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Your freedom is forever out of reach.
Distantly, as if he spoke through a wall, Garrick’s voice sounded. “Starlight! It’s a trick!Ren!It’s not real!”
Though my head understood what was actually happening—the demon had locked me in a vision displaying one of my nightmares—I couldn’t dispel it. Couldn’t fully convince my mind that what looked and felt so real beneath my palms was a lie. The cool metal was unyielding, the rough edges of rust scraping at my skin.
Beyond my cage, Preston stood, surveying me with a gloating expression, his red eyes piercing. He opened his mouth, filling the air with the reek of death.I own you.
“Ren!” Garrick’s tone was desperate. Pleading.
It made me tear my gaze from Preston, choosing by some instinct to look up instead. The bars of my cage extended on and on, but overhead, there was a window letting in the cold light of a winter’s night. My thoughts snagged on this realization as I stared at countless silver stars.Stars.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I poured every ounce of my energy into visualizing my magic pouring out of me. Into imagining the power and light that resided in my very blood repulsing these creatures that tried to prey on me. With a cry, I opened my eyes and the demon was before me once more, leaning forward to tear into my throat with its wicked teeth.
I slammed my bleeding palm against its eyes. Again and again. Light flashed, almost blinding in the dim corridor. Screeching, the monster reeled backward, writhing in misery.
Lurching to my feet, I found Garrick back in his fae form and already at my side, my lost, bloodied knife in his hand. Behind us, the other demon hissed and struggled on the floor, pinned by its throat with Garrick’s other blade. I called on my magic again as the demon before us gathered itself, preparing to launch.Ice,I thought, pleading for the weak threads of my power to conjure something more than frost. Thick, black ice that would encapsulate the demon and root it to the spot.
But the ice that formed at its clawed legs cracked and shattered almost instantly, brittle as glass. The demon jumped—higher than two men were tall—and Garrick seized my arm, forcing me back with him as he hurled his knife for its open maw. His blade struck true, but as the creature landed, it growled and lunged again, barely slowed by the pain.
Steel screamed as Garrick drew the sword strapped to his back. He moved with grace and strength, parrying the clawed strikes from the demon in a deadly dance while I focused on my magic again, trying to find a way to slow the monster—at least enough that I could draw close and use my blood against it.
But my thoughts distracted me. I didn’t hear the second demon finally pry itself free, the knife squelching from its ruined throat. Not until it was too late. A shock of pain lanced along my back as it sliced its claws through the back of my tunic and into flesh.
I screamed, sprawling across the floor. Blackness danced along my vision.
And then—the sound of snapping bones. The sickly-sweet stench of decay. The low, careless laughter that always made disgust skitter across my skin like countless invisible insects.
“Couldn’t even overcome two little demons?” Preston taunted.
I lifted my head, back burning. My vision was blurred, my eyes watering from the pain and obscuring my view of the pale-faced king as he stalked forward. With a snap of his fingers, guards emerged from the shadows, restraining and shackling the demon Preston’s death magic had immobilized with countless broken bones. Others released Garrick from his solitary struggle with the second, chaining it too.
“Pathetic, but what else would I expect from a mortal and a dog?”
Garrick wasn’t under Preston’s control, for he stepped forward, slamming his fist into Preston’s face. The king stepped back, blood trickling from his split lip. Horrified to see what sort of retaliation he’d inflict on Garrick, I opened my mouth to distract him, but Preston only laughed.
With a jerk of his chin, he turned Garrick’s attention to me. “You were supposed to ensure the mortal didn’t needlessly spill her blood.”
“Starlight,” Garrick breathed as he whirled around, taking in my injuries. He rushed to my side, crouching and cradling me in his arms despite being in Preston’s presence. “Where’s Aspen?” he demanded, his tone laced with a threat he unfortunately couldn’t inflict. “Send for her at once.”
Preston rolled his eyes. “So dramatic. Florentia won’t die, fragile as humans are. I’ll escort her to her rooms.Youfind Aspen.”
Garrick’s arms tightened around me before abruptly going slack. I knew in that moment, without turning my head to study his expression, that Garrick was locked under Preston’s control. He couldn’t stay by my side no matter how much he willed it. Standing stiffly, he bowed and trudged off, leaving me alone with the foul king.
My heart throbbed in my throat as I forced myself to stand, the world shifting around me. Cool air teased my bare back, a sharp contrast to the hot blood soaking the shredded fabric of my dress.
Preston snapped his fingers again as if I were another of his guards to be ordered about. “This way. It’s unlikely there are more demons, but this close to solstice, one can’t be too sure. Especially since the ones roaming this far from the entrance prove our guards were killed again. We’ve had to replace them so many times.”
I scowled as I staggered behind him, struggling to keep up. But my voice was strong. “Where wereyou? If this happens often, if these creatures kill your own people this regularly, then surely you, one of the heroes of Silverfrost, should be guarding the entrance yourself all night long.”
Faster than I could blink, Preston had turned on me, shoving me against the wall. I choked on a feeble cry as my wounds came into contact with the rough tapestry behind me, staining it with my blood. “Do kings toil as slaves? Do gods stoop to work as servants?”
I slammed my teeth together to keep them from chattering, either from shock setting in or my fear.
Without waiting for an answer I would not give, Preston went on. “No, my fiancée. They do not, and neither do my sister and I.”
As he released me, I trailed after him, slowly ascending a flight of steps. Each movement sent more stabs of pain through my body. My back throbbed. For one delirious moment, I nearly dissolved into laughter as I wondered if these new wounds had peeled away the bandage covering my old one. If these fresh claw marks would ruin the mark Preston had so diligently forced Garrick to carve into me. If so, what a strange sort of victory that would be over this disgusting excuse of a man. Of a king.
Somehow, despite my fear of him and my mounting pain, the fire in my blood wouldn’t be quenched. Once I’d easily curbed myself, remaining silent and meek to avoid notice whenever I could. Now I was struggling to be quiet. The injustice of Preston and Nerissa’s reign was eating me alive, and a newfound passion was growing in me for this land. Perhaps not for its people, little more than strangers to me, but for the magic that bound me to it and to them. For the memory of the family I’d never met; for the fae father who’d fallen in love with a mortal woman and died saving both her and me. And for right to win over all the wrongdoings the siblings had committed over the years.
