Institute of the Shadow Fae Box Set

by C. N. Crawford

  “How, exactly?”

  “I’m not going to sleep on bugs, because I’m not going to sleep. I’ve been keeping myself awake by standing.”

  I held my head in my hands. “You need to get some sleep, Ciara. Human brains break if you don’t sleep.”

  “That’s a myth. Like, there are a lot of benefits to permanent wakefulness…you have more time for thinking, and you start to hear voices. Worst-case scenario, you get visual hallucinations, possibly permanent brain damage.” Her voice echoed off the rocks.

  “Ciara. I’m going to get us out of here.”

  “Or maybe I’ll get us out of here,” she said. “Did you know that the women in my family are legendary protectors? Fiery. Like demons. Family legend says my grandma came from a flaming pit under the Appalachian Mountains. Grandma McDougall was a fearsome woman. She caught squirrels for breakfast with her bare hands, snapped their necks. She wore gowns of raccoon fur and crowns of black locust leaves, and men trembled before her.”

  I wasn’t entirely sure if this was an actual family legend or the product of her prison hallucinations.

  “Well,” I said, “maybe you’ll get us out of here.”

  “The McDougalls protect people we love. So you’d better believe I won’t let anything happen to you. When it comes down to it, I will protect you with everything I’ve got. I come from mountain fire.”

  “Okay, sweetie. Close your eyes.”

  “Ciarianna will rise again. And when she does, she will light her enemies on fire. She will glory in their screams and bathe in their ashes.”

  For a sweet woman who got excited about things like “bologna cake,” Ciara could be remarkably macabre.

  “Ciarianna will dance on their graves,” I added.

  “She will fashion flutes and other wind instruments out of their bones. And then she will celebrate their demise with a meal of Twinkies.”

  The dripping of water filled the silence. “You kind of frighten me sometimes, you know that, Ciara? Maybe just…settle down a little.”

  “You can’t trust these people at the Institute. Ruadan is a pretty man with a face like a god, but you don’t know jack about him.”

  “Oh, believe me. I know.”

  “Things aren’t always what they seem. The devil wears many—”

  The slamming of metal against metal cut her off. “Shut it, you two!” boomed a male voice. “Or I’ll cut your tits off.”

  I gritted my teeth. When I got out of here, I was going to punch that guy in the dick.

  “Ciara,” I loudly whispered. “Ciarianna will rise again.”

  Time for me to rest a little. Slowing my breathing, I leaned my head against the sludgy rock, and then willed myself to sleep.

  Chapter 37

  I crouched in the cell. I had no idea how much time had passed. Two days, perhaps? I only knew that Maddan never returned, and that one of the guards had shoved water and gruel through the cell’s trapdoor around four or five times.

  But worst of all, every time I fell asleep, I’d wake to find another butterscotch in my cell. And each time I found one, I’d hurl it out from between the bars.

  Somehow, I’d managed to sleep most of the time in the cell—dreaming of Emain the whole time. I did my best to ration out the sweets from my bag—lollipops, two chocolate bars, a bag of peppermints. Proper athlete stuff. I’d be in amazing shape by the time I had to fight anyone.

  In the middle of a particularly delicious dream of Emain, one in which I was biting into a sweet apple, the sound of my name snapped me out of my sleep.

  I woke, blinking in surprise at the sight of Melusine standing outside my cell.

  She held a little bundle in her hands—something wrapped in cloth—and she shoved it through the cell bars, wincing as her hand brushed against the iron.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “I brought you food. I see a dungeon, I think hunger. I put two and two together. I’ve got to tell you though, it was not easy getting in here. I had to give the guards a sleep potion, and they’re already stirring.”

  I blinked, snatching up the little bundle. “I was starting to think everyone had forgotten about me.”

  She shook her head. “No one has. Maddan keeps talking about you. All the time. I think he’s obsessed with you. When I hear someone talking about the same thing all the time, I think ‘obsessed.’ I put two and two together. Ruadan has been stalking around, snarling at everyone, like he wants to rip off everyone’s head. I see black eyes on a demon, and I think ‘anger.’ I can’t say why, but I think it has to do with you.”

