All at once he seemed to deflate, and he rubbed at his temples, the crown on top of his head glinting in the moonlight once more. He hadn’t taken it off yet which meant that this still wasn’t over; there was more to be done.
“I’m sorry,” he sighed. “I truly am, but I can explain, Arden. I did try. And in the end, I did you a great service making you lose.”
“You still haven’t told me how.”
“And I will.” He looked at her. “After. I promise.”
“After what?” This was a nightmare, and true to its form, it was never-ending.
“After the Tithe.” He motioned with two fingers to his left, and another Unseelie stepped from the shadows.
Arden recognized Victor, and before she could get angry wondering if he’d been there this whole time, eavesdropping, Mavek was giving him orders.
“Stay with them,” he glanced toward Cato to indicate his instructions were for him as well, “and don’t let them leave. My Heartless and the Bloodheart remain right here until I return to get them. Understood?”
Victor bowed his head, and a second later Cato mirrored the move.
Mavek turned back to her. “I have to go.”
“Go where?” But she already knew the answer.
“The sacrifice happens at exactly midnight,” he answered, glancing up at the moon before looking back at her. “That’s twenty minutes from now. I have to be there to witness it. I’ll come back.”
“Don’t.” The word was out before she could think better, but she didn’t regret it once it was.
He looked wounded, though he recovered quickly. Taking a step, he leaned in closely, his next words meant just for her.
“Are you not in love with me, Arden Rose Archer?” he asked.
“That won’t work on me,” she said, ignoring the slight pang in her chest, too focused on trying not to think about the time she’d said that very phrase to Eskel. The only difference was that Eskel hadn’t possessed her full name, not like Mavek did.
“Because you aren’t Unseelie.” His expression changed, but she couldn’t place it. “Alright. I’ve put you through a lot, I understand. I can wait for my answer.”
Arden watched him warily as he stepped away. He said something else to the remaining fae, and then walked off into the woods, disappearing without a second glance. She felt her chest constrict painfully all over again, and cursed herself, not wanting to show weakness in front of Cato and Victor.
Once she was certain that Mavek was far enough away, she rushed to Eskel, yanking him out of Cato’s arms and lowering him to the ground. Keeping his head cradled in her lap, she ran a hand through his blond hair, sticky with sweat, and glared up at the faerie she’d known most of her life.
“Tell me what they did to him.”
Cato hesitated for only a second before saying, “It was transformation magic. The queen uses it all the time.”
“Did he feel all of it?” she asked, silently urging Eskel’s eyes to focus and see her.
“Most of it,” Cato admitted. “Yes.”
Victor snorted and propped a shoulder against the same tree she’d been leaning against. Crossing his arms, he glanced around as if bored.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered to Eskel, not knowing if he could hear her in his stupor. “This is all my fault.” The truth of that was just as painful as discovering Mavek’s lie. She turned to Cato. “You tried to warn me. I didn’t listen.”
“I wish I could have told you everything,” he said, and amazingly enough, she actually believed him.
She let out a sharp laugh, hating herself in that moment. “You did everything you could. You told me to stop seeing him, that it was too risky. That I was putting him in danger. I thought you were being overly dramatic, that I knew better.”
“You thought you knew Mavek better, Arden,” he corrected. “There’s no shame in that.”
“You should be grateful,” Victor said, tone filled with disgust. “After everything the Midnight Prince did for you, all the rules he broke. You should be grateful, Heartless, instead of moaning and berating him. He risked a life of infinity for you. What did you risk? Seventy years? Eighty, if you’re lucky?” He snorted a second time.
“That’s enough,” Cato ordered, and received an eye roll for it.
“Of course you’d defend her,” Victor said. “I told the prince that you couldn’t be trusted. But did he listen to me? No. He will now, when I convey this little conversation,” he wagged a finger between Cato and Arden, “about how you almost ruined everything by warning her off.” Victor quirked a brow at her and continued, “And how do you think this little ritual would have played out then, hmm, human? Mavek would have been forced to allow Titania to use your precious sister. You would have won, and then poor little Ainsley—”
“Enough.” The force with which Cato spoke did the trick this time.
