Reyna couldn’t help but smile, and she swore she could hear the tinkle of laughter coming from beneath Nollaig’s cloak.
Once again, Nollaig took the lead, throwing her legs over the side of the hole and shuffling down a hidden ladder. Reyna waited for her turn, her stomach twisted together like a dozen angry snakes. After the top of Tarrah’s raven head disappeared, she couldn’t stall any longer. Taking a deep breath, she plunged inside.
The rickety ladder led deep into the ground. Moments stretched by in terrible silence as they descended into the dark. At long last, they reached the bottom. Reyna jumped off the last rung and glanced around. The tunnel had opened up into an enormous cavern. The walls were covered in jewels lit up with yellow and teal, shimmering with light.
“What is this place?” Reyna’s whispered voice echoed off the glittering walls.
“The Caves of Lysa,” Nollaig replied from the front of the group. “You won’t find it on a map. The shadow fae who discovered it hundreds of years past did not wish to share their discovery with the rest of Tir Na Nog. It seemed even then they sensed future strife, knowing that one day they would need somewhere to hide.”
Reyna glanced around, wondering. “Why didn’t you use these caves during the Exile War?”
“Some did. Mothers and children, those unable to fight. The rest stayed in the city to battle the onslaught of the Air Court. It did not save them.” Nollaig sighed. “In the end, they refused to flee and abandon the warriors fighting in the city. They stayed in these tunnels, waiting for their loved ones to come down and tell them it was safe. But they never came.”
Reyna’s heart thumped.
“Eventually, they ran out of food and water. Too afraid to leave this place, they starved.”
The caves did not look so glittering and bright anymore. A heavy darkness settled upon it. The ghosts of lives long lost. She could not imagine how those people had felt, trapped in a cave, desperately waiting for hope to arrive. It had never come. Innocents who had no doubt heard the clang of battle above, and then silence.
Reyna blinked. Innocents? Ha! They had been anything but. It was another sad tale, one no doubt intended to pull upon her heart strings. Perhaps it wasn’t even the truth. It could easily be another one of their lies. Reyna needed to remember that she could not believe a single word they said.
Nollaig motioned for the party to follow. They left the glittering cavern behind to enter a much smaller, much darker tunnel. Reyna inched forward, grinding her teeth as the tunnel grew thinner with each passing step. Lorcan was just ahead of her, and she could not help but stare at the taut muscles of his back and remember how silky his hair had felt between her fingers. She still hated him, of course. He was a demon if there ever was one.
Suddenly, as if hearing her thoughts, Lorcan spun toward her and blocked her path. Her heart stopped in her chest. She swallowed hard. There was nothing else but him. He took up the entire width of the tunnel.
“I just have one question for you,” he said quietly. “And then we never have to speak to each other again.”
She lifted her chin, bracing herself for the impact. She knew what he would want to hear. He’d ask her all about Thane. He’d demand to know how she could have hidden it from him all this time, even after everything they’d shared. That or…he would just want to shout at her.
“Those vows you gave my father,” he growled. “Have you found a way around them?”
She blinked, caught off guard, and then glanced around. The others had continued, unaware that Lorcan and Reyna had stopped. They were not near enough to overhear their words. “If I have, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.”
“You should be careful,” he replied. “My father isn’t a smug air fae lord. If you poke him with a stick, he will bite. And his fangs are venomous.”
“Is this some sort of trick?” she asked, taking a step back. “Only hours ago, you looked at me as though you wanted to rip off my head. Now, you’re trying to warn me about someone who thinks I’m going to save his entire realm?” She narrowed her eyes in anger. “I thought you were better than ridiculous games. If you want to hate me, then hate me, but at least be bold enough to say you do.”
His expression hardened. “Just as you were bold enough to share your true feelings about Thane to the world, yes? Because surely you, Reyna Darragh, would never stoop to pretending you wanted to marry him, when really you wanted to shove your dagger into his back.”
“I hate you,” she whispered, tears in her eyes.
He smiled. “Feeling is mutual, princess.”
She slammed a hand into his chest and pushed him back against the tunnel wall. Her skin felt as if it pulsed, twitching off her bones. Surprise flashed through his eyes. She smiled at his shock just as a strange desperation poured through her. Her body ached to do something, anything at all. The fury, pain, and fear was almost too much to bear, and—
Lorcan wrapped his hand around her wrist, pushed her away from him, and then spun her to the side. Her back hit the rock hard, and her breath whooshed from her lungs. He edged closer, pressing his chest tightly against hers, and leaned down to whisper into her ear. Every cell in her body buzzed.
“Now who’s the one playing games?” he murmured. “Fighting me? That’s not allowed. Trying to see how far you can push until your vows stop you?”
“I’m not allowed to kill you,” she hissed back. “But the vows said nothing about making you bleed.”
She pushed up onto her toes and sunk her teeth into his neck, biting his flesh as hard as she could. He tasted sweet, and he smelled of boiled leather, smoke, and steel. The scent of him made her ache, but she would not allow something as dumb as sentiment to stop her from making her point. She dug her teeth in deeper.
He let out a harsh grunt and yanked back. As he pulled away from her, she managed to nip his skin. A few droplets of blood stained her lips. She licked the blood away and smiled.
“What the fuck is happening here?” Nollaig barked, striding toward them with an angry flap to her cloak’s hood. “What are you two doing? Fighting? Or fucking? Nevermind. I don’t want to know. Neither is allowed on this quest. Your Highness, go to the front with Teutas and keep your damn hands to yourself.”
Grumbling, Lorcan stalked away, taking his spot at the head of the party next to Teutas. Nollaig scowled at Reyna, or at least that was what Reyna thought she was doing.
“Look, I know you don’t want to be here with us, but you’re going to get us all killed unless you at least try to get your head on straight.”
“My head is on very straight, Nollaig,” Reyna said evenly. “It’s just that our roads do not line up. Your king forced me to bind myself to him. That doesn’t mean I suddenly want him to win this war. In fact, I want him to lose more than I did before.”
“Hmph,” she said. “At least you’re blunt about it.”
With unshed tears burning her eyes, she glared at Lorcan’s retreating back. “He betrayed me. I trusted him, and he twisted that trust into pain.” Reyna did not understand why she was telling this to Nollaig, an enemy shadow fae who probably couldn’t wait to burn Reyna alive once this war was over and done with. “I can’t pretend that he didn’t.”