Chapter 24
Daisy
The moment Daisy dropped her feet from the couch, the shadows were there. The voices resumed, and the darkness swirled. A new feeling emerged, though—a strange, oily, acidic feeling that curdled her stomach.
“I find these things so dull,” Tarian said, his pants still open and his erection finally starting to fall.
He was showing himself off to the masses.
When he proved a point, he really went for it.
“The music is always the same. The dancers never mix it up. The food is hardly varied. It is like watching the same TV show in the human world over, and over, and over again.”
“Was the other court like this one?” she asked as the shadows at her feet slithered across her skin and bit down with sharp teeth. She jerked and then focused harder on ignoring them. “The one you came from?”
He twirled a lock of her hair absently. Pleasant shivers coated her body from his magic. His eyes never stopped moving, similar to hers.
“I didn’t used to think so, but then I took part in it. I danced. I sang—”
“You sing?”
He glanced down at her. “Of course. All fae sing. Some just do it better than others.”
“And you?”
“The best.”
“Obviously,” she said sarcastically. The princess hadn’t looked at them once.
He laughed, pulling her hair back to tilt her face up. He placed a kiss on her lips.
“I’m not the best, actually,” he admitted as the acidic feeling grew. The bites dug deeper, going from a mild pain to a dull ache. “I’m not bad—I can entertain a court just fine—but two of my sisters and one of my brothers are much better. They were the first called on to perform. Always.”
“Do you miss them?”
He was quiet for a long time. Her skin started to burn. The chant changed from “it” to “her.”
Kill her-kill her-killer—
The way the words ran together, it almost sounded like “killer” instead of “kill her.” Like a warning to the rest of the court.
“I do. Even the brother who betrayed me. I miss so much of that life, but it feels like a distant memory. I’ve changed a lot, I think. Grown cruel. Despicable. I doubt they would even know me.” He paused. “Or maybe I’ve become what they feared all along.”
“Or maybe you’re giving yourself a hard time for the guy you had to become to survive.”
He slipped his hand under her hair and stroked his thumb down the back of her neck. “It feels wrong to let myself off the hook so easily.”
“It shouldn’t.”
The shadow sliced across her ankle. She jerked, stopping herself from looking down to see if it had drawn blood. Was she supposed to pretend it didn’t hurt? Was that part of ignoring it?
“What…” Tarian stopped stroking, looking down at her in confusion.
Another slice, this one then drilling in.
She sucked in a pained breath, unable to help it.
Nor could she help looking down. Blood poured out of the fresh wound and seeped from the other.
A black claw ran across her other calf, and the feeling of bugs across her chest dug in like flesh-eating beetles.
“Fuck—” She slapped at her chest, but there was nothing there. The pain intensified, magic spearing into her. Through her. It felt like white-hot spikes—real spikes.
Tarian quickly did up his pants before bending forward, reaching down to her leg. His fingers came away with a smear of blood. Rage and worry blazed in his eyes. This couldn’t have been the magical allure; she was being attacked. He didn’t know by whom.
She cried out with another sharp jab. Power pulsed in her middle—the diamond chalice calling to her. Another slice, this one across her ACL. She bent over, and her breath dried up. She couldn’t breathe!
She tried to enact her nulling magic, but it wouldn’t work on the shadows at her feet. She needed a fae to target. She needed a body or her magic was no good.
“Gods, Daisy—” Black so deep it was solid flowed over her body.
Gold shimmered across her skin. The spikes of magic were dragged out one by one, only the last allowing her to breathe again.
The tingles suggested that Tarian was using the magic she had stored.
It wouldn’t be enough. The attacking magic aimed for her stomach now while redoubling its efforts on her legs.
“Fuck!” Tarian scooped her up into his arms, turning frantically. “Faelynn!” he shouted.
A dozen court members snickered, more hiding grins or smiles. She’d remember each and every one of those fuckers.
Daisy grabbed for the closest fae’s magic, someone too strong to steal from this quickly, but black spots danced behind her eyes. Her head felt light as blood soaked her dress around her stomach. She sucked that magic to her and heard a feral cry.
“Use this magic,” she said, and coughed. Blood frothed at her lips.
