38. Sage

CHAPTER 38

Sage

I forced myself to sit up, every muscle aching as much as when I’d collapsed on my bed. Even my cheek still stung, and I suspected if I looked in a mirror, the bruise Ambrose had given me would be fresh and red even though I was in my spirit form.

I didn’t know why I felt all my pain and exhaustion now when I hadn’t before. Perhaps I’d finally reached my limit, and the strain of the rotation had sunk in deep enough to affect my spirit. I could only hope that meant I wouldn’t be here long and would actually get a full night’s sleep.

Thankfully, no one waited for me on the bench on the grass across the shallow pool and there was no one on the lawn or the paths nearby.

With a groan, I stood and, half walking half staggering, hobbled away from the courtyard before someone noticed me.

I didn’t want to spend any more time than necessary wandering the Garden, so I headed straight to the nook. Fantasy Man hadn’t shown up for days, and even if he did, I wouldn’t have said no to some gentle, relaxed sex.

Although he’d probably take one look at me and know how sore and tired and angry and — if I was being honest with myself — how scared I was and just offer to hold me.

Which I wouldn’t say no to, either.

The idea of his strong arms around me and the sense of safety I always felt when I was with him tightened my throat.

I’d been trying to be strong for days— years if I counted the time after my mother died and Edred took control of my life. Add on the stress of hiding my identity from everyone in the Black Tower, the physical rigors of Guardsman training, and the attacks from the other Guardsmen and I knew it was just a matter of time before I broke.

Perhaps letting go and crying in Fantasy Man’s arms would help. At least here I was a woman and didn’t have to be strong all the time. With luck, Fantasy Man wouldn’t ask for details and I wouldn’t have to come up with a lie.

Sure, we had a relationship, but it wasn’t a close one. We hadn’t even told each other our names and I didn’t know what he looked like. We had sex and we flirted. That was all.

My throat tightened and tears burned my eyes at that thought.

Which was ridiculous. I didn’t know him so I couldn’t possibly care for him. I was just lonely and afraid, and he was the only one in my new crazy life who I felt I could trust.

Of course, maybe he was just using me or lying and manipulating me and would turn on me the minute he thought he’d won my trust.

And now I was letting my fear and exhaustion twist my thoughts. He might be lying to me, but I was definitely lying to him and using him for sex and comfort as well.

Just like the previous nights, Fantasy Man wasn’t waiting for me in the grove. My throat tightened even more and my eyes burned with tears that I knew were irrational.

I hadn’t expected him to be there so I shouldn’t have been so disappointed.

With a pathetic half moan half sob, I sagged onto the bench, eased my aching body against the sloping arm facing the entrance, and closed my eyes.

Four more rotations. Four more rotations.

That was all I had to last .

Something crunched by the entrance and my pulse fluttered with hope.

Fantasy Man had come.

Except when I sat up and looked, it wasn’t my Fantasy Man. It was Wells and Crane and my flutter of hope turned into gut-twisting worry.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I said. “Rider will be here in a moment.”

It had been a few days since I’d lied and said Rider was courting me, and I hadn’t thought Wells and Crane were dumb or forgetful, but maybe I’d been mistaken.

Wells’s lips curled back in a predatory smile that turn the gut-twisting worry in my stomach to ice and made my pulse pick up.

“Rider isn’t coming,” he purred, his hungry eyes sliding over my body and making me feel naked even though I was fully dressed.

“Of course he is,” I insisted, fighting the urge to cover myself with my arms. I couldn’t show any fear — or any more fear than I already was. That would only satisfy a man like Wells and I didn’t want him satisfied. I wanted him to go away.

“We know he’s not,” Crane shot back, taking a step closer. “We’ve been watching you for days now. You always come here and no one else joins you.”

“Oh, and I talked with Rider.” Wells’s grin turned smug as he sauntered to the silver fence separating the nook from the bedroom where I’d watched Lark and her mates make love.

He trailed his fingers over the vines wrapped around the metal, brushing the pink and white flowers and making their light tremble. “He seemed pretty upset that you lied about him courting you.”

Of course he was, because he wasn’t the man he pretended to be when he was in the Garden.

That thought reignited my anger at him and Talon and Quill… and myself.

I was stupid for thinking I could trust them, for believing I’d be safe with them either here or in the Gray, and now Wells and Crane were leering at me, thinking because Rider didn’t have a claim to me — as if I was still property even though they all thought I was fae — that I was now theirs.

Rider had said I should put these boys in their place and Ember, the fae woman who’d commanded the entire courtyard like a goddess, wouldn’t have stood for Wells and Crane looking at her like she was their next meal.

That, and I was sore and tired and wanted to break Ambrose’s nose again for making me feel like this. Once hadn’t been nearly enough.

“Go away,” I said, giving my first ever order to a man, my stomach bottoming out with my boldness. “I’m not interested.”

The urge to flee twisted inside me and I stood. Except to leave, I had to pass Crane, and Mikel and his friends had already proven I didn’t stand a chance against a human, let alone a larger fae.

“We don’t care if you’re interested,” Wells said. “You’re going to be our mate.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” I said, straightening and trying to look commanding like Ember had. Focus on your anger not your fear.

But Crane leaped forward, the movement sudden and quick, and my fear spiked.

I jerked back, narrowly avoiding his hands, the lessons Mikel and the others had taught me actually coming in handy. But I couldn’t keep my balance with my weakened muscles. My heel caught on the foot of the bench and I toppled backward.

Crane grabbed my arm before I could fall and wrenched me forward. He captured me with one hand pressing me against his chest and the other holding my arm up.

Wells snapped an intricately wrought silver bracelet around my wrist, and white-hot agony exploded inside me. It shot out from my heart to the tips of my fingers and toes and over my scalp in a quick violent burst before extinguishing, leaving me shuddering and gasping.

“What did you do?”

“Ensured that you can’t send your spirit back to your body,” Wells said.

“What?” I heaved against Crane’s grip, but an exhaustion greater than I’d ever experience before swelled over me and I sagged against him.

“You’re here until we complete the spell that will initiate the mating bonds with us,” he said as he scooped me up into his arms, the exhaustion stuttering for a moment before overwhelming me again.

“You’re making me tired,” I said, my words slurred.

“Yes,” Crane said as a terrible hunger filled his yellow eyes. “And I’m going to make you feel a lot more once you’re our mate.”

To be continued…

Sage’s story continues with

Whispers Within the Midnight Garden.

Releasing April 2, 2024

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