Victor slammed his mouth shut and straightened, like he’d just been caught doing something wrong.
Arden’s spine stiffened. “What was he about to say?”
Eskel moaned in her arms, but she couldn’t tear her eyes from Cato. Mavek had been right when he’d said he’d given her all the pieces, she was starting to realize.
“What was Victor about to say?” she repeated.
Cato took a deep breath, clearly bracing himself for her reaction. “He was going to say, you would have won, and then Ainsley would have been sacrificed.” He waited a beat and then angled his head pointedly, like she hadn’t yet gotten it. “Ainsley would have been the soul given to the Tithe, Arden. That’s how it works. It’s not the Heartless who goes. It’s the one they care for the most.”
She was going to throw up.
Eskel shifted in her arms again, and she thought about how it could have been him. How Mavek making her pass out really had saved them both. Guilt over what could have happened otherwise was destroying her. If she’d actually won and Eskel had been sent to the Underground because of her…
Wait.
“Who won?” she demanded. She set Eskel aside carefully then jumped to her feet. “Who won, Cato? Who’s the tithe? Who’s the damn tithe?!”
“Cole,” Victor was the one who answered. He shrugged a single shoulder. “The Erlking’s Heartless won. His cousin is the tithe.” Like Mavek had, he glanced at the moon. “They’re there now, at the lake. Only another ten minutes before it’s all over, so just sit back, relax and—”
He never got to finish that sentence.
Her hand moved faster than she could mentally process what she was doing.
One second Victor was talking, the next, his mouth gaped open and closed like a fish, and his body was being propped up by the tree. She watched as he slowly slid down until he was sitting on the ground. His hand was clutching the hilt of the dagger imbedded in the center of his chest.
The iron dagger. The dagger that’d been tucked safely in Arden’s left boot until a heartbeat ago when she’d thrown it at him. Deadly to his kind.
Victor gasped a few more times, a trickle of crimson trailing down the corner of his mouth. Then he stilled, and his head leaned to the side. When his arm dropped, his body burst into an explosion of dried maple leaves. They scattered and whipped with the wind before settling down in a heap. A few lone ones spiraled off, vanishing in the darkness.
Her dagger hit the ground with a heavy thump.
Arden stood there in shock.
“What have you done?” Cato breathed, and his panic only fueled her own. His hand was suddenly on her arm, pulling her away. He stopped at the edge of the woods where Mavek had gone, and shoved her a little in that direction. “Go.”
“What?” She was having trouble processing.
Swearing, he rushed over and rifled through the small pile of leaves, returning with her dagger clutched in his hand. He thrust it at her, waiting until she took it and then motioned her forward once more.
“Arden,” he hissed, “snap out of it. You have to go! Get to the lake before
it’s too late!”
To the lake… The Tithe!
“Tabby.”
“Exactly!” He pushed her a third time. “Hurry! If you run you can still make it! I’ll take care of the boy,” he pointed at Eskel who was still lying on the ground. “I swear, I won’t let anything else happen to him. Just go!”
She didn’t want to leave Eskel alone, but she really didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t drag him with her; she’d never get to Tabitha in time. Forced to trust Cato, she stepped back, hoping that he understood the look in her eyes. Hoping he knew that she would do to him what she’d just done to Victor—even though that had been purely instinctual, and she regretted it—if anything happened to Eskel.
He nodded, and she took that as an understanding.
Turning on her heels, Arden ran.
Arden had only been to the lake once before. It’d been forever ago, long before she’d met Mavek. She twisted and darted through the trees, praying that she was going the right way. She still held the dagger in her hand—there was no time to put it away again.
