Chapter 17
VALANCE
Some would call this the tables turning against me.
Prince Valance, a prisoner in Spring.
Goodness.
I lay on a hard bed, wrapped in chains, a gag in my mouth. Unable to move, breathing through my nose. A blanket covered my naked body, damp around my torso where I’d wet myself. I stank of urine and sweat and the sea, cold and hungry and alone.
If it weren’t for the vent in the wall behind my head, this room would be stuffy.
Thank Danu for such mercies.
The hood had been removed. I watched the dark, making out the silhouettes of the room. There was no light to reveal them fully.
Nothing but the dark.
Kormac…
I tried to call to my magic. It stirred, but my fear kept it out of reach. I begged my anger to rise. It didn’t.
Helpless.
Alone.
A failure.
I was so tired, falling in and out of sleep. Dreaming of nothing, not even the snow and the shimmering colors. That had been once. And not of the ruins again. Just emptiness. Darkness. As dark as this wretched cell.
Kormac…
He was somewhere inside this hell. Above me. Well above where sunlight stood more of a chance of touching him.
How many hours had it been? Was it day or night? Time slipped away from me, leaving me in a wilderness outside of its passing.
Movement. Footsteps in the dark. Long strides. Taking their time.
The shoe was on the other foot. Once upon a time, that had been me out there, taking my time, knowing the prisoner heard me coming. Letting them sweat, waiting for me to unleash whatever torture I’d dreamed up on them. Much like I’d done to Kormac.
I’m sorry…
I wanted that me back…
But not to hurt you…
Were the lines between bond and reality blurring? Or was that just me, scared and wanting to breathe fresh air again, clinging to the human to get me to freedom?
They could not blur. The bond was not my real heart…
Yet I’d saved his life of my own volition.
The footsteps arrived, a presence outside the block of darkness I determined to be a door. A bolt slid open with a heavy clang. Hinges squealed, metal scraped stone, and light filled the room. Gentle light—the soft glow of a flame.
A copper-clad Gentry entered, wielding a torch. She stepped out of the way of an expensively robed Gentry. Robes of the finest yellow silks, diamonds glittering within, hair long and red.
Lord Florent. My former betrothed.
“Hello there, Your Highness.” He lingered beside this awful bed, showing off fingers adorned with rings.
I couldn’t answer with a gag in my mouth.
He wouldn’t want to hear my response.
The torch accentuated his cruel features, the pointedness of them. All sharp lines and beady green eyes.
To think I would have wed this man, taken him to my bed. Let him blend his seed with mine and find a willing surrogate to carry on our blood. A method often used if the need arose.
A child with him? That poor child, born out of complacency. From the signing of a scroll.
Now a broken treaty.
“I’m free of you,” he said. “At last. I believed in a gloomy future, one where I died unhappy in old age, where you eventually got your freedom back to start again. The benefits of Sidhe lives the rest of us are not privy to. A cruel unfairness.” He stepped closer.
“But I digress. I am only here to see you, to look upon a fallen prince. To see what I avoided. Now I get to enjoy the fruits of a woman, not endure the touch of a man—no matter how stunning you are. I get to bed Lasair, the ferocious enemy you continuously failed to destroy. I will be king. She will be queen. With her armies and my iron, we will purge the old ways, give Faerie the new lease of life it deserves. And you…” He shook his head, holding out his bejeweled fingers. “What to do with you…”
I remained still, not so much as attempting any degree of movement.
“A killer,” he added. “Murderer of friends and father—the mer, and others who did not deserve such death. Those poor people of Whistoning Village.”
I did react then, trying to push against my binds.
He laughed softly. “Invertedly, you have aided our cause. I was concerned about the slaughter after those insufferable peasants failed to bend the knee to the unseelie court. To me, their new master. I wondered if ‘bend or die’ was maybe too much of a heavy hand. And then you came along, killed those seelie soldiers who so quickly came to my side. Destroyed them. A perfect tale to spread through your people. Their prince a barbarian, a savage beast. Killing and abandoning his kingdom. Consumed by madness. To be stopped, to be punished. And when he is gone, maybe there can be peace in his wake. A new king.” He cocked his head.
“By way of technicality, you are king.” He waved his hand dismissively.
“No coronation or official registration of your tenure but king you are.” He bowed.
“Your Majesty.” He laughed. “How wonderful it will be for me to receive a crowd as king.”
Never…
He sighed with pleasure, clearly picturing a bright future.
“First, there is work to do. And you have a visitor on her way as we speak. I am sure you will be glad to see each other.” He bent over me, his breath stinking of wine.
“I can be kind. I can be forgiving. I would have made a wonderful husband to a king. But now I need not worry about that.” He kissed my forehead.
My flesh crawled, ice in my veins. Fingers longing to claw his face off. The spot he kissed felt as if a slug had died there.
More footsteps approaching. Quicker this time.
“I shall leave you alone.” He clicked his fingers. The guard came over and removed my gag.
My aching jaw throbbed with relief, my teeth glad of the return to normal.
“Danu…” I breathed.
Florent swept out of the room, the guard remaining.
Another fae in fine and billowing silks of pink entered the cell, followed by two seelie soldiers in golden leather elven armor. My people. My soldiers.
And worst of all…
Oh, worst of all…
The fae in the luxurious silk was my grandmother.