by Chloe Jacobs
“They didn’t have much choice. I was the key to getting to you.”
“Maybe the better question is, why would you want to come back?”
She didn’t answer that.
“Well, then, what can they possibly want with me? Obviously, it isn’t to help with my problem.”
“The magick you inherited from Agramon is the only thing that might be able to save my mother.” Siona’s voice dropped to a whisper and she glanced toward the door. “If there were any other way—”
“I don’t understand what she needs to be saved from. And why wouldn’t you just ask for my help instead of this elaborate farce where you pretend to actually care? And”—she was on a roll now—“assuming there’s something I could do, how am I supposed to manage it when I’m stuck in here with my hands tied behind my back, arguing with you?”
Siona gave Greta a piercing look. It was becoming obvious there was still something she wasn’t telling. “Come on, Siona,” she said, at the end of her patience and ready to drive her knee into the half goblin’s stubborn nose just to hear the satisfying crack. “If you want my cooperation, prove to me that you didn’t set Isaac up and throw the goblin people to the wolves just because you missed your mommy.”
Siona lifted a hand in defense. “That was never supposed to happen.”
Greta snorted. “Maybe it was always supposed to happen, but your new pals just didn’t tell you that part.”
Siona looked guilty and devastated, but Greta clenched her teeth. She couldn’t afford to feel sorry for her. She had her own problems to worry about…because of her.
“If he hadn’t rejected the faeries’ offer of allegiance at the banquet, none of that would have happened. They would have invited him to attend before Queen Minetta in the Glass Kingdom as an emissary for his people, and he would have brought you with him.”
She thought about that night and the gnomes who’d caused a scene—just in time for the faeries to swoop in and break it up, then offer an alliance with the goblin king. Isaac had turned them down flat. Even after their assistance, he hadn’t trusted them. Maybe they hadn’t expected that, and without an excuse to remain close by, they’d been forced to figure out another way to draw him away from the goblin castle, where he’d be more vulnerable.
Greta had been the bait. “He trusted you, and you set him up,” she accused. “If only he’d known there was a traitor in his midst.”
“I’m no traitor,” she protested.
“Right. Because everyone who’s completely loyal to their friends lies repeatedly and plots with murderous faeries campaigning to take over the world.”
“You don’t know anything.”
“I don’t need to know, nor do I care. Why don’t you untie me, give me my sword, and make this a fair fight?”
“We aren’t going to fight,” Siona said, edging backward. “And we certainly won’t accomplish anything useful arguing with one another. You need to listen and trust me.”
“Okay, don’t even untie me,” she snapped. “All I need is my sword.”
“We aren’t going to—”
“You’re out of luck, faerie. The opportunity to earn my trust was before you went and threw your lot in with a bunch of conniving—”
“Listen to me,” she urged again, making a big show of putting her dagger away nice and slow. Greta raised her brows. Bold move when the only other person in the room was tied up. “Leila and Byron are the queen’s first children, born hundreds of years ago when she was wed to the faerie king. He was an evil man, and his children are cut from the same cloth.”
“Seems to me that’s not a trait exclusively reserved for his children,” Greta sneered.
Siona didn’t rise to the bait. “My mother fled this place to get away from him, and that’s when she met my father. Unfortunately, after his death she was forced out of the goblin kingdom and, alone and expecting a child, she had no choice but to return to the faeries.”
“What did the king do to her?”
“Nothing, as it turns out. He was killed the very night she arrived.”
“Convenient,” Greta muttered, gritting her teeth against the pins and needles running up her arms. “So, what’s the big deal? She’s still the queen, which means the faeries didn’t find that overly suspicious and hang her for his murder.”
“Few mourned his death,” she admitted, “and before his body cooled, Leila and Byron were already scheming to seize control. My mother wasn’t about to let the Glass Kingdom fall into their hands. Her magick was stronger, and she successfully claimed the throne, but when I was born a short time later and it became clear what my power was, it was also clear that I would make her vulnerable. I was young, I had no control, and it was only a matter of time before Leila and Byron would find a way to capitalize on it, so she sent me away and locked the gates so no one could come after me.”
“After I was gone, I learned that she was attacked by Leila and Byron. Everyone outside of the Glass Kingdom believed she was dead.”
“Then what happened?”
“She retreated deep into the catacombs beneath the castle to heal, where she has remained locked away from the rest of the world and her people ever since.”
Was she supposed to feel sympathy for Siona’s messed-up family life? “So now you’re going to help them finish the job they started trying to kill her all those years ago? Is this some way of getting back at your mother for kicking you out?”
Siona glanced at the door nervously and waved at her to keep her voice down. “I’ve let them think that, because I needed access to the Glass Kingdom,” she said. “The gates are finally open after all these years, but they remain heavily guarded. I could never have walked in on my own.”
Greta recalled how close they’d had to get before she could even see the castle walls, as if someone had gone to a lot of trouble to try hiding the whole kingdom. And then there’d been the hundred or so warriors manning the gates. “Nobody wanted you here, Siona. Even the faerie queen.” Was it small-minded of her to take pleasure in pointing that out? She shrugged. Maybe she’d feel bad about it later.
