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The smellof hardpacked earth hit my nose first. I jolted awake, my heart pounding with the cursed memory of Beryl’s underground court. Panic filled my blood stream. For a moment, I thought that I’d gotten trapped in another nightmare.
I shot upright and reached for my crossbow so that Beryl couldn’t get her hands on me. Before I could throw myself off the table and step in-between to get free of this accursed court, a pair of hands shoved me back down. I thrashed in an effort to break free.
Lakesedge would be full of enemies after what I’d done. If Arven had brought me here, I would gut him. He’d betrayed me for the last time.
“Shhh,” he whispered, his hands still holding my shoulders down.
I bucked and kicked out. My foot collided with someone’s face.
A familiar male voice grunted in pain. It brought me crashing to a halt.
I slowly craned my neck to see who I’d kicked and found Rhoan standing at my feet. That wasn’t right. The man should have been a beast in Faust’s Sluagh army right now. After what I’d done, there was no way he would have survived as a free man. I’d cursed him to a life of suffering and servitude…
At least, that’s what I’d assumed.
Yet, the black-haired man with lavender eyes rubbed his jaw and gave me a crooked smile. “You weren’t even looking and still managed to hit the joint. Almost popped it out of place, too.”
I blinked. “How are you…”
“Well, I would be better if you hadn’t kicked me.” He laughed.
“You know these people?” Arven asked from above my head, where he still held me down by my shoulders.
I let out a shaky laugh. “All things considered, I committed a number of war crimes here. Is…isshestill alive?”
Rhoan made a face that said I’d asked a dumb question. “Of course, she is.”
I threw myself forward. Arven wasn’t expecting it after things had calmed down. I was able to break out of his grasp and roll off the table. Rhoan hollered for me to stop, but there was no way I would stay in a court that Beryl still ruled.
The court didn’t look the same as I remembered it. In fact, the hardpacked walls were now covered in gently swaying flowers and intricately knotted vines. The window into the lake cast a dancing light on the flowers. It tried to hypnotize me with its gentle beauty.
I paused and slowly turned back to the two confused men. This didn’t look like the kind of court Beryl would rule over. For one, there were no bloodstains on anything.
“When I saidshe,who did you think I was talking about?”
Rhoan cocked his head. A woman stepped out from behind him, and I could have sworn I saw a ghost right then and there. Except fae couldn’t become ghosts. They didn’t have souls.
So, how was Cerridwen standing in front of me?
She crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a knowing look, the same kind an unimpressed mother might give a daughter after catching her sneaking out at night. It did not hold the kind of anger I would have expected after I’d stabbed her through the back.
I glanced from face to face before pinching myself because this had to be a dream. There was no way any of this was—ow, that hurt.No, this was real.
“I see you’re feeling better already,” Cerri said.
Her wild curls had tamed to a wave that she kept pulled back in a messy bun as if she’d been working tirelessly. If I was here, then that meant Cerri had, in fact, been working.
Turning to Arven, I asked, “How did you know to bring me here?”
He nodded in Cerri’s direction. “I heard news that a powerful healer had taken over rule in Lakesedge. As a leader of my own court, it is important that I know when other courts overturn, even fae ones.”
Cerri’s face turned a shade of embarrassed red. She looked away, like maybe she hadn’t thought to do the same kind of research. I couldn’t blame her, though. Overtaking Beryl’s court must have been a lot of work after I killed her.
“How are you even alive? Either of you?” I made my way back to the table and sat on the edge. “I left this court in absolute chaos. I’m kind of impressed you managed to pull it all back together.”
Cerri explained that, for a fae, she’d grown a soul. A combination of that and the power that she’d packed into her own magical domain had kept her from passing on. With the help of her demi-god friend, she found her way into a new body.
“And you didn’t customize it? Wasn’t it Beryl who cursed your hair to be that awful color?”
