Smiling fondly, Erick touched his own love mark and nodded. “That I do. Congratulations, my friend. But, uh…” He glanced around. “Where is she? Are you still trying to catch her or what?”
Wincing uneasily, I shifted, not sure how to tell him the next part. “Well, that’s the thing, actually.”
He squinted, not understanding. “What do you mean?”
Before I could explain anything further, the shrill scream of a raven sounded above. It swooped down, and its homing human stepped forward, stretching up an arm covered with a leather gauntlet to his elbow. The bird settled on the glove’s sleeve and croaked low in its throat until its human untied the message from its leg and gave it a sunflower seed in payment. It squawked in thanks and took off flying again.
“My lord,” the raven’s homing human called, his voice urgent as he stepped forward. “Everett of House Teller sends a message, saying they’ve confirmed the capture of a Graykey female.”
“Shit!” I leaped forward, gripping Erick’s arm. “My lord.”
What the hell had Quilla gotten herself into? She was supposed to be gone from this fucking dimension already.
“I know, I know,” Erick muttered on an exhausted sigh and lifted his hand to interrupt me before I could say anything. “You and your uncle don’t get on well. I’m aware. I’ll make sure to keep the two of you apart while we handle this.”
“No,” I ground out. “Not him. Her. The woman. That’s got to be my true love.”
“What?!” the crown prince yelled incredulously. Around him, his royal soldiers immediately lifted their weapons, on guard, and ready to attack.
“You’re mated to a fucking Graykey?” one asked as another spat on the ground in my direction, as if the very idea put a vile taste in his mouth.
Erick merely hissed out a breath, closed his eyes, and set a hand over his face. “Why the fuck did you just tell me that?” he asked, then added as he gritted out from between clenched teeth, “In front of witnesses?”
“You have to help me,” I begged, stepping toward him.
All his warriors shifted closer, causing me to inch backward away from their prince.
Meanwhile, Erick threw back his head and cracked off a harsh laugh. “Help you?” he repeated. “Have you lost your damn mind, Indy? Even if I was so inclined to assist you right now—which I’m pretty sure I’m not—I couldn’t defy my father to such an extreme. And I can tell you right now, he would never agree to pardon a Graykey. You know more than anyone how dangerous they are.”
“But she’s not. Erick, please God, just listen to me.”
With an aggravated sigh, the prince waved a hand, letting me know he’d at least listen.
“It’s Quilla Graykey. Do you remember the information we have about her?”
“Hell, I never remember the damn details about any Graykey. That’s Olivander’s forte. But the name vaguely rings a bell. Is she the one who traded her magic to the Donnelly bitch who used it to snap Urban’s neck?”
“Yes!” I pointed at him, glad he remembered. “That’s her. She shed her magic in order to avoid succumbing to her family’s bloodlust. She’s not evil. She took drastic measures to keep from going evil.”
The prince hissed out a weary sigh and shook his head. “That’s nice to hear and all, but she could still—”
“I’m not done,” I cut in, slicing him with a pleading expression. “She also had her womb magically closed so she can’t bear children. She can’t fall into the curse’s bloodlust, and she can’t pass it on to a new generation. I promise you, Erick. She is harmless. Completely not dangerous to anyone.”
“Uh, my lord,” the homing human called. “There was more on the back of the message. It says the Graykey female killed one of our guards and one of Teller’s. Then incapacitated another before they finally captured her.”
I hissed out a curse, even as I silently congratulated my girl for putting up a good fight. Erick turned back to me, his eyebrows raised inquisitively.
With a wince, I shrugged. “Like you can blame her for defending herself.”
“You’re not arguing your case well at all.”
“You know what they’ll do to her,” I urged. “Tell me; what would you do to avoid such a capture for your mate?”
“Jesus, Indigo. You really got yourself into a pickle. But this is one area I can’t help you.”
I wanted to keep begging. But he was right. Even if he did want to help me, he couldn’t. Not even he could sway the king’s mind. I’d seen him try before to no success. I guess that meant I was on my own.
Fine. I could follow my mark back to wherever she was and free her by myself. Then we’d ship her off to Earth once and for all.
Taking a step back, I nodded to the prince. “You’re right,” I said. “But thanks anyway. Now, if you’ll excuse me…” I bowed my head in respect and started to turn away, only for the ring of soldiers to march a step forward, closing in on me some more.
Not allowing me to leave.
I glanced toward the prince, my head going quiet with alarm. “Erick?”
He shook his head sadly. “I can’t just let you go, Indigo. My father would have my head on a platter if I did.”
“But why would you detain me?” I demanded. “What have I done wrong?”
“Colluding with a Graykey,” he answered immediately. “You can’t tell me you’re not going to follow your mark straight back to her and try to free her? Because that’s exactly what I’d do for my mate.”
I swallowed thickly, trying to think my way out of this one. But before I could say anything, a wave of pain blasted through my temple.
Going momentarily blind, I groaned through the agony and fell to my knees.
“Indy?” Erick stepped forward in concern.
I clutched my love mark and gritted my teeth. But Jesus. This was bad. A person wasn’t supposed to feel the emotions of their true love from this kind of distance unless it was extreme. Like life-or-death extreme.
Quilla had to be in fatal agony right now.
“What’re they doing to her? Erick, please—”
Another bolt struck me, right in the temple, and then everything went black.
Chapter 33
Quilla
I woke, bound to a stone wall, my arms stretched out on either side of me with my wrists caught in manacles and my ankles shackled together with chains. A cloth gag was tied around my face, biting into the corners of my mouth.
Panic was the first reaction. I struggled, trying to pull my hands free to no success and move my legs, but the chains were far too heavy to allow me more than a few inches of movement at a time.
Damn.
Good and truly stuck, I closed my eyes and rested my head back against the wall behind me, concentrating on breathing in through my nose—because the cloth tasted vile—and calming myself down. Exhaling out around the gag, I cleared my brain and let reasoning thoughts back in.
Think. I just needed to think.
Indigo had told me, all you have to be is smarter than them. You can overcome anyone by outthinking them. So I could do this. I could think of a way out of here. Because size, strength, and speed definitely weren’t going to help right now. Nothing physical would, which meant I’d need to talk my way out, get inside my opponent’s head, and coax them into setting me free. Except I kind of needed my mouth available for that. I began to work my jaw, wincing at the soreness there, which reminded me of how many times my captor had hit me in the face before knocking me unconscious. Bastard. He’d done a superb job of gagging me too. The cloth was wrapped so tight around my head I couldn’t even push it out with my tongue.