CHAPTER 17

The Shadow Prince wanted her to eat, and she wouldn't be doing anything that asshole wanted. Maybe he wouldn't be such a dick if he found out she belonged to the Benevolence house. She glanced over her prison, tilting her head at the two doors next to each other. One led to the hall, and the other was closed. There was a third door on the same wall at the opposite end of the room and a fourth to her left.

Faye went to the closed door near the hall first. Maybe it was a coat closet. Faye turned the handle, opening it.

She immediately recognized the large four post bed draped in dark silk. Her cheeks flamed, and she closed the door, resting her forehead on it. Memories flooded her mind. She'd slept in that bed, curled in his arms. Looking forward to the dreams that were now a walking nightmare.

She tightened her grip on the handle until her knuckles turned white. Dragging her lip through her teeth, she eased the door open again, scrutinizing his space and searching for anything she could exploit.

His furniture was sparse compared to the other rooms. The desk under the windows looked expensive, but the designs carved into it were far simpler. Leather bound books and loose papers topped it. There was nothing else. No personal effects, no art, no portraits. Even the scones holding the licks of hellfire illuminating his room were the same design found in every other part of his… castle?

Sparrow would say you're boring,she thought, closing the door.

Two doors left. Faye chose the closer of the two. She turned the handle and peeked in. It opened into a large walk-in closet. It was empty but free of dust. A small black crystal chandelier hung at its center, alone. Faye shook her head, closing the door.

Only a dark-blood would need a chandelier for their closet.

She approached the last door across the room and found a huge bathroom suite. A large soaking tub made of what looked like white marble with glittering silver licks through it rested lengthwise against the wall, facing an enclosed shower that took up the width of the room.

Faye stepped through the space, brushing her fingers across the lip of the tub. She turned to the counters, looking for bathing oils. Wanting something strong to offend the fang face's heightened senses.

Every drawer was bare. No soaps, not even a toothbrush. Faye supposed she should be grateful for the folded black towels tucked into the floor to ceiling built in cabinets.

Faye jumped at two sharp knocks made in quick succession. She poked her head back into her room and found the Shadow Prince strolling in like he owned the place. He peered over the table and glanced her way. "You have not eaten."

Faye kept her distance, "I'm not hungry."

"You have not eaten in a day. Is the meal not to your liking?"

Faye glanced at the food and back at him, weighing her options. Sadi breezed into the room, saving her from having to respond. Faye's eyes widened at the loose pages the Familiar held. She started toward her in rushed steps, and the pages promptly vanished.

Faye stopped, leaning back on her heels. She'd been too eager, showing her hand. A mistake she wouldn't make again. Both she and Sadi looked to Rune and the corner of his mouth lifted. "I will supply you with the stationary of your choosing after you have eaten."

"What do you want?

"

"For you to nourish yourself."

Faye shifted on her feet. "I'm sorry if I was poaching you. Don't you think this is a little drastic?"

He scowled at her. "Admitting to your games?"

"Is this a punishment?" When he didn't answer, Faye clenched her teeth and sat on the edge of her bed. She gazed at the twilight sky through the window, determined to ignore him.

Dishes clattered, and Faye dug her nails into her palm, hidden beneath the sleeve of her robe. A bowl of soup entered her line of vision. Faye glanced up at Sadi. "Eat this, and I'll take the letter to your sister."

Faye leaned to the side, peering around Sadi at Rune. "What do you want?"

"Eat."

"You have me in a nice room, trying to get me to eat. Why am I here?"

"I need you for a task."

Darkness, could this guy be any more vague. "What task do you need me for?"

"I need to look into your mind," Rune answered simply.

Faye glanced between Sadi and Rune. "What are you looking for?" Now Rune glanced at Sadi. "You don't get challenged much, do you?"

He took a slow breath staring at her. "It would seem you are making up for my many years."

"Is this part of your touch invitation? Do you need me to cooperate?"

Rune canted his head at her. "Are you requesting I tear through your mind until I find what I need? Your suggestion is a painful alternative I can arrange."

Faye looked him up and down. "You're a dark-blood. I'm betting if you could, you would have done whatever you're planning by now. So, I think you need me more than I need you."

The two dark-bloods exchanged a glance, and Faye got the feeling they were speaking telepathically, which solidified her assumption. They wanted something from her and needed it badly. "Just tell me what you're looking for."

Rune glared at her, and said, "It does not concern you."

Faye waved at her surroundings. "You holding me here begs otherwise." She lifted her chin and walked to the other end of the room to sit on the far window ledge and stare off into the crystalline landscape.

Rune took the bowl of soup from Sadi and placed it back on the table. "Leave her. She will eat when she becomes hungry enough."

Faye drew her feet up on the ledge when they left and leaned on the window frame.

No, I won't.

Rune scanned the tomes that lined the bookcases in his study. His clarity left him when he stood in her presence. He wanted her close to safeguard her and placed her in the only other room in his wing. Rune reminded himself it mattered not. She was unfamiliar with the court and wouldn't understand the significance. He would be rid of her in a few days at most.

Rune selected the volumes he needed and sat behind his desk. The pages creaked as he opened the first tome. Delicately tracing his fingertips over the page as he read.

