“What is your name, Little Mouse? What am I to call the creature who perplexes us all?” she asked.
Imelda’s words rang in my head, and I knew that she’d known. I didn’t know how much time she’d spent in the Court of Shadows before coming to Nothrek, but she was no stranger to Mab’s ways.
She’d known it would always lead to this.
I gritted my teeth, clenching my eyes closed as I forced myself to remain quiet. I didn’t allow myself to look back at Caldris, not wanting to risk putting the idea into her head that he should suffer for my insolence. He was the one thing she could use to make me cooperate; the only force that would make me behave.
“I thought as much,” Mab said, waving her hand until a web of shadows appeared within it.
They were sharp, spiky things as they writhed upon her hand, looking like the thorny vines of a rose but crafted from the inky black shadows of night itself. They spread, growing until they were too large to be contained by her palm. They climbed down to the ground, creeping along the stone until they wrapped themselves around the base of the chair. I watched in horror as they split into five pieces each, crawling up until they positioned themselves at the tip of each of my fingers.
“I will ask you again. What is your name?”
I sank my teeth into my tongue, the coppery, bitter taste of blood filling my mouth. The pointed ends of the thorns were as sharp as the needles I’d used to repair my own dresses, a weapon in their own right. I let my eyes close once more, not wanting to watch as they moved—not able to stomach seeing them disappear into my flesh.
Mab sighed. “Very well.”
I flinched back as much as I could the moment the tip of the thorns touched my finger, sliding forward painfully slowly. The anticipation of the pain was as much a part of the torture as the pain itself. The thorns moved as if in slow motion as they slid beneath the curve of my nail. They found the tiny space between my nail and my flesh, slipping beneath like a wooden splinter.
A scream tore up my throat as they kept pressing forward, the hot, white pain of it sinking all the way down my nail bed. I sobbed as they withdrew, opening my eyes slowly to stare down at them. They glistened, the black too dark to show the color, but blood trickled down the tips of my fingers as I turned my glare up to Mab once more.
“What. Is. Your. Name?” she asked, gritting her teeth as I glared at her.
I forced myself to lift my head, holding her stare as I kept my lips clamped shut. I would not be my own downfall. I would not give her power over me by offering her my name.
She waved her hand, turning to look at Caldris in frustration. I followed her gaze, finding him shoving to his feet. “That’s enough.”
“Sit down, darling. The fun has only just begun,” she said, smiling broadly as she turned to me.
Caldris fell into his seat, the command she’d issued leaving him no choice but to obey. The vines crept forward once again while I stared at him, sliding into the place beside the last intrusion they’d created. They lit a new path of fire inside of me, and I struggled through the urge to scream as I held his eyes.
His brow furrowed, his nostrils flaring as he tried to fight against Mab’s command. His hand rose to his heart, his talons digging into the fabric of his black tunic and shredding it as if he would tear his heart from his chest. I tore my eyes away, bowing my head forward as the vines slid farther still.
I couldn’t feel how far they went, had no knowledge beyond the pure agony lighting me in two as I screamed at the top of my lungs, giving Mab the satisfaction she wanted as she pulled them back.
My hands trembled. My fingers curled in on themselves as if they could find shelter from the vines that would come back for a third assault if I didn’t give their master what she wanted. I raised my eyes to her once again, my chin bowed as a whimper escaped my throat.
“Give me your name, Little Mouse, and all the pain ends. I will allow you to heal your wounds and put you out of your misery,” she said, her voice almost soft in spite of the fact that she was the one who would cause me pain.
I swallowed, gritting my teeth as I forced my fingers to flatten against the arm of the chair in a moment of defiance. Hiding the tremble in my lip, knowing what pain would follow, I bit out the words that would solidify my place as Mab’s favorite victim.
“Fuck you,” I growled.
The smile fled her face instantly, and her brow furrowed in surprise. She held out her hand, drawing her fingers in slowly, one by one. Her pinky curled in first, the vines that had assaulted my pinky fingers fleeing to return to their maker. Her ring finger came next, then her middle, and so on, until each of the vines returned to her and vanished within her grasp.
The Queen of Air and Darkness stepped forward, rounding to the back of my chair. She grasped the fabric of the dress she’d given me, tearing it open at the back until the cold air of the throne room touched my spine from my neck to the small of my back. I turned to look at her over my shoulder, holding perfectly still as she touched a single talon to one of the worst scars on my back.
“It is such a shame for you to be permanently marred by something you could so easily heal if it was done to you now,” she said, drawing a line up to the top of the scar. My skin withered beneath her touch, feeling as if she dragged death itself over my flesh. “I wonder if they will return with your new flesh if I peel the skin from your bones?”
She sliced her claw against the top of the scar, creating a line of fire across my back as the warmth of blood trickled down from the deep wound. I winced, curling forward when she slid two nails inside of the gash, gripping my skin between her fingers and thumb. I couldn’t stop the whimper that escaped or the tear that fell onto my cheek as I clenched my eyes closed.
She dragged my skin down, peeling it in a strip as my flesh tore, her talons slicing whatever skin resisted. The scream died in my throat, trapped there as I froze solid. There was nothing but the pain, nothing but the heat against the muscle and sinew in my back as she took my skin.
She paused for just a moment, a laugh brushing against my ear as she leaned forward. Her lips practically touched my temple, moving as she murmured to me.
“How much more do you think your mate can take before he intervenes and gives me what I want? You refuse because you think it will harm the precious world, but he doesn’t care about the fucking world if it means you must suffer. He would burn it all and every living being within it to the ground if it meant you remained unscathed. You can defy me all you want, Little Mouse. But he will not,” she said, then pulled on my skin so suddenly that it tore down to the small of my back. It hung from my body like a strip before she cut it at the base, tossing it to the side.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at it, turning my gaze away from the strip of skin that belonged on my body. My breath came in ragged gasps, my lungs struggling to breathe past the overwhelming shock of pain. Mab cut her nail across the top of my back once more, and I sobbed as I forced myself not to speak. The cold air burned what remained of my flesh without my skin to act as a barrier.
“Stop,” Caldris said, forcing me to snap my head to him.
I shook mine, muttering an order of my own. “Don’t,” I pleaded, my bottom lip trembling as his face softened. He knew my wishes; knew I would rather suffer than give her anything she could use against me one day.