“She’s my mother.” Siona said it without apology, like that was enough justification for her betrayal and lies.
“If she’s been locked away all this time, how does anyone even know she’s still alive?”
“I feel it,” she said. “I’ve felt it since the eclipse. I think the shock that rocked Mylena when Agramon was banished from the world penetrated enough to bring her some awareness.”
“Your feeling is not exactly proof.”
Siona took a step closer, but Greta still wasn’t ready to let her come near and took a corresponding step away.
“The gates opened. That, too, must mean she’s awakening,” Siona said stubbornly.
“Great. So then she can take care of herself.”
“She’s awakening, but not awake,” Siona clarified. “Her consciousness remains trapped in the limbo state that kept her trapped all this time. But the deeper she went into it, the more it slipped out of her ability to control, and now she can’t lift it. She is unable to return completely.”
“How do you know this?”
“The same way every faerie knows it. She’s been whispering in our minds.” Siona’s hands clenched into fists at her side. She didn’t look happy for someone who’d just heard her mom was coming out of a coma.
“You actually think she’s gone insane after all this time,” Greta guessed. “That maybe this is the start of the end. She’s getting weaker, maybe even dying.”
“That’s exactly what the prince and princess believe, and they think they can use both of us to strike against her now,” Siona answered.
“If she does wake up, they’re screwed, right?” A powerful faerie who’d lost her marbles would cause them as many problems as a faerie queen who’d simply wanted to reclaim her position and had no use for them. Either way, Leila and Byron weren’t getting their hands on a throne unless Minetta was dead an
d gone for good.
“What does any of this have to do with us?”
“The dark magick Agramon called upon to open the black portal resides in you now. Leila and Byron will force you to use it to open the catacombs, and they think they’ll use me to block Queen Minetta’s ability if she rises and tries to retaliate against them.”
“But that’s not all, is it?” The scope and variety of all the lies Siona had told—not only to Greta, but to everyone—was staggering, but her true motives were starting to fall into place. “You want me to give them exactly what they want, but when your mom is free, you’re going to let her blast them both to kingdom come.”
She shook her head. “No, of course not. Leila and Byron will be dealt with mercifully.”
That lie wasn’t even a good one.
Greta had to know one more thing. “Are most of the faeries still loyal to the queen, or has everyone been taking orders from Leila and Byron?”
“They have a small following, but Queen Minetta is much loved among her people,” Siona said with a smile. “You witnessed the procession as we entered the Glass Kingdom. Even though the faeries have spent many years imprisoned here as surely as their queen has been imprisoned within herself, they have not abandoned her now that the gates are open. They would go to the ends of Mylena to do her bidding, because she protects them. She keeps them connected to one another, and that connection is more valuable than food or water or air to breathe.”
Greta had never known Siona to express anything with so much emotion. The always cool and collected goblin hunter was desperate, and desperation was a dangerous thing. A thing that could turn loyal friends into unwitting enemies.
Siona was telling the truth about Queen Minetta’s predicament, and she was telling the truth about Leila and Byron’s plans to take her down. She was telling the truth when she said she wanted to help her mother…but she was also telling the truth that the faerie race would do anything for its queen, that she would do anything for her mother.
It had made sense that Leila and Byron were behind all the plots and conspiracies, setting gnomes against goblins and pushing the goblin king closer to the edge until he went Lost, so that when they were ready to claim the faerie throne and go after the rest of Mylena, their work would be half done for them.
But Leila and Byron weren’t the ones Greta was worried about.
If it was true that Queen Minetta had been whispering to her subjects, getting them ready for the moment when Siona would eliminate her opposition for her and release her from her prison…it was because she had plans for Mylena.
And Greta shuddered to think what they might be.
“What if I just refuse to do it?”
Siona shook her head calmly. She didn’t look worried about that at all. “Why do you think we crossed Solem’s Bridge and made camp in a blood wraiths’ den? Every moment of the journey was calculated to tempt you into using the magick more and more often.”
Greta blanched. “Because you knew that once I started, it would be impossible to stop.”
She nodded. “And because it needed to be much stronger in order to be able to free Queen Minetta.”
By the Great Mother, none of them were sane. “You’re all playing with fire, you know that, right?”
Siona flinched but stood her ground. “We didn’t completely lie. When the queen is awake, she will be able to relieve you of the magick.”
“As long as everything goes as planned,” she said. “But you realize that nothing ever goes as planned, right? You’re a hunter, you know I’m right.”
“If you trust me, all will be well,” she said stubbornly.
“Never going to happen again.”
Siona frowned and drew one of her daggers and stalked across the room to stand before her. Had she decided that if Greta wouldn’t cooperate, she was too much of a liability?
The hairs on her arms and neck stood up, and she balanced on the balls of her feet, ready to defend herself even without the use of her hands.
