Another bolt shot through my chest. Not fear this time, but adrenaline. My vision started to clear.
Dais. I was on my knees in front of a black dais in a massive throne room, all black—the walls, the polished marble floor, the velvet drapes hanging over the windows. Magick torches lined the walls, and at the top of the platform, a shadowed figure sat in an imposing throne made of skulls, bones, and polished obsidian.
Keradoc.
Fancy yourself a king now, do you?
Violet eyes blazed through the darkness, glaring down at me.
“Enter,” he called out gruffly, and a heavy door clanged open a few dozen feet behind me, chains rattling.
Footsteps echoed across the floor, along with the clink of swords slapping against armor and the sound of something being dragged.
I swallowed hard. Refused to look. Because if Keradoc’s guards had taken any of my men…
The stench of wet fur and blood plowed into me. Seconds later, two beasts were deposited unceremoniously at my side.
Certain they weren’t mine, I darted a quick glance.
Shifters, though it was hard to tell what type. Wolves, most likely. The poor beasts were caught mid-shift, with the heads and torsos of men, the arms and legs of… something else. Both were emaciated, with bruised faces and ribs poking through open wounds on their skin.
Tears glazed my eyes. Poor fucking creatures. I didn’t care what they’d done to end up in Midnight. They didn’t deserve what’d happened to them. Didn’t deserve whatever punishment Keradoc was about to dish out now.
I twisted my wrists, trying not to draw too much attention. If I could just get the rope to cut deep enough to spill some of my blood, I might be able to conjure a spell…
“Anything to say for yourselves, filth?” Keradoc asked, finally tearing his gaze away from me to look at the other prisoners. The gruffness had faded, replaced with the smooth, hypnotic tone he’d used on me in the ballroom. Its liquid warmth washed over me in a soothing wave.
The logical part of me insisted it was fae magick. That he was trying to entrance me.
It didn’t feel like fae trickery, though. No more than it had in the ballroom.
Yes, and look how wellthatworked out for you, dumbass.
Next to me, one of the shifters spit on the dais. The other said nothing.
Keradoc rose from the throne, taking his sweet time, his steps silent and graceful as he descended the platform. One of the guards stepped forward and handed him a gleaming sword that looked as if it’d just been forged.
Either that, or it’d never seen battle.
Keradoc approached the shifter farthest from me, who lifted his chin defiantly. Touching the tip of the sword to the prisoner’s throat, Keradoc said, “You have been charged with treason, sedition, and conspiracy against the realm. How do you plead?”
The shifter lifted his chin higher. Opened his mouth to speak.
But Keradoc had already raised the blade.
It happened so fast, I didn’t even have time to duck.
I heard the zing of the metal cutting through the air, felt the bite of a sharp point grazing my neck.
A lock of my hair fell soundlessly to the floor, and beside me, two heads dropped. Their bodies slumped forward, blood spilling like wine tipped from a glass.
It pooled beside me, inching closer, finally soaking through my dress.
The acrid tang of it tickled the back of my throat. Magick rushed up my spine, but that was just an instinctive response to the presence of so much blood. I couldn’t actually cast a spell unless I used myownblood.
“Is there a problem, witch?” Keradoc asked. “Seems you’ve got something to say.”
“You didn’t even wait for their plea,” I blurted out. “You just beheaded two shifters—residents of your own realm—and you didn’t even hear their plea.”
