They only made it eight miles up into the mountains that separated Wendlyn from Doranell the next day before Gavriel, once again, stopped them. They were making terrible time and Lorcan knew it was his fault. In their best shape the three of them should be making over twenty miles a day. They should be to Doranelle by tomorrow evening. At this pace it would take them weeks, and he only seemed to be slowing down.

Lorcan knew what needed to happen, but he wasn't sure the best way to get it accomplished. To distract himself from the gods-killing pain that wracked his entire torso, he played scenarios out in his head to try and find the optimal way to inform the rest of his trio what needed to happen: they needed to leave him behind. Ordering them wouldn't do any good. Rowan wasn't blood-sworn under his command anymore and on his own free will the Prince was likely to lash out at any sign of authority. Gavriel wouldn't lash out, per say, he'd simply blink a pair og gold eyes at the Commander and calmly refuse. Lorcan thought about asking for a watch and then slipping away from the two of them, but in his present condition he knew they would hunt down his scent and easily catch up to him which would add time to their journey which Aelin could not afford.

Lorcan unwillingly thought of the pieces of the demi-fae female he'd found after Cairn had had his fun. A shiver slithered down his spine. No, it was his fault that Cairn had Aelin in the first place. It was also his fault that they were slowing down now. It was not going to be his fault that Rowan detoured another day to try and hunt Lorcan down.

No, he had to get them to leave him of their own free will. That was the only obvious solution. Lorcan sighed as he watched Gavriel light the fire for their camp tonight. Obvious or not it was going to be painfully difficult.

Lorcan's eyes fell to Gavriel's throat and skimmed all the names inked into his skin.

No, this was not going to be an easy task.

Lorcan had found over the centuries that most people underestimated his ability to manipulate situations to his advantage, Maeve especially. He was useful to the Fae Queen all those centuries because he was nearly impossible for adversaries to take down given his size, paired with an unlikely speed, impressive arsenal of skills and techniques and his rare magic. His mind was not something she thought of often and as a result, he had found it especially easy to hide certain things from her; or actually take things from her in the case of the ring. Lorcan had guarded his secrets carefully and played them as trump cards only when absolutely possible. He preferred that people continued underestimating his intelligence; it always gave him one step ahead in the game.

That was one of the first things that drew him to Elide actually, beside her cinnamon and elderberry scent, he underestimated her, he judged her like everyone had judged him for centuries. She was the first person to genuinely pull the wool over his eyes in a long time.

Beside Maeve.

Maeve didn't count.

He should stop thinking about Elide.

It was going to have to be his cleverness that convinced Gavriel and Rowan to leave. This only had one shot at working so it had to be executed perfectly.

"I'll get firewood," Lorcan said restlessly, making sure not to disguise his wince as he stood up and slowly made his way out of the camp. He didn't have to look behind him to know that Gavriel was tracking his every movement with those concerned healer's eyes and was motioning for Rowan to follow him to make sure he made it back safely. Gavriel was going to be tough to convince, but he was easy to predict.

He couldn't hear Rowan's silent footsteps behind him, but he caught his pine and snow scent since he was downwind of him. He made a good show of gathering wood and kept leading Rowan deeper and deeper into the forest. When they were well out of hearing distance from Gavriel Lorcan turned to Rowan who was watching him with a guarded gaze that said he knew Lorcan was leading him out here on purpose.

Lorcan hesitated, sizing Rowan up, calculating his words. Rowan's eyes narrowed suspiciously. Lorcan was going to have to lay everything down and hold nothing back. Rowan was slow to trust and wouldn't cooperate if he suspected Lorcan was hiding anything.

"Rowan," Lorcan stated simply, "I'm slowing you down. You need to leave me behind."

Rowan's eyes widened fractionally before he hid his surprise. He frowned, indignant that Lorcan thought he would ever agree to such a cowardly act as leaving a wounded male behind and opened his mouth to tell him as much but Lorcan held up a hand to stop him.

"Let me explain, please."

Again, Rowan was surprised. This was another one of Lorcan's tricks: he never used polite words like 'please' or 'thank you' unless he absolutely had to, that way when he used them, it threw his opponent off and gave him the upper hand. It had worked with everyone Lorcan had ever used it on save Essar, who grew wise to his tricks after a while, and Maeve, although he'd never tried it with the latter. He had never used this on Rowan which was why the Prince was so thrown off guard.

When he was sure Rowan was plenty shaken, Lorcan dropped the next perfectly honest and useful blow. "I am dying."

Rowan blinked warily.

"Gavriel is going to want to try and save me by slowing down, but it won't help. I can tell. Maeve didn't deal me this wound so I could recover and become a problem. This was intended to be fatal and it will be. I will only continue to slow down until that point and you can't afford to waste that kind of time."

"Lorcan we're not-" Rowan started.

"Rowan!" Lorcan snapped, letting a little of the desperation that was ruminating in his gut bleed into his tone. Not too much though, if Rowan had an honest display of how afraid Lorcan was he wouldn't agree to leave. Still, a little bit might help.

He took a step closer to Rowan. "You know just as well as I do what Cairn is capable of."

Rowan snarled a warning at him but Lorcan ignored it and continued,

"You know what he does to his victims, you know he enjoys it, and you know no matter how fierce your mate may be, she will break under that kind of pressure. Everyone does."

Rowan lashed out, pinning Lorcan to a tree a dagger to the throat, "Shut up."

But Lorcan had no intention of stopping now, "Every second we waste is another second in which he can do whatever he wants to her."

With a furious roar Rowan sent a blow into Lorcan's abdomen and even though the demi-fae knew it was coming, he couldn't have prepared for the white hot pain that ripped through his body upon contact with his wound. His consciousness flickered and his legs gave out beneath him. Rowan recoiled in surprise as Lorcan collapsed, gasping for air.

He tried to continue but was overtaken by a coughing fit. Blood and that other-worldly black discharge spattered the ground in front of him as it worked its way out of his lungs.

Rowan swore.

When Lorcan finally managed to catch his breath he forced himself to sit back on his heels and finish his pitch.

"You know she doesn't have much time left, Rowan. It might take me longer to finally die of this than it does for her to break. You know I'm right. Let this be how I try and repay my wrong. It's not enough, but it's all I have. Leave me behind, find your mate, and slaughter that freak, Cairn."

"If you're dying…" Rowan looked around like he was lost. His honorable nature was telling him he couldn't leave a male behind. His heart was telling him he absolutely could. It was a war between his instincts, his instinct to protect his mate and his instinct to protect the weak male in front of him.

"Rowan, please," Lorcan used the carefully chosen word again, real desperation clawing through his tone. "I'm the reason Cairn has her in the first place. Don't let me be the reason you never get her back from him."

Rowan was shaking his head in panic. Lorcan's ploy was working, Rowan's instinct to protect his mate was too strong.

"Even if we can't get Gavriel to go with you, you have no choice but to go on," Lorcan staggered to his feet and began collecting the firewood he'd dropped when Rowan lashed out. He straightened up and looked Rowan in the eye, let Rowan see he was not lying. He held nothing back. He was telling the truth.

The prince swallowed.

Lorcan gave him a small smile, tired and knowing as he finished."Thank you."

He began the journey back to camp, leaving Rowan behind.

.

.

.

Please review! :)

-D.