Chapter Thirteen
I’m in my first class of the day when I receive the summons.
Two guards enter the apothecary classroom and tell me, in front of nearly two dozen other students, that I’m to follow them to the Commander’s office. Those professors from the night before had worked fast.
I keep my face expressionless as I walk past all those beautiful fae eyes locked intently on mine.
I will not give them the satisfaction of seeing any kind of reaction.
After all, I’m happy to be leaving, aren’t I?
I’ve been nothing more than a glorified prisoner for weeks now, being tested repeatedly to no avail.
I should be relieved to be getting out of here.
But as I follow the guards out of the room and through the hallways, the ball of lead in my stomach grows heavier and heavier.
By the time we reach the doorway to the Commander’s suite, I feel like I might throw up. I won’t, however, give him the satisfaction, either. I grit my teeth and dig my fingernails into my palms as I walk past the guards into the room.
“Sit down,” booms the Commander as I stop in front of him at his massive desk. It’s not a courtesy; it’s a command.
My jaw is clenched so tightly it feels like a muscle might pop.
The Commander wastes no time in launching into his interrogation. “A number of professors have come to me with concerns that you are a spy. Which, of course, I suspected myself from the very beginning.”
He stares at me long enough that I realize he’s expecting some kind of rebuttal.
“Oh, was that a question?”
Fury flashes in his eyes. “Well, if you have no defense, then I will take your silence as a confession of guilt.”
“I never asked to be kept here,” I growl. “I told you the truth of how I arrived outside the gates, and you have chosen not to believe me since day one.”
“Because your story makes no sense!”
“I couldn’t agree more. And I’d like answers, too, but I don’t have them. If you want me to leave, I will happily be on my way.”
The Commander leans back in his chair, clearly not expecting my acquiescence. “Here’s the problem with that suggestion. If I release you, you’ll go share all of the information you’ve learned here this last fortnight with whoever is employing you.”
I don’t try to hide the anger in my eyes. I’m not going to be bullied by this fae, Commander of the Guardians or not. “I’m not really sure what you think the solution is, then.”
“The solution, Embyr, is this.” The Commander leans forward again, his massive shoulders and impressive bulk looming over me even with the desk between us. “I’ll send you off to one of our prisons, where I can be certain that you won’t be sharing any information with anyone ever again.”
My game of bravado crumbles, and the Commander smiles as he sees the horror wash over my face.
“I thought that might get a reaction out of you. How about you tell me who you’re working for. I could consider shortening the term of your imprisonment.”
The blood in my veins pulses so fast, I feel lightheaded for a moment. Shortening my imprisonment? That’s my best option here? Except I have nothing to confess to.
This fae can lock me away, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
“Professor Julian will never agree to this,” I say shakily, though it’s a weak argument and we both know it.
Silence falls between us as the Commander’s smile deepens. “Who says Julian will even know? Who says I don’t tell him I released you and you went off to live a happy life with your fellow humans?”
“I. Am. Not. A. Spy.” I grind out each word, a mix of fear and rage rushing through my body.
“I don’t believe you.” He shrugs and stands, gesturing for his guards. “A month in solitary at the prison will loosen your tongue.”
A scream rises from my throat as they stride toward me, grabbing me roughly and hauling me toward the door. “No! I’m not a spy!”
I kick and flail, but the fae holding me are vastly stronger.
Against humans I would have a chance, but not against Guardians.
Another scream rips out of me, but this time it’s cut short as the Commander walks up behind us, making a strange gesture with his fingers.
My voice dies in my throat, and I feel like I’m choking.
A hum of magic surrounds me, and the acrid smell of a spell.
They drag me down the hall soundlessly, except for the scuffing of my boots against stone as I struggle.
I’d known the Commander disliked me, but this?
Aren’t Guardians supposed to have honor?
There is nothing honorable about throwing an innocent person in prison without any kind of proof or trial.
Hot, rageful tears course down my cheeks. I’d never asked for this. None of it.
I’m taken down a narrow, back staircase. We don’t pass a soul along the way. No one can hear me. No one will know what really happened. I’m going to rot in a prison for the rest of my days, just because I wandered too close to the gates of Shadow’s Keep. Not as if that had been my choice.
