“Unless my intelligence agents have deceived me,” Keradoc said, his attention shifting between Elian, Jax, and Hudson, “you three are the men responsible for the current epidemic raging through Amaranth City.”
“That’s quite an accusation,” Elian drawled. “Got any proof?”
“I’m well aware of your exploits in Midnight and back in your home realm.” Keradoc rested his black-tipped fingers on the table, leaning close to Elian. “I’m well aware of how you escaped Midnight. I’m well aware of who assisted you, and I’m well aware of what those individuals received—continueto receive— as payment for services rendered. I’ve known all of it from the start, and I’ve allowed your operations to persist regardless of your status as fugitives and criminals, so kindly spare me the tedium of your denials.”
Wisely, Elian said nothing. Jax said nothing. And—spoiler alert—Hudson remained silent as well.
“What I require now,” Keradoc continued, “is for you to devise a more potent, more addictive formulation. One that will be spoken about in hushed whispers across the city, the mountains, and every last battlefront in the realm with an air of exclusivity and scarcity that will have the armies of our enemies clamoring for a taste—a taste we will gladly provide. While the demon and the vampire-fae devise and test the new formulation and my own soldiers begin feeding the rumor mills, the gargoyle will serve as my appointee in overseeing the harvest and transport of the corpsevine flowers from all known fields as well as any new territories we discover.”
“You’re trying to take them down from the inside?” I asked. “By getting them hooked on your dark fae crack?”
“A general must use every tactic at his disposal.”
“Why not just poison them?” I asked. “Make them believe they’re getting the good stuff, then…wham. Little black bottle of death.”
“Darkwinter have powerful fae witches among them. Witches able to sniff out poisons.”
“And you don’t think this shit is poison?” I set the bottle back on the table. Elian shifted in his chair. If not for the chains, I was pretty sure his knee would be bouncing.
“Not in the same way,” Keradoc said. “Dream is a recreational drug like any other. By the time the enemy soldiers realize the effects of its enhanced potency, they will be too weak to counteract it. Too addicted. It happens quickly, Miss Barnes.” He gestured at Elian as if he were the newly appointed poster boy.
Just say no, kids. Be cool, stay in school.
“Dastardly,” I said, unable to keep the disgust from my tone. “Another trick you picked up at the Academy? Bet you were the star pupil, weren’t you?”
“Would you rather I—what’s the term you use back home?Nukethem?”
“Itwouldbe faster,” I said.
“Yes, and I suppose I have the magickal backing to devise a weapon of that sort. One that could take out the entire realm at the press of a button. The problem, Miss Barnes, is that whatever you think of Midnight fae, we do not—to borrow another quaint phrase from your homeland—shit where we eat. This is myhome, for all that my enemies are attempting to claim it from me, and I do not wish to destroy it.”
A glimmer of fierce pride shone in his dark eyes, and for a moment, I couldn’t look away.
A strange understanding passed between us.
I knew what it felt like when your home was being threatened. What it felt like to want to defend it with your very last breath, by any means necessary.
The really fucked-up thing was… I could almost understand why he felt that way about Midnight. I’d only been here a couple of weeks, yet the place had already gotten under my skin. The thought of it falling under Darkwinter reign—under the reign ofanyenemy who sought to trample and destroy it…
Bile rose in my throat at the realization, but I couldn’t deny it. Some part of me—a very dim, deeply buried part—actually wanted to help him.
And maybe, if he’d come to us with a proposal instead of demands—instead of soldiers and spelled chains—we’d be having a very different conversation right now.
“So your entire strategy for winning the war and saving the homeland you claim to love rests on the ability of four prisoners—prisoners you’ve already beaten and tortured, mind you—to remain loyal to your cause and carry out your orders without issue?” I laughed. “Really?”
“And here she thought you were the star pupil,” Jax said to him. “Perhaps you need a refresher on your coursework.”
“There is no such thing as loyalty, Miss Barnes,” Keradoc said coolly, ignoring Jax. “Not in Midnight. But for the right price, certain insurances can be bought, and trust me when I tell you I’ve investedheavilyin the ensuring of your cooperation as well as my own safety throughout ourentirearrangement.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Let me keep this simple—for all of you—so there’s no confusion later.” He leaned even closer, his cold-roses scent slipping past my defenses, trying desperately to remind me of that stupid kiss. In a dark, dangerous voice, he said, “Should anything befall me or my personal guards, my generals, my staff, or anyone evenremotelyconnected to me or this castle, your friends will be tortured while you watch. Should you attempt another escape, you’ll get as far as the Sanctuary before you’re captured and forced to torture one another for me and my guests, whom I assure you will pay quite handsomely for the entertainment. Do you sense a theme here?”
Yeah, I sensed a theme. Douchebag, with heavy accents of narcissistic personality disorder and toxic masculinity, framed in a neat little package ofcompleteflaming asshole.
But I was pretty sure it was a rhetorical question.
I lowered my gaze and sighed. I didn’t doubt Keradoc would hurt us. Badly. But he hadn’t threatened us withexecution, which further cemented my belief in what he’d admitted earlier: no matter what, he needed us alive.
