Within moments, the crowd began to disperse. The fairy waved her hands, producing some magical blue chains, which were then looped around Kade and the female’s hands. They were then ushered toward the back exit. I was just figuring out what to do when a heavy arm dropped around my shoulders.
I was already swiveling to fight when a familiar voice halted me. “Hey, pretty lady! Wanna go home with me?” Kian’s strong voice slurred close to my ear and I saw the drunken ogre leering at us with a perverted look. He then chuckled and waved to Kian, before disappearing through the front exit with the crowd.
The moment the last of the crowd deserted the fighting area, Kian dropped his arm and his act. His next words were low and clipped. “I’m glad to see you got out, but you were supposed to meet my wife.” It wasn’t necessarily a scolding tone, but he sounded concerned.
I gave him a look, before saying dryly, “Would you leave your mate? Trust someone you never met to save them?”
His broad features tightened. He looked so much like Kade it was uncanny. I had no doubt that these two were brothers, despite Kian being slightly shorter and less bulky, his hair sandy brown rather than the deep rich dark brown of Kade’s, his eyes a light mossy green.
He just shook his head. “No. I wouldn’t.” With that he charged for the door the fairy had gone through and I was right on his heels.
The fairy was either extremely powerful or far too complacent, because she was leading the two fighters out alone. I could see a cart in the distance, waiting in the shadows, which I suspected was the transport to take the fighters back to their prison. We closed in on them. Kian was almost as fast as his brother and just as stealthy as he stuck to the shadows. I remained right on his tail.
Kade! My mental shout went unheard again.
The fairy’s pace really picked up, and whatever magic she was using hurried Kade and the female fae along as well, but thankfully it looked like we would reach them before they reached the cart.
I called mecca to myself. It filtered up through me, bringing with it some of my newly discovered fae powers. Still wary about what these powers would produce, I hesitated to use them in such close proximity to my mate. Still, we would have to do something quickly. Once they reached the cart, there was no knowing where they were going or what powers the fairy might have to contain them.
Kian gave me the perfect opportunity when he stepped out of the shadows and started running like a lunatic, waving his hands in the air toward the trio. He was acting a combination of drunk and crazy now, which had the fairy pausing. She even took a step away from her prisoners. This gave me the chance to aim my energy at the cuffs binding my mate and the female fae.
Please let this work. Please let this work.
I gently let the mecca trickle free. The energy glided in a beaming arc from me, and instead of being its usual rich purple color, it was now a deep luminescent midnight, as if the purple were laced through with a dark blue, topped off with some shiny sparkles. The fairy, still staring at Kian, didn’t even notice as the cuffs fell away from her prisoners.
Looked like my earlier question was answered – complacent and not powerful.
I ran as fast as I could toward Kade, stumbling over the uneven ground. My eyesight was still far too good for a normal shifter, but I was moving so fast a lot of that was negated. The moment Kade was free, he started moving toward me, as if he had known I was there all along. The female fae didn’t stick around. She gave the retreating bear shifter a wave of thanks, and disappeared into the shadows.
“Ari!” Kade’s voice was rough as he scooped me up into his arms. I clung to him with intensity. The need I had to touch and be close to him after not knowing if he was okay was stronger than anything I’d ever experienced. Our lips touched briefly, just a single silken slide of his mouth, and then he pulled away.
“How did you get free? Do you have a plan to get out of here?” His hands still cupped my face and were partly tangled in my hair. “Who helped you?”
I swallowed hard, the words I wanted to say stuck in my throat. We had no time, the fairy would be back in seconds; Kade’s brother could only do so much to keep her distracted.
“Kade, your brother is not dead.” Kade went rigid as swirling fire burned in his copper eyes. I quickly added, “He helped me, and he’s arranged a way out of the Winter Court for us. He’s alive.”
Kian let out a bellowing roar, and both Kade and I swung our gazes to find him curled over, batting his hands in the air, trying to ward off a fairy attack. Kade, who hadn’t appeared to be breathing until this point, threw me over his shoulder in one swift movement and charged toward his brother.
Now, I hated being carried. Always had, even as a child. But I understood that in this moment Kade’s bear was in charge, not him. He wanted to get to his brother, his newly rediscovered brother, but he would not leave me for another second. Bonded mateship was not to be messed around with, and I remembered that feeling when I couldn’t talk to Kade, not knowing if he was okay. So I was not at all surprised that he was keeping me close.
Still…
“Let me down,” I said, my voice just above normal decibel level. “I can walk!”
Ignoring me, Kade powered toward Kian. My mate wasn’t even hearing me, entirely focused on saving his brother. He would never leave him behind in the Winter Court, not after all of these years wondering what had happened to him.
I wasn’t too keen on it either. The winter queen would somehow find out he helped us and she would kill him and his family without even a second thought. I could not have their deaths on my conscience.
Kian noticed us coming to him, and with one final slap at the fairy he knocked her down to the ground, unconscious. He then turned and dashed in our direction. I couldn’t see much from my position slung across my mate’s shoulder, but turning to a noise behind us, there were many more large shadows coming at us from behind the cart.
Guard patrol.
“We need to get out of here now,” I said.
Kade, who had ground to a halt before his brother, appeared to be stuck in some sort of shocked state. He was just standing there, staring at Kian, his hands tightly clenched around my thighs. I was relieved when he finally dropped me gently to my feet, before he leapt forward to pull Kian into a hug, his large hand coming up to grasp the back of Kian’s neck.
“Brother…” I wasn’t sure which one of them said it, full of so much pain and love. Maybe both of them.
Pulling back, Kian looked behind us and jerked his head to a nearby alley. “We need to get out of here.”
Kade was back in control, for the most part. He reached out to grab my hand and then we were off running, following Kian through the alley, our legs pumping hard, all of us taking turns to glance back at our pursuers, making sure we were keeping a decent distance between us.