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Beth

If you haven’t read Taken: Fae’s Captive 5, you’ll probably want to do that before enjoying this second book of Beth’s and Gareth’s story

Siler to her lips as she cuts the rope that binds me to Gareth I’m about to call his name when someone claps a hand over my mouth and pulls me into a dusty side street

“We need you” Silmaran follows, her aether as Granthos’s slaves But there’s so that speaks of horrors beyond those visited on us by Byrn Varyndr She leans close “And we need your master, too He seems to favor you quite a bit, so I expect he’ll show up to reclaiets our ransom note instructions”

I ainst the hand over o

A scuffle in the street pulls Silmaran’s attention back to the slaveme, she says, “Take her to the store room Feed her and treat her well I’ll come as soon as—”

A fae in a white hat flies down the main road and lands in a heap on the sandy stones Gareth’s roar sends goosebuh theI never have But there has to be soht?

“Chastain isn’t faring well” Silmaran peeks around the corner and pulls her white shawl across her face “And your ”

He’s more interested in murder at this point I would explain the mate situation if only the idiot behind me would let up

“Where is she?” Gareth bellows, and the white-hatted fae tries to get up, blood welling froash over his eye

“I suppose I’ll have to save his hide yet again Tiame” Silmaran draws a curved blade

I try to kick and yell but get nowhere and say nothing The brute at

“Get going I’ll ed back into the shadowy side lanes, ht my captor

Another roar shakes through the city, and a flock of white birds takes flight over my head and into the too-hot sun

“He’s not going to let you go, is he?” The h “Slaveto keep what isn’t theirs” His voice is low and gritty, like sand scraping underfoot

People pass us, but they keep their eyes down despite ain, this is Cranthus and lesser fae being dragged against their wills to dark fates, then they haven’t been paying attention

I kick him as hard as I can, but e, his wide body scraping the sides of the low buildings as we pass He handlesat yarn

“Cal In case you haven’t noticed, we’re your friends We saved you fro you to a safe spot where you can have food, water, and—” He sniffs, then coughs “A bath, thank the Ancestors”

“I sainst his hand, but only a ers

“You’re welcome”

“I didn’t say thank you, you colossal jerk!” I would try to bite his hand, but he’s pressing my lips so hard I can’t open my mouth

This is a ia and surprise when I saw Sil her to pieces while I’s never be easy?

We pass a fountain where children play, their yells and whoops tee with joy despite the copper slave bands on their ar child looks up at ether, her tattered dress soaked through She opens her mouth, perhaps to sound an alarm, but the brute tells her, “Play without care, little one Silmaran sees all”

The phrase sht against my captor She returns to the shallow pool beneath the fountain and ju back to their fun I can’t even be mad about it Not when I can see the lash marks across some of their backs They deserve joy, no matter how they come by it Even if it’s at my expense

Shouts ricochet off the close buildings, and I know Gareth is causing more than just a little trouble I know he’ll find ht alone soothessoothed isn’t so a slave is offered, especially not in Granthos’s house The only one who ever ca ot her I can see her laboring in some dark pit, her pale skin streaked with dirt, her hair in filthy tangles Thin, tired, ht harder, but instead I let the slightest tendril of grief wrap around h I’ve set out to save her, sory part of me whispers that she’s already dead That she couldn’t survive That maybe she died on the road where I just walked Thaton pikes above the slave market

“Silh a narroooden door, and he turns sideways to enter

Two changeling guards jump to attention, their arh they don’t ht, their eyes clear Free That’s the only word for their bearing

“Did it work?” One of thelets, looks me over

The brute grunts

“I guess it did” The other, a dark-haired feht her bait Noait for the tiger to come for it”

My eyes grow accustomed to the dim indoors, and I see we’re in a store room Pots and baskets line the shelves, and I can smell spices and dried meats all around How can ex-slaves afford such fine fare?

The brute carries uards

“Hey, where are you going?”

“Sil her well She needs a bath, food, and water” He jerks his chin at the golden-haired male “Nemar, make food” Then at the female “You,

bathe her”

“What are you going to do?” she snaps back

“Stand guard” He finally puts ht he was large before I rong He’s enormous with keen eyes in a squarish face the color of sun-baked sand, shoulders broad enough to hold up a house, and hands like oven er oven mitts

“You idiots!” I wipe my mouth with the back ofif you’d only askedme off to Spires knohere while he tears the city apart He’s going to find iant, I reach for the door

He grabs the back of my shirt and easily holds me in place “Then that’s all the better We won’t have to do the ransom nonsense”

“You won’t be doing anything because you’ll be dead” I say it rate someone? Because I have Gareth has it” He won’t actually use it, but they don’t need to know that little fact

“Magic like that doesn’t exist” Blond fae, Nemar, doesn’t sound too confident

“It certainly does” I kick against the gritty tile floor “And if he thinks you’ve hariant “Why do you want him, anyway?”

“Eldra, take her to the bath” The monster shoves me to the dark-haired female “We do what Silmaran says, not what this one utters Besides, she’s covered in filth and smells like a unicorn’s arse”

“Hey!” I flail out to s hand “Youch Are you made of stone?”

His sandy brown eyebrows jump in amusement, but he doesn’t actually smile