The King's Leash (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 7) by Katherine Sparrow

the gesture.
    Mordred turned from staring out the window and leveled a patronizing gave at each of us. He smiled without mirth or kindness.
    “Thank you all for coming here,” Mordred said.
    “As though we had a choice,” Gawain mumbled.
    The other two knights nodded and touched the stars they wore at their belts. That was another thing this room had in common: everyone wore stars, except for Lila, Merlin, and myself.
    “Thank you all for trading in your lives, or the lives of loved ones,” Mordred nodded at Adam, “for service to the Department. Need I remind you, that the contracts we signed stated not unending servitude, but freedom once we fulfilled the mission the Department gave us. At the time, none of us knew what we were signing up for, merely that we wished to live. Or that we wanted our lover back.”
    “The Department didn’t get Lila back,” I said. “Merlin and I did. Tell your bosses—”
    Mordred shrugged. “I’m sure you’d love to read the legalese of the contract and how it states that Lila would be returned, not the mechanism for how it would occur.”
    “You did it to get me back?” Lila whispered to Adam.
    The Sheriff put his arm around her waist. “Of course.”
    “You shouldn’t have.”
    He shrugged like it was a nothing kind of thing, but his fingers touched the silver star on his belt.
    Lila kissed his cheek. “Thanks, dude.”
    “Always.”
    Love, I thought with a sinking feeling as I watched the both of them. Love was how the Department was going to trap us. I sat up straighter, steeling myself against what would be coming next.
    Mordred took out his phone and called someone. He spoke into it. “It’s time.”
    He placed it face up on the table, so that whoever was on the other end of it could hear everything. “Blue girl,” he said, turning his attention to Lila. “Think carefully, do you value the wolf’s life?”
    Mordred licked his lips as confusion covered Lila’s face.
    “Of course I do.” Lila said. “Of course I—”
    “Now,” Mordred interrupted her.
    Whoever was at the end of the cell phone acted, and Adam’s star flared bright. The werewolf’s mouth dropped open, he clutched his throat, and then fell forward like a stone. His head hit the table. He didn’t move. His aura dimmed. He wouldn’t last long.
    Lila flared bright with magic. If looks could kill, and hers could… she steadied her gaze on Mordred. “Stop it. Now,” she commanded.
    Mordred nodded. “Done,” he said.
    Adam gasped back to life, flailing and flopping around for a couple of long moments before he regained his senses.
    “You see now, blue Lila, what we will do if you step out of line? If, say, you do something as gauche as attacking me? Instead, you will serve us as best you can, and if we get any inkling you are doing anything against us we will—”
    “Shut up. I get it. I’m not stupid,” Lila said.
    Merlin sat beside me, watching it all with an outward calm, but beneath the table his hands shook. He reached down and grabbed some sort of spell from his bag. He whispered, “I’ll kill him. Should have done it long ago, I’ll—”
    “Try if you must,” Mordred said. “But should you succeed, which is not likely, everyone in this room wearing stars would die moments thereafter.” Mordred said loudly, “Do the king now.”
    Across from us, Arthur’s star flared bright, and he too fell face-down onto the table with a sickening thunk. I couldn’t look. I couldn’t see how easily they could hurt him. Kill him.
    “Arthur is useless if he’s dead,” I said quickly.
    Mordred shrugged. “Merlin, will you serve the Department in the mission it asks of you. Will you do everything in your power to—”
    “Of course. Stop this,” Merlin said.
    “Done,” Mordred said.
    Arthur jerked, and just like Adam, he breathed hard and looked wildly around him. The knights looked on the cusp of running toward Mordred and tearing him limb from limb. But even knights are