“If that’s what you want. Let me explain the rules.” Tane strolled casually forward, touching the tip of his stolen sword to the bastard’s throat. “I’m going to ask you a number of questions. If you refuse to answer or try to lie I will carve a strip of flesh from your body. We’ll continue until I have the answers I want or you run out of flesh.”
The bronze gaze shifted to Jaelyn who had closed the door and strolled to stand at Tane’s side.
“If we’re going to play rough I’d rather have the female. No offense, but she’s more to my taste.”
“You’d never survive me.” She leaned down to grab his chin, only to release it with a hiss, shaking her hand as if she’d been scalded. “Shit.”
Tane frowned. “What’s wrong?”
With a scowl at the Sylvermyst who’d lost his smirk, Jaelyn backed away until she was leaning against the door.
“Nothing.”
Tane took a step toward her, sensing something important had just happened. “Hunter …”
“Get on with your interrogation,” Jaelyn snapped. “I expect you to be gone at nightfall.”
“Is she always so charming?” Ariyal taunted, although Tane didn’t miss the edge in his voice. Whatever had occurred between the two of them had been as unwelcome to the Sylvermyst as to Jaelyn.
Turning back to the prisoner, Tane sliced two cuts into the fey’s shoulder and peeled off a small piece of flesh.
“You forgot the rules,” he said.
With a foreign curse, Ariyal leaned away from the hovering sword.
Tane watched in fascination as the blood on the blade sizzled and then melted into steel, as if the sword was absorbing power from the blood.
Interesting.
“Ask what you want,” Ariyal gritted. “How did you avoid being banished with the other Sylvermyst?”
His jaw clenched, but he grudgingly answered. “Our Prince bartered with Morgana le Fay to remain hidden in her sanctuary.”
Hell. Talk about a deal with the devil.
Tane jerked back in shock. “Avalon?”
Ariyal shrugged. “What better place? Nothing could penetrate the shroud of magic.”
Tane could think of a shitload of better places.
Beginning with the fiery pits of hell.
Morgana le Fay was a cruel megalomaniac who had terrorized the fey, and every other demon too weak to withstand her magic, until her seer had predicted that she would be condemned to hell by a descendent of her brother, Arthur.
She’d predictably retreated to her private island and shrouded it in a thick layer of magic that was impossible to penetrate, although she occasionally returned to the world in the hopes of killing off Arthur’s descendents.
A poor choice in the end.
“What did you barter?” he asked.
Ariyal smirked, but Tane sensed the surge in his pulse and the sudden sweating of his palms. Whatever happened on Avalon hadn’t been good.
“We were slaves in her harem.” He ground his teeth so hard it was a wonder they didn’t shatter. “Sex slaves.”
Tane grimaced. He wouldn’t wish that on his worst enemy.
“From what I’ve heard of Morgana I’m surprised you survived.” “Many didn’t.”
“Then you were fortunate that the vampires managed to destroy her.”
The Sylvermyst snorted, but the horror faded from his eyes as he reacted to Tane’s deliberate taunt.
“She was defeated by the descendent of King Arthur.”
“Anna is the mate of a vampire, and it was only with the assistance of my brothers that she survived to battle Morgana le Fey,” Tane said with cool logic. “It would seem you are in our debt.”
“What makes you think I wanted her dead?”
“A lie,” Jaelyn said from the door, her tone stripped of emotions.
Tane smiled. He’d forgotten a hunter’s skill often included being able to sense a lie. “You didn’t ask me a direct question,” Ariyal said, refusing to glance in her direction. “I have broken no rules of the game.”
Yep. Definitely something going on there.
But none of his concern.
Hallelujah.
“What is your interest in the child?” he instead demanded.
“We were hired by the vampire and her wizard to find the child.”
Tane glanced toward Jaelyn. She nodded. “He speaks the truth, but not the full truth.” “You’re a mercenary?”
Ariyal paused, choosing his words with care. “I’m willing to sell our services with the proper incentive.”
“And what incentive did Marika offer you?”
“The opportunity to locate the supposed child of the Dark Lord.”
“Supposed?” Tane latched onto the word, certain that it had been a slip. “Is there some question to the child’s identity?”
The Sylvermyst quickly recovered. “Only a fool accepts rumors and obscured folktale as truth.”
Tane shifted with impatience. Ariyal was too cunning. He answered the question with just enough truth to avoid a painful mutilation, but without telling Tane a damned thing.
“You hope to return the Dark Lord to the world?” he pressed.
“The Sylvermyst have worshipped him before vampires ever crawled from their caves.” Another evasion.
But if he didn’t want to return the Dark Lord, then why was he searching for the baby? It made no sense.
“How does Marika intend to use the child to return the bastard?”
Ariyal shrugged. “She claims the mage has a spell that will resurrect his essence within the child.”
With a growl, Tane shoved the sword back against the fey’s neck, frustration boiling through him.
How the hell could he keep Laylah safe if he was stumbling around blind?
“What are you really up to, Ariyal?”
The Sylvermyst met his blazing gaze without fear. “I’ve answered your questions.”
Deciding that he was going to have to beat the answers out of the bastard, Tane felt a sharp pang of fear slice through him.
He stepped backward, momentarily confused.
Then, his heart slammed against his chest as he realized he was feeling Laylah’s fear, not his own.
“Damn. Laylah needs me.” He was across the cell and pulling open the door just as Jaelyn scrambled out of his path. “Don’t kill him yet, I’m not finished with him.”
“No guarantees,” he heard her mutter before he was charging back to Laylah’s side.
Chapter 18