by L. V Russell
Laphaniel still didn’t move, but his fists curled at his side as he fought against me. I was worried I could break his mind if I pushed too hard, but that fear quickly fled when I couldn’t even get him to stand up.
With a new resolve, I pushed harder, focusing on the glittering strands of Glamour, winding them around Laphaniel. His smile faltered as he fought me, his legs twitching, beads of sweat breaking out against his skin.
I took a breath and concentrated, feeling out for the tug against my will, and gently pulled it apart. The brightness in his lovely eyes went out, glazing over as he blinked and stood. He took one step and then another, not seeming to care about the shards of glass that littered the floor.
My delight quickly turned to revulsion at the thought of controlling him, of having that amount of power over someone. I knew the moment I took over his thoughts, breaking down a barrier he was trying hard to keep up, and it felt wrong, a grotesque invasion that I vowed I would never enjoy.
“Laphaniel, stop.”
He moved closer to the shattered window, hands curling over the frame while the wind started to batter at his face. I hadn’t asked him to go to the window…just to stand up, the Glamour was listening to his command…his dare, not my simple request.
“Stop!”
He didn’t turn, didn’t slow. The threads holding onto him had snapped away in my panic, and I couldn’t get them back up again.
“Laphaniel!” I grabbed at his arm as he continued forward, precariously close to the window’s edge. I gathered up the spluttering remains of Glamour, sensing it struggle against my fingertips. “Get down.”
Forcing a silken layer into my voice, I remembered how he used to sweet talk the darkness away for me. He pulled away, one foot hanging from the gaping window. I grabbed at him, but he yanked his arm back and nearly toppled over.
“Stop.” I found my control again, barely recognising my voice, “Stop this, and sleep instead.”
Laphaniel crumpled like someone had cut strings from him, and I only just managed to grab him as he fell, hauling him away from the ledge and onto the floor.
My breath caught in my throat, my heart pounding, so angry with myself that I shook. Laphaniel lay entirely still against me, breathing soundly, completely oblivious.
I shook him hard, fighting the urge to smack him. He stirred and blinked at me, meeting my furious glare with confusion.
“What?”
“Don’t you what me!” I hissed. “Don’t ever ask me to do that again!”
He sat up, rubbing a hand over his eyes. “You did it. I could feel you in my head, nudging against me until all I could hear was you. Nothing else mattered.”
“It felt wrong.”
“It won’t always,” Laphaniel said, reaching up to wipe at the blood that had begun to trickle from his nose.
“Are you okay?”
He nodded. “It takes a lot to override someone’s will to live. You did amazingly.”
“That is the singular most awful thing you have ever said to me.” I swept the hair from his eyes. “And you’ve said some pretty appalling things.”
He stood a little shakily and moved to sit by the cracked table. The breakfast things had all disappeared. “You are going to have to do some awful things as Queen.”
I didn’t sit but moved my hand over the stumps of candle wax dotted over the table, coaxing flames up from the ruined wicks. With a quick clench of my fist, the flames raged upwards before I snuffed them out.
“I have been like this for less than a day,” I said, unable to stay still. “And already what I can do frightens me. I can feel this power, this Glamour inside me, and it’s getting stronger. A few hours ago, I couldn’t light a candle, and now I feel as if I could burn this castle to the ground with a whisper. I hurt you because I lost my temper—what if I lose my temper again? I don’t want to become a monster, Laphaniel.”
“You’re the rightful Queen of the Seelie Court,” Laphaniel said. “You need to be feared.”
I swallowed. “I don’t want you to be afraid of me.”
He pulled me to him, stopping my pacing. “I’m not afraid of you. I never will be. I fear for you because I don’t think you understand that defeating Luthien is only the beginning of everything.”
I rested my head on his shoulder. “I don’t want to die.”