  I shook my head. “What happens if Savus defies the Old Gods?”

  “The Old Gods have blessed Savus with the silver crown that gives him power of the Institute. As long as he has their blessing, no one can take that thing off. No one can kill him or overthrow him, or challenge his power. The Old Gods bestow their blessing on novices. They make the choice, and the Grand Master is just supposed to interpret it. If you keep winning in the trials, it means the Old Gods favor you. If Savus gets rid of you, he’d be going against their will. He could lose the crown. Anyone could depose him. Ruadan especially. I see them snarling at each other, I think they’re angry at each other. Competing like stags. Know what I mean?”

  Ahh…so I had some serious leverage. Savus needed me to keep his power within the Institute. In fact, maybe the Old Gods would be my ticket out of the Palatial Room of Nightmares.

  “This is extremely valuable information, Melusine. Maybe even my way out of here.” A rock was digging into one of my shoulder blades, and I winced, rubbing the raw flesh. “I guess the ‘Palatial Room’ is something of a Shadow Fae joke.”

  She blinked at me. “Fae nobility don’t make jokes. They’re incapable of it. Palatial is actually an Ancient Fae word, translating to something in English like…” she scratched her cheek as she thought.

  “The devil’s arsecrack?” I offered.

  “Festering dung-hole would be more accurate.”

  “I see. That is quite accurate.”

  Someone groaned farther down the hallway, and Melusine touched the violet lumen stone at her neck. “They’re already waking. I’ve got to go.”

  “Wait!” I said, maybe a little too loud. I thrust the bundle of food back at her, grimacing at the sting from the iron bars. “Can you give this to Ciara?”

  She nodded once and snatched the food from me. My stomach rumbled and my mouth watered at the scent of food, but at least I’d had a few sweets to sustain me. Ciara had nothing but gruel the whole time. Plus, I’d had the pleasure of dreaming of apples and baked bread.

  Melusine frowned at the food, then nodded again. Shadows burst around her, and she disappeared.

  Gods, I missed my lumen stone. If I ever got out of this prison alive, I’d be stealing it back.

  I took a deep breath, my eyes already growing heavy. Why was I so tired?

  “Ciara?” I called out.

  “Yeah?”

  “Are you okay there?”

  “Someone just dropped off a package—”

  “Shhhhh. I know.” I desperately wanted to know what was in it. Chicken? Bread? I clutched my famished stomach. At this point, I’d start eating the gruel.

  “I’m going to get us out of here,” I promised.

  I picked up another butterscotch from the dirt floor, and threw it out from between the bars.

  “Ciara.” I loosed a long breath. “I keep finding butterscotches.” She would know what that meant.

  “Who’s leaving them? It’s not you-know-who. He’s dead, Arianna.”

  “I know. But I have no idea where they’re coming from.”

  “Maybe Ruadan. Not sure that I trust the man. Not sure that I trust shadows and darkness.” She was talking with her mouth full, and my stomach rumbled again. “The devil wears many faces.”

  “I know.”

  “I said that shadowy monster—”

  Metal slammed against metal again,
and a guard’s voice barked, “What did I tell you?”

  “Right. You’ll cut our tits off,” I said. Sometimes, men were the worst.

  Rough hands jerked me out of another dream of Emain.

  Someone was yanking me up, and I blinked at the sight of the open cell door.

  It took me a moment to realize that Ruadan had returned, and that he was dragging me out of my cell. He wasn’t exactly gentle about it.

  He dragged me past Ciara’s cell, and I caught a quick glimpse of her slumbering against the wall, covered in crumbs. The sight warmed my heart.

  I scrambled for balance, then elbowed him hard in the chest. “You don’t have to drag me everywhere. Arsehole. I can walk.”

  “Your next trial begins soon,” he said. “You’ll need to be cleaned and fed if you’re going to pass it.”