Tarian swore again as a male with his teeth bared and his eyes screwed up in rage came at them. He launched himself, not sure who was doing this to him and beyond logic to care. Tarian dropped Daisy without ceremony, no time to put her down gently.
Take all that you can, he told her.
She hit the ground and groaned, curling up with pain. She siphoned magic from the fae male as fast as she possibly could, without subtlety. It flowed into her, and Tarian took it out just as quickly, combating the magical attack on her.
He drew his knife from a jacket pocket. It increased in size as Tarian spun. He yanked the fae past him in a beautifully graceful move and stuck his knife into the center of the fae’s back directly after.
Daisy continued to suck at that power. The fae roared wildly, turning for Tarian with hands curved into claws. He reached for Tarian’s face, his thumbs aimed at Tarian’s eyes.
That fae’s bodyguards showed up behind him, swords whirling. Tarian’s were hurrying toward them.
Get her the fuck out of here! Tarian yelled. The princess is attacking her with everything she has, and someone is helping her do it.
Faelynn knelt for Daisy, hands out to heal.
No! Daisy shouted, pulling at that magic, offering it up to Tarian. Gorlan filled in the space, staff whirling, iron decorated with runes. Don’t show me attention. They’ll question why you would save me over him. That’ll raise questions. I’m alive. Help him!
Faelynn hesitated. Then she quickly stood and brandished a knife, as though she’d gotten it out of an ankle harness.
It was a terrible cover, but hopefully in all the excitement no one would notice she’d initially knelt to Daisy.
Gorlan stuck his staff into the chest of a bodyguard.
Faelynn got behind and dug her blade into the back of the fae’s neck. He went down fast.
Tarian’s wylds-made blade whirled in a beautiful array of light.
He stepped and struck, then ducked and struck again.
The fae was bleeding all over, and his limbs didn’t want to hold him, but he wouldn’t go down.
He was fueled by the panic-stricken need to kill the thing stealing his magic.
Her. He’d instinctively figured out who it was.
Tarian must’ve realized it, because he stepped into the fae’s way each time and acted as though the blows were meant for him and not to get by him.
She pulled in the last of the magic as another bodyguard was felled by Gorlan’s and Faelynn’s blades. Tarian sliced across the fae’s neck even as he was wilting. The death would look like Tarian had done it.
The head slammed down onto the floor in a swirl of nightmare black. Its sightless eyes looked her way accusingly. She wished he could see her returned look of You got what was coming to you.
The shadowy magic stabbed her, surrounding her. With Tarian’s efforts, it peeled away slowly…and then in a rush. Gorgeous golden hues and rose and chartreuse danced within the black. Tarian’s magic cut through the attack until she could suck in another lungful of air.
She spasmed in a fit of coughing, still holding her stomach. Faelynn dropped down beside her.
“Let me see,” she murmured, pulling at Daisy’s dress. Blood still seeped from her wounds, her Demigod’s gift working as fast as it could to stitch her up, but she was losing a lot of blood. “It’s okay. This’ll be okay. I’ve got you.”
Faelynn’s hands pushed against her skin, and Daisy stopped herself from crying out in pain.
Take from the well of magic she has stored up, Tarian directed her. He grabbed the collar of the fallen fae’s shirt and the waist of his pants. He yanked the fae into the air like he weighed nothing and threw the body out into the middle of the dance floor.
Nobility screamed or shouted in surprise, having stopped their dancing to watch.
They scattered out of the way as the bloodied body slid across the marble floor, leaving a glistening red trail in its wake.
Flesh screeched as the body lost momentum and stopped fifteen feet from the princess’s slightly elevated chair.
From the floor, though, Daisy couldn’t see the expression on the princess’s face.
“Elamorna, you dare attack my champion?” Tarian hollered. His foot twisted as his focus switched. “What sort of court are you presiding over here, Highness? Have all your rules stopped counting for anything? Is there no order to be had anymore?”
The princess’s voice was mocking. “But she is not your champion, is she, Tarian? She is your taboo little toy. You didn’t want an equal in your bed. You wanted a sniveling little creature to dominate. You wanted a creature that made you feel godly—”
“Enough,” the king said, and the court fell into uneasy silence.
There we are, Faelynn said, closing the wounds, chasing away the pain.
