to him. If you want to know the real reason why I have been so annoyed this entire time, it’s because I felt there was so much more I can do for him than that.” He shrugged. “Perhaps I was wrong for acting as Idid.”
“Perhaps you were.” Bree lowered her dagger and shoved it into the leather belt. “Maybe you shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions and assumed that training with me was someaningless.”
“You can see how I might have come to that conclusion,” Eurig said. “I have been training all of my life. You have been training a few days. To say that we are on even ground would be ridiculous. I wanted to domore.”
“Well, how lucky that you get to do justthat.”
Bree wasn’t sure just how much the Dark Fae understood sarcasm, but by the look on Eurig’s face, she had a pretty good feeling that he understood exactly what shemeant.
“There you go again, acting as if I wanted this to happen.” Eurig ran his fingers across his close-cut hair, and he began to pace from one end of Bree’s room to the other. “This is as bad for Taveon as it could get. Right after his coronation, he is cursed. He is unable to do anything but lie in his bed. If it weren’t for you, he would not be able to interact with anyone at all. And then his entire court falls prey to the very same curse. I would never do something like this to him. Ask him yourself. I know youcan.”
Bree watched him. And she couldn’t help but notice that the emotion roiling off of him in waves could not be faked. Eurig might be intimidating and terrifying and a little bit rude at times, but he was not that good of an actor. She didn’twantto trust him though. He had stormed into her Academy, acting as though he were better than everyone else. Hell, he still thought he was better than everyone else. But the Academy had become her home. It felt like hers, like hers and Rafe’s. And then Eurig had come barreling in, trying to tear down everything they had built betweenthem.
And now he was the only one in this castle that she could trust. Well, and Fillan, if the assassin had even stuck around. Bree was pretty sure he got the hell out of dodge as soon as he’d warned her of theattack.
“Why do you owe Taveon?” Bree asked. “What did he do to earn such loyalty fromyou?”
Eurig slowed his pacing, and he came to an abrupt stop just before Bree. As short as he was compared to the other Dark Fae, he still towered over her. His body was large and wide, like a tank, like a brick. Bree suddenly felt very small and feminine. She swallowed hard, her heartbeat racing due to nerves she hadn’t expected. He clearly wasn’t going to hurt her, and if he tried anything, she had more than a dagger to help her fight back. But she was nervous anyway. Why? She wasn’t sure she wanted toknow.
“What happened all of those years ago is between me and Taveon,” Eurig muttered. “If he has not told you himself, then I cannot tell younow.”
Bree raised an eyebrow, forcing back all of the questions now bubbling up in her mind. Once again, Taveon was hiding secrets. Did this have to do with his wings and his immortality? Or was there something else that he was hiding? He had told Bree that only one other fae shared his secret. No, that wasn’t right. That wasn’t exactly what he’d said. He said that he had onlytoldone other fae. So, had Eurig somehow found out? Was that what he was now hiding from Bree,too?
“So many loyalties,” Bree said, raising an eyebrow. “You were loyal enough to come here and fight for him. And you are loyal enough to hide secrets. He must have done something quite big for you. Why can’t you just tell me whatis?”
Eurig drew a deep breath into his lungs, a motion that made his entire chest press out toward her. Her eyes caught on his rippling muscles and the way his shirt strained against his chiseled abs. She swallowed hard she stared at his body, and a strange tightening sensation clenched her core. Blinking, she took a step back, wondering at what was going through her mind. She needed to get a grip. This fae was bad news, and she was only feeling drawn to him this way because the rest of the court had fallen to theground.
“What he did for me inspired this loyalty,” Eurig said, his voice sounding as rough as her heart felt. “And telling you more would reveal something about Taveon I swore I would never reveal to anyone else. So, I am afraid I cannot tell you, even knowing that it would help you trustme.”
“Right.” Bree sucked in a breath, trying to calm her nerves, hoping that Eurig had not noticed the pink now spreading across her cheeks. “So, am I just supposed to trust you without question then? I’m supposed to put my life in your hands not knowing why you’rehere?”
“You do not have to put your life into my hands for us to work together,” Eurig said. “We can look into this curse. Together. As a team, just as Taveon hoped we would be one day. But you do not have to trust me in order to do that. You can keep your distance if that is what you wish to do. Just know that we would get much further if you would only open your eyes and see that I am exactly what I claim tobe.”
Bree just continued to stare at the outposter. He was right. They did need to work together. It was the only option they truly had. She could go out into the realm on her own, and she could try to storm the Wilde Fae villages without the help of anyone else. But deep down inside she knew it was a suicide mission. She could hear Taveon’s voice in her mind, urging her to do anything but that. After everything they’d been through together, she trusted Taveon with her life. She only wished she had trusted him sooner. And it was the kind of mistake she did want to makeagain.
Bree timidly held out a hand. “Okay, we’ll do this together. But the second I see you doanythingthat seems even slightly suspicious, I will take this dagger, and I will put it right into your heart.” Eurig stared down at her hand, slight confusion rippling across his features. In the Dark Fae realm, they did not shake hands. It was a foreign transaction, one made only in the human realm. But then Eurig reached out, his strong, warm hand wrapped around hers, and they made their pact with each other right then andthere.