  “Cleaned and fed? You’re making me sound like a farm animal.”

  “Well, no one knows what your other half is. It’s entirely possible.”

  I glared at him. Was that a…joke? No. Fae nobility didn’t make jokes. He was just a twat.

  Still, I didn’t hate the idea of taking a bath and eating a proper meal.

  As I passed the guards, one of them sniffed the air, his lip curling in disgust. In cage years, I’d been in there for, I don’t know, decades? But given the number of meals I’d received so far, I’d wager it had been something like three days. Three days during which my competition had been preparing, while I’d been eating lollipops for sustenance and getting my bones broken by magic.

  Ruadan let go of my arm, and I started to wonder how difficult it would be to simply escape on the next task. Could Savus really hunt me down and exalt me? The hardest part would be getting Ciara out of here.

  “What is the next trial, exactly?” I asked.

  “You’ll do fine.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.” I followed him up the narrow stairwell, my muscles burning. I’d been in a contorted position for far too long—not to mention the fact that I still hadn’t fully healed from Maddan’s magical assault. “I probably will do fine, but what is the task? If I screw anything up, I’ll literally be torn to pieces.”

  “The next trial involves killing vampires using a stake. I’ll be with you the entire time, so you won’t be able to escape. Without the lumen stone, you are slow and sluggish.”

  Slow and sluggish? “Remember when you couldn’t talk? I’m thinking fondly of those days.”

  I knew that I stank like the bottom of a sewer, but I was angry enough at Ruadan that I felt satisfied he had to deal with the stench.

  When we reached the sunlight, it burned my eyes, and I lifted an arm to shield my vision. I sort of wanted to crawl into a coffin. So this is how vampires felt.

  I blinked in the bright light as my eyes adjusted. “Are we going to your room?”

  “You’re not going anywhere near my room.”

  “Just because I put a little knife in your heart? Honestly. You’re all making a big deal out of nothing.” I shadowed my eyes as we crossed the flowery green. After the magical beating I’d taken, I could hardly keep up with Ruadan, and I walked with a limp. “Does anyone else know about…my time in the arena?”

  “No.”

  Interesting. He wasn’t entirely forthcoming with Grand Master Savus.

  We reached the tower door, and Ruadan opened it into the stairwell.

  My bones ached, and I glared at him. “You didn’t heal me very well.”

  He shot me a sharp look, then gave a subtle shake of his head. He wanted me to drop it.

  As Ruadan and I walked up the stairs, anger started to simmer in my chest. Ruadan had drastically misled me when he’d lured me here. “You never said anything about a prison cell. And I distinctly remember a promise that someone would fetch my human.”

  “The promise was honored,” he said.

  “But you threw her in a dungeon. She would have been better off where she was.” Fury was rising now. I suppressed the urge to punch him hard in his beautiful face and mess it up a little. “You are no different than Baleros, who I’d vowed to kill. Are you so certain you’ll outlive me?” The words exploded out of me, and I knew I was being incautious, but after days in the Palatial Room, I didn’t have the best grip on self-restraint. Plus, my body still ached from Maddan’s attack, and a wild hunger was making me feel a little crazy.

  Ruadan simply fell silent, and he led me down the hall until we reached an oak door.

  He pushed it open, revealing a sparse stone bathroom. Like the other bathrooms I’d seen at the Institute, the stone tub seemed to grow from the flagstone floor itself like a natural feature. The bath had already been filled. Ruddy sunlight streamed in through the window, blazing through the curls of steam that rose from the bathtub. While the bath itself looked inviting, I wasn’t super thrilled at the sight of six armed fae guards standing around the room, staring at the tub. Were they going to watch me bathe?

  “I’m supposed to bathe in here?” I asked.

  “You will need to be clean for your next trial. You’re going to infiltrate a vampire’s den, and you’ll need to blend in. The filth on your body would make it difficult.” He raised his eyes to the guards. “Turn around.”

  “But sir,” one of them began, “Savus has ordered—”

  “Turn around.” The cold fury in his voice brooked no argument. “And if I catch you looking at her, I will sever your head from your body before you can draw another breath.”