Laphaniel brushed a kiss to my lips, saying nothing as he looped his fingers through mine. The strange chill of his wedding band pressed against my skin as I clung to him. With his free hand, he reached for my star pendant, his fingers running over its crooked points. It was a symbol of everything he meant to me, of a constant light within an eternity of darkness.
A beacon of hope in a hopeless place.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Morning came slow and black and cold. Sunlight barely broke over the horizon, oozing feeble violet light through the low storm clouds spitting drizzle over the damp and misty ground.
Neither of us had slept, we hadn’t talked much either but just stayed quiet in each other’s company and waited for dawn.
“I’m terrified,” I admitted, my back to Laphaniel while he tightened the stays on my borrowed dress, a flowing thing of sheer black. “More than I have been in a long time.”
He kissed the nape of my neck, hands running over my hips. “So am I. I love you, Teya. More than anything, more than I thought was ever possible.”
“I feel like you’re saying goodbye,” I said, stretching out my hands, rooting for the Glamour beneath my skin. “How long until we reach Luthien?”
“It’s a good week’s ride, longer perhaps. We can’t risk cutting through Seelie lands until we absolutely must. We need to be able to surprise her.”
I nodded, turning to face him, smoothing the fabric of his dark shirt. “Then tell me goodbye another day.”
I laced my boots, the soft leather reaching high up my legs, the deep black the same shade as my dress; Unseelie clothes, all made from darkness and shadows that settled over my skin like mist.
The neckline was lower than I would have liked, fitting snugly against my breasts before flowing in sheer drapes down my legs. The weightless silk caught the slightest breeze and moved in ribbons of darkness around my body, the sheer sleeves stopping at my wrists to keep my hands free.
It was the first time I had felt like a queen, standing in front of the mirror shrouded in shadow with my hair bright and wild around my shoulders.
“Will you fight differently?” I asked, worried that I had compromised his ability to make me stronger. “Now, you’re not quite fey?”
Laphaniel pulled his boots on before shrugging into a leather jacket as black as ink. “It will be an adjustment—it’s being unable to see in the dark that bothers me most…”
“You could see in the dark?”
“Not in total darkness, no.” He smiled at me, passing me a hooded cloak lined with midnight fur. “I never realised you couldn’t. It didn’t occur to me that your sight may be different to mine. Your hearing is pretty appalling too, I always thought you were ignoring me half the time.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Do you not understand how humans work? My ears are little and rounded, my eyes never changed colour. Technically we are different species…which is pretty weird if you think too long about it.”
“The only thing I knew about humans was that they screamed when you locked them away.”
I cradled his face in my hands, feeling the way guilt rose up within him.
“Niven didn’t.”
He took a breath. “I should never have chosen her.”
“Then you wouldn’t have found me.”
“I think I would have found you eventually,” he said, sweeping a soft kiss against my lips. “And you wouldn’t have had a reason not to stay with me.”
His words sent a pang of regret through me, though it was wonderful to believe that fate would have pushed us together one way or another.
I had no appetite to eat but knew
that riding out on an empty stomach was a bad idea, so I forced down a few mouthfuls of porridge. Laphaniel picked at his own breakfast, mainly consisting of the thick and bitter coffee favoured at the dark court.
The knights were waiting for us in the throne room, standing still and ominous in their dark armour and raven feather cloaks. They watched us as we entered, eyes narrowing in distaste at me, before darkening to hatred as they set eyes upon Laphaniel. They began whispering between themselves when we walked forwards towards the two knotted thrones, only silencing when the Unseelie King lifted a lazy hand.
“Quiet.” The single word barely echoed but brought with it a sudden silence. Not a soul uttered a sound. The King turned to me, beside him, my sister watched on. A Queen, surveying her court. “I have six knights for you, Teya. Do you think that will be enough?”
I gritted my teeth against his tone, forcing a grateful smile onto my face. “I hope so.”
The Unseelie King smiled back, showing teeth. “Ever hopeful, aren’t you?”
“It’s all I have left.”
