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Morgan’s face remained blank and unreadable. She flicked her gaze behind me to where Nellie still sat curled up on the bed. “That’s an interesting question, and I’m afraid I can’t explain it to you.”
“You can’t? Or you won’t?”
She pressed her lips together. “I can’t.”
Darkness flashed behind her eyes, and a strange, twisting sensation went through my gut. Nodding, I dropped my voice to a whisper. “That’s what I thought. You really are trapped. Whatever he tells you to do, you have to do it.”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she took a single step closer to the cell’s bars and narrowed her eyes at me. A million emotions seemed to war inside the silver, a million thoughts I didn’t know how to read. And it was that—this single look from her that told me everything I needed to know. Kalen was right. Oberon was controlling Morgan, and there was nothing she could do to help me now.
Chills swept down my spine.
“I think you should go,” I said.
She pressed her lips together. “What about your mother? And Val?”
“I can’t trust you to take care of that, and you know it. I’m going to have to find a solution myself.”
“You can’t help them. He’ll never let you out of here,” she warned. “He didn’t give me any orders about your family. Nothing regarding your mother and—”
“How can I be sure that anything you say is true?” I whispered around the lump of pain in my throat. As much as I wanted to hate her for what she’d done, I couldn’t. She was just as much a pawn in Oberon’s game as I was. Maybe even more so.
Hewas the one behind it all. But as much as I understood her predicament, I wouldn’t trust a single word that came out of her mouth.
Hurt flashed in her eyes, but she nodded and took a step back. “You’re making the right decision. I wish it weren’t true, but it is. I hope I see you on the other side of the bars one day, Tessa. And I do mean that. I hope one day I can make it up to all of you.”
She whirled and took off down the corridor, leaving me to grip the bars and stare after her. Nellie stepped up beside me and frowned as we both watched Morgan leave the dungeons. “What was that all about? Why don’t you trust her?”
I still hadn’t told Nellie about my dream with the Mist King, and I didn’t know how to tell her now, especially when it came to everything I’d heard about my father.
“I’ll explain later,” I told her, frowning when another guard started down the corridor toward our cell. “All you need to know is that you can’t trust anything she says to you. If she ever comes here when I’m not around, don’t believe a word, all right? Even if she tells you I sent her and that she’s trying to get you out of this cell. Even if she’s as convincing as the sun. Don’t believe her.”
“Didn’t she help you escape before?”
I held a finger up to my lips as the guard approached. He was tall and broad-shouldered, but there was little else I could tell about him. His face and body were hidden behind steel—everything except his scowling lips. “Let me guess. You two are plotting a way to break out of here. Good luck with that,mortals.”
His disdain was meant to consume me like a crashing wave, one that could tug me into the bottomless depths of despair, but I let it roll off my back. I could weather their insults all day long. They’d done far worse to me than this, and I’d risen up from their attempts to break me each and every time.
I smiled. “I’ll be sure to tell Oberon you wished us luck in our endeavors to escape him.”
His scowl dropped. One thing I’d learned during my last captivity, many of the fae were as just as scared of Oberon as the mortals of Teine were. He was the definition of a tyrant, and he controlled every aspect of their lives. The trouble was, a lot of the fae didn’t seem to realize how much they were like us. They thought they were above it all when they were just as entrenched in his cruelty.
All because they believed he had the power of the sun.
If only they knew the truth. Perhaps it was time they found out.
“Don’t worry,” I told the guard, “you’d probably win if he fought you. He’s weaker now that he doesn’t have his elite powers.”
The guard frowned in at me. “What in the name of light did the Mist King do to you?”
“Pardon me?”
“Your words don’t smell like lies, but you aren’t telling the truth.” He cocked his head. “Or maybe it’s because you’re…yeah, that has to be it.”
My eyes narrowed. “Maybe it’s because I’m what?”
His smile froze my bones. “Maybe if you’re a good girl, you’ll get to find out.”
With that, he shoved a key into the lock and hauled open the cell door. I bit the insides of my cheeks as a sudden rage burned through me, filling my veins with liquid fire. For a moment, the world around me went black, and all I could see was his smug smile and the sword belted around his waist. He probably didn’t expect me to fight back. I could catch him off guard. I could drag his own blade across his neck and get out of this city for good.
