by Ella Fields
“I think it’s safe to assume that Ryle did not wish for anyone to know he was lacking.”
“Until he stood to lose not only his title but also the land of which granted him as much.”
Zad squeezed my hand. “We’re going home.”
Home. Just that one word was enough to infuse more energy into my spent body. “Do you truly think he’ll just let us leave?” I might not have known Ryle as well as Zad, but I knew enough not to expect anything.
“We did what he desperately needed me to,” Zad said, and the path veered down a steep hill, lined with toadstools and glowing green shrubbery. Now behind us, the falls could still be heard, but the crashing mingled with the rush of the river beside us, racing below the cliff.
To our left and up ahead, nestled deeper among the trees, were homes. Some a glittering black stone, cottages with fat chimneys puffing breaths of smoke toward the sky.
The homes in the trees appeared small from where I’d glimpsed them in my rooms, looking out the window. Being closer, I now saw they were huge. More oak and strips of bamboo were used to create pathways in the air between the tree houses.
A hole in a giant granite rock soon greeted us, and we stepped into the dark.
Rushing water morphed into trickling the farther we descended.
Zad whistled, and within seconds, those creatures, the tiny bulbous glowing insects, appeared. Now, they were free to bob about without bubbles. Clicking noises tickled my ears when they bounced by my head, lighting our way down the slope.
The dark tunnel opened into an impossibly deep chamber, and the bugs disappeared. They were no longer needed.
Flaying light streaked over the damp walls, rainbows arcing over the glistening, bubbling pool of water. It stretched to either side of the rock-hewn walls and flowed between two cracks at either end to rejoin the river.
Zad released my hand. “Rainbow Springs.” Noticing I’d not moved, he gently gripped my nightgown, then pulled it over my head. “I came here almost every day when I was a youngling.” Crouching, he removed his cloth and laid my nightgown atop it, then rose.
I tore my eyes from the storybook imagery surrounding me and stared at my mate.
My linked love. The match to my soul. The male capable of changing the beat of my heart. Naked, painfully beautiful, irrevocably mine, and in this strange land of his, a stranger.
Feather soft, his fingers dusted down my cheek. “You have not forgiven me?”
Staring at his chest, the scratches from my nails already healing, most gone as if they’d never happened, I felt my body sway closer to his heat. A heat I now knew was more than I’d ever thought it was. That drugging pull was my need for him, but it was also just him.
I loathed to think of the effect it had on others.
My cheeks filled with air as I inhaled and slowly released it, staring up at him. “I love you.” It was all I could think to say, all I could give him.
I could lie. But just because I loved a male to the point of self-ruination did not mean I’d lose that shard of ice I was born with.
He’d hurt me, and no, I had not yet forgiven him. I wondered if I even could when I was still trying to accept all he’d hidden from me.
I heard him swallow. Talented fingers crawled under my chin, tipping it, his eyes demanding mine. I gave them to him, let him see what lingered inside, and watched him begrudgingly accept it with a jerk of his head and a roll of his lips.
He kissed me, a quick brush of his lips upon the scars residing next to my mouth, and then he led me to the water. So thick, it felt as though I’d plunged breast-deep into a pool of milk as it enveloped us.
Zad didn’t release me. He set me upon a rock beneath the water, its bubbles tickling my chin.
I sat still, even as I longed to dive to the bottom to see what creatures lurked below, and allowed him to do as he wished. His hands caressed every part of me. Beneath my arms, over them, fingers gentle while still cleansing, his eyes fastened on every place he touched, every part visible to him.
Tilting my head back, he carefully massaged and rid the tangles from my hair, his breath feathering over my lips. “We will make plans to leave. But first, I must ensure Dace is released.”
I’d almost forgotten the quiet male still lingered within the bowels of Ryle’s keep. “What are they doing to him?”
“Nothing,” he said. “I’ve been checking and taking him food.”
“They won’t feed him?”