“Then I wish you luck, Queen of Seelie. Try not to die.”
I bowed my head, sensing the curt dismissal and turned my attention to my sister. She leant back into her throne, cigarette at her mouth, her hair an untamed cascade over her bare shoulders.
“Would you mourn me if I failed?” I asked as she blew a plume of smoke from her lips.
“Maybe we will find out.”
I turned away from her, following the Raven knights as they led us out of the throne room and away from the cold, cruel presence of my sister and the mad king beside her.
We rode out upon black horses, monstrous beasts that towered over us. Gleaming twin horns curved back from their heads, two shorter ones pointed forward, ebony black and razor-sharp. They all stomped at the ground, cleaving the half-frozen earth, desperate to run. Steam rose in angry puffs as they snorted their impatience, heads whipping around to knock at anyone standing too close.
Laphaniel helped me up onto my mount, adjusting the stirrups so my feet could reach them. The frigid wind caught my cloak, snapping it behind me, but the layers of shadow I wore kept off the morning’s chill. Laphaniel leapt up beside me, holding the reins of his horse in one hand while he checked my own.
The Raven knights flanked us, each sitting cold and proud upon his own beast, their feathered cloaks whipping back in the wind. Every now and then, I would catch their eye, and they would glower back, dripping wet and miserable beneath the relentless rain.
Laphaniel rode beside me, his black leather jacket slick with rain. A sword hung at his side, a knife too, and upon his back was a large bow and a quiver filled with arrows.
“How well can you shoot?” I asked, wanting to fill the silence with anything but the sound of rain and wind.
“I can hit a target,” Laphaniel replied, causing one of the nearby knights to snigger.
With one swift move, he notched an arrow and let it fly over the horses, sending it straight through the flesh of an apple held in the hands of a knight at the front of our group. The yelp of surprise caused his horse to rear up and toss him from the saddle, dumping him with a thump into the dirt to the sound of cheers and laughter.
“Not bad,” the sniggering knight said. Curling black hair hung over his face, almost obscuring the vivid green eyes that stared back at us with a grudging respect. He held out a hand to Laphaniel. “I’m Cole. The idiot you just landed in the dirt is Liam.”
Laphaniel shook the outstretched hand, shoulders relaxing slightly as some of the tension lifted from the group.
“Show off,” I muttered to him, earning myself a smirk.
“I was aiming for his hand.”
We travelled down the twisting paths of Unseelie lands for hours, the strange twilight overhead barely reaching down through the ancient trees surrounding us. The twisted and black forests thinned, the giant oaks turning spindly as the landscape slowly changed. We passed sprawling lakes, the ground growing soggy underfoot, so the horses struggled and resisted. Mist rose from the murky waters, ripples appearing on the surface as things from the depths drifted upwards.
I was soaked from the waist down, my dress heavy with mud while my frozen fingers clung to the reins. I urged my horse onwards, the creature bucking and snorting its displeasure.
“Would it be better to dismount? We’re weighing the horses down.”
“Jump off at your own risk, girl,” shouted one of the knights, unsheathing his sword in one fluid motion. The others followed, the sound of metal cutting through the eerie softness of the swamps. Laphaniel drew his weapon, his eyes following the ripples in the water.
“Mermaids,” he whispered to me. “Bring your legs up, make sure you’re not touching the water.”
“But it’s so shallow…”
Laphaniel pressed a finger to his lips, taking the reins from me and dragging my terrified mare onwards.
I watched the water, noted how the horses twitched and shuddered. The knights ahead were silent, swords poised and ready.
The tension was stifling, unnerving. Glamour awoke with the growing fear, pouring down my arms to my fingertips. I outstretched my fingers, waiting for the surge of power to ripple through me.
“No,” Laphaniel whispered, reaching out to still my hand. “Don’t.”
I lowered my hand, noting how the Raven knights’ eyes were all trained on me. I glanced at Cole, who shook his head with the barest of movements before nodding to the sword he held.
