TWENTY-FIVE
“Y ou must be tired indeed.” A feminine voice opened my eyes. “To sleep in the dirt of your enemy’s lair.”
I blinked at the black ribbon I’d removed from my hair, then squinted at sandaled feet, the leather straps tied in a bow over slim ankles. Groaning, I rolled from my numb arm that I’d used as a cushion to my back.
Lilac tulle puffed beneath Pholly’s knees, tightening at her waist and melding into a satin bust. Her sleek brown hair sat sharply over the tulle clouds at her shoulders.
Her nude lips tilted, and I blinked some more. “Are you smiling?”
“I can do that from time to time.” Crouching before my cage, she cocked her head. “And watching you sleep is rather comical.”
“Not sure I want to know why.”
She felt inclined to tell me anyway. “You mumble a lot.”
“About?”
“Beasts, it seems.”
I narrowed my eyes. “That could mean anything.”
“Or anyone.”
At that, I sat up, but a yawn ruined my glower. I tried to smother it with my hand until I sniffed dirt and winced. “Any chance you’ve got some breakfast hidden beneath that big skirt of yours?”
“It’s nearing dinnertime.”
I frowned. That meant I’d been here for one whole day. My bladder screamed, though I’d had nothing to drink. “What’s for dinner, then?” I tried instead.
Pholly smiled again, but this one was more of a warning. “You have a pet felynx.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s fine.”
I licked my teeth, unsure what I wanted more—something to freshen my dry mouth or a fucking direct answer for once.
“Then why speak of Meadow?”
Her gray-blue eyes brightened. “That’s her name?”
If I’d known the way to Pholly’s dark heart was a wolf-cat, perhaps I’d have found a king to force one upon me sooner. “Yes,” I said, ignoring the twinge in my chest when I remembered who had named her.
“You broke the wards.”
“A little, apparently.”
She tucked her silky hair behind her pointed ear. “Just enough to know that it’s awful?”
I frowned.
She explained, “Love, of course.”
Oh.
Intrigue made me forget the awfulness she’d referred to, and my hunger and bladder. “Who broke your heart?”
“A mortal man who is long dead.” Quick, lethal words.
Words that enlightened. “You killed him.”
Pholly waved her hand, then procured a small pad of parchment from her skirts, as well as a piece of charcoal. “Enough about that. Tell me about the castle.”
“Ashbone Castle?”
She rolled her eyes. “Unless there’s another Unseelie castle.”
I didn’t want to think about it. But if she wanted information in exchange for food, or even a pail to relieve myself in, I’d start singing about all of it. “Dreary,” I said. “But colorful outside.”
She gave me a bland look. “That’s it?” Then she twirled her hand. “I’ve seen your letters to your sister. You can be more descriptive than that.”
“You’ve seen my letters?”
“Someone had to check them.”
I should have known Elion couldn’t stop certain people from snooping.
Knowing it wouldn’t help me right now, I withheld a scathing response and combed my fingers through my hair. They snagged on a knot, so I crossed my legs and folded my hands in my lap.
I started with the long drive that led to the cracked blocks of steps, the trellises sagging around the grand oak doors giving entry to the stone fortress. By the time I’d gotten to the stained glass of the king’s bathing room window, I was certain I might cry from the need to urinate.
“Go back to the library.” Fascination had turned her typically intimidating features into something breathtaking. “Books are everywhere?”
Pholly didn’t want information, I realized far too late. She simply wanted to draw Ashbone Castle.
I nodded. “Every table and shelf, and even in piles beside chairs and before the overflowing shelves.” An idea struck me. “I’ll describe you something better if you let me out.”
She wrote down those details before saying, “Such as?”
“A pytherion.”
She smiled at her pad, then closed it and stood. “No need.” Just when I’d thought she’d leave me pleading for her to help me, she stopped in that slim, dark hall.
A large ring of rusted keys in hand, she returned. I could scarcely believe she was freeing me, and I kept quiet as it took her a moment to find the key to my cell, lest I say something that changed her mind.
Only when she’d opened it and walked back to the hall did I speak. “Where am I to go?”
Her eyes gleamed over her shoulder in the dim. “Wherever you dare.” Then she led the way through the shadows to the stairs.
Atakan’s rooms hadn’t changed since I’d vanished to The Bonelands.
The only exception was more clothing littering the bed and floor. I ignored the itch to tidy them for collection and went straight to his nightstand drawer for the dagger he kept there.
Relieved that he hadn’t better hidden it—as he probably hadn’t thought I’d leave the dungeon—I snatched the worn hilt. It nearly slipped from my soiled fingers when I spied the burgundy scarf.
The one he’d swiped through my core, the silk stained in dark patches by my innocence.
My stomach hollowed. My body tensed from the phantom touch of his fingers breaking me as I’d lost control with my climax.
I slammed the drawer shut, effectively pushing the memory away, and hurried to the bathing room.
Perhaps a bath shouldn’t have been high on my list of priorities. Finding Meadow should have been. But although I shouldn’t trust anyone in this castle, I trusted Pholly had meant it when she’d claimed Meadow was fine.
And I couldn’t think clearly with the gown I’d worn to seduce Vane clinging to my filthy skin.
The tub filled as I finally relieved myself. While I sat there, I tore the gown over my head. It ripped, the sound satisfying. I bundled and lobbed it at the floor. It landed in a soft heap, and I closed my eyes before they could well.
Tears were useless when I wasn’t sure I would survive this court again, or that any of us would survive what Vane was about to do.
I climbed into the tub, and for minutes that dazed, I stared at the rust-marked faucet.