Focused on his task, he muttered absently, “Sometimes, if his majesty feels so inclined to allow it.”
I watched him as he washed my hair, my fingers weaving through the thick water. “You do not wish to stay? Your presence is likely still needed.”
He propped my head up, and his lips flattened. “We’ve done enough.”
With his eyes shifting to mine, he dragged his roughened palms down my sides, and my legs opened on instinct. He reached between, mouth curving while he gently rubbed. “You’re still filled with my seed.”
Those words made me remember what Eline had said. That a month had passed in my absence. “I’ve not taken a tonic in a few weeks, perhaps longer given how time passes here.”
“You cannot conceive unless I fuck you with the intention of putting a babe in your womb.” Factual words, yet my breaths grew louder, and my nipples, already pebbled in the warm water, became painfully erect.
His smile grew to his eyes, teeth scraping his bottom lip. “You’re sore.”
“Incredibly, but if you stop, I will mount you anyway.”
He picked me up, then turned to sit on the rock with me in his lap, his fingers returning between my thighs. Leaning forward, I pressed my lips to his, moaning when his length bobbed against me.
My knees scraped against the mossy stone, but he pushed me back. His voice gave away his desperation as did the harsh rise and fall of his chest as he said, “No, but I will cleanse you.” Those eyes flashed. “Though it pains me to do so.”
I wanted to ignore him, but I knew he was refusing for my own good. Within seconds, I was too hypnotized by the brushstrokes of his fingers against me, by his thick shaft against my stomach, to care if he entered me or not.
Lazily, he kissed me, his eyes open every time I opened my own. “To watch you break over me,” he said, his mouth ghosting across mine and down my chin. His tongue lapped at the bruising bite marks he’d left on my neck, his groan dizzying in my ear. “Is an honor that will never fail to undo me in kind.”
A throaty curse accompanied the milky liquid in washing over my skin when my fingers dragged over him, then clenched when I indeed broke.
Unmoving, except for our slowing hearts, I dozed with my nose against his throat, his arms a cage I’d rejoice to stay trapped within.
He must have slept too, for when I traced the scars upon his back, he shuddered then stiffened. The memory of his shadow, the monstrous feathered wingspan crawling around me, made me bold when typically, I’d wait for him to give himself to me.
That tactic had obviously failed us—my stubborn desire to withhold how much I wanted him, how much I hungered to know all of him, even though it was futile. If I’d swallowed such useless pride, that echoing fear from past betrayals, then perhaps I’d not be seated in a faerie spring beneath a kaleidoscope of rainbows.
So I didn’t remove my hands, and he didn’t ask me to, the puckered skin smooth beneath my gently pressing fingertips. “What was it like?” I said, running my lips over his shoulder. Muscle rippled, arms clenching around my body. “To have them.” I wouldn’t make him speak of losing them. Not when he was so close to them. The pain was apparent enough in his voice.
“I’d known no different, never thought to, until they were gone.” I heard his throat constrict. “They were another set of limbs, I suppose you could say. Vital and rarely thought of but magical and life-changing all the same.”
Thick muscle, bulges that would not exist in most male backs, shifted beneath my touch. “You could fl
y.”
His voice turned wistful. “From my room to the kitchens, over the battlements and through the swaying arches of trees.” I could feel and hear his smile, and I feared that I might cry like a fucking babe if I saw it. “I raced the waterfall and often banked too late, and would need to wait a few days for my bones to heal before trying again and again.”
My arms squeezed. “What did Ryle make of them? Of your ability to fly when he could not.”
“What do you think?” Zad huffed. His tone lost its warmth. “His resentment stained the air so thick with ire that I actually pitied him, and so after some time spent tormenting him for being the brat he was, I then made sure to fly out of his sight. For a time, I thought my father might have pitied him, too, before realizing he’d merely lost his love for the gift he’d been given with my mother’s death. All High Kings are blessed with the ability to fly. Are given wings. It is the sign of a true heir.”