With a sharp signal, we began to move again, and I tried to calm the swirling Glamour inside me. It pulsed through my body, humming in panic…stirring the waters beneath us.
Something surfaced, ducking back under the shallows before I could take a good look. A tail flicked out, long and black, as slick as an eel.
I caught the subtle movement beside me, barely a ripple, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away as a head emerged. Milky white eyes stared back, unblinking within a bleached face. Tendrils of greasy black strands curled over its bony shoulders, spilling like oil around it. A smile, bloodless and stretched, widened over its lips, revealing rows of cracked and jagged teeth.
Others emerged from the swamp, pushing up from the shallows to rest upon outstretched arms. They watched us pass with a mild curiosity, eyes trained upon the weapons the knights held in their hands.
For a moment, I thought they would let us pass, but then they opened their mouths and sang.
It filled that eerie twilight with a song so haunting…so soul destroying, I felt as if my heart would break. It consumed me…everyone, even the horses, stilled.
I willed myself to look away, digging my fingernails deep into my palms to force my attention elsewhere, the pain grounding me. I kicked my horse forward, grabbing my slack reins from Laphaniel’s hand and snapping them harder than I wanted to. The sharp sting caused her to jerk and jolt forward, horned head slashing through the mist.
I grabbed Laphaniel as I passed, pinching him hard on the underside of his arm. He barely flinched, didn’t look at me as he stared out at the swamp, his fingers loosening around the blade in his hand, so it slipped uselessly into the waters.
The song lilted and drifted around us, lulling and tempting and soft and wonderful…deadly. My nails bit into my skin.
One by one, the knights dropped their weapons, their faces blank and slack while the mermaids closed in.
Without much thought and driven by sudden blinding panic, I threw my hands out, sending a wave of Glamour over the horses. I sent white-hot pain into nerve endings, causing them to scream out and bolt forwards, taking the dazed knights with them.
I struck Laphaniel’s horse, but it reared up instead and startled a petrified mare beside it that had yet to move. It threw the dark-haired rider off, plunging him into the waters beside Laphaniel. The heavy hooves missed their heads by sheer luck. My shout echoed across the lake as Laphaniel stood and staggered, hauling the fallen knight to his feet beside him. His hand fumbled
for a knife still sheathed in his belt.
With a screeching halt, the song stopped, and every slick body snapped its head toward the two faeries in the water.
“Stay there!” Laphaniel shouted. “Don’t you dare get off! Go!”
Laphaniel launched a rock at my horse, hitting it hard on the rump, so it reared in pain and began to bolt, taking no heed to me screaming at it to stop.
I leapt off beside the Raven knights and spun around, fighting against the strong arms that locked around my waist.
“Let me go!” I demanded, but the hands just held tighter, pulling me up the embankment where I could do nothing but watch as the creatures swamped over Laphaniel and the struggling Raven knight.
Laphaniel slashed with his knife, swinging at anything that got too close, the roar at his lips drowning out the poisonous song of the mermaids. They rose up over the Raven knight, hauling him down into the black water until I could see nothing of him.
One of the knights darted past me, the mirror image to the faerie lost in the waters. He barely made it to the water’s edge before Cole snatched his arm and dragged him back. “Move again, and I’ll knock you out, Fell.”
“Ferdia!” bellowed the Raven knight, his voice merging with mine as I screamed for Laphaniel.
The oily creatures screeched, clawed hands raking to drag them both down, but Laphaniel kept slashing with his blade until the waters ran red, and they began to slip away, teeth bared…but silent.
“Laphaniel!” I cried out, shoving away from the hold on me, slipping down the bank with the knight called Fell close behind, followed swiftly by the others.
Laphaniel dragged the limp body of Ferdia through the thick water, blood running in trickles down his face.
“Move!” Cole shoved me aside as Laphaniel dropped to his knees with his arm still around Ferdia. “Is he breathing?”