Page 50 of Royal Hunt
There was a long pause, and I looked at Viana for clarification. She shook her head, not having any idea what Pari was talking about either.
“Oh gods above, you’re so far removed from fae culture you don’t know about mates? No wonder things are a mess down here!” Pari ran her hands through her short pink hair, clearly agitated.
“Sorry,” I offered, but I wasn’t exactly sure what I was apologizing for. Remembering my earlier conversation with Viana, I tried a different route.
“Pari, is it only prisoners who lose access to their magick? Or is it something about this land?”
Viana glanced up sharply, her eyes sparking with interest.
Pari tapped her chin with a finger. “Hmm. I would have originally said it was your land, but Ferar and Cassus manage just fine, don’t they? I’m not sure what to tell you. In prison our magick is bound, but those cuffs were taken off when we were transported here. It was so odd. One moment I had magick, then I appeared here and . . . didn’t.”
I licked my lips, feeling like I was onto something.
It wasn’t likely the environment, then. What if the ancestors were the only ones cut off from their magick? What if it was slowly returning through the descendants?
“Do you think an effect like that would wear out over time or be able to adjust in any way?” I asked.
Pari narrowed her eyes, noticing my tension and how Viana had perked up at the conversation.
“Why?” she drawled out, giving the simple word three long syllables. I glanced guiltily at Viana, who rolled my eyes at my lack of subtlety.
A flash of movement and Pari had me by the throat, lifting me into the air as if I were an irritating little dog. My nails scrabbled uselessly at her hand, and I couldn’t breathe.
“Pari! What the fuck!” Viana screeched, withdrawing her dagger and advancing warily. Pari lowered me until my feet touched the ground, and pulled my face to hers. I could count every freckle on her pink skin, and every hair that fluttered around her eyes.
“Do you have magick here? Tell me! I swear to the gods, I’ll—”
A sudden burst of heat and flames, and Pari shrieked and dropped me. An arm tugged around my waist and pushed me down, and I focused on breathing. In and out. In and out. I glanced up, two golden eyes staring down at me from a shadowed face. Dark hair hung over his forehead, his breaths coming in great heaving gulps. He pushed me behind him.
Ellis stood between Pari and me, breathing hard with fire racing down his palms.
We all stared at him, mouths wide open.
Then like a puppet whose strings had been cut, he crumpled to the ground.
I cried out and reached for him along with another pair of arms, and Viana let go as I gently tried to lay Ellis back down, trying to avoid his singed fingertips.
Pari stared, her jaw open. She didn’t even seem to care that her clothes were singed, or that a small piece of burned hair fell from her forehead to the ground. “He did magick.Here.”
I curled my body around Ellis as if I could shield him from her. From all of this madness.
“Fuck off,” I whispered, hot tears gathering at the corners of my eyes.
“No, you don’t understand. He did magick.” Pari was muttering to herself now as if we didn’t exist.
“Yeah, we were all here,” Viana snapped back, her voice laced with a tinge of panic. We both shot a worried glance at Ellis, who was fitfully moving around his furs, but wasn’t conscious.
“Mate,” Pari shot back, glancing between Ellis and me. Viana rolled her eyes and grabbed her arm, leading her away. I slumped down next to Ellis.
Mates indeed. What nonsense.
“Here, take this. I have a feeling you’ll be a better judge of when he needs it than me.” Viana handed me the tiny bottle of clear liquid, and I reached for it with shaking hands. I didn’t agree with her, but didn’t have the strength to argue.
“Fine.”
Viana took off after Pari, no doubt to pepper her with questions about . . . well, everything. Ellis’s face was pale and exhausted, and I struggled with the urge to punch him for exerting himself too much, and hug him for trying to protect me.
I was starting to not mind it so much when he did it.
