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Veronica laughs, the sound bone-chillingly cold and remarkably similar to my mother’s. I shiver at the sound and instinctively draw my limbs into myself. My stomach protests the movement, cramping as I press my legs against my chest.
“No, you stupid Winter bitch.” She kicks the cot, and it rattles beneath me. “We’re leaving.”
Leaving.
"You're letting me go free?" My drug-addled brain is having trouble keeping up with her, and I blink slowly. “I promise I won’t tell anyone anything about you.”
The Autumn Fae scoffs, smirking at me as she waves a finger. "Don't be a fool. It doesn't suit your complexion.” My jaw drops open, and I search within myself for a speck of anger. Of outrage.
I find nothing but ice.
Veronica laughs, and the sound is tinged with violence. “You're coming with us.”
Terror, fresh and new and different from the fear I've been feeling all these months, washes over me. It tastes bitter, and my mouth puckers. My limbs tremble, and my stomach becomes a tangle of knots.
This is it. I can feel it in my bones. They've decided I'm not worth it. They're going to kill me and dump my body.
My hands turn clammy, and silver rims my vision. "No, please." Tears slip down my dirt-stained cheeks, and shame curls in my stomach.
It turns out that when faced with my death, I am not ready. I need more time. There are things I need to do. A Summer Fae I need to see.
“Don't kill me.” Pushing myself into a seated position, I clasp my grimy hands in front of me. The iron cuffs clink as they bang together, and I shudder.
If I had more energy, I'd be disgusted with myself. What an un-Fae thing to do.
"Kill you?" Veronica arches a brow, and she chuckles. "We're not going to kill you, you ice-blooded fool. What a waste of months of hard work keeping you contained. We're moving you."
Moving me.
I blink, unclasping my hands as the knot of terror unwinds within me. "You're not going to kill me?"
“Gods, no.” She laughs, reaching over and grabbing my arm. “You're much too valuable alive. Now come on.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
In response, Veronica’s long nails pierce my skin, and she yanks me to my feet. “You ask too many questions.”
Before I can respond, a pair of hands land on my back. Veronica shoves me, and I stumble forward. A searing pain burns through my arm as it comes into contact with the iron wall, and I scream. Agony roils through me, and a sob escapes me as I tear my arm away from the iron, cradling it against my chest.
Veronica titters and shakes her head. "And they said I should be careful with you. You're weak, pathetic."
She grabs my arm, her nails digging into my tender flesh as she drags me out of the cell. I stumble after her, my movements jerky and limbs sore from disuse. She drags me through a darkened hallway, past two shut doors before pulling me up a tight stairwell. My lungs are burning, but she doesn’t slow down.
A heavy metal door sits at the top of the stairs. Without stopping, Veronica wrenches open the door. Brilliant white rays of sunlight fill my vision for the first time in months, and I shriek, “It burns!”
Turning around so fast I can barely track her movement, Veronica snarls as she pulls back her hand. “Shut up!” Her hand flies through the air, landing on my face with a flash of pain.
I scream again. The sound echoes through me, but this time...
This time, the scream is different. There is pain, but there is something else.
Veronica has pushed past the numbness that has taken over my body. She has broken through the ice I’d built around my emotions.
And now bright, searing anger ran through me.
I look at the Autumn Fae, and I seethe.
I'm going to kill you.
