He closed his eyes, sinking his teeth into his bottom lip as he doomed us all.
“Her name is Estrella,” Caldris said, opening his eyes to hold my gaze.
There was no further trace of the shame he must have felt, only his sense of duty in protecting me clouding his judgment. I wanted to condemn him for it, to judge him for what he might have done.
But could I have sat there and watched Mab skin him alive when I could have put an end to it?
Love was our greatest weakness, and Mab had kept Caldris close intentionally.
“Her full name,” Mab said, stepping away from my back. She patted the side of my face as she walked toward her throne, staining my cheek with my own blood.
“Estrella Barlowe,” Caldris conceded, glancing between us.
“And where was she born?” Mab asked, pushing the boundaries of what Caldris would offer.
I realized with a start that she could have just asked him in the first place. That he wouldn’t have been able to deny her the knowledge.
My suffering had been a show, a test to prove whether or not she could allow me free. It had been entirely unnecessary, but Mab enjoyed pain. She’d proven her point.
We were powerless in the face of her.
“Mistfell village, just beyond the Veil,” my mate answered, standing from his chair smoothly. He approached me, stopping instantly when Mab held up a hand. “I gave you what you asked for. Now allow her to heal herself, my Queen.” The words were torn from the deepest parts of him, an appeasement he didn’t want to offer.
Every part of me recoiled from the honorific upon his lips when speaking to someone else. That deep, hollow thing within me rose up, struggling against the ties that bound her still. She thumped against my chest, teeth and claws scratching as if she meant to tear her way out of me.
There was only one person he should be calling his anything, only one woman who should be his queen.
“I should let her rot with her injuries. She did not answer my questions,” Mab said, turning a chastising stare to me. “But I will reward your loyalty, Caldris. I’ll allow her to heal herself, but she will not be permitted to spend the night in your arms. Hopefully, she will respect my kindness and pay it forward tomorrow.”
“I reject your kindness. I want no gifts from you. I know what they’ll cost,” I said, staring at my mate. He’d doom us all with the favors Mab would collect on one day.
“Malachi,” Mab said, ignoring my outburst.
I hung my head forward as the Fae male’s gloved hands touched my left wrist, sliding the key into the lock and twisting. The shackle fell away, hanging from the arm of the chair as I flexed my throbbing fingers. I studied the lines in the stone floor, memorizing the way the cracks rippled across the surface. They spread like tributaries, stemming from one large river until each little crack faded into nothing.
The other shackle released, falling from my skin as a full, clean breath filled my lungs. The air was crisp, cool, as if I breathed it for the first time. My chest expanded with it, a rush of warmth flooding my body in the absence of the iron. A flicker of light shone in the corner of my eye, drawing my gaze to where my fingers glowed with a soft golden glimmer. The blood faded away, disintegrating into the air as the injuries healed.
I followed the path of light up my arm, watching the whites of my Fae Mark turn to gold. The rush of it moved beneath my skin, rolling forward like a wave within my blood. I watched the gold work a path from my fingers, up each swirl at my wrist as the burned, charred flesh mended itself slowly.
It continued up my arm, rolling into the side of my neck and filling my head with the rush of strength. My headache faded, the lingering effects of Malachi’s assault in the bath vanishing as I rolled my neck in a circle.
I stood slowly as the flesh of my back healed, all too aware of the way Malachi stepped away from my side hurriedly. I felt him move, felt the cord of life where it kept him tethered to this world. The room shook as my feet pressed into the stone beneath me. Those cracks grew and spread like fissures upon the earth.
I opened my eyes, staring into Mab’s shocked gaze as she kept her mouth pressed firmly into a line. She gathered shadows at her side; her worry and curiosity pulsing off her in waves. It tasted bitter on my tongue, coating the air with the stench of her fear. I wanted to feed on it, to turn it into ash and dust until nothing remained of the queen who shouldn’t have been.
“You have something of mine,” the creature within me murmured, and I could practically see the fuzzy, blurred form of her standing amid the stars. She was nothing but a silhouette in the darkness, a golden, glowing woman who was not meant to be contained.
She found freedom in the dark.
She and I remained separate, two minds within one body. I couldn’t grasp her thoughts, couldn’t wrap my fingers around the parts of her that she kept hidden from me just yet. I tried to sink into her, to connect in a way that might offer me some protection.
I took a single step forward, my skin tingling as I moved. Everything felt new, as if my entire being was remade all over again. Mab raised a hand in warning, her shadows dancing upon her palm. They were so dark compared to the single golden thread that spread across her chest. It was frayed at the end, extending toward that skull on her throne that I’d moved the day I woke up.
I raised a hand to play with it, to capture it between my fingers and pull and find out what I could do with the thread of a Goddess in my palm.
A horrible screech came from my throat. A band of iron wrapped around my neck.
I pulled away from Malachi where he’d stepped up behind me, the click of a lock snapping into place. It was too late to undo. The iron scalded my fingers as I raised a hand to try to pry it open. I could not find the lock itself, fumbling to free myself as Mab smirked at my struggle.
The beast within me recoiled, sinking back down into that hollow place where she slept. It wasn’t safe for her to come out, I knew, but I missed the euphoria she filled me with. The knowledge that she would protect us at all costs.
“What the fuck was that?” Malachi asked, his very breathing irritating me as I turned a sharp glare to him.
My neck seemed to crack as I turned, a growl upon my lips proving that the beast had left a lingering stain of something other behind, even though she’d abandoned me.
“I have no idea,” Mab admitted, taking a step forward.
Her feet brought her to stand before me, the perfect poise of a queen as she studied my face. Her clawed fingers touched my skin, rubbing over the top of my wrist where the iron had scalded me. “You should find your collar far more comfortable. We lined the inside with cloth so it would not burn you, as I believe you’ll be wearing it for some time.”
“Take it off,” I snarled, leaning forward to murmur the words so softly that I doubted anyone but Mab heard them. The wind seemed to carry them away, a threat from one female to another, a promise to repay all the wrongs done in blood.
“Welcome to the Court of Shadows, Estrella Barlowe,” the Queen of Air and Darkness said, dropping her hand away from my wrist.
She spun on her heel, making her way to the massive stone doors at the end of the throne room. She paused just at the exit, turning to look at me over her shoulder. No one existed but the two of us, not Caldris or Malachi. We both knew they had become nothing but pawns in the games we would play with one another.