The Emerald Staff (18 page)

Faen took a deep breath, considering what
Etyran was planning.

“If you stand guard outside while we go in,
we may need a distraction when we come back.”

“I do not like this.” Faen said his voice
tight, his jaw set.

“How will you make me invisible?” Faedra
asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

“You will have to be very close to me. I
think if you stand in front of me while I wrap my arms and my coat
around you, and you keep your steps inside mine, I can bend the
light around us both.”

Faedra felt Faen’s hand stiffen underneath
hers and she turned to see him shifting uncomfortably in his chair.
His steely gaze still trained on the man sitting opposite them.

Faedra had to admit she wasn’t thrilled about
having to be in such close proximity to the man who just a short
while ago had kissed her like no other before him.

When Faen kissed her, it was gentle and
loving but Etyran kissed her with a passion that nearly burned her
to the core, even if she had been scared for her life at the time.
The first time Faen had kissed her, it had been with a sense of
decorum. The thought of Etyran wrapping his arms around her seemed
a little too intimate for her liking, and it was obvious from the
look on Faen’s face he was thinking the same thing.

“I won’t let anything happen to her, mate.
The Custodian is just as important to me as she is to you.” Etyran
said.

Faen pushed back his chair with a forceful
shove and stood up.

“Oh, I doubt that.” Faen growled at Etyran
before spinning around and walking away from the table.

Etyran gave Faedra a confused glance. She
responded with a barely discernable shake of her head before
pushing her chair back and walking over to Faen. He hung his head,
indecision clouding his features. When Faedra reached him, he
wouldn’t look at her, so she leaned down and tilted her head up
until he had no choice. When his gaze met hers, she could see the
emotions warring there.

“Faen, if you don’t trust that he can keep me
safe, then we won’t do this.”

He brought his head up and Faedra
followed.

“Oh, I trust that he will keep you safe,” he
spoke softly before turning a poignant stare towards Etyran. Faedra
followed his gaze and watched Etyran raise his shoulders and
eyebrows, along with upturned palms in a silent question ‘what’s
up?’.

Faedra moved her head until her face was in
front of Faen’s, bringing his gaze back to her.

“What is it then?”

Faen looked at her for the longest moment and
Faedra was unsure if he was going to answer her.

“I saw the way he kissed you.”

Faedra wasn’t expecting that reply but went
with it. “Without my permission, I might add,” she said with a
defiant glare towards the perpetrator. Etyran dropped his gaze, a
look of shame sweeping across his face.

She looked back at Faen who dropped his gaze,
also. Faedra rolled her eyes, there was way too much testosterone
in the room for her liking.

“Faen, look at me.”

When he didn’t move, she repeated herself
more sternly. “Look at me.”

Faen raised his eyes to meet hers.

“Now, you listen to me. It’s you I care
about, not some Jack-the-lad who accosted me in the woods. If he
hadn’t been your friend, he’d have gotten much more than a friendly
tickle in the chest.”

A gasp from the table made them both turn and
stare. Etyran was pointing his finger first at Faen, then at
Faedra, a look of surprise on his face.

“You two? I mean you and her? Oh, mate, I’m
sorry, I’d never have…”

Faedra started to chuckle at the flustered
attempt at an apology coming from the table and looked back at her
Guardian, but the smile was wiped from her face when she saw the
look in his eyes. Hers widened a split second before Faen put an
arm around the small of her back and pulled her tight to him. He
kissed her with a passion she’d never felt before. The kiss Etyran
had forced on her didn’t touch this one with a ten-foot barge pole.
She leaned in to her Guardian and reveled in the passion he was
pouring into her. Her energy crackled all around them, making their
hair stand on end and goose bumps flash up their arms. When he
finally pulled back, she just stared at him in disbelief, her
breathing ragged and legs feeling like jelly. Well if that wasn’t
marking his territory, she didn’t know what was.

Faen’s smug smile said it all but she wasn’t
about to reprimand him for it, she was still reeling from his
kiss.

“You do know that’s forbidden, right?” The
silence was broken by the serious tone in Etyran’s voice, pulling
Faedra back to her senses. She and Faen turned and gave him a cold
stare, to which he responded with a defensive hands-up gesture.

