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“Stop speaking in riddles and just tell me,” I begged him. What could possibly be worse than finding out I was the daughter of a monster?
His eyes roved my face carefully, landing on my lips for a long moment before he leaned up, kissing me gently. I didn’t pull away from him or try to push him off of me. Instead, I allowed it to happen, sinking into the kiss, parting my lips for his forked tongue to delve inside. His kiss was smooth as lush lips—soft and plump, tasting like faerie wine. His clawed fingers sunk into my hair, scraping over my scalp, eliciting the smallest moan from me.
Then he broke the kiss just as the door to the room opened and Riven stepped in. I met his golden eyes over Haelo’s shoulder, my lips pleasantly swollen and my body suddenly hot. Haelo cupped my face again, turning my attention back to him. “Riven can explain why he did what he did. I just need you to listen. No more lies, no more secrets. We’re running out of time.”
He pulled away, adjusting the straps of my dress that had fallen off my shoulders. Riven took a seat in the chair Haelo had previously occupied. Golden light flared up his arms, his tattoos glowing like his eyes. He whispered a single, hushed word, and in the next moment, there were three glasses of faerie wine sitting on a small table in the center of the sitting room. He took one for himself and promptly swallowed it down in one gulp.
“I take it you haven’t told her that she’s the key to our freedom yet.” His words fell in the silent room like boulders. I looked between the two princes, eyes wide. Riven shook his head in exasperation before sitting forward. “It’s true. As Kirsi’s only daughter, you’re the perfect leverage we need to secure the Sluagh’s favor. If there’s one thing in this world that could convince Kirsi to break our curse, it would be to have her child back.”
I shook my head in disbelief, fear icing my veins. “You can’t possibly think…” I choked on my words, looking to Haelo for help. Surely, Riven was insane. But Haelo’s face was solemn as he nodded. I backed up a step. “All of this… All of the games, the dampener, the auction…it was just to keep me busy while you tried to barter for your own freedom?” My stomach rolled with nausea. “Why don’t you just kill Osiris yourself and break your own damn curse? It’s been centuries, surely, you’ve had the opportunity.”
The door opened again, this time letting the other three princes in. Erix was the last to step into the room, barely meeting my eyes as he shut and locked the door behind him. They formed a formidable wall of muscle, bright eyes and danger, shrinking the size of the room exponentially.
“Erix?” I whispered. He looked up, his blue eyes hard and cold, but not cruel. In them, I could see the night in our dreams that we shared together play out.
“It’s the only way,” was his answer.
“Vazden please,” I begged next, stepping toward the towering drach that held me in his arms only hours before. “Tell them you won’t hand me over to the Sluagh. Tell them it won’t work the way you think it will…”
Surely, the Sluagh couldn’t be reasoned with. They were a nightmarish host of the undead and they held no allegiance to any king or queen in the living world. Why would Kirsi care about one abandoned, halfling daughter?
As if reading the question in my eyes, Erix spoke up. “Do you remember when I told you the story of how the four of us ended up in the Wild Hunt?” I blinked at him, shaking my head as I tried to conjure up the conversation that suddenly felt like a lifetime ago. He moved closer, still covered head to toe in blood from their hunt. “I told you about the witch Osiris made a bargain with. The one who cursed us to be slaves to his commands. I never told you who that witch was.”
My throat bobbed as I swallowed thickly. “Who?” was all I said. Who was this witch? Who could cast a spell so fucking vile that five powerful, primal princes couldn’t break it?
“She’s known by many names, but the last I heard, she goes by Reena. Queen Reena,” Erix said finally, and just like that, it was as if the world had fallen out from beneath my feet.
Kyre
Queen Reena…
Queen fucking Reena…
It repeated in my head over and over again, but it still hadn’t sunk in. I’d left Vazden’s chambers, telling the princes I needed some time to come to terms with this and requested that they leave me alone for the night. None of them argued with me. None of them tried to slap another collar on my neck.
I was beyond furious, and I spent hours pacing my room, cursing them. Those damn princes knew exactly who I was from the moment they’d met me in the faerie caves, and they’d used me. Not that their reasons weren’t technically understandable. Centuries of serving the king who banished them from their own court must have been a living nightmare.
I was furious for other reasons, though. A few in fact. All of these years of wondering who my mother really was, I’d never once considered that she might be a monster…and that was exactly what the Sluagh was. They were monsters who were paid to kill indiscriminately, an undead host of creatures my nightmares weren’t creative enough to conjure up. And their queen was my own flesh and blood. What did that make me?
I wished my father was here to give me the answers I desperately needed. I just wanted him to explain to me how he could have ever fallen head over heels in love with Kirsi. If she was so evil and so vile of a monster, had his infatuation with her been some kind of a trick? And what about Drystan? Did he know the truth about who and what his mother was?
If Reena really was the witch that cursed the princes so many centuries ago, then that meant she was not only immortal, but she’d used her magic to keep Drystan in an endless sleep. It hadn’t been poison after all. And the princes had known this from the start.
I spent the next day wandering the treetop city, not really sure where exactly I was headed. I was just happy to get some fresh air and stretch my…wings. Even thinking it made me giddy with possibilities. I wasn’t anywhere near brave enough to attempt flying, but I had tried more than enough mental and physical exercises this morning to get as much control over their movements as I could.
I was still unsteady on my feet as the wind whipped through the trees, causing the bridges to gently sway. Sometimes, my wings managed to steady me instead, catching the air, making them flap in such a way that I felt more grounded and agile.
It was the first morning I’d woken up without any pain coursing through my limbs. My spine felt better than ever, and I even had more energy, feeling less sluggish and lazy. It made me realize just how much power the dampener had been holding back. I understood Riven’s reasoning, but it didn’t mean I was happy with it. I should have been told the moment we crossed into Faerie that my body would be changing. I wasn’t prepared for any of this, and it was the loneliest feeling.
It was late into the afternoon when I heard it. A voice in my head. At first I’d paused as I perched on a lonely bridge overlooking a sort of training area where Wild Hunt faeries were practicing with all manner of weapons. I thought someone was calling out my name, but in fact, the voice was coming from inside my own head like a faint echo.
The clinking of weapons faded into the background as the voice became clear. “Have I told you how fucking sorry I am?” it said softly. I stiffened, feeling his presence all around me, as if he was right here with me.
“I don’t want to speak to you right now, Erix,”I tried to say in my head. I felt like an idiot for it, too. I wondered if he could hear every thought in my head right now or if he could only hear the ones I specifically sent his way.
“Come find me when you’re ready to talk,”he said, not bothering to argue with me.
“Oh, so now you want to talk.”I rolled my eyes.“I thought I was losing my mind thinking I’d just imagine that night after all.”
