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Chapter 9
Bree
Fillan hadn’t shownhis face since he’d snuck into Bree’s quarters, but she felt his presence hovering around her like a clingy fog no matter how hard she tried to forget what he’d asked her to do. Truth be told, she was more than a little curious to find the answer to his question. What was Taveon’ssecret?
The answer to that question might very well lead to the more important one: who had put Taveon under his curse? And how could they fixit?
So far, the council had managed to keep the truth about the King’s current state held tight within the castle walls, but it was only a matter of time before the news began to spread throughout the Dark Fae lands. One little spark was all it would take for the entire Court to go up in flames, leaving behind nothing more than the ashy remains of everyoneinside.
The only way to stop it would be to find out the answer to Bree’s questions before enemies discovered Taveon’sfate.
Bree took a deep breath as she stared out her window at the setting moon. Soon, full darkness would consume the skies, and every fae in the castle would turn to their beds for sleep. It was the perfect time to snoop around. She needed to find someanswers.
Bree waited a few more hours and then doused the light in her room, along with the flickering fire that kept her quarters warm from the cold that had begun to seep into the castle as the nights grew colder. Underworld did not have fully distinguishable seasons like the human and Light Fae realms. Instead, they had two “stages” of the year. Cold and Warm. Now, the Cold was slowly creeping in, and Bree couldn’t help but wonder what this nighttime place would look like in thesnow.
As she poked her head out the door, she let out a slow exhale of relief when she saw the corridor was dark, empty, and as silent as the deepest part of a forest. She did not take any light with her, choosing her own eyes instead of a candle’s bright flame. Rafe had taught her how to shift single body parts when needed, and her beastly eyes could see in the dark far better than her ‘human’ eyes could see in thelight.
The floorboards creaked underneath as she slowly shut her door behind her. Taking in a deep breath, she focused on the path ahead and made her way down the deathly-silent hallways of the castle. Tonight, she would hunt foranswers.
* * *
Bree steppedinside the former King’s chambers. In his absence, the room felt like a tomb, and the echo of his presence resounded through the lofted stone space like a dying heartbeat. Shivering, she hugged her arms to her chest and shifted her eyes back to normal after spotting a candle on the table just inside thedoor.
After lighting the flame, Bree held the candle aloft before her and gazed from one end of the room to the other. If someone had asked her how she imagined King Midas’s private chambers to be, this was pretty close to what she would havedescribed.
Along the far wall hung skulls of varying shapes and sizes. Some looked human—or fae. Others looked beastly, their sharp edges glinting against the candlelight. There were probably a hundred of them, and Bree had no desire to know where they’d come from, how, or why. Victims, she imagined. Fae and beasts who had fallen against the King’s sword. Some of them had likely been enemies, though she knew Midas had often been a fan of putting heads on stakes just outside the front gates as a reminder to the realm of his unyieldingstrength.
To her left was a bed, but it was unlike any bed she’d ever seen. There were no sheets. No pillows. Just a slab of stone erected high above the floor. Midas wasn’t the kind of fae who valued comfort, a fact that was reflected even in his most private ofspaces.
More than ever, she was glad she’d never had to meet themale.
A click resounded in the heavy silence, and Bree whirled toward the door. Dagen stood just inside, his eyes widening when he spotted her skulking around in the midst of the previous King’s quarters. Bree’s heart began to race. Not out of fear but from something else. Something she couldn’t quitename.
“Bree?” Dagen lifted his eyebrows, and then quickly closed the door behind him. “What in the name of the forest are you doing in here? If one of the guards caught you, theywould—”
“They’d what?” she asked, propping her free hand on her waist. “Throw me in the dungeons? Been there. Done that. Besides, I’m acting under Taveon’sorders.”
“You honestly expect me to believe that the King commanded you to lurk around in his father’schambers?”
Bree’s heart lurched at that. As much as she kept trying to tell herself that she was doing this for Taveon, deep down she knew that part of it was because she was dying to know what he was hiding. But she wasn’t about to tell Lord Dagenthat.
“He asked me to look into who might have cast this curse or whatever it is, so yes.” Bree crossed the room, daring to draw closer to Dagen’s side. “But what I really want to know is why areyouhere, LordDagen?”
His eyes glinted as he watched her take one slow step after the other. “I may not have a direct line to the King’s mind, but I know what he wishes all the same. I, too, am here to findanswers.”
“Oh?” Bree paused, halfway between the back wall of skulls and where Dagen still stood beside the iron door. She couldn’t help but notice how he looked against the flickering candlelight. The shadows curled around his sharp features, and there was something in the way he threw his shoulders back that made him look far more powerful than he usually did. Strength shimmered around his thick frame, radiating straight into Bree’score.
Bree had always thought Dagen to be handsome, but it was a fact she’d desperately tried to ignore. But now, they were alone. Just the two of them. And no one at all knew they were here. Not even Taveon. She’d erected too many walls around her mind before heading out on her mission for him to follow herhere.
Her heart beat a littlefaster.
“I know you may find it hard to believe, but I too care about what happens to ourruler.”
“You care what happens to theKing,” Bree said, blinking out of her reverie. “But you do not care what happens to Taveon himself. You just care about the position, not about the male occupyingit.”
Dagen pursed his lips. “That is not fair, Bree. After everything that has happened, you still think I am some kind of heartlessmonster?”
“Honestly?” Bree lifted her hands to her sides and shrugged. “I don’t really know what to think about you. One minute, you seem like you’re working against Taveon. The next, you’re working with him and then for him. I have no idea what it is you want. Or why you want it. And what you’d do in order to getit.”
