AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’ll never find a way to escape,” she said. “We’ve made sure of that.”
“Why would he try to escape?” he asked Lilium before turning his attention to me. “I heard how you fought your way in here, Fae. My men thought it would be fun to put you up against Lilium’s beasts, and somehow you managed to kill them all to become our Solstice Champion. Do you know what that means, Fae?”
I shrugged. “You enchant me and toy with me for entertainment?” I longed to reach for the claw, but the crowd was too close. His lieutenants would be on me the moment I revealed my weapon. I’d only have one chance to stab him, grab Evelyn, and escape.
Edric laughed. “Oh, you’ll be our entertainment. That much is true. And sooner than planned, since you decided to run off without your chaperone.” He shook his head. “I thought I could appeal to your sense of honor, but you and your kind have no honor, do you? Godda broke her promise to me. Why should I expect any different from her kin?”
Rage boiled through me as I lunged toward Edric. “Godda did no such thing. You were the one who broke your promise to her.” I jabbed my finger into his chest armor, but it met with no resistance. Instead, it felt like I’d plunged my hand into a swampy pit. Disgust contorted my face, and I shook my hand as if that would help get the slick feeling off faster.
“What do you know of it, Fae? Hmm?” Edric leaned toward me, pressing his face close to mine.
“I know what happened,” I said. “Every Fae child has heard the story. We know you’re a selfish liar.”
Edric threw his head back and laughed. “I’m sure they tell little Faelings all sort of nonsense. But I was there.” His eyes narrowed. “She left me.” He clenched his fists and raised them between us. “And I will find her and bring her home.” The spirits gathered behind him cheered.
Motion at the edge of my vision distracted me. A quick glance revealed Evelyn struggling with Nigel. He was holding her back, trying to keep her quiet. I would have told her to listen to him and stay out of it, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off Edric.
When the cheers died down, Edric spoke again. “You have nerve, Fae. You insult me and disregard my hospitality. I’m afraid your time as guest is over.” He flicked his wrist, and his lieutenants straightened to attention at his side. “Prepare the champion for sacrifice. Restrain him.” The crowd roared in response.
Before I could move, Edric’s lieutenants slapped shackles around my wrists and tugged at the chains, testing them. Evelyn made a strangled sound as they led me to the platform with the altar at the front of the room. I couldn’t look at her.
I twisted and strained against the chains. Sacrifice did not sound promising. I scanned the faces staring up at me and easily spotted Evelyn fighting with Nigel, trying to pull him toward the platform while the demon woman whispered to Edric. The Hunters had lost all pretense of playing at being human. They floated, hovering above the ground, loosening their hold on the illusions that gave them corporeal forms. Some of them wisped through the air, flitting from group to group in a blur of excitement. The few demons in attendance moved toward the edge of the room and began to cluster near the exit. Only Nigel and Lilium remained in the midst of the chaos.
“Silence!” Edric’s voice boomed.
The room fell quiet at Edric’s command. The blur of movement stilled, but the spirits didn’t regain their human forms. They hovered, waiting for the Master’s next command.
“As is our tradition, one who has shown great strength will be sacrificed so his strength will flow to us and allow us to ride and hunt this solstice. The Lady Lilium has agreed to assist us in this regard.”
The demon woman nodded to Edric, and the crowd cheered. She walked toward Nigel, who was keeping a firm grip on Evelyn’s arm, and whispered something to him. Then she stalked toward the platform.
Evelyn turned her face toward me with wide eyes. She shoved the halfling, trying to break free, and winced in pain when he didn’t break his hold. I pulled against my chains and tried conjuring fireballs in my hands. Light flashed, but the flame wouldn’t burn. The demon woman, Lilium, smiled. She had me right where she wanted me, defenseless and displayed in front of an appreciative audience.
“Remember, Lilium,” Edric called to her. “We need him alive.”
I prepared my mental shields, readying myself for her assault. But instead of attacking my mind, she flicked her wrists, and a long, winding form flew at me. At first, it looked like a scarf, stretched out horizontally and flying through the air directly at my face. As it twisted and drew closer, the form gained roundness and girth.
Moments before it hit my torso, my brain registered the form and I recoiled instinctively. But it was too late. The serpent slammed against my chest and wrapped itself around me. Its body was thicker than my arm, and I estimated its length to be at least as long as I stood tall. It wound around me, scales glinting in the light. Then it began to squeeze.
I sucked in a breath and tried to hold my rib cage firm, breathing shallowly so I wouldn’t give it the chance to crush my lung capacity. But my chest muscles were no match for the lean serpent. I began to sweat and shake as I tried to keep my muscles tense. Patiently, it chipped away at my endurance, tightening its grip as soon as I gave it an opening.
Lilium stepped up on the platform and swaggered toward me. “Fae,” she said. “You’ll pay for what you did to my pets.” She stepped in front of me and ran a hand lovingly over the serpent’s body. It stretched its long neck toward her and flicked its forked tongue. “And you’ll pay for the hell your kin thrust on me and my family.”
Great. Another creature of the Underworld had a grudge against my family. Her nails pierced the shirt fabric stretched across my shoulders and dug into my skin. The punctures burned, sending a red-hot searing pain up my arm. My chest collapsed as I exhaled. The serpent wound itself tighter around me, and my mental defenses collapsed. Another stab of pain, and my vision blurred.
16
I fought against Nigel,screaming at them to stop. Nigel tried to clamp a hand over my mouth, but I bit him and twisted away.
The crowd had closed in on the platform, and I couldn’t see around the hovering spirits. I could see through some of them, though, enough to make out the hazy details of what Nigel’s mother was doing to Liam up on that stage. Why hadn’t he conjured himself away from here? Why was he putting up with this torture?
“Nigel, please,” I begged. “Please. Help him!”
“I can’t interfere,” he said. “And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll let me get you out of here while they’re otherwise occupied.”
“I can’t leave him here. They’ll kill him. You heard Edric.”
“He said they needed him alive.”
