Chapter 16
sixteen
Raja betrayed me.
They took me through the back of a building that extended from the queen’s golden palace.
No chains around my wrists, but I was surrounded by Seelie guards—three in the front, three in the back, and two to my sides.
The people who saw me being escorted either didn’t have a clue who I was, or they just didn’t give a shit.
Some glanced my way as we passed; some didn’t bother.
Nobody was going to help me escape, and if I tried, all of these people were going to stop me instead.
Because Raja betrayed me.
The thought echoed in my head over and over, even if it didn’t matter now. Even if I wasn’t as surprised as I thought I’d be, not really. That woman had made no secret of the fact that she hated me and thought I was bad for Rune, and I should have known better than to think I could count on her.
Fuck, I’d practically fallen in her damn lap, had given her the perfect opportunity to get rid of me for good.
The corridors they took me through were dark, without a soul in sight, like they were hiding me for real.
The guards never broke formation, and the sound of their footfalls all at the same time echoed in the back of my head constantly as I tried to think of a solution.
A way out. A way to outsmart these men and get away while I still could.
My hands remained heated, the warmth and that strange cold sensation that had come out of nowhere inside me battling for control.
I thought they were stripping me of more energy than usual, but right now I couldn’t tell normal from chaos if I tried.
Right now, my heart beat steadily while my mind was a tangled mess.
My hands were so hot I thought my skin might melt off, and my chest was so cold it was a miracle my heart was still beating.
Then there was light and stairs and more fae. Marble floors and fancy chandeliers, lanterns and glass balls full of golden light, immaculate paintings framed with gold and fae who looked like they had just sprung out of a fantasy.
They hadn’t, though. I’d been here long enough to know that all of this was real, and I was in the queen’s palace.
No way out—but what if I could convince the queen to spare me? After all, I really hadn’t killed her son, and she’d been in the room still when I walked out. She couldn’t argue with that…could she?
A voice in my head said she could.
A voice in my head said she would, and she’d take great pleasure in it, too. I’d met the queen before. Raja was nothing in comparison, especially when we were talking about her son here.
The fae at the palace were definitely more interested in me than the others outside. They turned and looked at me and whispered in each other’s ears. This time, nobody smiled or waved at me like before. But nobody pointed at me and called me a murderer either, so I wasn’t complaining.
The guards took me up marble stairs, the brown and black and white swirling in perfect patterns underneath my feet, and I tried to keep my eyes on them as we went, but it was impossible. Even knowing I couldn’t win against all of these people, I still tried to find a way out.
Using the light was out of the question. The last thing I needed was for these fae to know what I could do.
But if not magic, how was I to survive the Seelie queen?
Much too soon, the guards slowed down their steps. Golden gates ahead, beautifully embossed with flowers and vines, birds and moths and butterflies.
They swung open without a sound, like they weighed nothing when they were as thick as the width of my shoulders. And inside was a room that could have been torn straight from the pages of a fairytale, every surface shimmering under the soft glow of floating golden lights.
Ivory columns twisted high toward a domed ceiling painted with stars and gold-dusted constellations, their light catching on the silk drapes that hung like waterfalls from above.
The floor beneath my feet was so polished it could have been a mirror veined with threads of gold.
Windows made of stained glass spilled ribbons of warm color across the room.
Fuck me, I must be dreaming…
Everything smelled so nice —like flowers blooming and magic, something both sweet and sharp.
At the far end of the vast hall, the queen’s throne sat on a raised dais carved from stone so smooth it caught every flicker of movement and mirrored it like rippling water.
The back of the throne arched into a delicate canopy of branches that could have been natural or could have been painted white, and they were laced with crystal blossoms that glowed golden.
Around the dais, fae stood like pieces of art themselves, seven of them, their armors different, jeweled, like they were meant to blend into the room seamlessly.
Every step I took toward the throne felt heavier, as if the room itself was testing my worth, measuring the weight of my presence against its beauty. No wonder I felt like a fucking stain on the floor—muddy, out of place, nothing but an easy prey for these predators.
And then there was the queen.
She sat on her throne all by herself, wearing a dress held in place by a thick band over her left shoulder, and then spilled all over her body like actual liquid gold.
She wore her jeweled crown, and her light blonde hair in a thick braid, her face so perfect my instinct insisted that it was wrong—simply because nothing could possibly be so right and have no…
warmth . She was as cold as the throne she sat on.
No emotion anywhere on her, though her eyes were golden.
She sat at the very edge of her seat, arms spread to the sides, heels of her hands resting at the edges of her throne’s armrests, and she held her chin up and looked down at me masterfully.
The guards didn’t let me stop moving until I was in front of the dais, just a couple feet away.
Then they spread out, five on either side, one hand on the handles of their sheathed swords, all their eyes on me.
Everyone’s eyes were on me—the queen and the other fae who analyzed me like they were trying to pick me apart and see every drop of my blood.
I was the center of their attention, and nobody made a single sound, but my head was so crowded I didn’t even hear the silence.
I heard nothing at all but my own panic .
Seconds ticked by.
The queen didn’t even blink as she looked down at me, like she was waiting for me to crack open or drop dead any moment now…
“I didn’t do it.”
