Chapter 41 #2
The Seelie wheezes, eyes downcast. “Should the human encounter the Unseelie King, she was to lead him to the door.” Another wheeze, one that makes me think he may have a punctured lung.
“Earn his trust. Entice him.” He groans.
“With the promise of access to other humans. She would not be let back through until she did.”
Wait. What? I stumble back, struck by the revelation. That wasn’t the plan.
“But the offer is a lie. We watch the door, waiting to strike.” He coughs, spitting blood. “Or if the king should go through it—” he coughs spitting blood—“it would be closed. Trapping him in the human world to fade…and die.”
The worst fate possible to a fae.
The silence is deafening, or maybe the ringing in my ears blocks out all sound. In my periphery, I see the king’s guards edging closer. Elias squeezes my hand once before letting go.
It feels like a cord binding us together has been snapped, and I go stumbling back in horror. “No.”
He doesn’t look at me, just stares straight ahead at the Unseelie as a glow of magic pulses around him.
“No, Elias,” I say. “I was never going to betray you. I would never let you near that door.”
“See?” Orek yells. “She admits it!”
The Seelie coughs again. Blood trickles from their lips as they stare at the Unseelie King.
“The human—” Their words cut off in a gurgle.
I gag, covering my mouth with my hands as blood pours down their chest from where Orek just mercilessly slit their throat. I feel like I’m going to be sick. A few spots dance in my vision as I watch the body slump onto the sandy ground.
“A fitting end.” The bastard cackles.
No. Never. I hunch in on myself, on the edge of sobbing for the poor fae. They may have doomed me, but they didn’t want to. They didn’t deserve death or whatever was done to them before to coerce them into talking.
There’s movement from Orek’s cronies now as they slink forward.
The king’s guards step closer on the other side, hemming us in.
Elias is still as a statue staring at the fallen Seelie.
When he finally turns his head to me, his impassive gaze cracks in a flare of violet light before his eyes close as if in pain.
That look might be more painful than the death I just witnessed.
There’s no doubt about the truth of what the Seelie said. Because fae cannot lie.
But humans can.
And now everyone one of them thinks me a liar, a traitor. Bait.
Elias too.
I am bait. Even if I never planned to fulfill that role, it is why I was sent here.
A sob catches in my throat. “We share a mark.” My voice cracks over the words. Tears blur my vision. “What we have is real,” I plead to the king. “I would never betray you.”
A flash of pink swims before me. “I believe her.”
I blink away my tears. Katiya stands before me, short swords still unsheathed, and now she’s planted herself between her brother and me.
Between her king and a believed traitor.
I stare at her, momentarily dumbfounded.
Of all the people I expected to take my side, it wasn’t Katiya, not with her unwavering loyalty to her brother and her people.
Elias’s eyes flash open. His jaw is stiff, lips thin.
Whatever emotions lurk within him are shuttered. All that remains is the fearsome Unseelie King. Even without his armor, none could doubt who stands before them or the power he wields, especially now.
“She told me of the door,” Katiya continues. “She said her people were not to be trusted. Bait would not be so forthcoming.” She glances quickly back at me in a show of solidarity before glaring at her brother, her king, once more.
“Step aside, Katiya.” The command is quiet but absolute.
She snarls. Her tail flicks rapidly between us, nearly brushing my legs, as she shifts her weight to her toes, angling her blades like she means to attack.
Surely, she wouldn’t. Not for me.
“We need her,” she snaps. “ You need her!”
“Katiya!” The very ground rumbles with the king’s displeasure. His tone is like nothing I’ve ever heard before. Damning and damnation all in one. “Move. Aside.”
Her tail stills, and she glances back at me again. But this time, it’s not a show of comfort. I sense the unspoken apology before she straightens, lowering her weapons.
I swallow, unable to speak.
It’s okay. I clench my fists at my sides, trying to stop the shaking of my limbs.
I should have told him. I should have told him long ago, even if he didn’t want to hear it. I tried but not hard enough. Not nearly.
It’s my fault, and now I’ll pay the price.
And so will Matt.
He’ll never get the potion that could save him.
I choke back a sob. I came here to save my brother. Foolishly, I thought I could help Elias and the Unseelie too.
But nothing I’ve strived for has ever worked out as I’d hoped.