“Turn around.”
Greta shook her head. “I’m not going to make it easy for you. If you want to kill me, you’re going to have to stab me right in the heart, not in the back like a chickenshit little—”
Siona hissed and grabbed her by the shoulder. “Turn around so I can cut your bonds.”
Surprised, she’d let Siona push her almost all the way around before she reacted, but by then it was too late. An arm slammed across the back of her neck and shoved her face-first into the wooden door.
As she squirmed, Siona did exactly what she’d said she would do…she cut the ropes around her wrists.
Greta lashed out immediately, but Siona quickly retreated halfway across the room. Greta rubbed the feeling back into her hands and arms, contemplating her next move.
She decided to play it cool. For now.
“When are Leila and Byron supposed to come for us?” she asked carefully.
Siona let out a long, thin breath. “You’ll help me?”
“You haven’t given me much choice, have you? You fed the monster until it was out of control, and you know I won’t be able to deny it. I just don’t think you realize how big a hole you’ve dug yourselves. All of you.”
“I apologize for deceiving you, my friend”—hearing the word “friend” from Siona’s lips was like being gutted by a rusty iron spoon—“but when this is all over and the queen is freed, she has promised that I shall sit by her side. And I promise that you and your human friends will be free to leave Mylena, and we will aid the goblin kingdom.”
The door opened and Dryden entered. He looked at Greta’s unbound hands with alarm, but Siona stopped him from drawing his weapon. “She has agreed to help the prince and princess.”
“You believe her?” he said, skeptical. This guy might just be the smartest one of the bunch.
“Whether I believe her or not makes no difference,” she answered. “I control her power, and she knows that even if she manages to escape this room, she will never make it out of the Glass Kingdom with her life unless she does what is required of her.”
“What exactly am I going to be required to do?” she asked, crossing her arms.
Siona went to the door with Dryden. When she turned around, the desolate, unvarnished truth shone from her eyes. “You know that magick was never yours to control, Greta,” she said. “All we’re asking you to do is let it out.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Pacing never got her anywhere, and whenever she was shut in somewhere like this, she couldn��t seem to stop. She was naturally restless, and with the dark magick throbbing and straining for action, she felt even more so now.
Part of her still wanted to believe that Siona wouldn’t just walk her into something like this, something that had every indication of being the end of her. But the masks were all stripped away now, and there was no mistaking where Siona’s loyalties truly lay.
Greta didn’t even know if she could be mad…yeah, she could.
But she wasn’t. She was surprisingly calm.
Siona thought she was doing the right thing to save her mother. Trouble was, that kind of motivation couldn’t be reasoned with. The goblin hunter honestly believed she was going to help Queen Minetta rise from this coma thing and her family would welcome Siona back with open arms just like they were all in a sweet fairy tale. She believed all the promises she’d been given and didn’t even realize the irony that she’d broken her own promises every step of the way getting here.
Promises were like that. They were great big flashing neon arrows pointing the way toward heartache and disappointment, and Greta was done with them. She was done accepting them, done making them, done relying on them. If she’d learned anything since meeting Isaac, it was that life had been a heck of a lot easier when she’d only been out for herself.
Luke had died on her, Isaac abandoned her, Wyatt wanted what she couldn’t give, and now Siona had betrayed her. All the people she’d opened up to, let under her s
kin, dared to care about, had left her alone over and over again.
That’s why she’d rejected emotion. It had been a relief.
At first.
Without emotion she could look at the situation impartially. It would protect her from heartache and put a barrier between her soul and the evil that wanted to claim it.
But she was starting to wonder now if that same barrier was actually blinding her to something really important. Something she should have seen before now. Without her emotions she felt disconnected from her humanity.
Your humanity is all you have left.
It’s what had kept her going. It’s what had given her an edge. Those killer hunting instincts hadn’t just manifested naturally like faerie magick. They’d come from sweat and tears and a human determination to stay alive and be the best.
“Protect your humanity. Don’t ever let anyone take it from you.”
She’d said those words to Wyatt and had believed it to be the most important thing she could tell him. Maybe she should start taking her own advice.
She looked around the bare tower room. It probably hadn’t been used for anything in a very long time—much like the rest of the castle, it seemed—but chairs and tables and other furniture would have been wasted here. The windows went all the way around the perimeter. That vista was the only decoration the room needed.
She stopped pacing and went to look out one of them, but that only hammered home just how screwed she was. It was a magnificent view from up here, but she could see no escape. Faerie guards manned every tower. They were stationed on the walls and patrolled the grounds.
She gazed farther out. She could see more of Mylena here than from any spot in goblin lands. The mountains loomed to her right, and to her left was…everything else. In fact, she could almost trace the path they’d taken to get here. There were Eyna’s Falls, and down from that somewhere would be Solem’s Bridge. And there was the goblin forest.
She strained to see more than just the landscape. The evergreens themselves were tiny from this height, nothing more than a great blob of green and brown with large patches of white. Impossible to pick out anything in particular…like an individual.