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“My, he has been telling you a lot, hasn’t he? Which works in my favor, of course. You open your legs and Ruskin opens his mouth. It’s all worked very well. Thank goodness he’s just like every other male, thinking with one thing only.”
Hate thrashes through me, wild and vicious as the feral animals that roam the Emerald Forest. I will not give this woman what she wants, I know that now. She’s playing with me, softening me up to break me, but she won’t succeed.
“I’m grateful, Eleanor,” Cebba continues, and it turns my stomach to hear that there’s a hint of Fiona’s sincerity to it. “I thought you were a bad omen when you first arrived. Your presence was so curious, and it worried me, not knowing what my brother was up to. When I learned you worked with metal…well…you can imagine my concern. My curse was only just starting to really get the best of Ruskin. But then you turned out to be the gift that made it worth coming back to court when I realized what you could give me. The one thing that could help me best Ruskin before this wily curse ruins my kingdom.”
“Rather stupid, don’t you think, to cast a spell that’s been wrecking the very realm you want to rule?” I don’t hold many cards, but I’ll get my barbs in where I can, and I know this was where her original plan went awry.
She purses her lips.
“Yes, well, I didn’t know what tricks Ruskin would play. Taking our mother off the founding stone? Now that was a pretty cutthroat move.”
“Not as cutthroat as conniving to murder your own mother.”
This, unlike my other jibes, doesn’t seem to bother her. She just raises an eyebrow.
“Oh, how little you understand this game you’re trying to play, my dear.”
It chills me, because she’s right. I’m out of my depth in every conceivable way. I’m helpless, bound, far from any help, and at the mercy of someone ruthless enough to destroy her own family, much less some insignificant human. I very much doubt I’ll leave this place alive…and I have little hope that death will be quick or painless. Especially since Cebba clearly wants answers from me and won’t mind getting her hands bloody in order to “persuade” me. The thought makes something else occur to me.
“You didn’t put that snake in my bed, did you?”
Her gaze drifts, and I think she’s starting to grow bored.
“No,” she sighs. “Obviously, I need you alive for a bit longer. I don’t know who was responsible, but I don’t suppose it really matters. The Seelie Court is just a dangerous place for someone like you. There were so many people who didn’t like you getting your claws into their prince. Though thank goodness you’ve managed to dodge everyone’s swipes. Until now.”
She rises. “Now, I’m going to need you to tell me Ruskin’s true name, my dear. You were very helpful in getting it. Once you tell me, I’ll let you go free. You can go back to your realm, back to your home. It won’t cost you a thing.”
For a moment, I’m genuinely stunned—because she can’t lie, which means she really does intend to let me go if I cooperate. It never occurred to me that that was even an option.
But even if she is sincere, she’s not being accurate. Her offer will cost me, and that price means it’s not an option. Not for me.
“It’ll cost me Ruskin’s life,” I point out.
She scoffs. “You were leaving anyway. You were done with him, remember? Are you really going to suffer for someone who doesn’t care enough to tell you the truth?”
“He told me enough for me to know that I won’t help you,” I say. “You’re wasting your time.”
She looks visibly annoyed, like she’d been genuinely hopeful I’d turn Ruskin over just like that, to save my own skin. But then I know loyalty isn’t something she understands.
Cebba crosses the room, opening a trunk underneath a painting of the Wild Hunt, rearing up on their giant steeds.
“Now, I haven’t skinned anything in a while, but I think this thing’s still sharp.”
I shiver when I see the glint of the knife in her hand, wondering if I really will be able to hold up under the pressure. There’s only one way to find out.
I don’t even try to dull my screams when the blade first edges its way under the skin of my arm. If there was anyone within miles to hear me, I’ve no doubt they would. As it is, my screech just echoes round the lodge, with stuffed animal heads and skulls staring impassively back at me as Cebba peels away a couple of square inches of my flesh.
That’s what it is, a flesh wound, not deep enough to make me bleed significantly. Scarlet beads sluggishly across the patch of flayed skin, the area burning with red hot fire where she’s sliced through my nerve endings.
I take deep, fast breaths, trying to calm my thudding heart, which is threatening to send me into a panic attack. Cebba eyes me with detached interest.
“That’s just the first. What is Ruskin’s true name?”
“Go to hell,” I shoot back.
“Hell?” Cebba laughs. “You humans and your quaint beliefs.”
She lowers the knife, pushing the skirt of my dress up to bare my shin. I kick out at her, but she’s too strong. Tutting, she holds my leg down as she slices a strip of skin from it.
