She trembled as she tried to move, proving she was still unable to lift herself. Her body burned against mine as if she suffered from a horrible fever.
Fae did not get fevers. Humans did.
While Cami was supposedly a Halfling—half human, half fae—it seemed pretty clear to me that she was something else entirely.
“Do you…?” I trailed off, swallowing, still uncertain of how to comfort her. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Emelyn rarely had when she was upset. But sometimes she’d vented, and that had seemed to help.
“Not really,” she muttered as she leaned more heavily against me. “Lucifer statue. Ocean. Vortex. Weird trial.” She fell silent, her words not all that clear to me.
I was about to ask her to clarify when she began to tremble.
She was awake, but all I could do was stroke her back as she struggled with exhaustion and whatever magic was still making her burn up.
A growl rumbled in my chest. The state she was in was the clear result of her mistreatment.
Herpunishmentfor doing nothing wrong other than being true to what she was.
Whatever that might be.
I didn’t have to understand her origins to know that she didn’t deserve whatever was coming next.
I should never have let that happen to her. Not that I could have stopped it. Lucifer was the Hell Fae King. Saying no to him wasn’t possible. He owned everything in his realm. Everyone reported to him. Including me.
Although, technically, I’m still a Midnight Fae.
He might have given me the Warden role, but I wasn’t one of his fae. That much had been obvious from the beginning. I’d just hoped he would one day take me under his wing, convert me to Hell Fae status, and make me one of his own.
But in what way did I expect that to happen?
I was his Warden. However, what did that actually mean? I wrangled Nightmare Fae. Beings I thought were beasts that belonged in cages.
Is that true, though?I wondered, thinking back on everything I’d witnessed these last few weeks.Why are some Nightmare Fae given brides while others are locked up?
Lucifer had never told me.
Because I’m not in his inner circle.
And everything with Camillia had just pushed me that much more out of it.
A month ago, I would have been eager to prove my worth, to find a way into his good graces, to earn his approval once more.
But something had changed.
Ihad changed.
What he’d done to Camillia tonight… It wasn’t okay. He’d put her on display, and he’d told Az to hold me hostage while he humiliated her.
Binding my power. Rooting me in place. Forcing me to observe while he’d tried to break Camillia’s spirit.
Just like Constantine.
Perhaps not to the same extreme. But Lucifer’s quiet fury earlier had informed me that he could likely reach those depths, perhaps go even further.
He’d already tortured Camillia with those chains. Then he’d put her in some sort of coma. What would he do next?
What punishment would he eventually decide on?
