Captive of Wolves (Bound to the Fae #1) - Eva Chase Page 0,92
spindly pipe she’s holding and lets it stream from her arched nostrils. “Coming back around to poke at us.”
I study her from the corner of my eye. No one else mentioned Tristan lingering, but after the show Sylas made of how important it was to give the intruders a spectacular welcome, it’s no wonder they’d feel hesitant voicing any criticism. They may respect Sylas as their leader, but they have a healthy dose of apprehension mixed in as well, as it should be with any lord.
“All three of them?” I ask.
“Just that woman. Bad enough. Stares at everyone like she’s considering how their heads would look mounted on pikes.” Brigit’s voice starts to slur. “I was just getting up to pick thistledew—you know it’s best if you catch it just before dawn—and spotted her lurking by the outer homes, writing something on paper like she was making a report.”
Perhaps that was exactly what Jax, the female cadre member Tristan brought with him, had been doing. It would have been beneath any lord, let alone one of Tristan’s stature, to admit to an interest in the lives of the faded folk of our pack. Apparently he took one anyway and sent one of his cadre back to indulge it.
They were sly enough to escape the notice of our official sentries. If this ordinary pack woman hadn’t been headed out for some pre-dawn dew-gathering, we would never have known that their concerns weren’t fully resolved.
A prickle condenses in my gut through my light-headedness. What would Tristan have wanted Jax to look for? What did that bastard Kellan say that made them so concerned?
It wouldn’t have mattered a month ago. A month ago we had nothing to hide. Now, we’ve just spent days covering up the presence of a girl who could solve the arch-lords’ greatest problem. The longer Sylas lets this insanity go on, the worse it’ll be for us if some small misstep reveals our secret.
Brigit’s chosen mate weaves through the revelers to her side and plants a sloppy kiss on her cheek. From the dilation of his pupils, he’s indulged at least as much as she has in the recreational substances on offer.
He casts his bleary gaze toward me. “I hope our lord will rest easy now that the visit is over.”
I keep my voice light, even though that remark turns the prickle inside me into a deeper jab. “Lord Sylas wanted the best for our honored guests, but I’m sure he wasn’t overly troubled.”
The man hums. “So it should be. He did seem rather—” He cuts himself off, focusing more clearly on me for an instant and remembering I’m more than a fellow reveler.
Brigit sways in his arms. “Our lord has a lot on his mind these days.”
They drift away, leaving me with a hole in the pit of my stomach that seems to drain away the lingering effects of the berries and the wine I drank before.
The folk of the pack have picked up on Sylas’s distraction. He would never want to present anything to them but total assurance and attentiveness. The problem of the girl is affecting him more than he must realize.
We’re lucky even this many have stuck with us so long—and none of us can pretend it’s entirely out of loyalty. If the risks of staying under Sylas’s rule began to appear greater than the risks of searching out a place in another pack, one better situated as well… We wouldn’t have a mass exodus on our hands, but our numbers would dwindle more than they already have. And the fewer are left, the less secure our position becomes, as well as our chances of bettering it.
I laugh and eat and dance with a couple of the women, but all the while that knowledge stews inside me. When the revel peters out, some of the folk sprawling under the stars to sleep and others ambling away to their homes, I head back to the keep far more sober than anyone—least of all me—should ever have to be.
I need to speak to Sylas. When I make it clear how precarious our position may have gotten, he’ll have to see he can’t keep delaying the inevitable. Lovely as the mite is to look at, damaged though she may be through no fault of her own, at the same time she’s a ticking bomb that could explode at any moment, taking all of us down with her.
I won’t pretend not to see why he might hesitate. That moment