by Casey Bond
“Why are you here?” she demanded, never one to mince words.
“I need your help.”
“Finally ready to rid yourself of your wretch of a mother?” A smile played at her lips.
“I need to know how to sever a tether.”
Her fingers stilled. She used her head to throw her long, white strands of hair over her shoulder. “Your tether to her?”
“Does it matter?”
“It certainly does.” She began stitching again. “You’re wasting my time, Rule.”
“I’m not keeping you from your work,” I replied, gesturing to the hat now tucked into her lap.
“You’re a distraction.”
I grinned. “You used to appreciate and enjoy my ability to distract.”
“Once upon a time, but not for centuries,” she fired back. “I could wait another few before your next visit.”
The room was quiet. I crossed the room and began moving bolts of fabric from her chaise. She fumed as each one was disturbed. “You are not welcome here, boy, and I did not invite you to take a seat.”
“I’m not leaving until you help me. I can stay here for… well, forever, if you refuse. I have nowhere else to be.” I threaded my fingers together behind my head and stretched my legs out, making myself comfortable.
She scoffed, “Your mother would call you to her side before dusk.”
“Not this time she wouldn’t. She’s the one who sent me here.”
Esmerelda finally looked up from the hat she was making. Her scarlet eyes snapped to mine. “Get out,” she gritted. “Never again will I do her bidding.”
“Maybe sent is too strong a word. It’s more like she suggested that you might be able to help, but it’s me asking. Not her.”
“Then you’d better give me a good reason to help you, otherwise, my next hat will be taken from your flesh. It would fetch a pretty penny in the other courts.”
I sat up and leaned forward, forearms braced on my knees. She looked me over appraisingly and I knew she was considering what pieces of flesh would be best to carve out.
“How might one sever a tether?”
“It’s not possible as long as both heartmates live. If it was, don’t you think I would have clipped ours long ago?” She turned back to her work, carefully threading her needle in and out of the starched fabric. Her delicate, nimble fingers tugged and pulled and pushed, in complete control of what she made. Manipulating. Confident in their location and ability. She trusted herself more than anyone in this world. It was what had saved her in the end.
My hand reached out for her, but I pulled it back before she saw the movement. I pushed myself up and crossed the room, the planks creaking under my feet.
“But…” she started, “in theory, you could figure it out. Can you still see the tethers clearly? Your mother hasn’t taken that ability away from you, has she?”
Straightening my back and pulling the lapels of my jacket in tight, I shot her a grin. Mother had tried but failed many times because I was stronger and able to block her attempts. “No, I still see them all.”
The tether between Esmerelda and me was still there, cloaked in dark, swirling shadows; its bright light dimmed and concealed. When Mother first learned of our connection, she threatened to kill Esmerelda. I offered an alternative—the only one Mother would accept—to cloak the bond and forget the girl forever. Fortunately, the cloak was more than effective. I couldn’t see even a sliver of light. But tethers were living things. And though the shadows ensured there was no spark left between us, something still writhed within us, something better left hidden. I found that I couldn’t have forgotten her if I wanted to, but Mother didn’t need to know that.
In any event, Mother wasn’t happy with the bargain and sent her guards into the forest to hunt my heartmate. But they could never find her. Not only could I conceal a bond, I could conceal an entire forest and everything inside it.
Hiding in plain sight was what I was best at, it turned out.
If Mother ever found Esmerelda, she would end her, just like she would try to end Arabella. And I couldn’t let that happen.
Mother demanded loyalty. Perfect, unobstructed loyalty. My tethers to others were the one thing she couldn’t control or manipulate. She couldn’t take them away, and it needled her terribly. Because while I had them, there was at least a part of me that was loyal to someone else besides her.
I jogged down the steps of the cottage and back through the wood, emerging from the glamour only to find that Mother hadn’t been thwarted in her attempts to kill my heartmate after all. In fact, she’d used me to try and find her.
Her two most trusted and sneaky sentries were snooping through the forest. Though the evening sun still shone, they tried to blend into the dark places in the wood, as if I wouldn’t see them. As if I couldn’t smell their foul scent—cowardice and blind obedience. I appeared behind the pair of them.
“I warned you that your devotion to my mother would be your undoing,” I cooed.
The two slowly turned to face me, their judge and executioner. When their bodies hit the forest floor, leaking golden fae blood all over the leaves and earth, I removed their heads one at a time, gripped their coated white hair, and made my way back to the castle.
It was as horrible as I expected with not a sound inside, everyone too afraid to let their footsteps echo through the halls. The Cursed and Unseen were nowhere to be found.
Mother had already changed the castle’s décor to suit her color and mood. Gone were the black and white tiles, replaced by seamless, stark white marble. It climbed the walls and hung heavily on the ceiling, as thick as the air and just as deadly.
I had to find Arabella before Mother did. The last time she turned the castle white, she painted her blank canvas with human blood.
ARABELLA
Brave wasn’t in my room. No one was… as far as I could tell. The walls, floors, ceilings, furniture, and bedding were stark white. In the pale wardrobe hung equally pale gowns in every shape—from figure-hugging to enormous layers and frills. I chose something in between, hoping to blend in among the fae, and braided my hair before slipping out of the room.
