Page 71 of Healing Elixirs & Wicked Crows

“You didn’t try hard enough.If it had been you cursed instead of Briar, she would have broken the curse in a fraction of the time you’ve spent blundering around.”

Cloves, when ingested, can inhibit pain receptors or reduce inflammation.When used as a paste and not ingested, it could be used to aid oral health.It has also been linked to restoring digestive balances.

Everything numbed within me until a single memory flashed behind my tired eyes.A small, bowed form standing before a plush bed within the room of a dilapidated cottage in total disarray.Still just a child but for the weight thrust upon her shoulders.

“You,” I seethed, tearing my chin from her grip as I glared up at her.“You left me alone as a child.You gave me nothing but an insurmountable burden.Your anger and grief left you blinded to our needs, and your petty revenge made the task you throttled me with impossible.”I slowly stood as I spat each word until I stood nose-to-nose with the ghost of my mother.“You’re the reason I have suffered.You’re the reason Briar has suffered.You…” I stared up into the bloodied sky, screaming at the heavens for all to hear.“...and you!”

I knew there was something there to focus my rage upon, at which to direct my anger.I caught a slip of a smirk from my mother before she faded away into nothingness.Relief tugged at my shoulders as the crimson forest, the bloodied skies, and even the sloshy mess at my feet disappeared, leaving me alone in the darkness once more.

No.Not darkness.I winced, feeling the stone beneath my cheek as I winced at the softest orange glow.A slight flickering of a candle’s flame.And the unseelie’s grinning face just beyond it.

I tried to move, to lunge, to pull power to me, but I was weak, drained, and so very tired.

The queen’s head tilted.“Broken yet, dear?”

I ground my teeth together, answering her only with my silence.Every bone felt as though it had been flayed.My muscles ached.My mind was so foggy that I barely recalled where I was.I blinked up at her, praying my heated gaze held every ounce of hatred this world had to offer.

“You know, once upon a time, I was just like you.In love with someone not meant for me.”The queen chuckled.“Believe it or not, he was a seelie lord.My parents refused the matching, but I was young and lost to lust.I believed our peoples could have peace between us, that we need not draw a line through the sands of our courts.”She turned to me then, sighing.“Do you know what happened to that poor, young, naïve girl?”

I watched her, my lips not daring to part in response.

She smiled then, and a chill spread down my spine at the sinister gleam behind her narrowed gaze.“That seelie lord wanted to marry me.He wanted me to run away with him.He told me how he loved me.And so, one dark night, I snuck him into our keep to help me pack some belongings.Except, that hadn’t been his intention.He murdered my parents, my siblings?—”

She pulled at the collar of her gown, her fingers dipping beneath the black lace until she bared an ugly, jagged scar that ran across her chest, just above her left breast.“He tried to kill me as well.”She shrugged, letting the gown shift back into place.“But I tore out his still-beating heart, and as he slumped against the stone wall of my sister’s bedroom, I dropped the deathly still heart into his lap.And with his blood coating my fingers, I realized then how weak love had made me.Love will always be a weakness, and the unseelie and seelie can never have peace.”

“I heard a different story,” I rasped out, my voice nearly failing me.I didn’t know how long I’d been trapped within her hold, but the constant thirst and screaming had left my throat hoarse.“I heard that the seelie lord had loved you so much that when he came to claim your hand in marriage, against his parents’ wishes, begging your parents to reconsider their refusal, that a bloodbath ensued.His parents showed up to that meeting, threatening your life.You weren’t even there when that seelie lord you claim you loved defended your honor, and when you showed up and saw the bloodbath in the throne room, you didn’t even give him the chance to explain himself before you ripped his heart out.It was not in your sister’s bedroom.All I see is that love always deserves a chance to explain, and a chance for forgiveness.And you gave your love neither.”

My cheek burned as her palm slapped me so hard my ears rang from the force.She hissed as she pulled her fist through the bars, her skin steaming against the iron for a second as she snarled at me.“You know nothing!”

