Chapter 12 #5
She laughs low and turns back toward the door to leave the room.
‘I don’t need you to be. I’m clearly a more powerful magick-worker than you are.
I’m sure that I could,’ she turns back and steps closer, lowers her voice an octave, ‘keep you in your place if I chose. But, at the very least, you wouldn’t work against me. ’
‘You seem very sure,’ I murmur. ‘What do you propose to give me in return for my help?’
She gives me a slow smile. ‘The Underhill, of course.’
I’m surprised by her words.
‘Why would I want the fae fold?’ I ask with a laugh.
‘You said it yourself,’ she answers readily.
‘Because it could be great. Because if there weren’t so many bureaucrats arguing the minutia of everyday decisions, it would be.
Because the Under-born fae lord it over the rest as if they’re somehow better.
I want what I want. You want what you want.
Be my second in command. My first general. We’ll both have what we desire.’
She smiles a little, her eyes narrowing. ‘I’ll even give you Warrior. You’re free to kill him. If you can.’
I regard Fiana thoughtfully, my eyes never straying to the humans here, nor to Bryn who hasn’t moved an inch.
She’s not physically hurt, I tell myself. She’ll be all right.
She’ll be all right.
Jak and Morgan should be here by now. Gods, I hope they are because if they take any longer, I may have to actually pledge myself to this bitch.
‘I’d like to see the other dungeon,’ I say. ‘Your personal one.’
She hesitates and I open my hands, reaching out my arms to show I have nothing to hide.
‘Come, do you think I don’t already know what you’ve been doing? Varrik was known for his experiments, and I feel that same power in you. The power of the Harbinger. The power of the Black Lake.’
And Bryn.
Fiana’s eyes blaze and her jaw tightens. ‘You’ve been in the Harbinger’s presence?’ she grinds out.
‘She considers me a friend.’ I grin darkly. ‘Show me everything, Fiana, and I’ll deliver her, Varrik’s only real success…besides you, of course…to you with a bow wrapped around her neck.’
She nods quickly, fervently, and I see that I was right about the girl in the hall that Fiana is having tortured. Fiana despises the Harbinger even more than she loves her little empire. She tortures women who look like her. She’s rotten with her hatred. Twisted.
Stupid.
We leave the dungeon, and I hope to the Gods that Jak and Morgan are here, that they were able to contact Dane and Lia before they came.
Because soon the people of Halsford will be sorted like geese at market. Fiana’s network is more expansive than any of us realized. If they’re taken from here, we’ll never find them, and even if I could do that many tracking conjures, so much magick would be noticed.
I search for Bryn’s eyes in the darkness, but I don’t see them.
She doesn’t look at me. She thinks I betrayed her.
My heart feels as if it’s going to tear in two, even though this was the plan.
Morgan, Jak and I agreed it should be me because I was the most likely to turn, at least from the outside. I really thought Warrior was going to kill me outright when I followed Bryn’s trail here alone and I entered through the small Ring that’s in the courtyard.
He wanted to run me through, but I see now that he’s fallen out of favor with his mistress. Taking more liberties will surely mean death. The real kind.
Now, I have to try to keep the bitch busy, stop her from scattering the people of Halsford to the four corners of the Dark Realms. At least Bryn is relatively safe. So long as she’s needed, she’ll remain so.
I trail behind Fiana as we return to her hall. I ignore the girl who looks like Lia in the block, the grunts of the male mounting her as we pass, but the fae queen’s smile is wide as she sees the woman who looks a little like the Harbinger getting what she deserves.
There’s nothing I can do for the girl, likely nothing I can do for any of them.
But she catches my eye as I climb the dais, and, just for a moment, her expression is not one of fear and pain, but one of boredom.
She looks jaded and annoyed, as if Fiana’s notice is an inconvenience to some prior plans she has in the court.
The moment passes and she whimpers loudly as Fiana’s eyes find her once more, but it sounds false to my ears now.
I don’t stare at her, but she’s clearly had training in subterfuge and I’m wondering if she’s a spy for the Underhill.
I’m sure I don’t know the girl, but there are a few who are so deep in the Dark Realms that I’ve never met them.
Perhaps Lia and Dane were able to get the Council Five to agree to act and the Underhill is already here.
Emboldened by the thought, I walk with Fiana through her office and to her bed chamber. She looks back at me to make sure I’m watching and steps into the wall, disappearing. Another seemingly effortless conjure. Is she truly this powerful, or is it merely sleight of hand, tricks and mirrors?
I follow willingly to see whatever horrors await me, ready for the signal to kill her.