Something was off. Something felt wrong. I had to find Carden. The last time I saw him, he was completely out of control, and I was terrified he might not regain it. Maybe that was Coeur’s intention all along.
If he didn’t show up for dinner on time tonight, we were both dead.
My bare feet were silent on the cool floor. The hallways were empty. Gone were the busts and statues that sporadically dotted the corridors earlier. There were no tapestries, no candles burning along the walls, yet there was a ghostly light everywhere, with nothing to make a shadow but me. Where were the guards? The fae of her court? The Cursed?
I paused at the junction of another hallway to look in either direction, both of which were empty. Left seemed as good as right, so I took it and began to jog down the long, empty aisle, only to be met with another junction and another one after that. There was no way to tell where I was going or if I was running in circles. It felt like I was still in the game. I stopped to catch my breath and an insidious thought crept in. Maybe it’s not over. It’s not sundown yet, is it?
Thankful that the walls in this hallway weren’t soft and bleeding, I let my hands trail along the smooth, cold stone. That had to be it. We weren’t out of the game. She’d separated us. She wanted us apart.
We couldn’t let her win.
At the next hallway, to the right at the very end, there was a tall door. I ran to it, stopping short when I got close, seeing claw marks across the surface. The paint was peeled back, exposing the yellow wood beneath. When I twisted the silver knob and pushed, the door opened into an aviary.
Small birds flittered across the frosted, vaulted ceiling—red, blue, yellow, and black. The air was humid and warm, and a
sheen of sweat quickly coated my forehead, the same way water beaded on the lush plants and tree leaves below. I couldn’t see any walls to denote where the aviary ended or began, and a feeling of dread crawled quickly up my spine. When I turned around to reach for the door handle, it was gone. There was nothing but plants behind me, birds above me, and…
Something moving in the brush behind me.
“Carden?” I called out tentatively. Those claw marks are his. They must be.
He didn’t answer.
Instinctively, I eased further into the foliage for cover, climbing a nearby tree. The fabric of my skirts clung to the bark, slowing my ascent. Whatever had been moving went silent. I sat on the highest branch I could and clung to the trunk.
The birds weren’t flying. They stopped chirping.
The opaque ceiling was bare, and the only sound in the aviary was a trickling stream I couldn’t see.
A roar that I felt all the way to my marrow poured out from a creature that was way too close for comfort. It wasn’t Carden’s roar, though, and I didn’t think it was Rule’s, either. I stayed quiet as the leaves bent beneath me. My fingers shook against the bark as branches snapped.
Suddenly, claws scrabbled at the bark of the tree I hid in. The entire tree shook with every step the animal took upward.
And then I saw her.
She sniffed the air and gave me a satisfied smile, as if she’d been looking for me for hours and had finally found me. Her skin was as pale as the walls. Red hair curled from the center of her scalp and spilled down her shoulders and back, and two horns sprouted from her head, pointing toward the sky, each made of wood and covered in bark and moss. A smattering of freckles danced across her skin.
Her smile exposed two rows of serrated teeth. Willowy fingers and arms pulled her up until she was on the branch just below mine. I clambered higher, but the tree branches thinned and there were none large enough to support my weight. I was sure she was still following me, but when I looked down to see where she was, she’d disappeared.
I didn’t forget those teeth. Moving to the left and right, holding onto the bark, I tried to peer through the foliage to see where she was. She wasn’t gone. I could feel it. And then she was in front of me, part of the branch I held onto. The animal smiled a feral smile, feeding on my fear. I scrambled down the bark, but at every branch and twist I took toward the ground, she was there. Toying with me.
“Leave me alone!” I screamed.
She mimicked the sound, unable to fully form the words.
Just as the soles of my feet brushed the soil, she emerged from the tree, her hand clasping my throat and throwing me against the trunk of another. Stars floated in my vision and the back of my head throbbed. I pressed the heel of my palm against it and it came away coated in warm blood. She shook with excitement as she approached, her eyes fixed on me.
She let out a victorious cry, but it wasn’t a roar. Not like the first sound I heard. Through the fog of my vision I saw claws on her hands in the place where fingernails should be—claws I knew were sharp enough to slice into tree bark.
I tried to scuttle away, pushing at the soil with the soles of my feet, trying to get to the stream. The echo of her cry still ringing through the atrium, the cacophony of noise hurt my ears.
A shadow suddenly appeared behind me, and the roar I first heard came again a split second before Carden, in beast form, tackled the woman to the ground and tore into her throat. Golden fae blood spurted and sprayed as he lifted his head, fangs and maw dripping.
He turned to look at me, the hackles on his back raised in defiance.
“It’s me, Carden,” I whispered shakily.
He sniffed the air, smelling my blood and fear. I attempted to stand, but found that my legs wouldn’t work. My vision blurred. Trying again to push myself up, I fell and then couldn’t find the strength to try again. My head hurt.
