Caged Source

Chapter Two

Tarron

I slammed my hand on my wood table, causing a crack to appear that ran from top to bottom. I hugged at it, irritated I would need to replace it.

"How can one woman hold so much sway over a King's court?" I retort, lip curling into a hateful sneer at the thought of my aunt by marriage. "Not even a woman the King is fucking, if our spies are to be believed! Why does she have so much sway when it comes to Rimille?"

Kieran shrugged, playing with his flame. He flicked his fingers in a repetitive motion and I watched as the fire twirled between his fingers, up his wrist, and then back down to be extinguished and to start over. He had begun the exercise after one of his last fights, when he couldn't get his magic to start after letting go of his fire on too many times. His magic was usually as unpredictable as him - a fact he hated. The man wanted control of his magic and he would practice relentlessly until he had it.

"If they will not give her to us until they have decided whether she will live or die, and they will not decide for a few days yet if she will live or die, should we just not wait? Your impatience is what will kill us one day, Tarron."

Atlas guffawed from where he was cleaning his sword, likely at the irony that Kieran was saying someone else's temper would kill them. They all knew Kieran had the worst temper of the bunch, and they all had scars from more than one fight to prove it.

I growled. "And allow her to be locked up for even a few more days? That does not even address the problem of if they decide to kill her!"

"As heartless as it is to say, a few days will not make a difference to a fae who has been in that cage for nearly eight years. The consequences we will face if we charge in recklessly after being told we cannot have her are too high. We can find another solution."

Reaching for the curse-threaded dagger I kept in my belt, I hurled it at Kieran. He barely ducked in time, the dagger glowing green and sizzling the wood of my office wall where it had landed. The tree my office was located in would not be happy I had put a cursed dagger in it.

"Even if we did not have a special need for her, I would still be duty bound to free her. You all know this, and have stood by my side all these years knowing this was coming. Will you truly leave me now?"

Standing, Atlas returned his sword to the sheath across his back and crossed his bare, muscle and scar laden arms. "What a ridiculous question. We will not abandon you, and we will not abandon her. All Kieran is saying is that today is not the day to make a move. We wait."

With a furious glance to my left, I watched as Hyren nodded his agreement with the other two, sealing the vote. While I might be a Duke, these three were my brothers in all but blood, and I would back down if they all agreed against me.

"Fine," I finally ground out, my teeth clashed together. "We will wait until her 21st birthday when the King of Lights decides if she lives or not. After that, I do not care what the decision is, or if he agrees to let us have her afterwards or not. She will come back with us that day, even if I have to steal her myself and beg our King for forgiveness."

Kieran finally put his fire out, grinning madly at me. "That is a plan I can get behind, brother."

• • •

Three days later, the four of us were in our best court finery, our weapons hidden or in our mana pocket realms. Weapons were strictly forbidden in the King of Light's Court, though I had a tendency to not care about other Courts rules.

Now that I thought about it, I had little care for my own Courts rules.

Atlas stood to my left, a head taller than me and everyone else in the room. Even for a fae, he was large, and with his feet spread and arms crossed in a warriors waiting stance, he was intimidatingly large.