“Okay, okay, just checking. Mate, you are
treading on thin ice. I mean look what the king did to me. I know I
was trying it on with his daughter but the Custodian is almost as
bad.”

Faedra grinned at the statement and looked up
at her Guardian. “I guess that makes me a double whammy then,” she
whispered to Faen, her lips curving in a sly smile, prompting one
from him.

“I believe we can continue making our plans
now,” Faen said as he brushed his fingers over her cheek.

They walked over to the table and sat down.
Etyran gave them a curious look.

“Double whammy? What’s that supposed to
mean?”

“Well, I guess that’s for me to know and you
to wonder about.” Faedra replied with just a hint of sarcasm in her
voice.

CHAPTER TWENTY

After a couple of hours of strategizing, they
had hashed out a plan to get to the Gatekeeper who would,
hopefully, allow them access into Zutherindal to seek an audience
with Draconis. Faedra felt her mouth go dry as they left the
relative safety of the shack and stepped out into the dark shadowy
forest. Etyran’s tall dark figure led the way through the trees.
Faedra kept close to her Guardian, subconsciously reaching out for
his hand after only walking a few steps. She twined her fingers
around his and let the instant calm she felt wrap around her like a
warm comforting blanket. She wondered if she would ever be able to
shake this recently acquired fear of the dark. She pushed back the
thought that she was once again going to be in the dark with those
hideous creatures that caused the fear in the first place. At least
this time she would not be alone.

Faen looked down at their entwined fingers
and gave her a reassuring smile.

“We will not let anything happen to you,” he
whispered.

“I know.”

The trail they were walking became narrower
the deeper they journeyed into the forest, until it became a
single-track, barely trodden path. Faen guided Faedra to walk in
front of him by placing his palm to the small of her back, the
movement sandwiching her between him and his exiled friend.
Although Etyran was doing his best to push the thick brush and low
hanging limbs out of their way, the odd branch would spring back,
and a couple had caught Faedra in the face. She could feel the
brambles snagging at her clothing and understood why Etyran chose
to wear a long thick coat, it was perfect protection against the
dense thicket they were fighting their way through. After several
more slaps in the face with low flying branches, Etyran came to an
abrupt stop. So abrupt in fact, Faedra slammed hard into the back
of him. He didn’t move with the force of it and she felt like she
just walked into a brick wall.

“You could at least warn me…” she started to
protest but Etyran spun round, clamped a hand over her mouth, and
put a finger to his lips with his other hand.

Faedra’s eyes grew wide and she tried to
settle the nauseous feeling stirring in the pit of her stomach. She
held her breath and nodded to let Etyran know she wouldn’t breathe
another word. He withdrew his hand and mouthed a ‘sorry’ to
her.

Faedra heard a metallic clanking up ahead and
her blood turned to ice. She would recognize that sound anywhere. A
second later she could hear the gravelly conversation as a couple
of redcaps walked past them just a few feet ahead of where they
stood. She was sure the pounding of her heart was so loud it would
give them away, but to her relief the hideous creatures carried on
walking, oblivious to the three cohorts hiding close by in the
brush.

Etyran turned back to Faedra and Faen. “We’re
close. The base of the mountains is just up ahead. We have to get
closer so that we can see when the guards are changing shift. There
is a place nearby that makes a good vantage point. Follow me and
keep extra quiet.”

Faen and Faedra nodded their understanding
and followed behind Etyran as he progressed forward. It was
incredibly hard to be quiet when trying to force yourself through
the brush. Faedra was certain they would be heard and captured
before they even got to the foot of the mountain, but luck must
have been shining down on them that night because no more redcaps
made a patrol of that particular area before they got to Etyran’s
vantage point.

They made a short climb up and over some
large boulders. From this point, they could peer over and look down
at the entrance to the mountain, the boulders being tall enough to
keep them from being seen from below.

“I guess we should try to see if I can wrap
the light around the both of us before we go down there.” Etyran
said in a whisper.