It was dark and she stumbled a few times, tripping over unseen roots or loose stones. Each time that happened, she got back up and ignored the fresh wave of pain from a skinned knee or bruised shoulder. There was only one thing she needed to focus on right now. Tabby. Everything else she shoved into the dark recesses of her mind.
Tabitha was going to die if Arden didn’t hurry.
As she ran, she played over the minuscule details of what she now knew was the actual Tithe. The major fact she’d thought she knew had been a lie—she’d thought that it would be the winner’s soul taken, and that it wouldn’t be taken until after they’d died of natural causes. Nothing that Mavek had told her before was useful to her now, and if not for Victor she would have had no clue where to go for the ceremony. His inadvertent revelation that it took place at the lake was like winning the lottery at this point.
Arden had no plan, just to make it there in time to stop whatever horror was about to take place. Save Tabby.
She briefly allowed her thoughts to trail back to Eskel, hoping that Cato kept his word and was taking care of him. When Eskel finally managed to shake off the faerie magic that had been used against him, she doubted that he’d want to keep seeing her. If anything, Mavek’s exploitation of him in the challenge only helped drive home what she’d told Eskel: it wasn’t safe around her.
Now, Arden was starting to realize that it would never be, and not just because her curse wasn’t broken. How many truths and betrayals had she discovered in one day? She must have set a record.
She heard them before she saw them; the sharp, raucous laughter filtered through the trees. Arden slowed, softening her steps so as not to be heard, and gripped the hilt of the iron dagger so tightly the metal dug into her palm. She wasn’t supposed to even have a weapon made of iron on her person, not when she was going to an event held by the Unseelie.
It’d been an accident, actually. When she’d dressed for the Halloween party, she hadn’t been paying attention and had grabbed the wrong dagger. She hadn’t even realized, not until Victor had exploded into a pile of leaves.
Her breath caught in her throat as she struggled to get hold of herself. Now was not the time to freak out about the fact that she’d just murdered an Unseelie. She’d deal with the consequences later, once she knew that her friends were safe.
As Arden approached the edge of the tree line, she heard Cole yelling, cursing at the fae and demanding that they take him instead. Following the sound of his voice, she spotted him at the head of the crowd, close to the water of the lake. His face was beat-red and he was struggling against two Unseelie who were holding him back.
Lake Trinity stretched on like a giant pool of ink, too dark to see anything beneath its still surface. The moon cast its white glow over it, illuminating the spot nearest Cole and the three regents. The entire body of water was surrounded by forest, the nearest road miles away. This was certainly a good spot for a sacrifice; no one would stumble on them to stop what they were about to do.
She slid the dagger back into her boot, hiding the iron from anyone who would out her. Arden inched forward, stepping from her hiding spot within the trees to join the outskirts of the crowd of fae. No one so much as glanced her way as she moved among them, like she had a thousand times before. They were all too distracted by what was taking place, trying to see over one another to get a better view.
Tabitha came into sight a moment later, and Arden came to an abrupt halt.
The Erlking had his head tilted down and was whispering something into Tabby’s ear. Her expression crumpled, going from upset to distraught by the time he pulled away.
Titania called out to the crowd then, but Arden couldn’t make out the words over the cheering still taking place.
Arden started forward again, moving around the Unseelie like she belonged there. She managed to make it all the way to the front, just off the side of where the regents stood with Cole and Tabitha.
Up close, Arden could see that Tabitha was crying, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks and her shoulders shaking. The only faerie close enough to restrain her was the Erlking, though he made no physical contact with her. It appeared that Tabby understood that running would be futile.
The Erkling had probably threatened Cole.
Mavek stood by Titania, eyes passing over the expanse of the lake as if searching for something. His arms were crossed over his chest, and his body was angled away from her, his tattoos hidden from sight.
She’d loved those tattoos. She’d secretly thought it was fate that he’d been the one to find her and offer her salvation. Her middle name was Rose, after all, and Mavek was obsessed with roses. Red roses, specifically—the color of blood, crimson and velvety, and bright and shiny, like Christmas ornaments.
