Chapter 5
KORMAC
A dark, stinking hell hole for me now. There was a bit of light from torches outside the barred cell, but not enough to do anything other than sit and wait and think about Prince Valance’s blood dripping down my arms when I tore his hellpissing heart out.
There were two cells either side of me, only a set of thick bars separated me and the other prisoners. A man in each, one silent, the other in need of a tissue and eucalyptus by the sounds of it.
He wanted to talk.
“What’s your name, friend?” he asked.
“I’m not your friend.”
“Ah, don’t be so bitter to turn down a friend, brother.”
“I’m not your brother.”
A deep, phlegmy sniff. “We’re humans, eh? Always brothers in these seelie lands.”
I didn’t answer, didn’t engage. Always best to ignore these sorts of men.
I’d encountered enough of them in the taverns near my village.
Talked your ears off, didn’t make much sense while glugging back ale.
Okay, so this man didn’t have ale to drive him along, but he sounded like he’d downed many a pint in his years.
I saw the shape of him in the dark. Hunched forward, his head tilted in my direction.
“What you in for?” he asked.
How long could I keep up ignoring him before he shut his mouth?
“Come on, brother. What’cha do? Thief? Murderer? Rapist?”
I snapped, punching the bar with the side of my fist. “Stop. Now.”
“Don’t be like that.”
“Don’t you run your mouth. I’m not interested in being your friend or any of that shit. Okay? Keep your mouth shut.”
Footsteps, then a ball of orange light. A male guard walked past the cell, turning his head to face me before the darkness reclaimed the corridor. No words, no actions, just an ass on patrol.
Damn. I should’ve taken in the scene more with the brief light. Figured things out, tried to spot some weakness in my cell.
The only problem was the silver chains on my ankles and wrists. They fixed me to the wall, completely unhelpful. So my first mission was to break them. Weakness in the wall? Pull hard enough and… No. Not like that.
I shimmied closer to the stone, feeling around. Testing it for any flaws.
Solid. No chinks, no weak points.
Ah, hellpiss!
“You waiting for the prince?” the man asked. “Heard stuff. Heard them talk about the heir to the stinking throne.” He laughed and spat another glob somewhere.
No answer from me.
“Pretty ain’t he? One of the fairest men in the land, they say.”
“I hadn’t noticed.”
But that wasn’t true. Despite my deep hatred of the prince and all he stood for, there was no denying how handsome he was.
Fair skin, silver hair tinged with violet, and the darkest eyes I’d ever seen.
Darker than night, than this cell. And that was unusual.
Where were the bright irises of the Sidhe? At least he had the Sidhe silver hair.
No wonder some called him cursed. The runt of the litter. Not that I cared, but I could see why vile fuckers like the Sidhe would say those things about him for letting the side down.
Vile for vile, I suppose.
Prince Valance was beautiful, though, and I’d heard tale after tale about him.
Songs, too. Stories of his body and his sex drive and pure filth like that.
But he wasn’t any better than his dead brother—the worst swine.
So much worse. I tried not to care about the tales, but I’m a man who enjoys other men.
Sometimes, my mind wanders, and it’d wandered to images of him from the paintings I’d seen.
Now I’d come across him in the flesh for the first time, my impure thoughts were coming back.
Warming my groin a little. Loathsome. I pinched my arms to stop it.
So shameful to think of a Rosestar like that, stupid natural reaction to his beauty or not.
Fuck him. Fuck the king. Fuck all of them.
“Shit on them all,” I muttered.
The man next door didn’t hear me. He was mumbling to himself under his breath.
What a relief!
But I was stronger than my desires. Had to be. Soldiers for Lasair didn’t ever let pretty things trip them up. And pretty Prince Valance received more of my hatred than any fucking longing.
It’d turn me on more to see his head on a spike.
“I wouldn’t fuck him,” the prisoner added. “Me? I like the ladies. Much fairer on the eye. Gods, I miss them. Miss seeing them and enjoying them and…” He coughed.
“Are you sick?” I asked. Sounded like there was something sitting heavy on his chest.
“Can’t take the flowers and the Summer shit. Plays havoc on me, brother. I need to get back to the lands of Autumn again. Cooler. Cleaner. Fresher. Am I right?”
He was right. I missed home too. But to keep home, we needed to be over here in the east fighting. Not cowering up in the shrinking northern territories of the west, waiting to lose our grip.
