My heart feels as if it’s going to tear in two, even though this was the plan.
Morgan, Jak and I agreed it should be me because I was the most likely to turn, at least from the outside. I really thought Warrior was going to kill me outright when I followed Bryn’s trail here alone and I entered through the small Ring that’s in the courtyard.
He wanted to run me through, but I see now that he’s fallen out of favor with his mistress. Taking more liberties will surely mean death. The real kind.
Now, I have to try to keep the bitch busy, stop her from scattering the people of Halsford to the four corners of the DarkRealms. At least Bryn is relatively safe. So long as she’s needed, she’ll remain so.
I trail behind Fiana as we return to her hall. I ignore the girl who looks like Lia in the block, the grunts of the male mounting her as we pass, but the fae queen’s smile is wide as she sees the woman who looks a little like the Harbinger gettingwhat she deserves.
There’s nothing I can do for the girl, likely nothing I can do for any of them.
But she catches my eye as I climb the dais, and, just for a moment, her expression is not one of fear and pain, but one ofboredom.
She looks jaded and annoyed, as if Fiana’s notice is an inconvenience to some prior plans she has in the court.
The moment passes and she whimpers loudly as Fiana’s eyes find her once more, but it sounds false to my ears now.
I don’t stare at her, but she’s clearly had training in subterfuge and I’m wondering if she’s a spy for the Underhill. I’m sure I don’t know the girl, but there are a few who are so deep in the Dark Realms that I’ve never met them. Perhaps Lia and Dane were able to get the Council Five to agree to act and the Underhill is already here.
Emboldened by the thought, I walk with Fiana through her office and to her bed chamber. She looks back at me to make sure I’m watching and steps into the wall, disappearing. Another seemingly effortless conjure. Is she truly this powerful, or is it merely sleight of hand, tricks and mirrors?
I follow willingly to see whatever horrors await me, ready for the signal to kill her.
CHAPTER 13
BRYN
The day is waning. I can tell because the narrow band of sunlight that was coming through the bars of the door has disappeared completely. I haven't moved in hours. Guards walk along the long corridor, sometimes bashing the hilts of their swords into the metal bars and chuckling when the humans wail and scream in fear. The people taken from Halsford are subdued other than that. As the hours pass, some quietly cry, others try to keep their children from being afraid.
But they're all just waiting for the inevitable, like I am.
As for me, my tears have dried, and now I’m just angry. At myself. At Locke. At Jak and Morgan. How could we have been so foolish as to have trusted him again?
But when I think back to the river, how Locke saved me, how he took me to Gwen’s, it doesn't make sense. Was all of it simply to gain my trust? Why? Why bother? If Halsford was going to be raided anyway, I would have been caught by Warrior or brought here by Locke himself. What did he care if I believed in him or not?
I watch as a guard begins another patrol through the long corridor of the dungeon. He looks younger than the others I’ve seen. Beardless and inexperienced.
Will I wait here like a slave as I would have before I got a taste of the Light, or will I at least try to escape?
I stand in my little cell, drawing what strength I have around me, hoping I can get Fate to work in my favor as I was able to in Kitore and upstairs in Fiana’s office.
'What are you doing?' Claudia asks from the cell next to mine, Orry gripping her skirts hard.
'I'm getting out of here,' I say. ‘Are you coming?’
'How?' she asks, getting to her feet as well, her eyes glinting in determination.
'We'll find a way. Unless you all want to sit here and wait to be sold back into the Dark Realms.'
Claudia bares her teeth in the low light. 'I'd rather die a thousand deaths,' she snarls as she surveys the other women who are in the cell with her.
'Come,' she says. 'Ready yourselves. Bryn is going to get us out of here.'
I hear a couple of scoffs, mostly from a few of the men on the other side. The ones who I believe attacked me, though Tavish himself is quiet.
'How isthe Dark Realmergoing to help?' one of them mutters to another.
Ignoring them, I watch the guard, my eyes narrow, willing Fate to help. The door to the dungeons opens, and I see Warrior himself stalk toward us with purpose.
