Edu sighed and turned her head to look up at him, a large hand cupped under her jaw. Even as the woman in red spoke, she knew the words came from the behemoth in front of her. “It grieves him then, that you will not accept his comfort before he must take your life come the morning.”
“What?” Lydia cried and jumped back away from him, not caring if it ticked him off now.
“The council voted to save your life on the condition that the warlock had nothing to do with you. If he resides inside your dreams, if he has pledged to claim you, your danger to this world is confirmed. You must die before the warlock rises.”
“No.” Lydia took another step back. “Please, no. I don’t have anything to do with this!”
“Master Edu knows this. He knows it is by no work of your own that you have been dealt this hand. But the deed must be done, regardless. That is why he wished to spend the night with you.”
“When were you going to tell me? Before or after you screwed me?” Lydia shouted angrily at him. She barely noticed the scene she was creating had interrupted the activities of everyone else. They all stopped to watch.
“Never,” the woman said, even as Edu shrugged. “He would have snapped your neck while you slept. He does not desire you to suffer or be afraid. Your plight is unfortunate enough.”
For the second time in two days, she was going to tell off a king. Well, if she was going to die in the morning, at least she would go out with a bang. “Go rot in hell, you overgrown sack of shit. I’m out. I’m done. You can go back to your little fuck-stage, you freak.”
And with that, Lydia whirled from Edu and stormed out of the room. Tim went to stop her, but she shoved him out of the way, knocking him into a post with the unexpected outburst. She did her best to storm from the room, even if she wanted to run for the far door of Edu’s hall and never stop.
“Hey! Doll!” Tim called after her.
Lydia began walking down the hall toward the door, trying to stay to the sides and the shadows as best she could. She needed space to think. She had to try to escape Edu’s imprisonment. She had to flee Under. Somehow. Scrambling, she attempted to come up with a plan. Lydia passed a table with a knife and a fork lying atop it. Without thinking, she picked them up and sat on a bench to slip them into one of the knee-high boots they had given her to wear for the evening.
There wasn’t the slightest idea in her head of what she was going to do to escape a world like this with a knife and fork, but…hey. It was better than nothing.
Tim was on her quickly and stood in front of her. She looked up at him and wiped at the tears that ran down her face.
“Toots, that…that was dumb. I get it. I really get it. But that was dumb.”
“What would you have done?”
“The same thing,” Tim replied with a laugh through his nose. “Edu told me to bring you back to your cell. Said to tell you that your execution will come in the morning.”
“Great. Yeah, I know, the king’s busy. He has some people to screw,” she mumbled as she stood back up. All the way back to the carriage, and through the trip back to Edu’s keep, she was silent.
In the morning, she was going to die. There was no stopping Edu. Even if the man was just an ordinary mortal, he outweighed her and outclassed her several times over. She couldn’t stop him if he wanted to snap her neck, let alone whatever else a supernatural king of Under could muster up to end her life.
Right now, she had a fleeting, dim hope. She didn’t have a plan yet. She didn’t know how she was going to pull it off. But she had to try to run. She had to try to escape. It was that or accept death. Something she could never do.
She’d fail.
But damn it all, she had to try.
Chapter Fourteen
It hadn’t taken Evie long to press for details when Lydia was returned to the jail cell. When Lydia told the girl she had opted not to sleep with Edu, Evie was clearly disappointed. In fact, she seemed to skip right over the impending death sentence part entirely.
“Are you serious? You could’ve slept with him?” Evie asked.
“He’s going to kill me!”
“You didn’t know that at the time.”
“You’re missing the point, Evie.”
“I would’ve done it anyway. At least you’d have had something nice to go out on.” Evie was lying on the floor of her cell by the bars, her ankle across a bent knee and hands behind her head like this was just a girl’s night and a sleepover. Not a dire situation where Lydia was going to be executed tomorrow. “Have you seen the package on that man? Romping with him? Let me tell you, it’s just…” Evie whistled then put her fingers to her lips and kissed them like a French chef.
Lydia couldn’t help but let out an overwhelmed laugh and stopped her pacing to look at the girl incredulously. “You’ve slept with him?”
“Of course. Pretty much everyone has.”
“That’s disgusting and doesn’t make it any better.”
“Things’re different here,” Evie said with a smile. “Nobody turns away a straight six like that man. Nobody would’ve judged you for it. Nobody here hasn’t already slept with Edu—man or woman.”
“Just…no,” Lydia repeated and shook her head.
“Was it the crowd scenario? Are you shy? You’re not a virgin, are you?”
“Hell, no.” She felt indignant at the idea that she might be. “Evie! I’m going to be executed in the morning. Focus.”
“Sorry.” Evie giggled.
Lydia sighed and hung her head, looking down at the fork and knife in her hand. She was standing against a world filled with monsters with nothing more than dinnerware. It was so stupid it almost made her laugh.
Even if Edu wasn’t going to kill her, Aon was worse. The memory of his touch on the back of her neck, the cold metal of his mask against her face, the smell of old books and leather, the feeling of his claw buried in her body—all made her shiver at once.
“Bunny?” Evie asked, concerned.