Morning sunlight cuts into my eyes as the guards fling open an exterior door.
The Commander walks calmly a few paces behind, his expression grimly satisfied, his eyes burning with a strange zeal.
What led him to hate humans so intensely?
It’s a pointless thought because it won’t save me.
It won’t help me one bit. Whatever the reason, the Commander hates humans, and he hates me, and my life is as good as forfeit because of it.
I would rather the hunters had ended me that night than face this fate.
I’m facing opposite the direction we’re traveling, so I can’t see the gates, but I know we’re approaching them.
I can feel the looming presence of the nightmare, hear the stomp of nearby hooves.
The wind blows the banners back and forth overhead.
The sky is nearly cloudless for once, a beautiful periwinkle blue.
Maybe even this place hates me, wants me gone.
“Fetch those horses!” snaps the Commander, gesturing to someone behind me I can’t see.
And then I am bound roughly at the wrists with a piece of rope and flung up onto one of the horses. The blood instantly begins rushing to my head. One of the Guardians swings into the saddle in front of me, his boot nearly colliding with my face.
“Ride hard,” says the Commander. “Don’t rest until you reach the second waypoint.”
He reaches out and slaps the horse on the hindquarters, and it spins and launches for the gate, which is creaking upward.
We gallop beneath it, and out onto the road beyond.
Everything is a blur of color. Sky, grass, mountains, forest, black banner, brown horse.
My ribs feel like they’re going to crack at the angle I’m at, and I can’t imagine making it miles more in this position without vomiting.
The horse picks up speed, streaking across the land…
There’s a heart-stopping sound.
It sounds, perhaps, like something ripping, breaking. But it’s loud. And it comes from everywhere all at once.
A harsh scream rises from the horse and it rears, flinging me off into the grass.
I roll onto my side, and then I can see it.
The earth all around us is rising, splitting, forming a barrier, a wall almost, directly in the path ahead, and around both sides, almost completely encircling us.
The horse rears again, shrieking in terror, and I turn and look back toward Shadow’s Keep.
There’s a lone figure standing beneath the gate, pointing in our direction.
Professor Julian.
His usual friendly smile is gone. He looks livid. In this moment, there is nothing kind or relatable about him. He is fae, through and through, as beautiful and alien and frighteningly powerful as the rest of them.
“How dare you!” he roars, his voice echoing across the distance between us. He points to the rider astride his horse next to me. He doesn’t issue a command, and he doesn’t have to. His message is clear.
The rider dismounts, face stricken, and strides over to me, yanking me to my feet like a puppet on strings. “Get back to the castle,” he grumbles, as if this had been my doing.
We’re almost back to the castle gates when the Commander steps into view. “I will not stand for this, Julian. She’s a spy and she must pay for her crimes!”
“You do not make the decisions about the trainees around here, Thornne, I do,” Julian growls.
The Commander looks murderous, cutting his gaze over to me as I approach. “Since when is this pathetic human a trainee?”
“Since the moment I brought her here. She is my student, and I will decide her fate. Cross me again, and the Queen will hear of this, Thornne, mark my words.”
The Guardian holding me pauses next to the two leaders of Shadow’s Keep, clearly unsure what to do next.
“Take her to her room,” Julian says, glaring in contempt at the guard. “And if I find out she didn’t make it there, you will suffer an early retirement.”
The Guardian flinches as if Julian had said he’d execute him.
He does as he’s told, leading me, much more gently this time, back toward the castle.
By the time we reach my room, my heart has finally stopped pounding insanely.
A cold numbness is spreading through me, my panic and anger and shock leaving an emotional void in their wake.
I slam the door shut in the Guardian’s face and lock it behind him. Trix flutters down from the rafters and lands on the bed, purring loudly, but I ignore her as I begin to pace back and forth.
I can’t believe how close I came to rotting in a prison cell for the rest of my life.
No one would have known.
No one would have cared.
Because I’m just a human in a world of fae.
We may live together in this realm, but we do not truly live in the same world.
Our realities could not be further apart.
And being here, in this place, I realize that never before has that been so clear to me as it is now.
I thought I understood the callous cruelty of the fae before, but I did not.