She’d asked him once why only some of his tattoos were colored in while others were outlines, but he never told her. After a while, she’d dropped the subject, assuming it was a painful subject—like a tribute to lost loved ones—that he didn’t want to discuss.
Now, Arden thought she knew the truth. The tattoos were Heartless, and the roses that were inked in were the times he’d won. The people he’d lied to. The hearts he’d destroyed.
The souls he’d sacrificed.
Titania stepped toward Mavek and rested a delicate hand on his shoulder. He leaned into her, giving her his ear as she stretched up on her toes to press her lips there.
Arden waited for the familiar stab of jealousy, but this time it didn’t come. Before she could pick this new revelation apart, the Erlking turned to address the Unseelie.
Close enough now to hear every word, Arden stilled, waiting. She would only get one chance to stop this, though she still didn’t know exactly what this entailed. It didn’t take a genius to figure out it had something to do with the lake, but what?
If it was a drowning, there wasn’t much Arden could do to prevent it. Even if she did make it over to Tabby in time, the rest of the Unseelie would simply pull her off, so that her friend could be drowned right in front of her. Even with the iron blade, she was no match for the fae. Hell, the only reason she’d successfully taken out Victor was because he hadn’t seen it coming.
In retrospect, neither had she, but still.
“It’s two minutes until midnight!” the Erlking called out, raising his arms, like he’d just won a huge victory. “You all know what that means! Another seven years of freedom thanks to the Tithe!” He pointed to Cole, let his hand linger there and then slid his arm over so that he was aiming at Tabitha now.
He smiled cruelly and Cole pulled at his captors once more. He tugged so hard that the two faeries holding him had to yank back. The pained sound he emitted made Arden flinch.
A second later, the Erlking motioned to his fae, who dropped Cole in a heap on the dirt.
Cole moaned, turning onto his side. Reaching up, he gripped his right shoulder, and held himself in a tight ball as he gritted
his teeth. She couldn’t be sure, but Arden guessed that they’d dislocated it.
She wanted to go to him, but held herself back. If she exposed herself now, she’d doom them all.
Against her will, she looked at Mavek, a part of her still hoping that this was all some huge mistake. That he cared what was happening here.
But the Midnight Prince was too busy staring out at the lake. Because she was watching him so closely, she noticed when his expression shifted ever so slightly. Whatever he’d been waiting for was here.
Banking down her trepidation, Arden forced herself to follow his gaze and look at the lake.
Something was cutting its way across the water. Fast. At first there was only one moving toward them from far off, and then it multiplied, turning into three, then five, then eight. It was still too dark to see what they were, but the splashing of their approach drew the attention of the other regents.
Titania and the Erlking looked nervous. Not in the sense that something was wrong, but it was obvious that this was it: the Tithe was about to take place. Whatever was in the water was coming for the sacrifice.
For Tabby.
One of the creatures drew close enough to peek its head above the surface and Arden bit the inside of her cheek to keep from openly cringing.
She’d seen water faeries before, but this was nothing like the creatures she’d come into contact with in the past. And that was just the head.
It was slicked with muddy brown and black skin, speckles of seaweed green and murky blue trailing from the bridge of its nose to the back. Its eyes were round and bulbous. Every time it blinked, a sheen swept over them, like a frog’s, and when it pulled itself higher out of the water, three rows of serrated teeth could be seen. It sort of reminded her of a colorful eel, only, the head was attached to a neck, and the tops of its bony shoulders were now visible as well.
“Hello, brothers and sisters,” the Erlking addressed the lake creatures, bowing his head slightly—the move was a bit mocking.
As if sensing this, the one in the lead narrowed her large eyes, then bolts of red electricity sparked across the surface of the lake warningly. She pulled back her lips and let loose a few clicking sounds, the others at her back joining in, so that the air filled with grating noises.
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