“Of which he obviously does not bear.”
Zad hummed, then shifted me off his lap and propped me up onto the ledge above, out of the water. Dripping and swiping droplets from his face, he walked up the curving path. Without an ounce of shame, I studied every inch of his glistening body, my eyes tracking his long wet hair that spilled water over his shoulder blades and down the vast planes of his back to his perfect ass.
When he turned, two folded cloths were perched on his upturned palm, bearing the sigil of the Onyx Court—black wings with glittering stones beneath. Gray horns morphed from behind the stones and curled into roots that wound into the air in spirals of thorns and leaves alongside each wing.
“You are stronger than him,” I said. “Can’t you get them back?” For the king had not only kept them to remind his court of what he was capable of but also for further bribery should he ever need to.
Zad helped me up, and I dried myself as I waited for him to answer.
“We have an agreement,” he said with no inflection and shucked on his threadbare cloth while tossing me a glance that said he wished to discuss this no further. “It is as good as law to our kind, and to break it would ignite grave consequences.”
I bit the inside of my lip and got dressed.
He waited at the cave’s opening, and my thoughts ran together in cruel, unidentified loops. One thing was clear, and I had to ask, “Could you kill him now?”
Zad’s brows dipped, but I waited. Finally, he scrubbed his hand over his mouth. “I do not know.” Gesturing to the entrance, drenched in warm afternoon rays, he continued, “I think, if I had to, then yes.” But it would stain his soul as surely as mine was already stained.
“One of your friends then?” I suggested, far too eager judging by the twitching curl of his lips.
He took my hand, thumb brushing my damp skin. “To kill a High King is no easy feat. It can only be done by someone of the same heart,” he said. “Of the same bloodline.”
I pondered that, frustrated, but smiled when Zad caught a passing, tiny bird with rabbit ears and whiskers. “A curdle.” He dragged his finger down its fluffy blue mane of fuzz before giving the creature to me.
Tucked in the cup of my hands, it peered at me with little red eyes, then bit me and darted back into the air.
Zad’s howling laughter chased away my scowl.
Zadicus
With Audra safely returned to her rooms, I went in search of Kash to make plans for the journey home.
He was meeting with a rogue wolf in the market near the seldom-used trade entrance to arrange a small ship. I’d sweep Audra back to Allureldin in a heartbeat, but neither of us had anything from there, besides clothes and weapons that had long disappeared, in order to do so.
It was nearing dinner when I finally made it to the dungeon.
Dace was seated against the wall, his soiled hands between his legs. It was too dark, the foliage of his cell too thick, to make out his expression. “It is breathing,” he said by way of greeting. A rough laugh mingled with his next words. “I had not thought to check if it was until it was not. Even with the brief visits I dared to take back here, I never thought to notice it was perishing, dying a death slow enough to forewarn.”
I nodded to a guard, who jerked his head in response. His loyalty was to my brother, but I’d known Melron long enough that he’d not turn me away, nor would he repeat conversations had in his presence.
In a land rife with trickery and deceit born from the inability to lie, the wolves were the most loyal creatures in it. Which was another reason, aside from their immense strength and brutality if wronged, they were so highly respected and held high in rank and importance amongst the courts.
For their innate sense of right and wrong, but also because out of all the creatures in this land, they would be the only kind able to usurp faerie nobility.
Keep your enemies close, they said. Though I did not think most of their ilk would so much as consider such political atrocity. Again, too loyal.
“It’s healing,” I said. “We are done here.”
Melron shifted on his feet but did not stop me when I laid my hand upon the impenetrable vines.
Perhaps he was too stunned, or his loyalty to my brother only ran so deep. Regardless, he didn’t utter a word as the vines slithered and curled away, falling into the mortar and dirt like wilting curtains.
Dace stepped out, and the vines slowly rejoined, stitching and weaving back together.
