Page 99 of Renegade Kings

We hadn’t discussed what was going to happen with Damon, but it didn’t take a genius to see that Rhidian hadn’t been completely on board with bringing him along. Even if he hadn’t been the guys’ brother, it’s not like we could have left him behind. Arik would move on the Spring Court, and anyone left behind would be killed. How would it make us better than him if we left anyone to that fate?

“Damon,” Rhidian repeated. “Look, I know we haven’t spoken about this, and I know he’s important to you all, but we need to know how dangerous he is. I think you should let me…”

“Don’t,” I snapped. I knew exactly what he was going to say. Damon wouldn’t be interrogated by anyone other than his brothers. “This is not your place, Rhidian.”

“I understand your concern,” Maddox started, stepping forward as all the attention moved to him. “Damon is fighting for control with this nightmare that is controlling his body. We think it’s getting weaker to even allow him to slip through, but we need time to gauge if that’s the case. For now, the nightmare is trying to negotiate some sort of deal, but we think it’s only because it’s getting desperate. We need to do what we can to make Damon not accept the deal until we can get a better idea of what this thing is and how we can help him. Fizzle, I know there’s a lot you can’t tell us, but if there is anything you know about this thing, if you can help in any way…”

Maddox didn’t have to end his sentence because we all knew what he was saying. We were desperate, and we needed whatever help we could find.

But I’d been watching Fizzle as Maddox had spoken and I’d seen the expression on his face change when Maddox had mentioned the nightmare. He locked eyes with me when he knew I was watching and subtly shook his head. I knew questions were off the table for now, but I didn’t know why. If he thought I was going to keep this from my mates, he was sorely mistaken. But Fizzle wasn’t stupid, and he wouldn’t need me to make that point for him to know it already.

Which only meant one thing.

Rhidian was the one he was keeping this information from, and just as we’d started to trust the summer fae again, Fizzle completely threw me through a loop.

Chapter 38

Dean

We were on our second day of being on this damn ship, and I already hated it. I’d never felt claustrophobic before, but there was nowhere to go on this thing. Everywhere you turned, there was someone watching you. Rhidian’s fighters didn’t treat us badly. They weren’t even afraid of us, but they were intrigued. And curious people led to constant observation, which was pushing my wolf to the edge.

It didn’t help that I was doing everything I could to avoid Damon. Seeing him in that cage had been bad enough, but watching that thing talk through his lips pissed me the fuck off. I wanted to tear into him. To punish him for taking away one of the most important people in my life.

But I couldn’t.

Because he was inside Damon’s body, inside his head. Hurting him would only hurt Damon.

And I just didn’t know how to deal with that.

Where was all the anger and need for violence supposed to go?

Unfortunately for my brothers, it went straight into the training Fizzle insisted we do every moment of the day.

And unfortunately for me, it meant that I couldn’t do shit because all I could think about was the man below decks that I was so inadequately useless to when it came to helping.

It felt like the cycle of my life, and I was battling my internal demons right now to not let them convince me I’d never be good enough for the one shining light in my life—Alyssa.

“You will summon your fire and you will do so in a timely fashion, cat!” Fizzle barked at Maddox, who was pouting in the middle of the deck for the second day in a row.

“Are you out of your mind?” Maddox shouted back. “We are standing on a wooden boat in the middle of an ocean and you want me to set it on fire?”

“I don’t want you to set it on fire! I want you to summon your fire with the same level of control that a two-year-old child has, and not set this boat on fire,” Fizzle shouted back.

Ryder was currently sitting on his ass, watching the two of them like a tennis match and taking great enjoyment from the whole thing. Personally, I had a throbbing headache, and this wasn’t helping the never-ending black mood I couldn’t seem to shake.

“Do you have a death wish?” Maddox snapped. “Of course, I don’t have the control of a two-year-old. I’ve had this magic for less than a week. You can try to insult me all you want by calling me a child, but the reality is that I am a child when it comes to magic, and screaming at me to just do it won’t make it any easier.”

Fizzle hissed, flapping his wings in agitation as his claws scraped through the wooden barrel he was standing on.

Maddox had a point, but apparently, Fizzle didn’t care for it.

“Then maybe trust the other child to use his own magic and put it out with his water,” Fizzle huffed, eventually pointing a wing in my direction.

Apparently, it was my turn to shout, but then Ryder cut in with, “That’s an excellent idea.”

And my stomach just fell out of my ass.

I glared at my friend, and he smirked at me in response. “You can do that, right, Dean? Seems as you’re the one with so much self control.”