Burned by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #1)(24)

“Sir,” the guard who was still standing began. “We heard screams and came down here to find the hybrid –”

“Don’t call her that,” Fenris growled, dropping to his knees beside me. He shoved the guard off me carelessly and pressed his fingers against my neck to feel my pulse. “Sunaya, what happened here?”

Tears blurred my vision all over again at the compassion in his voice. Finally, there was someone here in this forsaken place who wanted to help me, who didn’t look at me with suspicion and malice.

“I just came down here for some bread and fish,” I croaked, the tears sliding down my cheeks faster now that nobody was there to beat them out of me. “That’s all I wanted.”

“Resinah forgive me,” Fenris muttered, sliding his hands beneath my shoulders and my knees. “I should have seen to this.”

An alarm bell went off in my head – Resinah was the female goddess mages prayed to, and not one that shifters ever referenced – but then Fenris lifted me into his arms. Pain screamed throughout my entire body, and I forgot about everything except the agony. My vision blurred again, a dull roar filling my ears, and I wasn’t sure what happened after, but the next thing I knew I was being laid out on a table.

By Magorah, I thought, a sharp burst of panic ripping through me as the Chief Mage’s face swam into view. They’re going to experiment on me now!

But when his hands touched me, they were surprisingly gentle. I stilled as a sense of peace stole through me, washing away the panic, and looked up dreamily into Iannis’s face. And as he looked down at me, his brows drawn together, lines bracketed around his mouth, I could almost imagine that he cared.

“Sleep,” he said, his deep, slightly musical voice like a balm to my battered soul, and I went under without another thought.





Chapter Seven




A knock on the door disturbed me from a deep, dreamless sleep. I sat up, disoriented as I looked around the small, round room with its chest of drawers and single, barred window. It took me a moment to remember that I was in Solantha Palace, and that I was kept here so the Chief Mage could study me like a lab rat. My stomach tightened as I scoured my brain for memories of last night, but all I could dredge up was a sense of agony, and the image of the Chief Mage’s face hovering above my head, backlit by a bright, white light. Had he started experimenting on me already?

“Sunaya?” the knocking on the door persisted, and my right ear twitched as I recognized Fenris’s voice. “Are you awake?”

Another memory tickled the back of my mind at the sound. “I’m coming,” I called, swinging my legs from the side of the bed. It was then I noticed I was dressed in a simple white nightgown I’d never seen before in my life.

Someone had definitely tampered with my body last night, even if it had only been to change my clothes.

But if the Chief Mage had drugged or spelled me in some way, my body didn’t know it. Energy sang through my muscles as I got to my feet and crossed the room, and I felt like skipping.

He must have given me some kind of weird pick-me-up spell.

But when I opened the door to see Fenris standing on the other side, the memory of him rushing toward me down the basement steps slammed into my brain.

“Oh.” I clutched the side of my head as I stared at him. He was dressed in dark red instead of black today, but otherwise he was the same tall, muscular man with the dark brown beard and yellow eyes who’d called off my attackers. “You saved me last night.”

“Glad your memory is in working order.” He arched a brow, then lifted the plate of food in his hands. “Hungry?”

“Famished.” The sight of the cold chicken, mashed potatoes and biscuits made my stomach ache so fiercely I thought it might devour itself. I snatched the plate from his hands before I remembered my manners. “Umm, do you want to come in?”

“That was the idea, yes.”

I stepped back to let him enter the room, and that was all of the attention I could spare – I plopped down onto my bed and immediately inhaled the food on my plate.

“Mmm,” I mumbled appreciatively when I was done. “You got any more of this?” The plate of food had taken the edge off my hunger, but I hadn’t eaten a decent meal in forty-eight hours, at least not by shifter standards. Our high metabolisms needed more food than the average human.

Fenris frowned. “I should have thought to bring more. You need the nourishment after your ordeal.”

“Is that why you’re here?” I asked, gesturing to my empty plate. “Have you been assigned as my personal maid or something? Because somehow that kind of task seems beneath you.”

Fenris scowled. “Actually, the Chief Mage sent me here to let you know that he wouldn’t be able to meet with you until later this afternoon. I decided to bring you some food on my way, so that you wouldn’t get yourself in trouble in the kitchens again.”

“What does the Great Lord Iannis have to do that is so pressing he had to push back our morning meeting?” I rolled my eyes. Was I supposed to be grateful to Fenris for rescuing me when it was his master’s fault I’d been nearly beaten to death in the first place?

Fenris arched a brow. “As a matter of fact, he’s still recuperating from last night. He expended a lot of energy healing your injuries, which were rather extensive.”