My words echoed in the wide hall, the impossibly high ceiling, until the stars portrayed in it absorbed the sound completely.
A single arched brow.
My heart stood still.
“Leave us.”
I wasn’t sure what I expected her to say, but it wasn’t that. More like something along the lines of off with her head!, Red Queen style.
But this queen didn’t shout. She didn’t order my execution, and the fae who had been standing at her sides bowed to her deeply before they started for the door. Most of the soldiers who’d come here with me walked away, too, but three remained. Stepped farther back toward the walls, always watching.
The sound of the golden doors closing echoed in the room the same way my voice had. The silence stretched, and I could have sworn that the glowing crystals over the queen’s head were moving, swinging to the sides, as if wind blew in here but only they could feel it.
I thought maybe now was the right time to act. I thought maybe now I had a chance—there were only four of them. I could release the heat that had been building up inside me with every step, and I could run.
“You dared to run away from my palace, mortal?”
When she spoke, every hair on the back of my neck stood at attention.
My God, she was horror incarnate.
“I…I had no choice,” I forced myself to say.
Fuck, it was impossible not to feel small and guilty and a speck of dust on her shoe when she looked at me like this, when I was in her throne room, her palace.
So hard to keep my power, but I didn’t do it—I didn’t do it—I didn’t do it sang in my ear, and that was the only thing that gave me a bit of reassurance.
“You could have stayed. You could have not made me chase you across the realm.” The queen leaned forward, and my knees shook. “Do you understand whom you’re speaking to, you wretched thing?”
Not going to lie, I was surprised to hear her curse me like that. And I wanted to be angry, I really did. I hated people calling me names—except there was no room for anger inside me right now. I was full of fear and panic and alertness.
Swallowing hard, I raised my chin higher.
“I did not kill the prince,” I said, and by some miracle, my voice didn’t shake.
“You were there. You saw him—he was alive when I walked out of the room.” She had seen him—she had been crying and hugging his head to her chest, smiling and laughing at the same time.
And now that I thought about it, the queen looked so calm, didn’t she?
Wait a damn minute…
My God, the queen looked perfectly calm. There were no tears in her eyes. She didn’t look panicked or sad or grieving. She looked…bored and irritated and a little angry instead.
“I…I healed him. I woke him up. You were there.” And then that bell had rung and…
“And what exactly did he say to you, mortal?”
I licked my dry lips. “You were there,” I repeated—and I would do so another million times if that’s what it took. “You know what he said to me.”
“Yes, but were you ?”
My mind drew a blank. The queen sat back on her throne, and I could have sworn that the scent of magic became more intense. The tension in the air grew until it pressed against me on all sides.
“What?” I choked out because that made absolutely no sense to me.
“Were you there, mortal? Because you run away from me and you disappear. One moment you’re there, the seer sees you, and the next…gone.” My mouth opened, but I had nothing to say. “So, answer my question—if you are who you say you are, and you healed my son, what did he tell you?”
Too many things went through my mind and I couldn’t even tell you what any of them were. So much fucking confusion I was going to collapse for real just from the weight of my mind.
But I was in front of the queen now, and no matter what the hell she was talking about, the fact that I wasn’t chained or being attacked yet said that there might be hope for me. If I didn’t piss her off, there might be a chance.
So, I said, “He said my name when he saw me.” My eyes closed and I pulled up the memory in front of my mind’s eye—the prince on his bed, his eyes open, the way he smiled and the way he spoke.
“He said he didn’t do the life-bond on purpose, swore it, and said he had kept it a secret his whole life. ” God, I hope I’m remembering right…
“I told him about Helid coming to get me, and then Rune bringing me safely to the palace, and he was surprised. He couldn’t be?— ”
“Enough.”
Her voice was laced with so much power that I couldn’t have continued if I’d tried.
She’d closed her eyes and she was tapping her thumbs to her middle fingers restlessly as the wheels turned in her head.
Fucking hell, I had no clue what to make of the situation, no idea whether she would attack me or have her guards end me right there on her polished floor.
I had no idea if I was going to see the next minute, when…
“Come out.”
That’s what the queen said. Come out.
There was no time for me to wonder or to ask what she meant or if she was even talking to me—she wasn’t. On the left of the dais, a large painting of a bright star shining over fields of green in a rich dark sky moved. It slid open, and as I watched it, all my thoughts faded away into nothing.
Prince Lyall stepped into the throne room with his chin raised and a small smile curling the corners of his lips, his golden eyes wide open and alive, his hair perfectly combed behind his head.
He wore red and gold with a silky white shirt underneath, the fabrics melting on his shoulders like they were honored to be able to touch him. Even the boots on his feet made no sound as he slowly walked around the queen’s throne, then down the few stairs from the dais.
All the while his hands were to his sides, and his sword tied around his hips and his heart beating just like mine—with life.
The memory of his body on the floor with the knife sticking out of his chest was right there the few times I allowed myself to blink. I had seen it, had seen his face, his closed eyes, and it hadn’t been real .
Lyall had never died, just like I knew he hadn’t.
And now he was right there in front of me, barely a couple of feet away, smiling.
“Hello, Nilah,” he said, and his voice fell on me like an invisible veil.
Any doubt I’d had until now disappeared. The prince of the Seelie Court was very much alive.