She was still veiled when she found Thorn on the roof of a building across the street from Darcy’s shop. Rhi dropped the veil and squatted beside Thorn.
He jerked his head to her and glared. “You’re a little late.”
“It’s called fashionably late,” she retorted and tossed her hair over her shoulder dramatically. Anything to keep him from asking what she had been doing.
Thorn grunted. “Whatever. We could’ve used your help when the Dark attacked.”
“Again? How many this time?”
“I stopped counting at forty-eight.”
Rhi met his dark gaze, her stomach falling to her feet. He wasn’t just angry that she was late. He was pissed because something had occurred. “What happened?”
“Last night the Dark arrived and surrounded the shop and set up along Darcy’s route home so that we couldna get her out.”
Now Rhi felt badly for not ensuring the shop was as protected as Darcy’s flat. “I’ll make the shop safe.”
“We already have,” Thorn said icily.
Rhi looked down at the shop to see the door precariously hanging on one set of hinges and one of the windows busted. “It seems to have worked.”
“Aye. Right up until Warrick left to get Darcy food. The Dark began attacking the shop, and when Warrick returned, they went after him.”
“Where is Warrick?” she asked as worry set in.
“With Darcy.” Thorn kept to the shadows as he rose and jumped from one rooftop to another. “Do you think I’d be the only King here if the Dark took him?”
Rhi followed Thorn, deftly landing on her four-inch heels. She once more sidled next to Thorn and followed his gaze to a small group of Dark who stood staring at Darcy’s shop.
“Was Warrick injured?”
Thorn shrugged. “Nothing a bit of time couldna heal.”
“You’re angry with me.”
He turned the full force of his fury on her then and looked her up and down as if she was the lowest of the low. “I suppose you only come when Rhys calls. It’s a good thing the Dark were no’ interested in kidnapping another King, Rhi, because thirty of them surrounded him, pounding Warrick with their magic.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Doona tell me,” he replied irritably. “You need to say that to Warrick.”
Rhi immediately teleported away.
Thorn rolled his eyes. “Just another reason why the Kings should cut all ties with the Fae. They can no’ be trusted.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN
No matter how Warrick looked at it, there was no other way to ensure that Darcy was kept out of the Dark’s hands than to take her to Dreagan. He wasn’t so sure she was going to agree, however.
It wasn’t just her life on the line either. There was the fact that the Dark were walking the streets of Edinburgh, and the Kings had yet to do anything.
Warrick gently turned Darcy onto her other side and rose. He pulled on his jeans, buttoning them as he walked to the front of the store and looked out the windows as dawn lightened the sky. Two Dark Fae stood on the opposite side of the street staring at him. Their smug smiles made him itch to wipe them from their faces. Forcefully.
If something wasn’t done as retaliation, then the Dark would know they could come into Scotland any time they wanted. It was bad enough they roamed far and wide in Ireland.
Scotland was the land of the Dragon Kings.
Warrick grabbed the broken door and swung it open. He ignored the bite of glass in his bare feet as he stepped across the threshold.
There was a forceful push against his mind as well as Thorn’s voice shouting his name. Warrick opened the link. “What?”
“I know that look. Whatever you have planned, count me in. I’m sick of watching these fuckers think they can do whatever they want.”
Just what Warrick was hoping Thorn would say. “Con wants me to bring Darcy to Dreagan.”
“I know. Con told me to make sure that I do whatever it takes to help you.”
“I willna force her,” Warrick stated.
“Neither will I.”
Warrick didn’t question Thorn. He knew Thorn was a man of his word. “The Dark are no’ supposed to be in Scotland. They’ve had the run of Edinburgh for too long already.”
“It’ll mean leaving Darcy on her own.”
“Our magic will hold.”
“You really want to take that chance?”
Warrick sighed heavily. He didn’t, but it went against everything he was to allow the Dark to get away with such atrocities.
“I didna think so,” Thorn said. “There’s no rain today, War. We can no’ fight them now.”
“They’ll attack again.”
“That’s what I thought all night, but they didna. What are they waiting on?”
That was a good question. War turned his head to the left and spotted another three Dark. When he looked right, he saw five. How many more were at the back and hiding along the street?
The only way to get Darcy out was by flying her to Dreagan, which meant taking a chance of someone in the city seeing him.
“Darcy can no’ stay here another day. We have to do something,” Warrick said.