CAGED (#3, of Crows and Thorns)

Chapter 13

What we wanted had been passed from Great House to Great House, when the reigning family had been either usurped or annihilated at the will of the Horned Gods. It was given over to be kept safe, but it was also a symbol of the family's ruling authority over all the other Houses—Brangwene's Hjarte.

And we desperately needed it. Enough to steal away Byron's beloved daughter and threaten him with her welfare.

Conflict rippled in Byron's gaze before it shuttered away and those blue eyes steeled themselves against me.

My fingers gripped the edge of my armchair, fingernails digging into its curving sides, carving moon-crescent grooves into the wood. Fucking hells-gate, Byron was going to be hard to break.

Silence once more descended the room while I internally fumed, recalculating what I could do to shatter the man. It wasn't just his youngest daughter at risk. He had a wife and two other daughters, an entire House to safeguard.

We waited for Sirro to address the reason why he'd called our House here, and still nothing from the Horned God. My father shifted forward, the fabric of his black Armani suit whispering with the movement. His thick brows drew over deep violet eyes surrounded by golden skin and feathered with fine lines. "Master Sirro, Jett—"

Sirro snapped up a hand, cutting my father off.

We waited for him to speak. When the silence dragged on, my father and I shared a swift anxious look. Jett was getting worse with every passing minute. He was so pale, almost white, and his wet, rasping breaths were the only noise in the solar.

Sirro arched a brow and tapped his forefinger against the wooden armrest in a bored beat. "Just a moment, Varen, I'm waiting for someone..." His eyes lit up, a smile curving his lips, and he straightened his posture just before the sound of hurried footsteps and a reedy voice barking at Sarnia could be heard coming from the hallway outside.

Sirro's smile became half-feral, and his gaze sharpened. "Ah, here he is," he purred, but the raw edge of his tone was savage, like a ferocious mountain lion bearing down on a fleeing doe.

The solar door swung open and Aldert Pelan barged in with a harried Sarnia behind him. Beyond the doorway, a spider scuttled into view. Its hairy legs clacked against the boned ceiling, and its chittering was a creepy trill accompanying the noise of snapping fangs and guttural snarling coming from the pack of wraith-wolves, dancing at the threshold of the solar. The wolves' misty bodies rippled in and out of existence as they awaited Sarnia's order to attack.

Aldert Fucking Pelan.

The air got sucked out of my chest. The room felt too small, too enclosed, with his vile presence in it. Danne and his brothers had all learned their cruelty from this man. Danne had tried to force himself on my younger sister Ferne...and Nelle.

A fierce need to end the man tore through my entire being and set my teeth grinding, filling my ears with a chalky, grating sound. I gripped the arms of my chair to stop myself from lunging at the smaller man. Compressed wood creaked beneath my ferocious grip.