  Chapter 38

  “Aren’t you the gentleman,” I said drily. “You leave me in a festering dung hole where my enemies can torture me within an inch of my life. But gods forbid anyone sees my nipples.” Fae males were absurd. Possibly all males were absurd.

  The shadows around Ruadan grew so thick, they seemed to suck all the air out of the room. With one last withering look, he turned away from me. With his back to me, he stood in the doorway, his large frame blocking my exit. Weapons glinted all over his body—knives strapped to his legs, the sword on his back. Every inch of him was equipped to kill, while I was about to strip myself completely naked. The balance of power was not in my favor here, if I wanted to cause trouble.

  I surveyed the room. There wasn’t much in here, except a short wooden table with some clothing and a towel.

  I looked down at my dress. At one point, it had been white, but now dirt smeared the fabric—along with a few red smudges from what I thought were my sweets (or perhaps blood), and green stains that I thought might be from moss or mildew growing in the Palatial room. In short, I was absolutely disgusting.

  I breathed in deeply, determined to convince Ruadan that none of this was getting to me. “Do I have to bathe? I’ve been a bit nostalgic for the old days.” He knew what I meant, even if the guards didn’t: my cage underground. “Right now, I smell like home. You know what I mean, don’t you?”

  “Undress.”

  I blinked. Even with his back to me, even in a room full of guards, there was definitely something unmistakably sensual about that word on his tongue. “Clean yourself. Then, you will eat.”

  Despite his commanding tone, his voice seemed to wrap itself around my body, stroking places I desperately needed to wash right now. But I pushed his allure out of my mind. He was a monster—a devil wearing a beautiful face—and he’d exalt me on a whim if it struck his fancy.

  “It’s unfortunate you had to take me out of my Palatial Room. I was having the most exquisite dreams in there.” I pulled off my dress and tossed it on the stone floor, then stepped out of my underwear. The drafty castle air whispered over my skin. “But do you know? Every now and then I’d think of you, Ruadan, and what a lovely man you are. Am I getting that word right—lovely? My Ancient Fae is rusty. I’m looking for something that translates to ‘violet-eyed psycho twat’ in English.”

  He didn’t answer, but his body looked tightly coiled, like he was about to explode. What was that about?

  I cocked my head. It was the same tensio
n that had gripped his body when I lay in bed with him. He was supposed to be celibate. As an incubus, it couldn’t be easy for him to be this close to a naked woman. Is that what it was about?

  Like a child poking a bug with a stick, I wanted to prod at that wound to see what would happen. “It feels good to get those filthy clothes off. I’m awfully dirty though, Ruadan. Perhaps you can help me bathe?”

  His growl rumbled through my gut.

  “It’s just that there are some delicate places I can’t quite reach on my own, and you’re so good with your hands.” I dipped one foot into the bath, sighing at the feel of warm water on my skin. “I do remember what your fingers felt like on my body when you healed me. I remember what it felt like when I was naked in bed with you, writhing—” I unleashed a long sigh. “Oh, that’s right. You’ve taken a vow of celibacy. Never mind, then. How long has it been, anyway? Centuries? Is it true that Shadow Fae in other institutes are allowed to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh? Kissing, stroking, fucking up against the stone walls? Too bad you’re in the one institute where none of that’s allowed. Must be hard for an incubus. So to speak.”

  His magic thickened in the room, shadows darkening around him. I couldn’t help but smile. I was getting to him, and it filled me with satisfaction.

  Then, I stepped in, submerging myself completely in the stone tub. It felt amazing.

  I pulled a bar of soap from the stone lip of the tub, and I began scrubbing some of the grime off my legs.

  “If I become a knight, I’m not sure I’d be able to abide by that particular rule. The celibacy one. I suppose I could always pleasure myself in the bath.”

  “Stop talking,” Ruadan snarled.

  I smiled again as I ran the soap over my arms, watching the bath slowly fill with dirt from my body.