“I have to get out of here. Out of Under.” Lydia looked down at the cutlery in her hand and wondered what the hell she was going to do with it. “If this place and Earth are still aligned, can I get home?”
“Well, technically, there’s a gate,” Evie said warily and sat up. “But it isn’t—”
“What gate? Where?” Lydia went to the bars between them and crouched. Those was the first words of hope she’d heard all night.
“Uh…well, in Yej, in the city square, there’s a portal for general use. But it’s miles away,” Evie warned, her green eyes wide. “Please don’t tell me you’d try to make it there. You wouldn’t make it through the woods.”
“I’m dead anyway. I’m dead no matter what I do. Even if Edu changes his mind, have you ever met Aon?”
“No…” Evie admitted. “He was king when I was taken, but he doesn’t socialize. I never saw him. He’s a recluse.”
“I have met him.” Lydia felt the claws on her skin, saw that single gaping black hole of an eye socket watching her. It felt like he was standing right behind her, and she resisted the urge to glance over her shoulder. It gave her the heebie-jeebies. “Even if Edu changed his mind and let me live, Aon will come for me and tear me to pieces. If the monsters in the woods get me, I don’t care. I’m dead anyway. At least if something in the woods gets me, I’ll have died trying.”
Evie sighed heavily. “Okay, bunny.” With that, she leaned her head against the bars and reached out her hand, palm up. Lydia had no idea why for a moment until she realized the girl was asking for the cutlery.
Trusting the girl not to just merely chuck the knife and fork across the room, she handed the two pieces of silverware to her. Evie closed her hand around them and stood, walking toward her cell door. “Pa would’ve killed me if he knew Stevie taught me how to do this. See, Stevie was this gorgeous little drugstore cowboy. But I didn’t care. We were pals, y’know?”
No, Lydia didn’t, but she pretended anyway.
Evie was fish
ing the knife into the lock of her cell from the outside and using the back of the fork to twist. The redhead from Montana was picking the lock of her cell. Usually, Lydia assumed it would require much smaller equipment, but these were medieval-style locks meant to be turned with a large and rudimentary key. She fiddled around for a minute before it clicked.
Evie pushed it out an inch and then looked over at Lydia warily. “You sure ’bout this?” she asked.
Not in the slightest. But Lydia had to try. “Just let me out then lock yourself back in.”
“Oh, hell no,” Evie said with a laugh. “We girls gotta stick together. You do this, I do this. Besides, Edu’s gonna kill us both.” The girl’s smile never faded. “Might as well go together.”
Evie pushed the door of her cell open and walked around to Lydia’s and began picking the lock, her tongue sticking slightly out of her mouth, pinched between her teeth. The silly expression didn’t do anything to mar how pretty the girl was. Big eyes, freckles, moppish red hair that was wild around her head. No wonder Edu had already slept with her.
When it clicked, she let out a triumphant “ta-dah!” and stuck her arms out over her head, cutlery still in hand.
Lydia stepped out of the cell and hugged the girl. Evie giggled and hugged her back, smiling broadly.
“Cash or check?” Evie asked with a playful grin, and it took Lydia a long and confused moment to realize that she was asking if Lydia planned on kissing her. “I recommend check, as we’re about to become serious criminals.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Lydia urged with a nudge. Evie handed her the fork, opting to keep the knife for herself. Lydia tried not to laugh at the idea of defending herself against the world of the unknown and monsters with a fork.
Evie was already creeping toward the door, pressed up against the stone wall dramatically, even though nobody was there to see them. She waved Lydia on, urging her to follow.
And so, she did.
***
Edu was lying sprawled out on his bed, a thick fur blanket pulled halfway up over him. He had returned to his home before ending the night by taking one of the new fallen to his chambers for the rest of the evening.
It was the young girl with the large black eyes and dark hair that Lydia had protected in a pathetic if noble attempt during the first Fall. The next night, she had gone into the pond a weeping, screaming, and terrified child and had risen a fiery wonder. The Ancients had removed the fear that had consumed her.
Kaori was her name, Edu believed. She was a fiendish, wild creature. It made for an entertaining evening. Edu was glad the girl had Fallen to his own house, the crimson mark on her forehead unhidden behind a mask.
The girl at his side stirred and shifted her head into his arm. She was so very tiny compared to him. Edu had been concerned he might break her. Yet she had performed admirably. It had been her first time with a man, and he would have predicted tears. What he received instead was a small hellcat who pitched herself headlong into the evening with abandon. She had spoken of a release and freedom, feeling like herself for the first time.
She had almost tired him out.
Almost.
Edu barely had to do anything, merely sat back and let the girl explore what it was like to feel alive for the first time.
He would have gladly taken Lydia’s other friend as well, the boy who had been at her side both times Edu had gone in search of them. Edu had no qualms about enjoying either gender. He had his preferences, of course, but both were welcome.
Edu had sought them both out, if he was honest, in anger at being refused. Lydia had turned him down and rejected his offer. Walked away from him, as if he were undesirable. Edu admitted his many faults—he was childish, violent, impatient, hedonistic, impulsive. But he was never undesirable.
