Captive of Wolves (Bound to the Fae #1) - Eva Chase Page 0,44
my run. August arrives at my study at five minutes before the hour, typically over-eager. Kellan stalks in exactly on time, his way of keeping to the letter of the law while making it clear he won’t give me a shred more respect than he has to. Whitt ambles in a few minutes late with an air of nonchalance as if he hasn’t realized, smelling faintly of absinthe.
I can tell his carelessness is feigned. His shoulders give him away, stiffening just slightly as he crosses the threshold, as if bracing for a scolding. In the hazy afterimages that filter through my dead eye, a ghost of his form bows its head beseechingly—so unlike the man that I know that it’s not a reflection of any past dealings we’ve had.
Perhaps it’s an exaggerated echo of his apology yesterday when I laid into him for sharing his edible entertainment with the girl. Perhaps my eye sees some future in which he’ll have more to apologize for.
That’s a disturbing thought if there ever was one. Criticism tends to roll off Whitt like water off a duck. What could he possibly do that even he would feel he needed to kowtow for forgiveness?
There’s no way of knowing what the fleeting impression means. It’s gone before I can study it, as always. I focus on what I can see in the here and now with my unmarred eye.
“You’ve all had some time to interact with the girl,” I say, sweeping my gaze over my cadre. “Some of you in more… acceptable ways than others. I feel it’s time we go over what we’ve learned and see what picture we can piece together from it.”
Whitt props himself against the side of one of my armchairs. “Well, as we saw yesterday, she responds to cavaral syrup like any regular human would. I haven’t observed anything differently from afar either.”
August glares at the other man before turning to me. “I haven’t seen any signs that there’s anything otherworldly about her either. Other than the effect of her blood under the full moon, I’d say she’s fully human.”
“Perhaps we should test her blood under other circumstances and see what comes of that,” Kellan suggests with a narrow, predatory smile. “There are plenty of other body parts she could spare that we could sample as well.”
August’s muscles bunch as if to spring, but I remind him of his obligations with the clearing of my throat. That doesn’t mean I’m going to let Kellan’s remark go unchecked, though.
The trouble is, he isn’t entirely wrong.
“We will not be mangling the poor thing’s body in any way beyond how Aerik has already harmed her,” I say with the full force of a lord’s command. “If we need to sample her blood, we’ll do it as painlessly as possible.”
August’s head jerks toward me. “You can’t really mean we’re going to—”
I hold up my hand to halt him. “She’s a mystery—a mystery that must be investigated. If her blood can affect us in other ways, and we present her to the arch-lords without determining that, we could undermine our position or even cause some catastrophe down the line. As I said, we won’t hurt her.”
He stirs restlessly but manages not to argue. “You tested those herbs on her skin—did you see anything from that?”
I shake my head. “I haven’t observed anything that would suggest she has other innate powers. If I hadn’t experienced the effect of her blood myself, nothing would indicate to me that she’s anything other than a perfectly ordinary human girl.”
Well, “ordinary” isn’t quite the word for her. To have withstood the abuse Aerik’s cadre subjected her to for all those years and still have fought like she did when I first plucked her from their cage—to be making her tentative steps toward exploring this place rather than staying huddled in her room in a quivering ball—there’s an extraordinary resilience to her soul. It hints at so much more to be discovered. Perhaps that is why her face lingers in my mind.
She certainly can’t be considered a mere cowering victim.
“I think you haven’t pushed her hard enough,” Kellan tosses out. “Dabbing her with herbs in between feasts. And this one, coddling her in the kitchen like she’s a pet puppy.” He jabs his thumb toward August. “There’s no reason for an ‘ordinary’ dung-body to have the power to affect us like that. Either she isn’t all human, or she’s had some sort of magic worked on her.”