The floor is littered with dead bodies, and Rose stoops, swiping a wad of pink fabric from her pocket and dragging it through the blood. Wait. Is that Lore’s cap?
Just how bad did things get while I was separated from the others?
Caed struggles with a wheel set into the wall, putting all of his strength into the mechanism that will pull the cages along the overhead rails.
“This is…” Rose says.
“Fomorian engineering,” Prae finishes, examining the network of chains and cogs instead of helping her cousin. “Shoddy work, though. I would’ve done much better. Does anyone want to explain why a seelie court has a Fomorian-made dungeon?”
“Eero made a deal with them,” Rose replies, her voice thin. “We can talk about it when we’re out of here.”
“The palace is now on fire,” Caed comments. “So we may want to get a move on with the escaping.”
“What the fuck did you do?” Prae growls at him.
“Hey! Don’t blame me! I had no idea Rose was such a pyromaniac.”
Rose shrugs, surprisingly unaffected though her cheeks have grown pink. “I’m beginning to think it’s a theme with this stupid city.”
Squeezing her hand—because I know that will weigh heavily on her later when the primal urge to take vengeance on those who hurt her mates subsides—I guide her towards a spot in the corner where there’s less iron.
With a heavycrunch, Caed finally manages to get the wheel working. The first cage that rolls to a stop is empty, as is the second, but the third contains a very angry dullahan, with shadows for a skull and flames for eyes.
Prae flicks through a set of iron keys she must have taken from one of the soldiers, testing several, before she manages to find the right one. The second the door is open, Drystan jumps down and holds his hands out expectantly.
No one else seems surprised when the Fomorian princess passes him his own head.
Goddess… I’m not even going to ask how she got that.
The second his head is on, the black ribbon curling across his throat, he makes his way over to us. The wounds across his body are already visibly starting to close now that he’s out of the iron box.
“Turn around.” It takes a second for me to realise he’s not talking to me, but to our mate.
She eyes him warily but acquiesces.
“I’m going to touch your wings,” he warns her.
Then surprises both of us by sinking his fingers into the muscles of her shoulders and kneading.
“You should’ve let the damned Fomorian do this as soon as he found you,” he tuts. “Your back is so knotted and tight. How much does it hurt?”
Rose shrugs, her face tightening as he touches a particularly sore spot. “I’m used to pain.”
My gut sinks. She was in pain this whole time, and she still risked herself like this? Drystan’s expression echoes my frustration.
We should never have let this happen. This is on us. All of it.
Theclunkof a new cage door opening is all the warning we get before Lore is there, tumbling from his cage wearily. His disorientation disappears after a few staggering steps, and seconds later, he’s blinking around the room like a tornado.
“I’m free!” he sings, seemingly ignorant of his bruised and broken body. “Oh, I’ve been so bored! It’s beendayssince I killed anything.” He presses a kiss to Rose’s lips, then blinksaway, giving me space that I’m grateful for. “I’ll clear our exit route?—”
Drystan’s hand seizes the redcap’s collar. “Save your energy. Rose has a job for you later.”
“Shedoes?” he swoops in and kisses her again. “I will gift wrap the heads of your enemies. I’ll even fill their eye sockets with glitter.”
He blinks away from Drystan’s hold, landing on top of the crank wheel. “Mush, mush! Wolfie needs to cuddle his mate.”
The next cage is Wraith, who leaps down with a snap of agitation. The creatures of Faerie dislike iron as much as the fae, though they don’t have such severe reactions to it. The barghest shakes out his fur, strands of it raining everywhere, before he stretches deeply and comes over to lick Rose’s face affectionately.
