Chapter 15
fifteen
The bath was heaven. I felt the water so much better than I ever had before.
There was something about me, something that had changed.
I didn’t want to think about it at all, didn’t want to even acknowledge it, but it was there when I was clean and smelled good and looked in the mirror over the basin.
It was there in my eyes that had become more…
vibrant. In the softness of my skin. A subtle change that most wouldn’t even notice, but I did because I hadn’t seen my own eyes since the last time I was in this very bathroom. In front of this very mirror.
I looked the same, almost identical, and at the same time like a completely different person from the Nilah I had been when I first went through the Aetherway.
“I’m still me,” I told the mirror, and maybe it was silly, but I needed to hear it out loud because it wasn’t powerful enough as only a thought in my head. I needed to reassure myself that I wasn’t lost. I was still here.
And I was still going to do my best to get home as soon as possible .
Even so, I was relieved when I turned my back to the mirror and put the clothes on, too big still just like when I stole them, which felt like years ago to me now.
They were clean, though, and I bet Raja hated me extra hard for having to wash them.
I planned to thank her again—for the food and the clothes, and for the message she sent to Rune.
I was thinking of the words I’d say when I took the empty plate and walked down the hallway that led to the front to the house.
She was probably outside, waiting for me to leave, and I didn’t even blame her.
Right now, I felt great. Rested, fed, and if I could just find a bottle of water somewhere, I’d be good to go for another full day, I thought.
So, I walked out into the foyer, illuminated by silver lights trapped into glass spheres hanging on the walls—raw fae magic. The entrance door was a bit open, so I went for it with my head up, my mind elsewhere (on Rune, of course).
But the moment I stepped onto the threshold, my body stopped moving all on its own.
The moment I stepped onto the threshold, something deep inside me stirred, and it wasn’t warmth, but it was cold. It was like I was suddenly standing in front of a strong wind that I could only feel on my insides—-and then all my attention switched to my ears.
Footsteps.
Heavy breathing that I heard as if people were standing right behind me.
Yes, people— plural .
For a moment, I was certain that it was Rune. I was certain that he’d somehow found me. He was already here, and everything was over, but…
The scent. Rune smelled of smoke and leather and something entirely him, and the people who were near me now, just at the corner of Raja’s house, smelled like dirt. It was strong enough that I had no trouble picking it up.
As if hypnotized, I stepped outside, looked ahead at the surface of the lake that glowed with the silver moonlight at the edge of the mountaintops on the other side.
The sky was a deep dark blue, gorgeous, with so many stars winking at me from outer space.
Witnessing me stepping farther and farther away from the house, until I could see the side of it.
Until I could see Raja standing tall with her hands folded in front of her, and twenty Seelie soldiers at her back.
I thought the plate might slip from my hands, but my fingers had a good grip on it. My heartbeat didn’t speed up. My body didn’t shake. I wasn’t even breathing faster than usual.
Twenty soldiers.
They all wore the armor of the Seelie Court, helmets and golden swords and all.
I could tell because ten of them had theirs unsheathed and ready to attack.
The warmth and this strange cold sensation inside me clashed, and my heart did skip a beat when I met Raja’s eyes and saw how she wasn’t sorry or even a little concerned at the very least. Feeling any kind of discomfort.
Instead, she held her head up and her brows raised, as if to say, what did you expect, mortal? That I would actually help you ?
So fucking funny.
Really—hilarious .
I looked up at the sky. This all you got, oh mighty stars of past and future? Really? Is this all you got?!
“Nilah Dune, your presence is required in the Seelie Court by the queen. If you do not come willingly, we will apprehend you.”
This from a soldier who had stepped forward, helmet on, golden eyes perfectly visible.
For a second there I hoped it was that guy—Delias, Rune’s friend who’d opened the gates of the court for us, but no. I hadn’t seen any of these people before.
And I knew for a fact that light or no light, I couldn’t beat them all. I could not win any kind of fight against twenty fae soldiers.
Yet my eyes still locked on Raja’s. I was still stupid enough to feel betrayed by her.
Bitch , I thought, but did it even matter now?
Not if she hadn’t sent word to Rune, it didn’t.
“Step forward with your hands raised,” the soldier said and came closer still, his golden sword raised, ready, his other hand free, fingers open, as if he was preparing himself to use magic if he needed it.
I was tempted to surrender—I really was. It would be easier, wouldn’t it?
Except these voices inside me were certain that I could still run.
It didn’t matter who I was or what these guys were—the light in my hands wasn’t going to be enough against all of them.
So, the plan was simple: run —and if they caught me, I could push them back with the magic just like I had done to Maera’s pack mates.
If it worked, great. If it didn’t, I would at least know I tried.
