I scoot away until my back hits one of the dingy walls of the buildings. “Hook,” I call weakly. The beast has become nothing but rage and teeth. Hook rips one of the man’s wings clean off. “Hook, stop!” I push myself onto my feet.
He attacked me. He tried to kidnap me. And yet, just like with Luke, I can’t bring myself to see him maimed by Hook’s vicious attacks.
“Hook—”
“There!” Rinni’s voice echoes over mine. She’s at the entrance of the alley. Soldiers pour in around her, rushing toward us. The man has been brought to the ground. Hook’s jaw is clamped over his knee and the wolf refuses to let go.
Still, he raises his hands, laces his fingers, and brings them down on Hook’s head.
“Stop it!” I shout. The knights can’t reach us fast enough. He continues beating Hook until the wolf releases him, and even then, the horned man doesn’t relent. “I said stop!”
He reaches for me as I rush to catch his arms. The man draws a blade from his sleeve and yanks me close. The cool silver is underneath my jaw; the wicked, sharp edge bites into my chin.
“Don’t come any closer! Come closer and I’ll kill her.”
“Kill her and you doom us all, you fool.” Eldas’s voice comes from behind us and it is malice incarnate. It slithers across the ground, rising to fill the air. The shadows seem to lengthen. The air drops in temperature.
The horned man goes stiff. He goes to turn but he can’t. His arms unravel around me and I watch as his body slams limply against the wall opposite. Shivering, I look at his bloodied form, contorting and popping.
A hand hooks around my elbow. Eldas pulls me to him. His arm slips around my waist and my side is flush with his.
Protected. Safe. The Elf King looks out at the world with rage and writhing power. Yet I am the antithesis to it all. He clutches me firmly but gently.
“Eldas…” I whisper. “Don’t.” My eyes dart from the man to Hook. The wolf whines softly. Just the sight of my attacker beating him over the head nearly makes me want to take back my words.
“Luella, this is not your world,” he reminds me. I hear between his words, this man is not Luke. “This fae scum sought to harm you, and he will die for it.”
“If you—if you had given us our land…this wouldn’t have happened,” my would-be kidnapper wheezes. “Midscape is dying under elf rule. We won’t stop until we get what is ours and are free to control our own destiny.”
“He should be brought to justice—taken captive for trial.” I look up at Eldas, pleading with the statue of a man that has rage simmering behind his eyes—hotter than any emotion I’ve ever seen from him.
“This is justice. My justice.”
I avert my eyes, pressing my face into Eldas’s chest as a horrible ripping and tearing sound fills my ears. I may have let out a shout. Eldas’s arm tightens further around me and the world goes dark as he pulls me through the Fade with him.
Chapter 20
Eldas delivers me to my room. Wordlessly, he summons a fire from nothing to crackle over the andirons in the hearth. I sit before it on the bare floor. A blanket is placed gently over my trembling shoulders. He murmurs that I will be safe.
He disappears and returns once more, this time with Hook cradled in his arms. Eldas lays the wolf at my feet. Hook whimpers and his usually bright eyes are distant and glassy. But he responds with a soft huff as I reach for his head.
I look back to thank Eldas for bringing me Hook, for ensuring my wolf’s safety, but he is gone. And I am alone with the wretched sound of a body twisting too far echoing in my ears.
Eldas. Civil, brutal, cold, hot, capable of kindness, but all too easily can reach for cruelty. He had called Midscape a harsh place when I overheard him with Rinni. I didn’t fully grasp it then.
This…this isn’t my world, I remind myself time and again. The rules I’ve always known don’t apply here. I was foolish to think those rules were just related to magic and the people who wielded it.
But it’s not just magic. Everything is different.
How could I possibly ever fit in here?
The sun has tracked farther across the sky when the Elf King returns. He doesn’t Fadewalk into my