“What do you mean you guess you should see if
you can? I thought that was a given.” Faedra uttered, a little
perturbed by Etyran’s revelation.

Etyran gave a nonchalant shrug of his
shoulders. “Never tried it before but I’m sure it will work
okay.”

“Don’t you think it would have been a good
idea to try this back at the shack, instead of out in the open
where we’re like sitting ducks?” Faedra snapped, doing nothing to
hide her annoyance.

“Well, yeah I guess it would’ve been a good
idea if I’d thought of it back then.”

“Oh, that’s just great. What if it doesn’t
work? Our whole plan hinges on you being able to do this.” Faedra
was finding it hard to keep her voice to a whisper at this point.
Her frustration was bubbling to the surface. At times like this,
her power was a severe disadvantage because it was something she
had to keep a constant rein on when her emotions started to
peak.

“Don’t you worry, little lady. If it don’t
work, I’ll figure something else out,” Etyran said giving her one
of his roguish smiles.

Faedra blew out a sigh and plonked herself
down on a nearby boulder. She buried her head in her hands and
closed her eyes. “Oh, God, we’re going to die,” she mumbled to the
ground.

A second later she felt fingertips lifting
her chin. She opened her eyes to see Faen squatting down in front
of her. He didn’t need to say a word. His eyes spoke volumes and
told her everything she wanted to hear. How the plan would work,
that he wouldn’t let any harm come to her, and that they would get
her father back. She smiled at him.

He took hold of her hand and eased her up off
the boulder. “Come on, let us see if Etyran’s plan will work.”

With just a hint of hesitation she walked
over to Etyran. “Okay, what do I need to do?”

“Give me a hug.”

“What?” Faedra gave him an incredulous look.
It was a look she’d been perfecting over the past few months. Did
she hear him right? They were about to risk their lives and he
wanted a hug?

“You have to be as close to me as possible
for this to work. I can only bend the light around myself, so you
have to be one with me.”

Oh, she didn’t like the sound of that, at
all. She rolled her eyes in what she hoped was a look of
nonchalance, in an attempt to mask the uncomfortable feeling that
was stirring at the thought of being that close to him.

Etyran opened his coat and Faedra stepped
forward, with just a hint of reluctance, until she was pressed up
against him, then wrapped her arms around his back. He wrapped the
flaps of his coat around her and encircled her with strong,
powerful arms. She felt caged but not in a prisoner-like way. It
was more of an ‘I’m safe in here and nothing can get to me’ kind of
way.

She looked up at him. “Now what?”

“You’ll have to lean your head against my
chest.”

Faedra raised her eyebrows, the uncomfortable
feeling rising in her insides. She heard a groan from her Guardian
as she laid her head on Etyran’s chest, and pulled her head away
again to look up at the man. He had her in such a tight hold she
couldn’t move round to see Faen. But she knew straight away what
had caused the uneasy groan from her Guardian. Etyran was looking
at Faen with what she could only describe as a smile that screamed
intense male smugness.

The uncomfortable feeling flared into anger
at that point and she let go of her grip around his back and placed
a palm on his chest.

“Stop it. Right now,” she said in a whisper
laced with warning.

“What?” Etyran’s expression turned to one of
mischievous innocence. “I was just giving him a hard time. We used
to do it all the time at the Academy.”

“Well, don’t. We’re already having a hard
enough time as it is, we don’t need you adding to the mix.”

“Alright, alright,” he over emphasized to
Faedra, then looked up at Faen. “Sorry, mate. No hard
feelings?”

Faen looked like he was biting his tongue,
his jaw tight. Faedra thought he looked as uncomfortable as she
felt about this whole arrangement.

“Let’s just get on with it, shall we?” Faedra
said as she put her arm back around him and once again rested her
head on his chest.

“Okay, ready?” He asked.

She nodded against his chest. In the next
second she felt the most unusual sensation running through her. It
felt like she had just dipped her toe on the still surface of a
pond, but instead of the ripples flowing outward from the intrusion
in perfect symmetry, they traveled up her body until she felt as if
every fiber of her being was fluid. The rippling sensation flowed
in waves and it took her a few moments to get used to it.