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I opened my mouth to argue that Rhoan wasn’t trapped by Faust anymore only to realize that I was wrong. I cupped Ostara’s face and kissed her forehead.
“You’re a genius,” I said before turning to rush off in-between.
The domain laughed in the corner of my mind. Before I left, the domain materialized a warm to-go cup in my hand. The smell of blueberry and coffee drifted up to my nose. Immediately, I recognized my favorite blueberry strudel latte from work.
My stomach tightened with longing for simple days, but if I could break Faust’s last-ditch effort to cause problems, then maybe simple days were closer at hand than I believed.
11
RHOAN
My knuckles were raw. I watched the skin pull itself back together and the redness fade only so that I could punch the stone wall once again. Of course, the domain refused to budge. Fae pocket realms were signifiers of power. Very few fae could maintain them.
The fact that Cerri had stolen her ancestral home from Beryl had been impressive. I never once thought that I would come into possession of one myself. That level of power always seemed beyond me, yet this castle and the grounds around it stood perfectly fine.
Yet, I wanted to tear it down brick by brick.
Anger simmered in my chest like a smoldering fire that refused to be put out. No matter how I tried, this damned domain would not release me. I’d defeated Faust only to become a prisoner in what had once been his home. I wanted to love this domain that’d changed to reflect the true me, but I couldn’t see it for anything other than a jail.
Fists clenched, I bent double and roared. The sound shook dust from the rafters above. The tapestries trembled at the sound.
Blue spirit-light flared all around me. The beasts stepped out of wherever they’d been hiding, then the Sluagh soldiers followed not long after. My lip curled in disgust.
They didn’t deserve my anger, and I certainly didn’t want their pity.
I could still smell Cerri on my skin. A part of me raged now that I could no longer reach her. It was the same part that the roar had come from. I clenched and unclenched my fists, but it did nothing to quell the rising frustration that made me slam the wall once more.
The Sluagh crossed their arms over their chests and shared looks. I didn’t want an audience for this.
“Tell me how to get out,” I snarled as I leaned into the wall and hung my head.
The Sluagh had no voices, though. They couldn’t tell me how to get back to my queen or why this place saw fit to keep me trapped here.
I pressed my forehead to the stone and sighed until a growl escaped me. My fingertips turned into sharp claws, but I kept myself from dragging them across the stone wall. My rage wasn’t going to solve anything. So long as I kept fighting the immovable, I would be here forever.
I needed to find something that would truly break.
“Seems like you’re having a hell of a time,” a small female voice said.
A snarl ripped from my lips as I spun. A brownie woman lounged on one of the pillows from earlier. She must have dragged it into this room just so that she could pose on it when I finally noticed her presence.
Damn brownie woman didn’t even have a scent. They never did. They were too clean. I looked to the Sluagh as if to ask why they didn’t warn me. They had, though. I’d ignored their presence because they couldn’t free me.
I was already a terrible king.
Sighing once more, I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried to pull myself together. Now that the beast and I were one, my thoughts were much more aggressive. My muscles were always tense, always waiting for a fight.
This was an adjustment I never could have anticipated. The only person who could have soothed my woes was elsewhere, tending to her duties, or so the little ferret man had told me. Feri hadn’t stayed long. I could tell that the very domain made him uncomfortable.
So, why was the brownie woman here?
Sprawled across the cushion on her side, head in her palm, she grinned at me and twirled a strand of hair around her finger.
I took a step back and hit the wall. “If you think that’s going to get you anywhere, you should know I’m happily taken.”
She rolled her eyes and sat up in a huff. “I should have known. You must be the one she needed the nightsmane for. That fucked up little fae girl went to the edge of the world for you.”
I raised a questioning brow.
