His black eyes bulged deep in their sockets as his gnarled hands covered his mouth. When he lowered them, I saw the grin that remained. “She’s the one,” he attempted to whisper, failing in the most irritating way. “A Goddess could save you! She can break the curse!”
“She cannot,” I said dismissively. “Not in the way you’re thinking, Piff.” I continued up the staircase, meeting the landing that led to the endless corridors of the Underrealm.
He followed, postponing my earlier command to stop her bleeding. “Oh, sire, do not be so hard on yourself! Any woman could love you and that Beast! All we need to do is?—”
“She cannot!” My words echoed around us and I sighed heavily. “She cannot love me. Ever. Now go.”
“But—”
“Go, Piff. Or I’ll barricade you in the western corridor.”
“Master,” he clucked, “you need me too much for me to believe such empty threats.”
“One day I will be dead. I will not need you then, old friend.”
His strange laughter trickled behind me as he rushed down the stairs. “Even then, I shall need to dig your grave, sire!”
I chuckled, entering the marbled hall, muttering under my breath. “Sooner than you think.”
CHAPTER 6
Reshina
When I liftedmyself from the floor, a trail of blood followed, staining the dusty slab of stone below my feet. I’d heal quickly from the wound as soon as I could bind it and get through the excruciating pain of setting the bone back into my ragged skin.
I looked up to find that the hole I fell through had closed. The tunnel ceiling had righted itself with no evidence I had ever fallen through it.
Dragged, more like. The King of Heartstone had aided my rather unorthodox appearance into the realm below Revelry, and we had a score to settle already.
I’d never been to the Underrealm. Upon reflection, I couldn’t recall any of the other eleven Goddesses saying they had either. Ishtak, Goddess of the Underrealm, ruled over the Underfae and wasn’t exactly a welcoming soul.
But it was Ishtak whom I would need to find.
She lurked somewhere in this Goddessforsaken realm of dank stone and dirt. If anyone knew how to get me out of this curse, it would be her.
“Pardon me, Your Exaltedness.”
I rarely startled but jumped at the golden sconce speakingto me.
“My apologies!” it cried, donning two blinking eyes and a droll little mouth. “I have come to assist you with your wounds!”
I sighed heavily, cradling my wrist and assessing how best to slip the bone back into place. “I am not in need of assistance from a gibbering candlestick.”
“Oh! But I am not always such a thing!”
I stepped back in surprise. A little man, reaching just to my elbow, appeared beside me in a flash of gold shimmer. He wore the finely detailed burgundy jacket of a servant, immaculately pressed. His hair was a curly brown with bits of white ashes tufted throughout that he quickly brushed aside. With a crinkled face and large eyes, it was easy to look past his pointed ears, ending in skin the color of molten gold.
“Ah, a Changlingfae,” I concluded, focusing back to my painful task at hand.
“The Goddess knows all!” he squeaked, turning his large set eyes to my wrist.
“Nonsense,” I muttered, “your golden ears have given you away. And the fact that you were no more than wall decor but a moment ago.” I took a full deep breath, then another. “Is that your Changlingfae power, then? To shift into a light source?” At the last of my words I gripped my hand, snapping it over the jutting bone. I whimpered in muted cries, taking more breaths before I opened my eyes to assess my progress.
“Precious Goddess, no!” he shouted in a high pitch bellow. “My gift is healing! The wall was just a bit of an introduction. Now here, let me see?—”
His gnarled hands reached for my own and I stepped back. “I don’t need your help, Changelingfae.” I thought for half a moment, adding, “Not for this anyway.”
“But I?—”