The fae opened his mouth to say something else.
I dropped the plate on the ground, turned around, and ran back the same way through which Maera and the wolves had brought me here.
The crazy part? I was fast. So much faster than I thought I would be because I’d eaten and I’d rested—and also my life was on the line.
Or maybe it was that moon magic stuff. Maybe it was responsible for the way my legs were moving. For my stamina. For my near perfect sight in the dark, even close to the line of trees where the lights of the house didn’t reach.
I thought I would make it. I looked back, and the soldiers had charged after me, but I thought I could run just as fast as them. And since I already had a head start, I thought I could get to a hiding place and wait until they walked away.
But it wasn’t meant to be.
Darkness spread on the ground around me, fast—like waves crashing on the shore. A sense of deja-vu hit me instantly because I’d seen those shadows shaped like tendrils spreading around the same way.
Raja’s magic. So powerful, so deep, the shadows looked like pure black ink as they swallowed every inch of the ground to my side and came for me faster by the second.
I knew it was a done deal. I remembered how those succubi had fallen the moment they’d touched the darkness, but I still tried to run faster. I still tried to change direction, jump into the lake, swim away from here if I had to.
Then the shadows touched my feet.
I didn’t fall quite like the succubi had, but there was no way to stop or get those shadows off me. Dark and dead and cold as the night, they spread up my feet and wrapped around both my legs, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t break through.
A scream of raw anger ripped out of me, and I fell forward on the ground that had become pure darkness. The side of my head slammed onto something hard .
I lost consciousness right away.
The sound of wheels turning and the feeling of being pushed and pulled on all sides woke me up.
I blinked, but there was still darkness in front of my eyes.
My neck hurt because I’d been holding it to the side at a bad angle, but other than that, I seemed to be intact.
Breathing and aware that something cold and heavy was around my wrists.
Suddenly, my brain was wide awake.
Suddenly, I remembered Raja’s face, the soldiers— the Seelie soldiers found me!
Fear rose inside me, took my breath away for a beat, forced my eyes to blink faster until I was able to see where I was.
Bars. Thick and made of dark metal—there were bars in front of me, and on the other side, four Seelie soldiers sat on wooden seats that extended from the wall of the room.
No— the carriage. We were in a carriage, and we were moving.
Holy fuck, we were moving.
It was a big carriage, unlike any I’d seen so far because half of it was barred. I was the only one behind said bars, sitting on the cold wooden floor, and the chain that was wrapped around my wrists was welded to this large piece of metal just outside the bars.
Hot and cold energy spilled inside me at the same time, and the view in front of me tilted. Chains as thick as my forearms were around me, locked tightly, my fingers white because very little blood seemed to be flowing to them. That’s why I could barely move my hands .
My mouth opened to speak, to demand somebody tell me where we were and where they were taking me, and to take those damn chains off my wrists—but I couldn’t make a single sound.
Because I knew where we were going. I knew why they’d chained my wrists to this fucking carriage.
The Seelie Queen had found me, and her soldiers were taking me to her.
The Seelie Queen who was undoubtedly going to have my head, and she wouldn’t even believe me if I told her that Lyall wasn’t dead. That he couldn’t be simply because I wasn’t.
Tears pricked the back of my eyes. I closed them and took in a deep breath, tried to calm my racing thoughts. There were no windows in the carriage, only those balls of golden light floating about in the air, so I had no idea where we were right now or if it was daylight outside.
But I could still make it. There were only four soldiers with me in the carriage. The fact that Raja had betrayed me meant nothing, and we were probably not in Blackwater anymore anyway, but it didn’t matter.
I would try.
The heat inside me clicked, just like before. It was there, and it was going to work, break these chains and throw these soldiers off me until I could escape. The doors of the carriage were at the back. I could jump before anybody out there even saw me.
And I was going to. I wasn’t going to stop, until…
The carriage did.
The doors at the back of it opened, and two soldiers were there with their helmets off, their eyes golden, their skin pale.
The queen’s palace loomed in the distance behind them, its towers piercing the bright blue sky, and more soldiers were stationed on the sides of the wide road we’d stopped in. They all had weapons and helmets and enough magic to kill me over and over again for days.
“We’re here,” the guy who had opened the back said.
The four others were already on their feet, one of them unlocking the small door of this cage they’d put me in. Our eyes met for a moment. He didn’t look angry or like he hated me. He was perfectly unbothered.
“Time to go, Nilah Dune. The queen awaits,” he said as he pulled the door open and began to drag me closer by the chain around my wrists.
Biting my tongue until I tasted blood, I dragged myself forward and did as I was told.
All my plans had already gone to hell. Now it was time to meet the queen.