The drizzle outside turned into a deluge, further hindering my senses as I focused on scrubbing the dungeon from my body—and the king who’d fooled me into thinking that he might be different from every other faerie I’d met.
The prince made his presence known with a soft murmur. “So Pholly managed to smuggle you out of your cage.”
Although stunned, I pretended otherwise and didn’t look at him.
I finished washing the soap from my skin. “I won’t go back without a fight.” I held up my hand. “It took too long to clean the dirt from my nails.”
He didn’t respond for tightening moments, so I expected he wouldn’t. That he’d either haul me from the water to return me to the dungeon or simply leave.
Instead, he came close to purring, “I believe we’ve been here before, dread.”
After squeezing droplets from my hair, I retrieved the blade from the edge of the tub and stood, sudsy water falling from my body.
Atakan didn’t fetch me a towel. But he watched as I carefully crossed the tiles to unhook his from behind the door he leaned against.
He’d discarded his coat. His rather plain cream tunic sat loosely over his broad chest and tightened at his tapered torso due to half of it being tucked into his fitted black pants.
I quickly patted myself dry, then wrapped the towel soaked in his heady scent around my body, securing it as I walked past him.
He extended his arm across the doorway, halting me.
Then he lowered his head to my neck and inhaled so deep, a throaty rumble caused gooseflesh to pebble my skin. His head lifted, eyes riddled with green. “Smelling much better.”
I squinted at him, ready to remind him that it hadn’t been my fault I’d been trapped in a cell, but he stalked into his bedchamber ahead of me. “Less like something you’re not.”
I frowned at his back. “Dirty? Compliments aren’t your usual—”
“His.”
I blinked.
Turning, he surveyed me slowly. “Don’t tell me you’re puzzled, dread.” He tossed himself backward upon the bed. “Seems your time away from me hasn’t served that clever halfling brain of yours well.”
I clenched the dagger as I tried to assess what he was up to. Tried to pick at his words as I padded into the dressing chamber, surprised to find my belongings right where I’d left them.
“No serpents?” I called.
“Rather than find out, perhaps you should remain naked.”
Biting back an irritating smile, I decided on a blue gown with cream flowers embroidered in the belle sleeves. But I didn’t put it on in the dressing chamber.
I dropped the towel when I entered the bedchamber and tugged the gown on. It proved difficult, as I didn’t wish to relinquish the dagger.
The prince tsked. “Do you ever wear undergarments?” He turned onto his side to watch me pull the heavy skirts free of my stomach and down over my legs. “Or might you be playing at something?”
I was, of course.
But his own tactics and one look at those eyes told me he was also playing at something—and that even if I planned it well, I wouldn’t get what I wanted unless he wished for me to.
We’ll see , I thought, challenge sparking my cold blood.
Amusement glinted like true gold in his gaze as he said, “You look different.” He relaxed against the mess of pillows, rumpling the bedding more beneath his boots. “Dare I say…” Those perfect lips pursed. “Angry. Did the not-so-sweet Unseelie king hurt your half-mortal heart?” He smiled, cruel and bloodthirsty. “I’m curious, did you happen to meet his—”
I snarled and leaped atop him, straddling his thighs. “Where’s Meadow?” The edge of the blade pressed against the seam of his pants, bulged by his erection. “Tell me.”
Atakan laughed, free and deep and distracting. “You won’t do it.” His gaze darkened to emerald right before my eyes. He snapped his teeth at me. “You like it too much.”
Smiling, I sliced across his thigh.
He hissed between his teeth, then groaned when I moved down his legs to lick the blood seeping from the tear in his pants.
Such a venomous creature had no right tasting so sweet.
“I can play this game for as long as you want.” I licked my lips as I rose, readying the dagger to strike at his chest next. “Tell me where—”
Breath whooshed from me.
I blinked up at the canopy of the bed.
Atakan grinned while smoothing his hands up my arms until they were above my head, my hands trapped in one of his.
Gently, and without taking his menacing gaze from mine, he plucked the dagger with mortifying ease from my slack fingers. “So you want to retrieve your felynx and flee from me.” His hair flopped forward, kissing his temples.
I squirmed. Futile. I wasn’t going anywhere.
And I didn’t intend to.
Even so, I ignored the part of me that didn’t want to move for other reasons—that enjoyed the way his legs trapped mine between them and the thrill slithering through my veins.
“Yet…” He turned his head, eyes roaming all over my face. “If you truly wished to leave, you’d have tried to without your little pet, knowing full well that although she is embarrassingly lazy, she has wings and would inevitably find you.” His attention dropped to my heaving chest, eyes dancing as they returned to mine. “No. You don’t wish to leave at all.”
“Meadow is not lazy,” I lied, then inwardly scolded myself for letting him distract me. “You would kill her if I left her here.”
“Perhaps.” I stilled as he dragged the tip of the blade, wet with his blood, over my jaw. “You want something, my dreaded Mildred.” He tapped the tip against my lips, his own curving. “Something more than my cock returning to your lovely cunt and my mouth feasting on yours.”
Heat exploded within me.
I swallowed, and though he could scent it, I still attempted to hide it by kissing the blade. Atakan’s smirk became a grin so feral, the part of me that was more creature than human awoke with a soft purr.
I fought the instinct to lift my hips and rasped, “I want to make a deal, monster.”
“Oh?” He tossed the dagger to the nightstand. “You’re hardly in a position to barter.”
“I’ll tell you what I know. Everything I’ve learned.” I waited a moment before adding, “And in return, you’ll give me safety.”
“Safety?” He chuckled. “You do know who you’re speaking to, don’t you?”
I ignored that. “Fix the alliance, Atakan.” The words were whispered, yet I felt not an ounce of fear as I said, “Make me your wife.”