Elias may have his sword, he may be stronger—for the moment—but the Seelie know their location.
They could attack at any moment, and the Unseelie are not prepared.
The loss of life would be great. And Elias…
He would not abandon these people to save himself. He would die with them.
I’ve managed to doom everyone I thought I could save.
Katiya is shaking too as she sheaths her blades, though maybe for reasons different from mine. She’s still baring her gritted teeth as she stalks a few feet away.
With nothing between us, Elias steps in my direction.
He cuts an ominous figure. His jaw is stiff, all of him looks straight and stiff as a board, save the long swath of his white hair that sways with each step.
Even his tail is still behind him, something I thought impossible for the way it often twitched and moved seemingly of its own accord.
The king’s pointed ears have flattened out in a look I saw all too often on my grandmother’s cat in my youth.
It was a look that promised teeth and claws to follow.
I refuse to cower as he closes the distance between us, and gratefully, my tears manage not to fall. The sun has tinged the haze-muted sky a coppery color, casting its strange light over us all.
Our gazes lock, but there’s little to see in his.
It’s cold as ice. Empty. Impassive.
“I never wanted to hurt you,” I say, though my voice is barely a whisper.
Save for the twitch of his nose, he might as well be made of stone.
“I—” I love you. The words rise to mind unbidden, but I choke them down.
I can’t say it. Not now. Not in front of these people who hate me and are ready to condemn me.
I know what happened to the last human bait caught in these lands.
I know what fate they have in mind for me, that Elias may have in mind.
Anything I say would seem hollow. Empty. A lie.
Even if it’s not.
“I know what I have to do.” His gaze slides from me to the length of his sword.
At that, I can no longer look. I pinch my eyes tight, letting the tears finally roll down my cheeks.
I’m sorry, Matt. I’m so sorry.
Magic tingles across my skin. A buzzing hum fills the air, along with murmurs from the surrounding Unseelie.
Maybe the blade will soak up all of my blood. Maybe it will save them, even if it’s too late for me.
Elias lets out a feral roar. There’s the whistle of a blade through the air. A crack like thunder. Light flares behind my eyes. My hair is blown back from my face.
Is this death?
I peek open my eyes, expecting clouds and the pearly gates. Or at least more light. But what I see is even more incomprehensible.
There’s a tear in the world.
That’s the only way to explain it. Someone took a knife and cut a slit in the tapestry of the world before pulling back each side to create an elongated opening to somewhere else, a world completely the opposite of where we stand now.
Tall trees with brown trunks and bright green leaves soar toward a blue sky.
Thick green grass spreads out across the ground.
I can almost smell the pine n the air, just like I would back home this time of year.
It wasn’t a knife that cut the world though but a sword.
Elias still holds it outstretched, the tip resting in the bottom of the tear.
The fae are loud with exclamations of astonishment. One of Orek’s cronies even drops to their knees. The bastard himself looks horrified and awestruck in equal measure.
Good. If that’s the last thing I see, I’ll take it.
“The king created a new doorway,” someone says, and it strikes me that’s exactly what he’s done.
Elias cut open a door to another world. A shiver races across my skin.
The king retracts his blade and turns to me. Impossibly, his gaze has darkened more.
“Elias.” I stumble back a step.
I was ready. Prepared to die. But now my sense of self-preservation has kicked in.
“Please. I—”
He lunges for me. But not with his sword.
The Unseelie King grabs my waist, dragging my body against his muscular form. His lips crash into mine.
Everything blanks. The world. The people around us.
The thought that he was about to kill me.
It’s all gone in an instant. The only things left in all the vastness of time and space are the two of us.
His lips on mine, his breath in my lungs, the racing of his heart in his chest as it beats against mine.
We’ve shared passionate kisses and tender ones. But this is all-consuming. It’s a dam breaking.
He is my life, and I am his, and any thought I had differently feels foolish in the revelation of this kiss. He would never harm me. Just as I could never betray him.
A tear drips onto my cheek, one that’s not mine. That little drop of water transforms all my sudden joy to fear.
This isn’t a pardon. Or an apology.
It’s a goodbye.
I tense up in an instant. Panic bursts from me in a wave, yelling, clawing to be free.
It doesn’t reach the surface before Elias pulls back and whispers two words.
“Live well.”
And then he throws me through the doorway he created.