Leave the pain. Daisy winced. I need to know what is still hurting and how much. You can chase it away when we’re safe again.
“You do not understand, Elamorna,” the king said, sounding amused.
“That is because you’ve never been with a human.
They are so easily broken that they, in themselves, are a game.
How hard can you ride them before you kill them?
How can you twist them just right that their spasms of pain milk your pleasure?
How can you prolong their death until you are well and truly ready to break them?
It’s an art, keeping a human alive. Tarian is learning that art.
He is starting to crave it. He will join us yet. ”
He paused and fabric swished, the princess frustrated but unwilling to defy her father.
He spoke again, this time to Tarian. “I do uphold the rules of the court, my dear lad. Of course I do. The fae that attacked you within the court, for example, would have been sentenced to death. Given you had no choice but to take care of that, in defense, I will kill his mate. As for your human, she is not fae, and therefore she is not subject to our rules. She is below them. But I will guarantee her protection in court and in the games…for now. I wouldn’t deny myself the pleasure of a human, after all.
It’s been so long since I’ve had one. Now, you may go and see to her, if you wish.
I know what a sad thing it is for someone else to break your toy before you are done playing with it. ”
Faelynn sat Daisy up gradually, and pain radiated from deep within Daisy’s body. Her dress didn’t have any holes in it, but it felt like her skin still did.
“Yes, sire,” Tarian said tightly.
He turned on his heel, and Daisy expected him to stalk out of the court, leaving her to his Fallen like in times past. Instead, he bent and scooped her up, cradling her gently to his chest.
“Careful,” Faelynn murmured, her hand flowing over Daisy’s legs.
I’m okay, she told them as Tarian walked toward the dais and around a seat grouping. Humans aren’t that breakable. Not when they have the Demigod’s blood magic.
Thank fuck for that, Gorlan murmured.
Tarian stared directly at Princess Elamorna. I warned you, he said in a deathly quiet mental voice. I warned you what would happen if you touched my property. Now you will know true sorrow.
He walked across the marble court with Daisy in his arms. The nobility parted ahead of him, wariness or outright fear on their faces. The doors opened when he reached them, and fae servants on either side hurried to clear the way. The doors closed crisply after they’d passed through.
Are you okay? Tarian asked Daisy. Faelynn hurried beside them, her hands on Daisy’s ankles, helping Daisy’s body repair the damage.
Yeah. I’ll heal. My ACL is just about good. I’ll be fine to walk in a moment. Almost there. It wasn’t a deep cut, thank god.
The other damage?
Before Daisy could answer, Faelynn dumped a plethora of images and feelings into their heads, detailing the magical maladies and what was healed and what was left to go.
Who was helping her? Tarian mused to himself. She doesn’t usually team up with anyone. She doesn’t keep anyone that powerful close enough in case they try to sabotage her.
Is teaming up with someone a vulnerable thing or something? Daisy asked as they turned a corner.
Yes. Very. It requires great trust. You are linked for a time, and in that time, your power can be used against you. It’s the perfect opportunity for a fae to betray another, so very few do it.
Daisy lifted her eyebrows. She must really want you. This level of obsession is extreme.
She always has, yes.
Tarian is the ultimate prize in this court, Faelynn said. The realm, really. The most handsome, the best pedigree, the promise of the most powerful offspring—she wants him like she wants to breathe. And she recognizes that he found in you what she has always wanted him to find in her.
Let’s hope she’s the only one who recognizes that, Gorlan murmured, his eyes continually scanning. Or else—
The lighting in the hall cut out.
They are trying my patience, Tarian said, setting Daisy down in the middle of the hallway. Stay there. Don’t move. Let us handle this.
(Like hell she would.)
Daisy. Tarian waved his hand, and diffused light peeked through the black along the top corners of the ceiling. I don’t need your hidden thoughts to alert me to your stubbornness. Stay there.
Your internal wounds are healed enough for you to defend yourself, Faelynn whispered in Daisy’s head as she pulled a dagger out of a sheath.
Be prepared in case something gets through us.
Tarian has called the Fallen. They are hurrying.
We just need to hang on. Don’t let anything affect your heart.
These types of creatures always go for the heart.
Great. She didn’t have one of those. She was all set.