“I didn’t let you—” I started automatically.
“If you go through my head, and you still don’t believe me afterward,” he continued, ignoring me, “I’ll leave you alone. Permanently.”
I closed my mouth and eyed Collith in contemplation. “You’ll leave me and my family alone. No more loopholes,” I told him.
“Fine,” he said. “No more loopholes… and no more secrets, Fortuna.”
The faerie held out his hand, as he’d done so many times before. I stared down at it, his splayed fingers glowing in a slant of light. In that moment, it felt like I’d known Collith all my life and he’d always been there, offering a lifeline. And despite every mistake he had made—despite every mistake I had made—I could no longer imagine a reality without him in it. Collith had led me through the darkness and walked through it at my side.
I raised my gaze to his, keeping every thought hidden. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the revelation I’d just had. “I’ll only be able to see the memories affected by fear. Hardly what I’d call an all-access pass,” I said.
A faint, humorless smile curved Collith’s lips. “I’m always afraid. It’s how I’ve survived for so long.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just focused on his hand. We both knew I didn’t need physical contact anymore, but I reached for Collith anyway, my decision made. I entwined my fingers with his, eyes sliding shut. I encountered his mental wall, and he didn’t flinch as it fell.
And then I was running headlong into the darkness.
Just as I remembered, Collith’s mind was a series of rooms and doorways, like a house in a fairy tale. Except the doorways were strange and jarring—I couldn’t open them with a knob. One memory just became another one, the two of them linked in some noticeable way.
I went into a memory I hadn’t encountered before, drawn by the prickle of fear.
The instant my mind adjusted, I recognized the room. I also recognized the faerie laying on the bed, her skin pearly in the firelight. Viessa.
The last time I was here, Collith had fought my hold on him. I hadn’t been able to watch the rest of this memory unfold.
“Why haven’t you moved into the king’s suite?” Viessa asked now, trailing her fingers down the center of his chest. The two of them were naked, tangled up in the bedsheets. A fireplace crackled on the other side of the room.
Collith looked around, as if Viessa’s question was something he’d never considered. “Those rooms are haunted by fear and pain,” he said slowly. “No exorcism could cleanse them of it. I’d be living amongst the ghosts of my father’s evil. Not what I’d call a tempting prospect, my lady.”
She made a sound of sympathy, and then they were kissing. Collith pressed his erection against her, and Viessa’s tangled her fingers in his wild hair. I glanced around the room, frowning. Why had I detected fear within this memory?
I was about to continue on my way when Viessa pulled back and looked Collith in the eye. She cupped his cheek, and a tear glistened on her own, as if they were posing for a painting.
“It’s finally time, my love. I’m so sorry,” Viessa whispered.
Collith frowned. It was all he had a chance to do before Viessa’s other hand appeared. This one held a knife—I saw the glint of firelight off metal an instant before she buried it in Collith’s back.
As his lifeblood poured onto the bed, staining the sheets blue, it felt like I was watching the last of his trust leaving him, too. Viessa saw it, too, and she watched her lover die with unveiled anguish. Unshed tears glistened in her eyes. Maybe the future queen really had loved Collith, in her own twisted way.
I turned my attention back to Collith. It was harder than it should’ve been, seeing him choke on his own blood again. Even if I knew that he’d survive this.
I was still staring at Collith when his body completely disappeared.
Viessa’s hands fell, the place where she’d been touching his chest now empty air. Collith himself stood next to the fire, holding the knife that had just been in his back. There was no wound, though, and no blood on the clothes he was suddenly wearing. A crown rested on his head and there was a glass of wine in his other hand, which Collith sipped from as he brought the knife closer to his face.
He cast an illusion, I thought. None of it had been real.
Viessa was coming to the same realization. She stared at Collith with open-mouthed shock. She was still naked, but neither of them seemed to care about that anymore.
“Drenched in holy water, I expect,” the new king said, the first words he’d spoken since witnessing his lover try to kill him. Collith inspected the blade as if he were a collector considering a piece, but had found it wanting. It was made of obsidian stone, and a red jewel gleamed from the leather hilt.
Viessa closed her mouth and swallowed. Her voice was tight as she asked, “How did you know?”
Collith looked at her coldly. “Does it matter?”
“I like to learn from my mistakes.”
“So do I.” He took another drink of wine, then placed his glass on the mantle. “I was almost killed by one of my lovers. I’d be a fool to let my guard down like that again.”
Viessa tilted her head. “Was none of it genuine, then?”
“I could ask you the same question.” Collith finally met her gaze, and his eyes were darker than I’d ever seen them. He tossed the knife onto the bed, showing Viessa, without words, just how small of a threat he found her. “I didn’t truly begin to doubt you until my father revealed what he’d learned about us. We’d been so careful, I kept thinking. How did he know? How? Granted, these passages are full of spies, but I keep myself hidden from sight. You must’ve planted the seed. Pretended to confide in a loose-tongued friend, maybe, or even spoken to one of the council members. I had no way of knowing, so I began using precautions during our time together. Which is how it came to pass that I just got to be a witness to my own murder.”
Hearing the note of loathing in his voice, Viessa quirked a brow—by all appearances, she was unaffected by the deterioration of what they’d once been, but I knew better. Viessa Folduin was trickier than most faeries, and she knew how to hide any hurt she might’ve felt. There was nothing in her voice as she said, “I underestimated you, Your Majesty. So what happens now?”
“For you, nothing. Undoing Sylvyre’s corruption within this Court will require all my attention; I don’t have time or patience for traitors.” Collith strode to the door.
This was a version of him I hadn’t seen in a long time. This was the dark king that had sat on his throne while Death Bringer whipped me. Unable to look away, I stared at Collith’s face as he stepped aside for a contingent of Guardians in the passageway.
They seized Viessa from the bed, and the sheets fell off. Still acting unaware of her nudity, Viessa wrenched at the Guardians who’d taken hold of her. She glared at Collith, who was halfway out the door. “How long do you plan to imprison me? Is there to be a tribunal?”
He paused, then said over his shoulder, “You’ve read the laws. Sylvyre was not a compassionate person, by any means, but he was even less so when it came to treason. You’re not entitled to a tribunal. Just judgment.”