Inch by painful inch, I lifted myself on weakened limbs until I sat.My cheek smarted from her striking it, but I refused to press my fingertips to it, refused to show her any weakness as I met her angry glare.“I know that when a fae finds their mate, to deny them, to kill them, is to kill their own heart.It’s the reason you are horrid.You rotted yourself from the inside out.”

I met her furious gaze without flinching.I refused to break.She had darkened her heart with her deeds and snatched mine away with a mere flick of her wrist.But as I straightened my spine, I vowed to seize her heart in my grasp, even if it took my last breath to achieve it.

She snickered at me, her fingers curling around her dark hair as it hung in silky strands along her porcelain skin.“If you’re not broken now.”She tsked as she stood, rising above me fluidly, her fingers still wrapped around the brass candle holder as she took the light further away.The shadows danced and stretched, reaching for me with icy fingers.“You soon will be.Then I will break you again, and again, and again.Until you’ve lost all sense of yourself.You won’t be able to tell reality from illusion.”She cocked her head.“Do you feel it happening now?”

I held still, not bothering to respond.My gaze was feral, my mind already half lost.

The queen stopped in front of the stairs, leaving me in the darkness alone.She held the flickering flame of her candle next to her face.Her brows lifted as if she remembered something.“A pack of wolves have been patrolling my woods, but my guards are currently killing them.Soon, I’ll have new fur for my rugs, but I will bring you their heads.It won’t be long before all your friends have moved onto the next life, but you…” She gave her head a slow, sad shake.“You’ll still be here.”

She turned from me then, her voice singing as she disappeared up the curling stone steps.“Death is a blessing, but you, my dear, will never feel its cold touch.You will be lost forever down here only wishing for its release.”

With no sense of time but the eternal stretch of darkness, I didn’t know how long passed before the next nightmare began.

Into the Castle

ELIAS

The refuse tunnel soon gave way to dry stone and echoing, damp hallways as we made our way through a hidden entrance and into the underbelly of the castle.My fingers trailed along the cold stone as I led the way forward.A door somewhere along the wall would lead to a secret passageway.I just needed to remember where.With the wolves and incoming seelie army surrounding the castle, the lower levels of the castle shouldn’t be as heavily guarded.

Each of us softened our steps, and the silence of the passageways was stifling.We needed that blanket of quiet to hide our approach.Fae could hear a petal fall half a forest away if they wanted to.The orb of light still hung by my head, but the glow remained dim.Only bright enough to lead our silent steps quietly over the stone.My gaze swept the walls, searching for the entrance in the low light.

My ears prickled, picking up the gentle gurgle of water running.This part of the castle had been built over a small section of the underground river.Which meant that we were close to the river passage, one of the escape routes that flowed from the old palace.The sound of rushing water grew to a deafening roar, but it gave us the cover to quicken our pace.We turned a bend, and I stopped, nodding to Darius at my back.He joined me at the wall, both of us digging our fingers into the cracks between the stones.

My left hand snagged on something in a damp groove, and with a press, a faint snick clicked.The wall section before me shifted, swinging inward to reveal a narrow, dark passageway.I ducked through first, leading Briar and Darius through the tightening space.The castle entrance was near, so I paused, signaling with a raised hand for Briar and Darius to stop.I closed my fist, extinguishing the glowing orb and letting shadows envelop us.My brother grasped my shoulder, his other hand clasping Briar's, forming a chain as we advanced into the darkness.

We navigated passageways and ascended several tunnels before I paused again.The flickering orange glow from the corridor around the corner made my breath catch.My instincts warned me someone was there.Peering around the stone wall, I saw a guard who stifled a gasp, his hand dropping to his sword's hilt as his eyes met mine, his fingers frozen, brow raised.

“Prince Elias?”Footsteps scraped against stone at my back and the guard’s widened stare shifted.“Prince Darius?”His fingers slid from the hilt of his sword, and he dragged them through his red curls instead.It was Conor a fae noble’s youngest son, someone we’d grown up with.