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What the actual fu—
I pushed towards the water’s surface before anything under here could grab me. I didn’t trust anything in the lake with how Beryl’s court sat right underneath. Thankfully, we were on the far side, closer to my apartment than we were to Beryl’s restaurant.
It made me think of how close I’d been to her this entire time. Crawling out of the lake, I coughed up the bit of water that’d made its way into my mouth and lifted my head to take in my surroundings.
“Oh, son of a bitch,” I muttered.
The landscape was horrifyingly familiar. Not long ago, a man had plucked me out of my bed and dragged me out to this very bank so that he could use me against Addie. I dug my fingers into the earth and felt it respond to my arcana once again.
I almost laughed as I thought about the dragon made of vines and bones that Addie and I had made that day. While she and her husband had blinked away with his weird arcana, I’d used that dragon to escape Beryl when she came hunting us down.
That was the first day that I’d realized I wasn’t really who I thought I was.
Why did I end up here, though? It shouldn’t have happened. I’d had a clear vision in my mind. My heart led me to one place and one place only: Rhoan.
I punched the muddy ground. “Why am I here?”
Vi trudged out of the water with her shoulders slumped forward and an emptiness in her eyes. Those eyes slid in my direction and spawned the same question that I’d just shouted.
“Are you on the fritz?” Vi asked. She tossed her head back, her short hair spraying water everywhere.
Was this what Beryl wanted? Or was this because I’d poured so much arcana into the seed in the underground court? I had no idea. It didn’t seem right because I’d used my arcana back at the fairgrounds to rip that door off its hinges.
Man, I really hoped there weren’t any cameras there. The security people would be in for one hell of a show if that was the case. I doubted fae magic would pick up on cameras or more fae would be un-aging celebrities.
I fought the urge to punch the ground again. The need to get back to Rhoan gripped me so tight that it forced the air from my lungs. He was somewhere without me. I knew that he could protect himself, especially as the beast, but I wanted to be there. He needed to know that he could count on me.
A scream escaped my lips. I ducked my head and let the sound rip out of me until my throat was raw. Then, once I was done, I stood and glamoured away the dirt on my clothes. The illusion wouldn’t last long, but it was enough to make me feel like I was somewhat capable of pulling my shit together.
“You good?” Vi asked hesitantly.
“No.” I couldn’t help but tell her the truth.
“Glad we’re on the same page. What do you think is happening? Any theories?”
My mind still reeled with frustration. It took a long while for me to calm down enough to think clearly. I scanned our surroundings for fae, but there were none. No one watched us from the trees. There weren’t any glimmering spirits of the Sluagh waiting for us.
We were absolutely alone.
“Something cut you off from the castle,” Hilda suggested. She shook herself and immediately dried off. “Did that beastly woman steal it from you? I she took it, she might have locked all the ways in or out.”
I cocked my head until I realizedbeastly womanwas Beryl. My heart clenched and skipped a beat. Beryl had no way to take it back, as far as I knew. It would take a magical anchor to pull it back to her. She’d used the blood of the Seelie Court the first time. Nothing so devastating had happened since then to give her to the power to steal it again.
Unless someone had betrayed me again.
Rhoan? Is it safe there?
I knew my thoughts wouldn’t magically make it through to him, but I couldn’t help but wonder. Was he fighting for the sanctity of the new court? Or was he in a magical sleep like the rest of the surviving Seelie?
Bracing myself, I thought of Rhoan. He was the only thing on my mind as I stepped in-between once again. Behind me, the other two rushed to follow. But my foot squelched into nothing but mud. I opened my eyes to the unchanged landscape.
“What? How? Why?” I blathered on, frustrated.
Hilda held up both hands and bowed her head as if to tell us to make way for her because she would do what I couldn’t. I crossed my arms over my chest and glowered down at the brownie who thought she could do more than aqueen.
That train of thought struck me and threw me off balance. My arms fell away from my chest as cold realization washed up from my toes to my heart. What was I thinking? Did I really see myself as so far above everyone else around me that I had to look down my nose at them? Who was I becoming? I didn’t want to believe that the Unseelie curse had any effect on me, but something in the way I thought had changed.
I stared down at my own palms and wondered if I was on a power trip. It made me glance over to Vi, who had dried herself off completely with her arcana. The woman was the daughter of Lucifer and the herald of the end of times. How did she balance power and humility? Because I desperately needed to learn.
