“Daesyn Heartlocke, I always get what I want,” he states with a smugness only a fae king could have. “Now you’re going to come with me, listen to what I have to tell you, and not fight back. If you try to hurt me or any of my guards, I will chop various parts off your friends and force you to watch. Do you understand?”
“It’s crystal clear,” I bite back. He only laughs as he points to one of the guards and the door. The guard rushes over and unlocks it, and I step out. The second I am close, the Seelie Fae King grabs my upper arm and starts forcibly walking me down the corridor.
“My name is Einar NightHold, and welcome back to the Otherworld.”
Einar doesn’t give me a break in his large paces, even as I feel my wound pouring more blood into my top and leggings with every step. My clothes are dirty and soaked with blood anyway, but the more he pulls me along, the harder it is to stay conscious from blood loss. The corridor opens up to a grey stone staircase that goes up five floors before giving out to a large room. Two more guards are waiting in front of the door, and they bow instantly when they see Einar, and I see first-hand the loyalty the guards have towards him. I wish I did more research into the king of the fae.
But then again, this shit was not planned.
Einar drags me to the other side of the empty room where two wooden chairs are facing a window with thick blue curtains hiding the view. The room has no smell, not even of dust or damp or anything, and a part of me misses the cell because all I can think of is that this room has been cleaned one too many times and might be the room he uses to kill people in. After he shoves me into a seat, which I can’t do much more than sit in my current situation, he sits down in the other chair.
Then he lifts his hands, and blue fire bursts out in the shape of a dragon. The flame dragon sweeps across my head, the fire so close I feel it against my hair, and I have to check I’m not burnt as it suddenly flies headfirst into the curtains. They burn up quickly, disappearing into magical embers on the floor.
But the sight they were hiding is nothing short of a phenomenal view.
The Otherworld is stretched out in front me, the fifteen islands floating in the middle of the air with currents of water spinning around them. On the water are so many ships, riding the currents effortlessly with their different coloured sails floating in the wind. Each island is different, with some like deserts and others thick with forests. Off the sides of the main fifteen islands are hundreds of little islands, but none of them looks like they have much on them.
Below the islands is just endless, beautiful, dazzling green sea.
“On this land,
The sea may rise into the sky,
and the islands can follow.
For the Otherworld was made
in the image of the angels.
And all angels ascend.”
I don’t look at Einar as he speaks, not until he is finished, as it is silent for a while—and not the comfortable kind. My mum told me that once, well, sung it to me like a lullaby. Like she did with so many songs, some that I barely remember anymore, and I wish I did. When I do turn his way, I make sure he can see all of the hate and disgust I have for him. “If the gods don’t kill you for messing with their test, then I am going to. I am going to kill you, make certain of that, Einar. You will die, and not even the gods will be able to save your soul from me.”
And I mean every single word.
I vow it.
“Many have promised the same thing.” He waves his hand and looks away, waving off my threat because he doesn’t know who I am. He has no clue what I’ve gone through and how serious I am in this moment.
“But none are me. I’m Daesyn Heartlocke, and I want vengeance. Unluckily for you, my vengeance has your name on it.”
And I will never stop. Never. One way or another, his blood is going to be on my hands and his throne destroyed into dust.
Chapter 2
If it wasn’t for my training, for my lessons as a kid in learning how to never relax around an evil creature no matter how silent they get, I might actually sit back and rest in the strange calmness that has drifted over us. I’m sure the Seelie fae have a certain power about them, a way of making you feel comfortable even when you know you are not like them. The Unseelie were always more known for being less friendly. I wonder if that was part of the reason why this man sitting next to me declared a war on my kind, ripping apart my world and so many others so easily. There was always a big difference between the Unseelie and Seelie fae.
But this man? He is nothing but pure evil. Through and through.
The Seelie Fae King is quite happily chilling in his chair next to me, acting like he didn’t kill me a dozen times just to test a theory out. Like he can’t invade my dreams, keeping me a prisoner even when I do escape this place.
“What do you want?” I finally ask. “What does a king want with an assassin? An Unseelie assassin?”
He folds his hands on his lap, his fingers ever so close to the dagger that I have my eye on. I’m sure the movement was done to piss me off. “Your mother was my closest friend as a child and my intended bride. The agreement was made between my parents and hers, your grandparents, who were highly respected in the fae court. Back then, it was simply the fae court, and our races were at peace in some respect.”
Colour me clueless, I never knew the Seelie and Unseelie got along. “Our marriage was going to unite the Seelie and Unseelie lines,” he starts to explain, shocking me into silence. “When Ingrid turned eighteen, she was given the cursed rune pendant to protect, like every woman in your family, and she wore it proudly. It was a great honour that made your family almost like royalty to the Unseelie, to be a keeper of one of the four godless runes.”
Godless runes? Four of them?
Knowing he won’t answer me about that quite yet, I bench the thought to learn more about my mother. A part of me needs to know what she went through, how she ended up with the reapers and so far away from the Otherworld.
And how she ended up coming back here with me...
“What happened?” I bluntly ask the obvious question as this story doesn’t end happily for him or me.
His lips drop into a sour line. “She left. Simply and easily, she walked away and left me just a note. Ingrid claimed she wanted a life away from the court of Seelie, and she wanted nothing to do with me because the rune sensed I wanted it. She also claimed she did not love me, and being mated to someone you don’t love is something she never coveted.”
I don’t reply, because I hear the distaste in his voice, how he clearly thinks she was insane, but I respect my mum so much more for her choice. She was so brave.
I already knew that, but this story just makes it clearer to me.
“I loved your mother very much, and I would have kept her safe. That’s a lot more than her reaper mate ever did, because in the end, he caused her death,” he remarks, and I bristle. I know my mum loved my father right until the end, I saw it in her eyes, I heard it in her voice.
She loved him, and my mum told me he was brave like her, that he did everything he could for her.
“My mother left us, me and my uncle, and then never came back. How do you know if she is dead?” I question, feeling my heart pounding in my chest like it’s beating its own drum.
He briefly smiles like he is enjoying a new memory. “Because her body was given to me by your grandmother and grandfather. Her parents killed her when she went to them for help...help with you.”