Page 108 of Taken By Shadows

Gavrin sounded like a bear with the thunder in his chest. “I’ll kill him.”

“No. You won’t.” Denora’s voice was that of the Head Sentinel as she spoke. “Kaed is in here as a political prisoner. Do you think killing the council member who put him in here is going to get him out sooner?”

Gavrin folded his arms and began pacing again.

Kaed braced his legs and turned to face Denora, arms across his chest. Looking at him, I tried to discern why he had surrendered to them so easily. But Kaed’s eyes never met mine.

“We have to do this the right way,” she continued.

“We still have our magic. We’re not in the Cage.” Gavrin ignored Denora.

“No,” Celeste said, “but you are in a magically barren room. Can’t you feel it?”

The same dead air that had been here the first time clawed at my throat. Despite it having nothing to latch onto in me, no magic to smother in me, it still felt strange to breathe it in.

Gavrin put a hand to his throat as if he’d only just now noticed the air he was breathing. “So what do we do, then?” Gavrin paced again.

“You’re going to have to play by the rules,” Rionna said simply.

“Gah! Your rules. Not ours.” I felt bad for Gavrin. His answer to a fight was to hit something. To cut it out of his way. He wasn’t brutish. He just wasn’t used to an enemy he couldn’t knock down and punch a few times.

Celeste spoke to no one in particular. “Tymon is gone, and if Sapphine hears about Kaedian’s predicament, she will do anything in her power to keep Tymon away.”

“Honestly, brother, could you not try a little harder for people to like you?” Gavrin huffed.

Kaed chuckled. “But then you wouldn’t like me.” Kaed smirked at his friend.

It seemed few people spoke to Kaed at all. And fewer still liked him. Eryk had only spoken to Kaed because he’d been dancing with me.

Gavrin was on the other side of the room, animated in his proposed decapitation of someone I could only assume was Councillor Varris while Councillor Darrion seemed to be restraining a smile at the display.

It was ghoulish the way he was miming the detail, but Kaed was more relaxed as Denora spoke to Celeste. No doubt the more productive conversation in the room.

And then it hit me.

I could solve this. There was a slim sliver of hope that I could do this. But I had to get out of here first.

“So what do we do?” Gavrin eventually asked. Calmer now or resigned.

“We wait.” Kaed’s voice was like a bell that had finished chiming in the room, its sound ringing out in a single tone, unending. It commanded the space and forced a pause on all other words. “Until Tymon is back.”

“That could be weeks. And you’ll be in here that entire time. They’re not going to just let you wander out while we wait for Tymon to come back,” Denora said.

“Do you have a better option?” Kaed looked defeated.

I didn’t hear who answered next. I let the conversation continue as I backed out of the room. Preoccupied with their strategies, they didn’t see me slip out the door.

Chapter thirty-three

Iran straight to the library. Delicate fae lights lit its beautiful, towering structure. It rose like a beacon of truth into the sky. I had to at least try to help. This was my fault.

Eryk was the last person Kaed would want to be indebted to, but he was also likely his only option.

Eryk had been kind to me since I’d arrived. And if I were completely honest with myself, I knew he was being more than kind. Eryk had made no secret about his feelings for Kaed. And more than once, he’d asked if I was happy. If I were all right.

He cared about me. That much was obvious. And I knew that what I was about to ask of him was taking advantage of that.

The question was, could I convince him to care about Kaed? For me.