Sadi appeared beside him, leaned back, and ran a long red nail over the book spines stacked beside him. "What are you doing?"

"Reading."

She tugged on the length of his hair. When he glanced up at her unamused, she said, "With her."

"Containing my liability until I can free myself." Rune turned the pages of a journal containing the races his father destroyed.

His father hunted each race that sided against him during the Great War to extinction. But Julian lacked focus. Discipline. He slaughtered a great many of them. But a few surfaced now and again through the ages.

"Do you think she's a descendant?"

Such a simple word fired horrific memories through him, a filth that coated his mind.

"We purged Sadira's court," Sadi laid her hand over his wrist. "She's no longer a threat."

Sadira hailed from a race Julian massacred. She'd captured him thinking he was his father and kept him to suffer for his father's deeds. Centuries separated him from his time in her court, allowing him to push the memories away.

Rune took Sadi's hand, returning it to her. "I am well. I am reviewing the shifting races my father thought to exterminate. Her wings and claws are not a characteristic of any living race. To be reborn as you say she is, she would need to be linked by blood. Likely the same bloodline of the coward behind this spell."

"Like calls to like."

He nodded absently. "It troubles me that she was in Anaria." It was a brilliant hiding place. "If I invested this much time into a weapon, I would keep it near. Protect it." Rune glanced toward her room again. "Perhaps fate smiled on me, and it takes time for the spell to bind. I found her before her keeper." Or the Familiar sister is her guard. It mattered not. She was in his possession now. They would need to come through him to wield her against him.

"You're treating her badly."

Rune raised an eyebrow. "I am holding her as I would anyone who posed a danger to my court."

Sadi folded her arms. "She's unhappy."

Rune exhaled before saying, "Willfully so."

Sadi sat on his desk and closed his tome. "What if she's yours?"

"She is not."

"My father's Sight is never wrong."

Rune opened the heavy leather-bound book once more, giving Sadi a pointed stare. She only gazed at him, her midnight eyes pleading. Believing he proceeded in error. He placed his hand over hers, giving her a reassuring squeeze. "I'm not Familiar. Shadowmen were not created with mates. Neither were Pure Bloods. Magic binds me to her. Her mortality to me."

Sadi looked away, starting over his realm. Hell's ever-twilight sky reflected in her gaze. "She thinks she's related to me."

"Did you tell her?"

Sadi shook her head. "You should hire a staff."

Rune thinned his lips. "The Keep is empty. I do not require staff."

"Your captive doesn't drink blood. She will need meals. Maybe get her some clothes."

Rune leaned back in his chair and exhaled.

"She's in a torn bathrobe."

"Her torn bathrobe was caused by her sprouting wings." But perhaps Sadi had a point. She was a dark-blood and deserved to be treated as such.

"I'll go to the Hall of Empty Eyes after she's settled. Having a double doesn't sit well with me." Sadi stood and dragged her fingers through his hair, pulling the long white-blonde strands through her grasp.

Darkness, why was he surrounded by women that frayed his temper. Rune glanced up at her. She gave him a coy smile. "We need her cooperation to get past her shield so maybe play nice?"

Chapter fourteen

Faye sat at the window ledge until her leg went numb. She gingerly rose taking small steps as pins and needles climbed up her thigh. She moved to the table, glancing over the food that somehow stayed hot. Wasteful dark-bloods and their magic. This could have fed half her village. Faye poured a glass of water and drank deeply, gazing out of her cage.

She'd waited for the sun to set. For some sense of time to pass. The sky remained unmoved, caught forever in twilight. Faye set her glass down and ran her fingers through her hair. It had dried into an unruly mess after she slept on it wet.

She turned to peer down the long hall. The end of it opened into a larger room with polished black floors. Faye was tempted to close her door and lock it. She didn't bother since the Shadow Prince could just poof into places out of thin air.

Faye shrugged out of her robe and set it over the foot of her bed. She glanced down at her leather bikini. He couldn't have chosen to kidnap her on another day. No, she was trapped in Hell dressed in little more than underwear.

She pulled the blankets and got into bed, clutching a pillow to her side. A hot bath sounded wonderful, but the Shadow Prince might interrupt her. She could soak in her bathing suit and not be exposed. Faye kicked around the idea snuggling further into the bedding.

The sharp sound of metal clanging on metal startled her. Faye sat up, holding the blankets over her front, glancing over the room. She studied the space. Nothing was amiss.

The faint rhythmic sound continued, and Faye pulled herself out of bed and dragged her robe back on. She followed the sound to the chandelier closet. Her hand closed over the handle as she slowly pulled it open.

Clothing swung from their hangers as though someone roughly set them. Shirts, pants, and jackets now filled the closet. Faye flipped through the clothing and pulled out something leather with long ribbons hanging from it. "Is this a fucking corset?" Faye said, stuffing it back in place. What's this guy's deal? He kidnapped her and bought her clothes to make up for it?

Faye excited and movement caught her eye. The arrogant jackass was walking toward her room. She turned her back to him, taking a seat in her window ledge, hoping he was going to his room and not planning to bother her further.