The air shimmered gold and green as it had before. Faye closed her eyes, concentrating on her friend’s face.Take me to her, she commanded the energy.I am a daughter of Falias, and I command you to do my bidding.
Yet, when she opened her eyes, she found the High Queen, Levantiana, standing in front of her.
‘Faye Morgan. I had heard that you had returned, but thought that surely it couldn’t be true. You would not return without what you promised me.’
The faerie queen was beautiful in the same way that Finn was: they were of the same blood, or whatever else coursed in their veins – brackish river water, or the clear tide that gathered in rockpools perhaps. Her hair was the same dark gold as his, and her face as finely featured. Yet, her eyes were a darker blue, and she had no tattoos on her flawless skin.
Levantiana’s tone was icy as she towered over Faye.
‘Answer me. We made a bargain, and you have not come to me to deliver what was agreed,’ the faerie queen hissed. Up close, Faye noticed that the material of her diaphanous robe seemed to be made of fish scales, gleaming in the dim lamplight; it was transparent, and underneath it, Levantiana was naked. ‘And, please do not bother with your ridiculously childish magic. The magic of the earth realm will not work between these walls.’
‘I…there hasn’t been enough time to get pregnant,’ Faye lied. She had absolutely no intention of either getting pregnant or of giving that baby to the faerie queen.
‘My assistance can be withdrawn as it was given.’ Levantiana regarded Faye’s face, tracing one fingertip over her pale, sweaty forehead. ‘Though you are unwell, it seems.’ Her expression became watchful, and without warning, the faerie queen grasped at Faye’s stomach through the silky dress, holding her hand on Faye’s abdomen. ‘Aha. Perhaps you have not betrayed my trust, after all,sidhe-leth.’ Levantiana smiled wolfishly, and Faye’s hand went instinctively to her belly in protection.
‘What?’
Levantiana smiled even wider. ‘I believe that, with your kind, being with child gives you the nausea you currently find yourself with.’ She arched an imperious eyebrow. ‘Indeed, I doubted your fealty,sidhe-leth. It would seem that I had no need to question it.’
‘But I’m not…’ Faye began, and trailed off, not knowing what to say. She wasn’t pregnant, was she? Surely this was the same faerie hangover as she’d had before. She would know, surely…Her mind raced. If Levantiana wanted to believe that she was pregnant, she wouldn’t disagree. In fact, it could work to her advantage if the faerie queen thought she was with child.
‘What has brought you to this part of the castle? Did you seek me? To tell me about the child?’ Levantiana held out a hand andpulled Faye upright. Her head spun, and she felt the sickness rise again, but swallowed and took a deep breath to steady herself.
‘Y-yes, my queen. Though I also sought another. A friend that Finn holds prisoner in the dungeons here.’ Faye thought quickly. The bargain of a child, her child, was a considerable one; if Levantiana believed that she truly would get what she’d asked Faye for, then she’d probably be willing to help her again. Yet, Levantiana was watching her closely, and Faye knew that she was trying to tell if she was lying. She couldn’t slip up.
‘A friend?’
‘A woman, Aisha. Finn took her with the others from the concert at Abercolme. I’ve seen her in dreams, and I know she’s dying here.’ Faye allowed the emotion to flood her voice and reached for Levantiana’s hand. ‘Please, dear queen. Please help me once more. I have acted on my part of the bargain.’ She made herself lie and hoped she was doing it convincingly.
‘I have already fulfilled my side of the bargain.’ Levantiana pulled her hand away. ‘You are the one who is in my debt and not the other way around. Go back to my brother for as long as you desire to be his whore, Faye Morgan, but never think that you can ask anything else from me.’ Her voice was cold like the sea at Abercolme in winter where a couple of minutes of swimming would induce hypothermia. Faye shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.
‘Please, Levantiana. For the child.’ Faye appealed to the faerie queen, but Levantiana’s mouth stayed pursed in a line.
‘I do not owe you anything,’ she repeated, and turned away, opening a door opposite. ‘Look after the child for me, Faye Morgan. When it is time, I will help you in your labours. That, Iwilldo for you,’ she sneered, and opened the door wider. ‘I have paid the price for interfering in my brother’s affairs of the heart and have promised him I will do so no more. For you see, I havemy own human lover, and I would not want my brother to take this one away from me.’
The heavy wooden door swung back on its hinges as Faye stumbled forward to look inside what she realised must be Levantiana’s personal chamber. She saw inside for just a moment before Levantiana slammed the door in her face, but it was enough time for horror to soak Faye’s heart with its dark dread.
Inside, chained to the opposite wall, hung the unconscious, naked body of Gabriel Black.
31
Faye didn’t remember being carried back to Finn’s quarters or laid out on his bed. All she saw in her feverish dreams was Gabriel’s body, striped with lines of blood, and bruising at his wrists where they were cuffed to the wall.
Yet, in her dreams, Gabriel’s eyes met hers with a mixture of pain and desire as Levantiana knelt naked in front of him and took his engorged cock into her mouth. He groaned, the blood dripping into his eyes as Levantiana licked his rock-hard member from root to tip, her eyes never leaving Faye’s. And then, as Faye watched in horror, took his balls in her long-fingered hand with its razor-sharp black nails and squeezed, digging the nails in until they drew blood and he bellowed in pain.
Gabriel’s words back in the shop echoed in Faye’s confused memory:What life is this, here with these dusty old books? Better a life lived.And Faye, in her dream, tried to reach out for him, to release him from his bonds, but he turned his head away.No, no. I am hers.
Faye was dimly aware that light faerie hands raised her body up and trickled faerie wine down her throat; that they washedher and dressed her; but she had no awareness of time passing. She was lost in a dream, walking the corridors of the castle of Murias, searching for Aisha and Gabriel, calling their names. Yet, in her fever, every doorway in the corridor opened onto a cliff edge with a drop that yawned under her, or a wall of black water in which large, indistinct shapes moved – shadows within a darkness that made fear flick its tail in her belly.
She could feel consciousness tugging at her; light suffused one end of the corridor, and she walked towards it.
Yet, just before she walked into the light, her perception changed, and she saw the castle for a moment as if it was made of glass. She could see everything: the levels indexed like cards in a box; the contents of each room; the secrets of the castle laid bare. And in that moment, she saw the dungeon that she was searching for, closer than she’d expected.
She awoke with Aisha’s name on her lips and found Finn sitting next to her on the bed. Seeing her open her eyes, he placed his warm hand on her brow.
‘You’re cooling down. That’s good.’ He propped her up on pillows and lifted a cup to her lips. ‘Here. Drink this.’
Expecting it to be faerie wine, Faye turned her head away, but Finn tipped it up to her lips, making her drink. ‘It’s just water. Drink it.’
