Page 31 of Taken By Shadows

I puzzled over his reminder of why I was here at all. “I will get you faebane, if that’s all you care about. But until then, I’ll play your game, and you’ll treat me like your Lady. All cells and dungeons are to remain out of the conversation.”

Finally, he smirked as he looked through his dark lashes at me. “It seems we have an agreement, Lady Imogen.” The purr that rumbled in his throat was like heated coals that matched the way his eyes burned in the darkness.

An involuntary flutter rose from deep inside me as his velvet voice wrapped around me in the dark.

I had just struck a bargain with my fae captor.

I had made a move towards my freedom.

And I had time to figure out the answer to the faebane.

But the bigger worry was, could I trust the male who had kidnapped me to stay true to his word?

Chapter nine

Gavrin leaned against a large stone cistern in the middle of a square. The small grey cat winding around his ankles somewhat undid the menacing impression I’d gotten of him when I had first seen him wielding his sword. Somewhat. But not entirely.

How had he gotten here so quickly? I assumed magic had played some part, but I didn’t have the presence of mind to question it further.

The square seemed like quite a conspicuous place to meet his sentinel with his kidnap victim. Betrothed, I corrected silently as I snipped the laugh trying to break through my lips.

“Who died?” Gavrin pushed off the municipal water feature without unfolding his arms.

I knew little about military ranking, but I would have thought a sentinel usually wore their shirt closed. Gavrin’s full chest was on display. It was warm with the storm gathering around us, but not that warm.

“You look far too glum for someone who just walked away from a skirmish with all of the spoils.” Gavrin’s tone was mocking as he looked the male before me up and down.

“Don’t ask,” Kaedian ground out and kept walking.

“If someone is lying in a gutter somewhere that I need to clean up, I’d rather know,” Gavrin grumbled as if this were a regular occurrence.

“Drop it, Gavrin.” The command in Kaedian’s voice settled into the air. A different kind of magic that was distilled in him.

Gavrin fanned out his hands and did as he was told.

“There was an empty wing of the east cells. I’ve made sure no one else will use the remaining ones. She should be fine there until you get what you need from her.”

I’d have pulled Gavrin up on talking about me like that in any other circumstance, but Kaedian spoke first. “We’re not going to need a cell.”

Gavrin raised a brow.

“Carron.” Kaedian let out a weighty sigh.

“That spineless gossip?”

“The same. He came upon us. I couldn’t tell him I’d taken her from the Western Corner, so I improvised.”

“Improvised how?” Gavrin was rightly sceptical. Even though it had worked to my advantage, the excuse was flimsy at best.

A beat hung between the three of us. A spiral of storm wind whistled down the street beside us and blew a few stray pieces of detritus toward the next alley and I wrapped my arms around myself against the growing chill and rain.

“Improvised how?” Gavrin said, slower this time.

Who would ever believe it? One look at us beside one another, the disdain on my face, the hard set of his shoulders. No one would think we were engaged to be married.

“Lord Kaedian here”—I quirked a brow at him as I drawled the title, his name sounding new and unusual on my lips—“has decided—”

Kaedian caught my arm, cutting me off. His eyes, the line of his jaw, the planes of his face in the moonlight, all implored me not to speak another word. But he had no cards to play now. Short of shutting me up.