So he had wished to fill his evening with her old companions. But the boy had Fallen to the House of Moons and was out of his reach. While Kamira could not very well refuse Edu’s request to have the boy in his bedchambers, he was undergoing a violent and unpredictable change. He would be wildly out of control of his powers and was likely under the close watch of several of Kamira’s higher-ranked and older shapeshifters while they trained him how to keep command over his physical form once more.
Shifters always made for entertaining and challenging bedfellows, but that would be for another night. Besides, all had panned out well in the end. The girl at his side had made up for what the boy might have added to the festivities.
Edu dwelled once more on Lydia and her fate. It was a loss to end her life. She was intelligent, fiery, and quick to learn. The way she struck Tim for his goading comments had made Edu grin. Most would have devolved to sobbing for mercy. She faced the doom before her with her head raised. He would have been proud to have her join his house in the Fall. But the Ancients had seen fit to do otherwise. They had seen fit to doom her to death at his hands.
Whatever Aon had said or done in her dreams had left a profound impact upon her. When the topic came up—when she spoke the warlock’s name—her face had paled, and her eyes had gone wide. Any doubt that she had been speaking the truth was gone in that moment.
It made it simpler on all fronts once he killed the girl in the morning. Then he could return to his crypt free of concern for what Aon might do with whatever secret she might hide. Perhaps he was dooming his world to its slow decay by taking her life. It was a shame, but he resolved himself to the fact it must be done.
He let his eyes drift shut behind his mask and settled himself into the pillows beneath them. Sleep was just about to claim him when he heard the keep’s great bell begin to ring.
***
Man, it would have been helpful if either of them knew where the hell they were going.
Lydia had gone through this building once before with Tim. Honestly, she hadn’t really been paying attention. Stark shadows lined the wood floors, cast by burning torches and the strangely colored moonlight from the windows outside. Evie was from a different house and had no better idea of the layout of the keep than she did.
She spent a moment worrying over Nick. He was in the House of Moons with the shifters, whatever that meant. Her heart broke, worrying about him.
But she couldn’t help him—or find out what happened to him—if she was dead in the morning like Edu was planning.
Twenty minutes into their caper, creeping along hallways and ducking into doors, they both went rigid when a bell began to ring. It was the same bell they had heard before, high up in a tower somewhere. They ducked into a doorframe and were huddled close together in the shadows.
“Another ceremony?” Lydia whispered to Evie.
“Dunno. Don’t think so,” she whispered back.
The sound of rushing footsteps gave them their answer. Lydia leaned her head up against the wall behind her and felt dread creeping over her again. The jig was up.
Both girls let out quiet groans.
Evie was the first to recover. “C’mon!” she whispered insistently and pushed open the door they were leaning against. Evie stuck her head through, peeking to make sure the room was empty, before walking inside and waving her along. Lydia followed and shut the door behind them as quietly as she could.
In their attempt to dodge guards and get to the exit, they had wound up going up a flight of stairs. The room they were in now looked like somewhere you’d entertain guests. Chairs were lavishly decorated and arranged around a table with an elaborately carved surface, but it was too dark, and too dusty, to see what it was.
Swaths of fabric draped from the wood walls reaching up to the ceilings, ending in colorful fabric pennants and flags painted with sigils and names that were meaningless to her. Ini, Vjo, Rxa, Dtu—the last two she recognized. Edu, Aon. Each flag had a color, Edu in red, Aon in black. The other four must be the colors of the other houses. Blue, purple, white, and green, respectively.
One spot appeared to be missing a flag, ripped loose from its post, only tattered fabric remaining.
/> The room looked dusty and unused, like no one had been in here in a very, very long time. Cobwebs were thick in all areas where a spider may have wanted to make a home. Dust was layered like a gray veneer on everything else.
“What is this place?” Lydia whispered.
“No idea,” Evie answered and ran her finger across the table’s face curiously. It left a clear line in the absence of the dust on the lacquered surface. She rubbed her hands together to wipe off the detritus and looked back at Lydia with a shrug.
Either way, it was time to get out of here. They froze as they heard footsteps run down the hallway outside the room they had ducked inside. “You! Take the west wing. Take the servants in the kitchens with you. They are not to be harmed, but if they escape, you will pay for it.”
“Yes, sir!” came a more distant response.
Whoever had hollered was right outside the door. Reflexively, the girls shrank against a window, ducking into a corner, somewhere they might be able to hide behind swaths of ancient curtains should someone burst in on them.
“What do we do?” Evie whispered urgently, clutching Lydia. Lydia wrapped her arm around her and hugged her close.
Lydia tried to calm down and to quiet the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears, to try to figure out what to do. Where they could go. How they could get out of this situation. She looked toward the window and saw down out of the building. They were on the second story, but there, just barely lit in the dim turquoise light of a setting moon—was a chance.
A series of flags were hung from a long rope that ran from somewhere above the window down to a nearby building. It was low, squat, and looked like a service building more than part of the rest of the stone keep.
Leaning her head closer to the window, she saw the ropes attached just over the frame on the outside and ran down to the ground, each waving red flags, marked with symbols of a dragon or what-have-you. Edu was a king and decorated his house accordingly, after all.
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