Stepping forward, Tanner cleared his throat. He looked shaken, and seeing Caden and I together had to be a part of it. He was likely seeing the crumbling of his entire Court, right in front of him. I wanted to tell him that it was okay, but now truly wasn’t the time.
And time always seemed strange like that, because minutes kept ticking by, and they were never the right ones.
“Yes.” Tanner sent a quick glance at me. “He’s restrained.”
“How is he?” Caden asked.
It was the man with Faye who spoke. “He is… He is not well.” His voice cracked. “My King, he is not well at all.”
Caden’s hand slipped from mine as he stepped forward, placing his hand on the man’s shoulder. “How is your wife, Balour?”
“Luce believes she will heal, but…” Balour looked away, lips pressed in a thin line. “I don’t know who is in that room. He looks like my son. Sounds like him. But it is not Benji.”
“I am sorry,” Caden spoke, his voice low. “We will find who is responsible. They will pay.”
“Thank you.” The poor man struggled to take a breath as he looked at the closed door. “Is there any hope for him?
“If there is, we will find it,” Caden said. I hoped there was something to be optimistic about, but I doubted there was.
Tanner had inched closer, his voice low. “I…I didn’t expect to see you here, Brighton.”
“I didn’t expect to be here either,” I admitted, having no idea what else I could say other than, “We need to talk later.”
“Yes, we do.” He nodded, watching Caden as Benji’s father turned, slowly walking away. My heart hurt for Balour.
Before I could respond to Tanner, Caden turned. “I want to speak with him.”
“Of course.” Tanner moved to open the door. “Do you want Kalen or Faye to join you? Or Prince Fabian?”
“Brighton will join me.”
It took everything in me not to smile because doing so seemed wildly inappropriate given the circumstances.
Tanner looked as if he’d swallowed something that made him ill. “Of course.”
“I would like to be a part of this,” Faye said, lifting her chin. “He is my cousin.”
Caden studied her for a moment and then nodded. Relief didn’t flicker across her face. Steely determination lined her features.
Across from me, Ren pushed off the wall. “Be careful, he’s a biter.”
“Noted.” Caden strode forward, stopping in front of me. “Ready?”
“I am.”
“Okay.” Then he lowered his head, and his lips met mine.
Caden kissed me, right there in front of everyone, hammering home the point that we were together.
The shock of Caden kissing me in front of everyone gave way to the all-too-brief burst of warmth and pleasure, of rightness.
He was mine.
And I was his.
Chapter 13
Benji was young.
He couldn’t even be old enough to drink if he were human, and he looked so much like Faye. His hair was the same soft black, his skin a deeper, pewter shade, but those eyes were like Elliot’s, the youngling Benji had gone in search of. They were pitch-black, so dark that the pupils weren’t even visible.
The moment he saw the three of us, he pulled against the chains bolted to the wall. His hands were secured behind his back, and the length of the chain that connected to his ankles couldn’t be more than a foot long, so he didn’t make it very far.
He hissed though, the sound so eerily feline that the tiny hairs all along my body rose. His attention was focused on Caden.
“Hello, Benji,” Caden said.
The youngling growled, his lips peeling back. “You’re going to die.”
“Is that so?” Caden replied flatly.
“You’re all going to die.” Benji looked at Faye and then to where I stood. He sniffed the air. “Especially you, human.”
I rolled my eyes but remained quiet. This wasn’t my interrogation. Although Caden hadn’t said that, I knew I was here to listen. Not to engage. I wouldn’t get anything out of Benji.
“And yet you’re the one chained to the wall,” Caden pointed out.
“For now.”
Caden chuckled, the sound dark and cold. My gaze darted to him. “Do you really think you can escape me? Your King?”
Benji snapped at the air. “You’re no longer my King.”
“So, who do you answer to?”
“The one who gave us this world to rule, who will return humans to their rightful place as cattle,” he snarled. “I answer to Queen Morgana.”
Faye sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes squeezing shut.
“How can you answer to someone you’ve never met?”
“She will rip out your entrails and feast upon them.”
“Sounds delightful, but you didn’t answer my question, and my patience is already running thin.”
Benji threw his head back, letting out a high-pitched whining sound. Jerking forward like a cobra striking, he snapped at the air again. “It doesn’t matter if I’ve seen her. She will be freed, and you will bow to her. You will serve her.”
“Thought she was going to rip out your entrails,” I muttered.
Caden snorted.
Benji’s head snapped in my direction. “She’ll flay the skin from your bones, you stupid, fucking cattle. She’ll—”
Benji’s threats ended in a choking sound as Caden shot forward, clamping his hand down on the youngling’s throat. “My patience ended right there. Look at me,” he commanded. “Look at me, Benji.”
Goosebumps pimpled my skin at the change in Caden’s tone. It had lowered, but at the same time, seemed to blanket the room in soft, warm silk. I recognized the power in his words.
Glamour.
He was using glamour on another fae, something only the most powerful Ancients could do. And now I knew why he hadn’t wanted me to be here. He’d been worried that seeing him use glamour to compel Benji to speak would remind me of Aric.
It was unnerving to be reminded of how powerful Caden was, but nothing about him made me think of Aric.
Benji quieted, his mouth hanging open as he stared up at Caden.
“Who do you answer to other than Queen Morgana?” Caden asked.
“I…I answer to the Winter Court,” he answered numbly.
Faye opened her mouth as if she wanted to speak. I reached over, touching her arm slightly. She exhaled roughly and then nodded.
“Why do you answer to them?”
“Because they are…”
“They are what, Benji?”
“They are my masters.”
Caden’s head tilted slightly. He asked the question again, and then phrased the same question in a different way, but Benji, even under glamour, couldn’t say why he answered to them.
And it became clear that several months of the boy’s young life were simply gone. He couldn’t say when he’d been here last. When he last drank any liquor. All he could repeat was that he answered to Queen Morgana, that he served the Winter Court, and that he only knew one name.
“Who is the Ancient who represents the Winter Court.”