Page 183 of Taken By Shadows

I wanted to tell him how much I cared about him in that moment. I cared when he was hurting.

He pulled out from under my touch and threw the shirt over his head.

“I’m sorry.” I snatched my hand back from the air where he’d been.

“Don’t be sorry,” he said as he dressed. “My father’s witch was quite the artist.”

My mouth moved uselessly at that.

Audrie had said punishments. But maiming your son. For any reason. I couldn’t fathom a person who would do that to their child. He let the fae witches have me … to do this?

“It’s a long story, peach.” He blew out. “And I don’t think we have time for my sad and unpleasant history.”

I stood dumbfounded and a little numb in his room as he pulled on his boots.

“You might want to get changed.”

“What?” I shook my head, still lost in the agony that that must have been to endure.

I took in the sight of Kaed. He was dressed in leathers. His shoulders were covered with pauldrons, and around his torso was a leather half brace made of belts and buckles.

“Where are we going?”

He strapped the two-handed sword to his back.

“To visit Huxley.”

Chapter fifty-six

I’d dressed similarly to Kaed in leathers. The bodice of my outfit felt more like supple armour than a fashion statement.

We hadn’t spoken further about the marks on his back.

Before we’d left the house, Kaed had, to my surprise, handed me a small knife. Its hilt was inlaid with bright purple and blue stones encircled in gold.

“What’s this for?” I took the blade tentatively as if it might be a test. A trick. Like he’d snatch it back the second I reached for it.

“For using. On others. Not on me,” he joked. But not long ago, if he’d handed me a blade, the first thing I would have done would have been to put it to his throat. “The metal has been treated with faebane.”

I looked at him, stunned.

“It’s old,” he clarified.

“And yours?” I eyed the huge blade whose hilt alone was larger than the entirety of the knife I held in my hands.

He nodded. “If my magic ever fails, it’s nice to know I can still cut down the fae who did it to me.”

I thought of Huxley’s magic then and how it had stripped me. Kaed didn’t have his sword last night. I couldn’t imagine the carnage in the rose garden if he had.

Despite the situation we were walking into, I smiled and fitted the knife into my boot.

I recognised where we were as soon as Kaed rounded the next corner. The ruins were shrouded in trees and blankets of greenery. It was an oasis of shade under the afternoon sun. It looked so different from when I’d been here last.

Flutters tumbled through me, but I shut them down as I recalled what we were doing.

“He’s here?” It didn’t feel right to be back here for something so … dire.

Kaed turned his head but said nothing as he walked to a flat slab in the overgrown temple. This one was entirely covered by moss and ivy.