But I knew.
And he knew I knew. That was very evident by the amused glitter in his bright eyes. "Ilianna."
My reaction was instant. Without thought. In one smooth movement, I drew Amaya free, swept her across the ropes binding my ankles, then lunged at him. But he was even faster than me. He jumped back and fired the gun. The shot tore through my hand, blowing apart two fingers before it hit Amaya's hilt and ricocheted into the nearby wall. Pain and blood surged, but all I felt was anger. My anger, Amaya's anger, and the utter need to just rid the world of the man who might well have destroyed my best friend. I attacked him, Amaya raised high above my head and screaming for blood.
Just for a moment, surprise flitted across his features; then he retreated from my onslaught and held up the gun.
"Know that I will shoot you again if I need to," he said. "And know, too, that if I die, so will Ilianna."
That stopped me. Even Amaya muted her screams. "What do you mean?"
"Just that." He paused, but the tension in his body suggested he was very much ready to react the minute I so much as twitched. "If I do not contact the people holding your friend every hour, they will kill her."
"You bastard."
Amusement flitted across his features. "All Aedh are bastards, dear Risa, because we seed and leave. We are not prey to the emotions and needs that wreck so many human lives."
And were poorer for it. "But to rape Ilianna—"
"There was no rape," he cut in, sounding oddly annoyed. "An Aedh's kiss always ensures that their chosen breeder is more than willing."
"Ilianna is gay. You would have had to force a kiss, if nothing else."
Though anger kept the worst of the pain at bay, I was bleeding all over the place and would be in very serious trouble if I didn't do something about it soon. Yet I remained still. To do anything else would not have been wise right now.
"Well, yes, but we both know I was not her first male lover."
No, because Ilianna had experimented when she was young. After the attack on her sister had left her incapable of conceiving, her parents' desire for grandchildren had fallen solely onto Ilianna's shoulders. The weight of their expectations had all but forced her to least try to have a relationship with a male. But she could no more change her orientation than the moon could rise during the day.