Maybe Leanna was right. She’d always said we needed to take back the whole of Autumn first, especially Autumn Keep—once the heart of the unseelie court before that vile Autumn lord took it and sucked the cock of Summer.
Him and his new friends pushed us back into the northern Autumn territories while he let the seelie occupy more lands. Spreading the royal hand some more.
Lord Quentin Dach. On the death list too.
Prick.
Start in the west, Leanna said. Move east gradually.
Take the lands piece by piece, regain our power.
If we’d held the north of Autumn for this long, it meant we were a force to be reckoned with.
But no one ever listened to Leanna. She wasn’t Lasair.
She talked a lot of sense, though, had plenty of brilliant battle strategies.
I tried to get her voice heard, but our village didn’t take to it.
So, so stupid. It was always Lasair or nothing.
I mean, she was our leader and future queen for a reason, but the cause needed other ideas, too. Better ones, if I was honest.
Gods, that got my blood pumping. All those times Leanna tried to speak, to streamline our plans… I’d failed her. She was my friend, and I’d failed to be stronger for her, and now she was dead.
That same cruelty shown to me and my people two years ago would be repaid in full.
One prince dead wasn’t enough. Valance and the king were next.
The last proper royals. Take them all down.
Watch the gold palace fall and the birds peck at rotting Sidhe heads while Lasair took the throne.
Break that wheel of inherited power. What made the Rosestars better than anyone else?
“They call him sadistic, too,” the prisoner said. “And he is. I’ve heard what he does to his enemies. His hate is as pure as his face.” The man sniffed deeply, phlegm building in his throat. He spat it, a heavy gloop splattering somewhere in the dark.
Nice.
“I know,” I said.
Valance may have a vicious reputation, along with the sex and good looks, but his brother still owned the nasty crown for the time being. I’m sure he’d peel it from Daire’s dead hands and be the new king of evil at some point.
It’d take a lot to burn the stains on my mind away. Prince Daire… Thank the gods he’d never be king. Not even the blood of the pretty prince would be enough to wash them away. But it’d be a start.
I’m sorry I couldn’t save you…
“He speaks!” The man laughed. “Good to hear you again, brother.”
Would the guards care if I reached through the bars and throttled this ass?
“I know all about cruel Rosestars. Trust me.” I kept my voice low. Though skilled in hunting for food, keen ears ready to track with my other senses, this place dulled them. Any guard or spy could be lurking in the dark, waiting for me to spill some details.
A cold tremor went through me as I eyed the smothering blackness before me.
“You ain’t the only ones that want those Rosestar cunts dead,” the man said.
I jumped at the sound of his voice. “Tell me something new.”
“Know, do ya? Heard the quiet talk in the lands of Spring, eh? Lower than whispers ‘cos words like that will get ya on the wrong end of a hot poker.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Now he wants to know.”
This man was annoying. “Know what? That the Rosestars have enemies? Of course, they do. But the Spring are up their asses. There’s no unseelie in Spring.”
“Says you.”
“Says facts.” He snorted. “Shouldn’t be talking to you now, shouldn’t be repeating with ears and eyes in the dark.”
Then don’t. “Fine.”
His silhouette shuffled in the dark. “Secrets. Greater power the Rosestars fear. You watch. You wait and see.”
His breath was basically shit. I backed off from the bars. “If I’m not dead by then.”
“You giving up, brother?” I saw him wipe his nose as he took a hearty sniff.
“I never give up.”
“Then have a little faith in the gods.”
I’d put too much faith in the three gods over the years.
They didn’t listen to me much. Never, actually.
Clearly, they were playing hellpissing games with life.
Fuck it. I didn’t care about gods. I cared about getting things done.
War. Fighting until the end. Taking down this prince.
I just didn’t know how I’d be getting out of here.
Gods, these cells were deep in this damn mound.
Was Ren down here somewhere too? What were they doing to him? I kept listening for his voice, for his screams. But I’d no idea how big this place was. Too dark to get a lay of the land and too cramped in this cell. There was no air, no sounds. Nothing. Just the dark and the stench and the heat.
Sweat ran everywhere from my neck to my ass crack. My balls in need of freedom from my leather pants. My sort of leather worn in Summer didn’t mix. And that went for the lands of Spring, too.
Not for the prince, in his expensive black elven leather, all those buckled straps across his body, blades snuggly kept in some of them.
Almost looked sexual, like he got off on it.
And he stood out amongst all the gold and pink.
A true target if ever there was one. Not like other royals.
He probably got off on being a target. Sidhe were all debauched.