I took a shallow breath, my pulse ticking up a notch. I wasn’t waiting until freaking nightfall to talk to this guy. I needed all the expert mage help I could get, and I needed it now. This might be the only chance I had to talk to him, and Nora wasn’t here to stop me. Yeah, I was going for it.
“Hello.” I waved and forced a smile that probably looked more like a grimace.
Not my strongest opening.
“Go away.”
Great. Good start. How could I begin this little convo?
“I said, go away.” His voice sounded like it was coming from a hollowed gourd.
“I heard you the first time, guy. Listen, can we make it past the hellos? My magic is beating me up better than any champion MMA fighter, and Nora said you can put a stop to it.” I probably should’ve been nicer considering the hell he was going through. I’d try again. “Hey, look. Sorry. That was the wrong tone. But honestly, if you can help me, maybe I can help you and your son escape?”
The mage was on his feet before I could pick a shocked swear word.
The Binder was tall and far too thin, his bearded face gaunt in the weak light streaming through the door behind me. It was easy to see he’d once been a handsome man, but now, he was a shell of a person. He wore ragged clothing—a thin, brown shirt and torn trousers—but no shoes. His feet must’ve been freezing.
“Go away.” Raising a palm, he summoned a punch of power, and I was cast from his chamber like yesterday’s trash.
Lucus was there beside me in less than a second, giving me a hand up. He snarled at the Binder, who’d appeared in the doorway, eyes blazing a deep purple. What in the world…
Hekla and Nora came running from opposite directions, both looking wide-eyed and not a little ticked off. Hekla most likely because I’d gotten myself into more deep shit and Nora because I’d woken the Binder against her advice.
I rubbed my magically punched stomach and leaned on Lucus. “I’m on your side,” I said to the Binder, who was glaring at us each in turn.
The Binder’s shirt billowed in the breeze. The fabric hung on him, not stretched by belly or muscle. The man was reed thin. When he watched Lucus adjust his hold on my arm, the Binder sneered, his oddly purple eyes flashing. “I see you are on everyone’s side,” he muttered. Then he whirled and disappeared into his chamber.
Nope. I wasn’t giving up that easy.
Nora, her cheeks flushed and mouth turned down, snagged my sleeve and yanked me from the doorway, a move Lucus and Hekla had been wise enough not to do. “Leave him be!” she shouted into my face.
I ripped her hand off my arm. “Who knows where we’ll be when he’s up tonight?” I snapped. “Arleigh could order us somewhere or off one of us before then. There’s no time. We need to plot.”
Barging back inside, I raised my voice. “Binder, you’re going to teach me how to deal with ley lines and plan for an escape or you’re going to suffer me shouting at you until you do. Your choice, man.”
It sucked being mean to the poor guy, but this was an emergency.
Lucus’s presence at my back gave off a barely subdued churning of power and the faintest hint of his lure. “I know you hate my kind, Binder,” he said, his voice deep and rumbling. “But I want to escape these fae as much as you do. I have no desire to treat mages this way or to remain closeted away from the world.”
The Binder had resumed his slumping position in the dark corner. He made no reply to either of us, but he also hadn’t struck out again. Not yet.
“My brothers and I were cursed and trapped in the Mage Duke’s castle centuries ago. I long for the world outside and know nothing about Arleigh and her devices aside from what your fellow mage Nora had told me.”
“And why did the Mage Duke curse you?”
I traded a hopeful look with Lucus and Hekla, who was peeking around Lucus’s arm. “You know about the Mage Duke? Is he still around causing trouble?”
The Binder sniffed, a halfhearted attempt at a bitter laugh. “No more trouble than Arleigh certainly. Answer my question, fae.”
“I accidentally killed the Mage Duke’s daughter.”
Uh oh. Might not have been the best moment to bring that up, Lucus. “He loved her,” I said hurriedly. “And she forgave him. She spoke to me when I first accessed my magic in full. I saw her. I heard her.”
“You’re under his lure. You say what the fae wishes you to say.”
“Not true.” But how could I prove it? Lucus was tough, right? He could take a little hit. I whirled and punched Lucus square in the stomach.
Hekla and Nora gasped as Lucus bent double, coughing and shaking his head, his lips quirking into a surprised smile. “That’s one way to prove it,” he said breathily.
The Binder stood, and shadows masked his face. “Let’s see if you’re worth the trouble,” he said, shoving past us to walk outside.
Lucus elbowed me gently. “I never thought I’d be happy to have you attack me.”
I shrugged. “Life is rough. Sometimes being an asshole gets results.”
Chapter 10
After the guards returned to tell us we had permission to train outside the fae’s main forests, we downed some water and gobbled up dried venison before following the silent and incredibly fierce-faced Binder out
