Page 60 of Gilded Curses

“Watch it,” the head guard growled.

“Oh, I’m sorry. All of you morons who couldn’t hunt a rat if trapped in a box, stay here.”

They scowled at him, but he didn’t care. These dicks barely had a brain between their eyes and were already his enemies.

He no longer had to play the game to find out where all this was heading. The dagadon had made it clear today, but he was going to keep his hand and ensure the safety of the others.

“Listen here, dark fae—” the guard in front started.

“Hold on, Loth,” Orin commanded.

The brownie’s tiny fingers wrapped into his shirt. Without waiting to hear what the guy with shit for brains had to say, Orin drew the shadows around him and disappeared.

The guards immediately started shouting as they scrambled toward where he’d just stood, but Orin was already moving as he tracked his prey deeper into the woods. He moved faster and with a lot more stealth without the guards, but he had to be fast about this.

He didn’t have much time before the guards sent someone back to let Desmond and Sheree know he’d vanished into the shadows. Sahira would pay the biggest price if he didn’t return soon, and he couldn’t let that happen.

He wasn’t going to find the brunet with those guards following him. He had to be fast, and since he didn’t have a weapon, he’d have to do this with his bare hands.

The guards shouted as they ran around the woods behind him. He glanced back to discover them in complete disarray as they stumbled around, searching for him before he focused forward again.

He moved swiftly through the trees, keeping the shadows around him as he moved. In less than a minute, he lost the guards who had no idea how to track anything but gained ground on the brunet.

“Hurry,” Loth whispered.

“I am.”

When he rounded a copse of trees, the sound of running water drifted to him, and the man standing at the edge of a small stream came into view. He had one foot in the air as he prepared to enter the water.

Without making a sound, Orin snuck up behind him as the man’s foot sank into the water. He didn’t stop to think about what he was doing; he didn’t have a choice.

It was this man or a woman he cared for deeply. There was no competition.

Orin didn’t hesitate as he grasped the sides of the man’s face and twisted his head to the side. The audible pop of his neck snapping echoed through the forest a second before the immortal’s body went limp, and Orin released him.

The man crumpled to the ground.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

The guards were still stumbling around the woods when Orin returned to them. When he released the shadows obscuring him, they gasped and staggered away before correcting themselves.

If it weren’t for Sahira and the others, it would be easy for him to kill more than a few of these assholes before slipping into the woods, where he could survive until he found a way out of this realm. Before Sahira, he’d always believed that caring for others was a weakness.

However, Sahira never made him feel weak; in fact, he felt whole and invincible in her arms, yet he was keeping himself in danger for her. What astounded him most wasn’t that he remained, but that he didn’t regret doing so.

He was here for her, for them, and he wouldn’t leave until they were all free. And while the whole situation was a nightmare, he was glad to stay… for them.

Orin dropped the brunet’s body on the ground, where it landed with a thud. The guards looked from him to it and back again before the rage clouding their features faded, and a few smirked.

“It’s over,” he stated.

“She must be a really good fuck for you to return, dark fae.”

Orin’s eyes narrowed on the guard who’d spoken, but he refused to give the man the reaction he sought. Instead, he smiled as he memorized the man’s face; it would be fun to slaughter him later.

“Let them know our hunt is done,” another guard commanded.

A dark-skinned man removed the horn strapped to his side and blew into it. The loud, awful noise resonating through the woods scared the birds from the trees, and Loth covered his ears.