Page 101 of Taken By Shadows

What?

“How long were you watching?” I had been dozing, my clothes drying off.

He hesitated.

“Watching me?” I shoved him, but he didn’t budge. He was harder than the rocks I had just climbed.

Kaed flattened his lips into a hard line and dropped his gaze to me. “You shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be here. And we are leaving before they find out.” He practically barked the words.

Confusion kindled in my eyes. “Before who finds out? What do you mean?”

He pinched his nose bridge and restrained a growl. Just about. “The council members who are watching and waiting for me to misstep. In case you have forgotten, I’m under their absurd city arrest. While it doesn’t physically bind me to the place, they will no doubt be increasingly difficult to negotiate with tomorrow.”

“Oh …” I said in a pathetic whisper.

I didn’t know what else to say. I’d forgotten somehow that his leaving the city was now against the council’s ruling.

“That’s what I was doing today while you were absconding on your little adventure. Negotiating trade agreements when you’re a political prisoner is … difficult, to say the least.”

“What do you mean?”

“Never mind. Let’s just say not all the members of the council are as endeared to me as Celeste.”

“I can’t imagine why,” I quipped.

But I wondered at what he’d said.

Was he being threatened? I couldn’t imagine who would have the gall to really threaten Kaed. He was physically imposing, and the magic he carried rippled over him whether he concealed it or not.

None of the council members looked even close to being able to challenge him. Maybe they had more magic than he had? Magic wasn’t something one regularly exuded on their person. I think Kaed was the exception to that.

He was the only one I could feel the magic from. It was like a pulse or a thread that emanated from him in waves, crashing and tumbling into me. I could tell when he wanted to use his magic or when he was holding it back. I could feel it on the tip of his fingers. I didn’t know when I’d begun to understand it, sense what it meant, but it was getting stronger the more time I spent around him.

Like now, I could feel his need to use his shadows to wrap around me.

Eyes still pinned to me, he whistled into the night. Kaed held out his hand, and his black stallion appeared at his command. “Come,” he said as though he could command me like his horse.

I folded my arms. It felt defiant, not logical. “I can make my own way back.”

Kaed’s eyes darkened. “I don’t think you understand. I’m not asking.”

He didn’t need magic to be faster than I was. He was fae, and he was ancient and lethal. A strong arm banded around me before I could turn and run. And I was thrown over his shoulder before I could even process his words.

“Put me down!” My legs hung uselessly in front of him as I thumped on his back, but he didn’t seem to notice or care. “What is your problem! I wasn’t trying to escape. I wasn’t leaving. I was frustrated!” I thumped him again.

He looked over his shoulder as I struggled, pinned.

I grunted and wriggled, his hand gripping around my thighs to hold me steady.

“Deal with your issues! I wasn’t running.”

“I know I have problems. But you will not be one of them. I will ensure that this time. I am done giving you chances. I am done treating you like you’re not my prisoner. I will tie you to my side every waking hour. I will tie you to my bed at night if I have to. You will never be out of my sight if I can’t trust you.” He paused mid-stride. “And … maybe I can help you with your frustration if you’re incapable of staying put otherwise.”

I stopped wriggling in his grip, but my body and my insides had turned to liquid fire at his words.

I couldn’t see his face, but I knew there would be a wicked gleam in his eyes, his mouth tugged into a devastating smirk.

I swallowed. “You’re not serious?” I willed the words out of me against a thorn of worry pressing into my throat.