He waited until we’d hit the stairs. The guards there were not so willing to oblige us, but at the look upon my face, they chose to keep their complaints to themselves while we moved up the dirt-clotted steps to the throne room.
Before we reached it, Dace touched my arm. “She will not forgive you.”
He knew, as well as I did, that no matter how much my cold queen felt for me, she would ignore those feelings if I betrayed her in irreparable ways. It was already proving difficult, as it should be, to melt what my deception had iced.
“She might not, but it was not the queens I laid with.”
Dace’s hand lowered, his expression puzzled.
I felt my lips twitch and something else as the wild echo of the previous night trampled through my mind. I forced it away, else I’d storm through the halls in search of reprieve, in search of my queen, and she needed rest.
“Audra,” he said, awe coloring his quiet voice.
I nodded. He wanted to ask how—how it had worked, how she’d made our coupling even take place—I knew. But he knew the answers already.
“I thought I scented vermin.” The door to the throne room opened, lighting the dark, the king standing on the other side. “How nice of you to finally join us.”
My spine pulled taut at the sheen in his eyes. The arrogant posture that spoke of inevitable plans already underway. That reeked of shit already being thrown.
About to ask where she was, instead, I shut my mouth and shouldered by him into the room.
To find Audra seated upon the smaller throne beside the High King’s.
Her eyes did not meet mine, but those of the gathered courts pressed heavily on me.
They’d evidently been waiting for me, and had I not have taken the outside entrance to the dungeon, I’d have known that.
But then I might not have gotten Dace out before whatever was happening unfolded.
Dressed in a blue that differed beneath the dripping candles in the chandeliers above, hair pulled back into a loose chignon with a midnight blue rose, her posture speaking of a confidence I knew she did not truly feel, Audra was every inch the faerie queen.
Though she was only half faerie, her father had more of our blood in his veins than he knew what to do with, and so she was well-practiced in the art of playing games to keep one’s life.
My heart throbbed with both adoration and fear.
“You two,” Ryle said, throwing his legs out to stroll casually to his throne. “Honestly, I should have you whip one another until I see bone for the trickery you bestowed upon us all.” Ryle scowled when some of t
he gathered guests dared to murmur.
They quieted when I said, “Had we not, you might find yourself appearing far too desperate once again.”
His eyes darkened, hands balling, but Audra cleared her throat.
My gaze swung to her, and still, she did not look at me.
She stared at my brother in a way that said they’d spoken in-depth during my absence, and I would not like what they’d discussed.
Disbelief cut like a knife through the throbbing organ in my chest. Whatever she’d done, it would not be worth it. It would only cause trouble when we’d finally almost gotten ourselves out of it.
Ryle’s smile simmered with smugness, and he sighed, loud and forlorn. “But alas, your young queen and I have reached an agreement I think you’ll rather like.”
I feared the clanging inside my chest could be heard, the silence so thick. “Audra,” I said, tried to, but words failed me when two warriors stepped out from behind me and walked to the back wall.
My back spasmed, pain so sharp and sudden wracking me, I folded over.
When I straightened, the stakes that’d been imbedded in my wings were free, and they were being carried, with not a little amount of difficulty, to the king.
I wanted them. I wanted to leap forward and snatch them away from him before he could dispose of them, of the long-lost piece of my soul, before my very eyes.
But Ryle didn’t touch them. His eyes drank in the slowing of my violent breathing, my every reaction, with a satisfaction I longed to break from his face.
He jerked his head to his sentinels, and I shoved them off when they reached me. “What have you done?” I said, although I was beginning to understand.
“Isn’t that obvious?” Ryle said. “After all this time, I’ve decided to give you your precious wings back.” Pursing his lips, he then smiled. “Apologies, brother, they might be a little dusty.”
“We had an agreement.”
He waggled a jeweled finger, still grinning. “I do not forget, nor will I fail to hold up my end of it. I’m offering you a gift,” he said. “Will you take it?”