No magic could save me, but I did not fall into the earth without a fight. My fingers clawed at the roots in my descent, my fingernails snagging in wet earth, breaking and tearing as I tried and failed to stop my fall. The pull was impossible to counter with the magic from the Veil setting its course over me. I felt the curse settle there, just as I’d felt my own curse centuries ago nestle into my skin.
The tumble took as much of the fight in me as it could, but I was stronger. For a split moment, I stopped, my hand grasping a jutting rock, my fingers scraped and bloody over the stone. I dangled there, waiting for what, I couldn’t say, as I had no room to shift and no clear way back to the top. In the growing dark, my fingers began to slip just before a hand wrapped around myankle, tugging at my flesh, and aiding my plummet into the looming doom that was the pinnacle of my fate.
The Ravenfae Goddess of the Veil, brought to her lowest point, tumbled into the darkness that consumed all light. When I fell, I landed with a sharp crack, my wrist catching on the floor of a tunnel paved in stone. I breathed with fury and disbelief, my lungs heaving through the pain of a shattered bone broken through the skin of my wrist. My whimper was slight, but all sound echoed endlessly through the dark tunnel, including the harsh whisper of my captor.
“Reshina?”
Goddessdamn me, how could I have been so foolish?
“Yes,” I breathed, sitting up, cradling my broken wrist with my still bleeding hand.
“Ravenfae Goddess?” he whispered in clear disbelief.
I shook my head at my carelessness, even though I replied with a gritted, “Yes.”
The man fell on bended knees, yanking my hand forward, inspecting the cut across my palm. Before I could pull it back, he traced over the fresh blood, bringing his fingers to his lips. His tongue met the crimson stain and a low laugh tumbled from his chest, reverberating off the rough hewn walls lit in candlelight from the sconces lining the tunnel path.
I pulled my hand back to my chest, seething at his response. So here was the King of Heartstone. Here was the man whose curse I was now bound to. I lifted my chin through the pain. “I cannot fathom what could be so humorous, Your Majesty. Do you so often laugh at a woman broken and bleeding on your doorstep?”
His laughter halted in an abrupt rumble. He stood, sinking his hands into his pockets. “I find it humorous, Goddess, that it isyouof all the souls of Revelry who should bleed on my land.” Another laugh escaped him, both mad and humorless. “You brought this curse upon this kingdom. And…” He paused, cocking his head as he looked me over. “You are perhaps the single soul who could never break it.”
He turned and walked away, leaving me to bleed on the stone beneath the earth. “Welcome to the Underrealm,” he called over his shoulder, adding after a pause, “Cursed Goddess of the Veil.”
CHAPTER 5
Arthur
BRINGER.
“Quiet.”
BRINGER HERE.
“Yes,” I spat through gritted teeth. “I know. Go to sleep.”
TWO DAYS FREE.
I stopped abruptly on the steps leading out of the tunnel. “Absolutely not. You refused to leave when I offered that deal.”
LEFT.
“Only after I forced my control over you. Now shut up and rest. I’ve got to think.”
YOU NEED BRINGER.
The Beast’s last words rang through my thoughts before I felt him drift, closing our connection.
“Sire!”
“What!” I spun in a rage, my grating tone echoing behind me.
Piff shrank, curling in on himself and lowering his head. I hadn’t even noticed him appear in front of me. “Sorry to disturb you, Master, but the woman…she is bleeding, is she not?”
I glanced behind me as if I’d be able to see her. “Patch her up.We don’t need a frenzy on our hands. Goddess or no, they’d tear her apart if she got too close.”
“Goddess!” Piff shrieked, shrinking again as I gave him a withering look.
I nodded, softening my tone. “Of the Ravenfae, yes. I expect you to take care of her needs while she is here. She needn't be wandering down any dark corridors, do you understand?”
