Page 104 of The Fallen Fae King

Maximinus releases the chains, and I stumble to my knees. “Since you’re not working for me, I don’t need to provide you with any more antidote. That was your last dose. I don’t provide them without a price. The effects will possibly work for a couple of months, but these things are unpredictable. I was only ever freeing you to death. We both know that I executed you a long time ago.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Guild of Assassins, Shadow Court

Lanlin

I curl up alone on the stone floor of the dungeon, shivering.

By the Void, how do the dragons cope in such cold? I peer through the black, at the damp, moldy walls of the cell in the Guild of Assassins. Its silver bars press even more oppressively on my magic than the shackles that sear my wrists.

Tremors wrack my body.

I press myself more firmly into the corner, hissing as I put pressure onto the lash marks on my back.

May Wraith and Taran choke on their own fucking sadism.

One day, I shall play with them, as they have played with me.

I hug my arms around my hollow, aching stomach. I pant, desperate and crazed with gnawing hunger and thirst.

Don’t think about the blood, blood, nectar-like blood of my Little Raven…the taste as it coats my tongue, filling my mouth like sunshine, before slipping down my throat like my entire life suddenly has meaning…

I groan.

When I am wracked by shivers again, the movement sends stabbing pains through my chest. I cradle my side, careful to keep my breaths shallow.

Has it been a week? Eight days?

It seems longer since I was stripped of my wedding outfit, ribbons, and diamonds, as if I was no longer allowed any status as royalty and thrown into icy cold water until even the makeup was washed from my face.

When a Beta servant reached to remove my scarab beetle pendant, however, I’d snarled, backing across the bath chamber.

“Whoever tries to take this away from me,” I growled, “will lose their hand.”

The pendant was the only thing I had remaining from my family.

“Our King says that you must be good and obey,” the Beta timidly told me. “Or your Blood Lover will suffer.”

Instantly, I stilled.

If the Beta had said that Aurelius had threatened our Omega, then I would have called his bluff. But how much care could Aurelius have for Daire if he had allowed him to wear the cursed silver that now adorned my wrists on the skin of his face?

If he knew that I would execute him as my mother’s killer if I discovered his identity?

Raven was as much a captive in this kingdom as I was. Of course Aurelius would hurt him to control me.

Slowly, I unclasped my pendant for the first time since Lazarus had put it on me.

It was agonizing to pass it over to the servant.

“Break this, and I shall break you in ways that you have never dreamed possible,” I warned. “I shall not forget your face in this life or the next, understand?”

The Beta paled, nodding hurriedly.

Nothing remained of my kingdom. I felt exposed.

Alone.