Carden may have saved me, but as I lay bleeding on the ground, I could hear his struggle. His panting. The almost human-like sound he made as he waged an internal battle with himself. I wondered which part of him would win; the animal or the human side. He wanted to give in to his urges and kill me, just like he killed the fae girl, but the tether was still there, telling him that I was his. His heart called out to me, his heartmate, and mine beat in rhythm with his. I could feel it; our pulses combining along the invisible tether between us.
A tear escaped my eye, running into my hair. I lay crying while he howled, low and sorrowful. The two of us were being torn apart, not at the seams, but straight down the middle.
The Queen dealt her blows in agony, and we were cleaved at the core. What a pair we made. But then, she knew that, didn’t she? Or were all those destined for one another able to suffer such pain? Maybe her quest for revenge wasn’t about him or me at all, but rather that anyone – any human who crossed her path – would do.
The air turned frigid, so cold, every inch of exposed skin hurt, and Carden went still. Still as stone. I finally managed to sit up.
“Carden?” I called weakly, scuttling toward him and kneeling in front of his motionless form. Or in front of what used to be him. He was frozen solid in ice, his hand reaching out in the direction I’d been lying in just moments before. I put my hand in his until it became cold; the iciness of his hand so extreme, the prickles made my body think it was hot.
The trees within the aviary around us began to disintegrate, slowly transforming into snow from the top to the roots until nothing remained but the two of us and the gurgling stream. A second later, the stream began to freeze, its warbling sound quickly evaporating. Footsteps crunched in the snow behind me, but I refused to turn around.
The frozen earth beneath my knees turned to solid, white stone and I watched as the intricate panes of frosted glass solidified to match. Rage, hot and wild, flooded my body and spilled out of my pores. My skin steamed and Carden’s hand in mine began to thaw, the ice around his flesh melting and dripping away.
“Obstinate wretch. You think yourself more powerful than me?” the Queen’s low voice sneered.
“No,” I gritted. “I’m not more powerful.”
Her skirts swished as she walked a slow circle around us, until she was peering at me over Carden’s shoulder.
“You should thank me.”
“For what?” I spat.
“For showing you his true nature. All human men have fickle hearts, only loyal to themselves.”
“Why do you care if he does?” I scorned. “Why would you care if his fickle heart hurt me? Why does it matter to you?” Unless… “You’ve been hurt, haven’t you?”
“No one has the power to hurt me,” she claimed emotionlessly, her breath puffing into a cloud before her painted-red lips.
Her gown was more elaborate than any I’d seen to that point, and that was saying something. Bleached lace climbed up her arms and across her chest and back, reaching up her neck toward her chin. The silvery bodice glittered, and streams of glitter fell onto the enormous skirt in veins that projected toward the floor.
“Anyone can be hurt, Queen Coeur,” I admonished. Her sharp eyes met mine, staring at me as if she could gut me with a look. She probably could, but I hoped she was listening, really listening to what I said. I hoped she remembered those words and the warning they held. Because if I could find a way, I would tear her apart and spatter her golden blood all over this pristine floor. Then, I’d walk through the puddles and leave a trail of glittering footprints that led all the way out of this hellish place.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
ARABELLA
A disorienting jerk, and then I found myself back in the throne room. Two thuds came from my right, and when I turned to see what fresh hell awaited me, I saw the heads of two fae wobbling unceremoniously across the floor, trickling gold as they came to a rolling stop at the foot of the Queen.
“They were m
y favorite,” she pouted.
Rule sauntered into the room like he owned it. Like he owned her past, present, and future. Part of me hoped he did. The warning Brave issued about him whispered through my mind.
“You should know better than to waste your best, then, Mother. Because I will end every guard you sic on my tail.”
His suit was the color of fresh cream and his amber eyes darted to me. He quickly looked me over and turned back to his mother. “The game ended earlier today. Why are you still toying with her?”
The Queen’s face went carefully blank, and then she spoke softly, dangerously, “I think it’s time you remembered where your loyalty really lies.”
“I am loyal,” he argued. “I have only ever been loyal to you. I do everything you ask without question.”
“Then tell me where you’ve hidden her,” the Queen challenged.
Rule pursed his lips together and bit back a growl. “I will not.”
“Then I command you to thaw the human prince and cloak the tether between the heartmates.”
My heart pounded. I wanted Carden to be free of the icy prison he was entombed in, but didn’t know what ‘cloak the tether’ meant, or how it might change the way Carden felt about me.
Rule pondered his mother’s words. “Just until dawn,” his mother added, attempting to sway her son to do her bidding.
“Very well.” With a flick of his finger, Carden lay in a watery puddle on the marble floor, shivering and gasping for air.
I helped him sit up. The clock face appeared in his eyes for a brief second and then disappeared. “What happened?” he stuttered.
“You’re okay,” I reassured him, although I wasn’t sure he was. That either of us was.
“No, I mean…what happened back there? Did I kill that fae woman?”
My swallow was answer enough for him. He raked his hands through his hair and blew out a shaky breath.
Coeur motioned impatiently to Rule, who gave me a regretful look and lifted both hands. I suddenly saw shimmering strands, radiating with a blinding, white-gold light, stretched from Carden and me. One was thicker than all the others, meeting in the space between us.