Page 105 of Taken By Shadows

“Varris,” Kaed spat.

His unimportant presence wormed its way closer to Kaed. He was human. Short in stature, but he held himself tall with pomp and importance. He was the one who insisted on Kaed’s city confinement. The same crooked teeth broke through his grin.

“Kneel,” Varris said, savouring the word.

I watched, unable to do anything, as a hand landed on Kaed’s shoulder and urged him to the ground.

Soldiers with fae strength grasped his hands and forced the cuffs around his wrists. I hadn’t been able to stop it the first time it happened, and I watched helplessly as Kaed bowed to their subjugation again.

A hiss burned into the night as the metal closed around his wrists, searing his skin.

“Stop it. Where are you taking him?” They’d hauled Kaed to his feet and escorted him through the gates.

“Please. Come with me.” The man—Varris—offered me his hand. “The prince is being taken to the council chambers.”

I refused the outstretched hand.

What was a council member doing here? With twenty fae soldiers.

I felt as pale as my bones.

The Cage.

“Imogen,” Kaed called back to me. “You don’t have to see this. Go to Denora. You don’t have to go with them.”

“I’m afraid, my lady, I must insist you come with us.”

Chapter thirty-two

Ihadn’t expected to set foot inside these halls again so soon.

The council member who had been there when they took Kaed was now seated in one of the alcoves high in the rotunda. Councillor Varris was maybe in his forties with brown hair and a pale beard. The pall of desperation around him was clinging to him like the stench on a corpse. It rolled off him like sweat.

Kaed knelt on the dais in the centre of the room.

“Let him stand,” Celeste demanded of the other members.

“The prince is free to stand, should he wish,” Councillor Varris said, his sharp and uneven teeth showing behind his manicured beard.

Kaed looked to the man who’d spoken, and Councillor Varris actually leaned in. A grin stretched across his face as he savoured Kaed bent low as he bore the weight of the faebane poisoning him.

Kaed made a move to stand, but his body stayed where it was. As though the weight of the world pulled him down, he didn’t move except to shudder. His muscles strained, and the cords of his tendons were pulled tight.

“What are you doing to him?” I shouted. I went to go to him, but a guard held me. Not roughly, but just to ensure I knew who was in control.

It wasn’t me. And it wasn’t Kaed.

“Celeste?” I pleaded with the kind female who had healed me.

But it was the other redhead female who spoke. Councillor Morgana Morningstar. “My dear.” Her voice was steady. “I understand you are upset at the sight of your betrothed like this. And again, so soon.” There was an ancient patience in her eyes as she spoke. “But he has broken our laws. For the second time. Prince Kaedian has two choices ahead of him now.” My throat constricted, and I didn’t dare interrupt. “The first is that he may request a citizen of Viverna to speak on his behalf and take on the burden of his behaviours should they come to pass again.” Celeste shifted in her chair.

Clearly, we were on the same page as I had instantly thought of her.

“The second option is that Prince Kaedian remains here until such time as a truce or resumed alliance of trade has been signed with Hayden.”

Were they blackmailing him? Hayden? Leaving the city limits hardly seemed worthy of arresting him. But they had done it. And Kaed had let them shackle him until his powers were under a null blanket of faebane.

Did they even have the right to detain a prince of Hayden in this city in the first place? “Do you understand these terms, Prince Kaedian?”