Healer

Chapter 37

Rhysand and Azriel stood side by side and watched the tent burn from yards away. They had cleared the surrounding tents quietly and quickly prior to approaching. Cassian had said there were two others waiting near the edge of camp. Backup. He took them out easily and found no sign of any other issues.

Azriel had noticed the accelerant before they even entered the tent, he had timed it with Rhysand and they winnowed out with nothing but the smell of smoke following them. A suicide soldier, the third they had encountered. Truly brutish warfare.

Rhysand reached down the bond to his mate to fill her in, to make sure they were okay. But she didn't respond. His hand went to his chest where he noticed that the line felt weak and he flexed his hand anxiously.

Azriel stepped in front of him. "What is it?"

Rhysand called and called to silence even as he softly answered his brother. "Feyre."

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"It wasn't that hard to get in, really." A voice rang out across the hewn room they stood in. A sinister answer to Talia's question.

Feyre stepped carefully in front of the healer and backed her up into the shadows. Talia was so shocked to hear another being in their space that it took her a moment to recognize the voice. But she knew it.

"I finally found you, healer. And it was far too easy."

The trap was here. She had thought she was sending her mate and her high lord into her trap, but the trap was here. The tent had been far too obvious a ploy. They should have known.

"How did you find us?" Feyre said, her voice filled with power. Flames wreathed her hands, a gift from the high lord of autumn.

"I've been tracking her, of course." He pointed past the high lady to where Talia stood.

Talia's heart felt like it might have stopped. What could he mean? She hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary but....Eris in the middle, the hexed soldiers in the caves, the Hybern soldiers in spring court. The distracting attack tonight. They had found her over and over. The king didn't approach them. Instead, he leaned against the opposite wall. "When your males get here to rescue you, I'll have so much power to choose from. Power, Talia, isn't that what it's all about?"

He made her name sound like poison. Feyre threw up her thickest walls. Rhysand didn't know where they had gone, and he wouldn't find them.

The king continued. "This....sharing. This....binding. Do you know how powerful you would be if you took for once?"

"We're leaving." Talia forced herself not to react as she heard Feyre's voice in her mind.

"He'll follow." Talia somehow got her mind to form words. She felt like she was choking. Feyre didn't back down. "Leave me."

Feyre didn't answer, she reached behind her and took Talia's arm. They appeared on some mountainside where the wind immediately stole Talia's voice. Feyre knew they didn't have long but she needed Rhysand's help to ward the healer. She let her walls down and called back.

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Fear burned in the back of Azriel's throat as he waited for Rhysand to say something else. It was quickly and easily replaced by anger as he realized this was an elaborate ruse. And wherever the females had gone, that was likely the trap.

"Rhys." He said, willing his brother to give him more.

Rhysand shook his head, focused. "She's blocked me. I don't know where they went."