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Look at me. Please.
He turned at the last minute, and our gazes met. An ashen battlefield of pain and ruin lay in his eyes, piercing through my heart.
“You can do it,” he mouthed.
It was those final words that destroyed me. After the pain and agony, we’d put each other through. ThatI’dput him through. He still believed in me.
He still thought he loved me.
But Dagda didn’t know what I was capable of.
I tore my gaze from his and faced the trees. There was no more putting it off. The future awaited.
Without looking back, I entered the bog.
Chapter 33
AssoonasIwas out of sight, I unstrapped the blade and threw it into the marshy water. I wasn’t trained with the sword. If I brought it into the bog, Badb would only have a weapon to use against me and anyone else she encountered upon leaving.
The path turned spongy, long grasses clawing at my legs as water drifted up through the ground, leaving pool-filled footsteps behind me. A thickness hung in the air, but I wasn’t sure if it was the humidity or the ancient magic that I sensed in this place slithering over my skin, entering my very bones. Something tugged on my gut, like a fishing lure dug into my stomach, directing me where to go.
“And so here we are, your majesty,” said a smooth, confident voice. “The fateful day we have been waiting for.”
My fists balled. I should have known the demon lord would show up here, just beyond the faerie lands, to taunt me.
“Get lost, Ornan.”
His dark hair was slicked back and clawed fingers tapped restlessly on his thighs as we walked. A slow breath seeped into my lungs and I lifted my chin, reminding myself that Dagda would monitor him from here on out. I had made sure of that.
He sneered. “I see. You believe you have beaten me.”
“At least Dagda banned you from the faerie lands,” I said.
“Do you think that changes anything in the long run?” He laughed. “Oh, little faerie queen, we both know what is to happen once you meet with the bog witch. Let us not pretend otherwise. You shall fail, your sisters shall get loose, and then I and my kind will be free.”
I clenched my jaw, a wave of helplessness moving over me.
“And do you know what is the sweetest? When your dear faerie king shall see you for what you are.” That too-wide grin moved over his face. “When the whole Otherworld will realize that their queen failed them.”
I trembled. When I abandoned them.
“Looks like your hour has come. I have a parting gift for you.” He stepped close, his gaze dark, and he wrapped his arms around me. My heart rate sped up as his right arm slid lower toward my waist.
I shoved him away. “Get the hell off of me.” I added extra venom in my voice to make up for the flush in my cheeks.
Ornan smirked. Then gave a mocking bow. "Good luck, your majesty.” With that, he faded into the shadows of the trees.
A pond sat before me, reflecting the surrounding greenery, undulating with a power that called me into its depths, urging me to step forward, sliding through my veins until I no longer resisted its call, and I stepped into the water. My feet sank into the muck at the pond’s bottom.
The surface boiled, and I almost jerked out of the water, except that the temperature of the pond remained cool as ever.
A head broke the surface, covered in a muddy wetness, the skin near translucent and so shriveled it looked ready to fall from her boney frame. Her eyes glowed a brilliant yellow in sunken sockets. I trembled, holding in the scream rising in my throat.
Because I’d seen this woman before in my vision.
The bog witch.
“Good evening, dear.” She bared rotted teeth at me. “To what do I owe the honor of the Queen of the Faeries visiting me in my lowly bog?”
