3. Tavish
3
TAVISH
E ight hours and thirty-two minutes had passed since I’d left Lira in the holding cell. The fact that I was aware of each passing minute was driving me mad.
For twelve years following her disappearance from Ardanos, I’d been obsessed with hardening my heart more than the icy land outside of Dunscaith Castle … and locating her. I pushed the midnight-blue covers from my body and placed my bare feet on the smooth, cool floor. Normally, the cold didn’t bother me, but this morning, the chill caused a faint shiver.
How strange.
Granted, upon seeing her last night on Earth with some rancid human all over her, something had shifted in me. Something more hungry for violence than normal.
I glanced out the wall of windows across from my bed, darkness still blanketing the sky despite the sun’s ascent. I normally allowed the sky to lighten to twilight during the day, but I wasn’t in the mood for anything but dreary darkness to match the turmoil inside me .
Images of Lira as a girl flashed through my mind. I’d always found her cute, but now … now she was—
I halted my thoughts.
Her beauty didn’t mean a blasted thing to me. I’d brought her here for one thing only.
Vengeance.
She was a pawn in my game of chess with the Seelie king and queen. Nothing more than that. The Seelie royals had killed my parents and taken me to their kingdom to die so that my people would be ruined. They’d even betrothed Lira to the wildling dragon prince, Pyralis, even though she’d always been marked as my future wife, meant to rule by my side.
Destroying her was part one of my plan to take back what was rightfully ours. I would make her parents bow to me and destroy their alliance with the dragons. After all, the Seelie betraying their own kind had been bad enough, but promising the Seelie princess to a scaley, fire-breathing destroyer had made their betrayal even worse.
Those sunscorched traitors had taken everything from me—even the boy I used to be. I wouldn’t allow my people to stay here on this dragon-decimated island to starve to death.
A knock on the door brought me back to reality.
“Tavish,” a familiar voice called out.
My cousin, the man who’d risked his life to rescue me from the Seelie palace dungeon. If it hadn’t been for him, I would’ve died, and the Unseelie royal line would have ended, weakening my people further. Though we’d had our severe disagreements since the night I’d lost my parents, he’d become like a second father to me.
“Come in.” I flexed my wings, stretching them from my back. Outside the window, a group of men headed toward the rocky embankment with satchels on their backs and fishing rods to catch food from the ocean.
The oversized double doors opened, and Eldrin stepped inside then shut them behind him. “I was surprised you didn’t alert me when you came back with the thornling.” His long white hair was tied in a ponytail. With how dark I’d kept the sky, there wasn’t enough light to make his eyes look silver, and they appeared gray like mine.
I didn’t bother answering. He hadn’t asked a question, and even though he was the one person I trusted more than life, I didn’t feel like dancing around a lie. Being fae was a curse at times.
I snagged the black tunic from my night table and slid it over my head. It smelled of Lira’s magic—wild roses, moonlight mist, and vanilla. Her scent was more potent than I remembered despite the suppression of her fae side.
No wonder she had dominated my thoughts last night … so much so that I couldn’t risk entering her dreams for fear I would go to her. My plan had been to continue to demoralize her until she realized she couldn’t escape me, even in her dreams, but after seeing her in person, I feared it might backfire on me.
“I know the girl is here, so why aren’t you more joyful?” Eldrin strolled across the room past my bed and took a seat at the small rectangular table my chessboard sat upon, his back to the open window.
Gritting my teeth, I took a shallow breath. “She’s innocent. I take no joy in doing this to her. It’s merely something I must do for my people so we can reclaim our rightful land instead of staying exiled in this dreadful place.” I lifted the black belt that held what had been my father’s sword, which I’d claimed as my own upon my return. The dark sword with its white-edged tip was unusual and not something from the Unseelie land, which made it impervious to our magic. I placed it around my waist. I didn’t go anywhere without it … unless I had to go to Earth, which had happened only twice to date.
Eldrin shook his head and turned to the chessboard, moving his fae guard two spots over. “She isn’t innocent , Tavish. She’s a blasted thornling. Her parents killed yours and wanted you to die.”
Internally, I flinched, but on the outside, I didn’t budge. Showing emotion was a weakness, something I had learned the hard way when I failed my people. “That wasn’t by her hands.” I hated feeling this way, and last night, it had hurt to see her fear as she’d tumbled toward what she’d thought was her death. I’d waited so long to catch her, needing to prove to myself that her fear and distress wouldn’t affect me.
And I’d hated every second of it, though I’d forced myself to appear heartless. After all, while at one time we might have been cordial, we were now mortal enemies. I had to keep my reasons for taking her at the forefront of my mind.
“Tavish, do you remember the last time you didn’t listen to me?” Eldrin leaned back in his seat, gesturing to the spot across from him. “And what you had to do to get the people to not rebel against you? If you’d listened—”
“I know what I have to do.” I hated it when he spoke down to me like this, and I only tolerated it in private. He had our people’s best interests and mine at heart. “I created the gauntlet.” A necessary means to keep traitors in check.
“Exactly.” He placed his hand firmly on the table, causing the chess pieces to tremble. “That girl is not innocent, and when she remembers everything, she’ll be like all the others. We need to break her before she regains her magic. ”
I slid on my boots and rolled my shoulders. He was right. I couldn’t let my boyish memories influence the man I was now. “Which is why I’m heading down to the prison to see her.” My heart jolted for a second, and I pulled my wings tightly around me. That had to be yet another strange side effect of being on Earth, like the buzzing when we’d touched.
He smirked. “Very well. Should I come with you?”
I opened my mouth to say no, but I realized that his company would remind me of everything I already knew. “Of course.”
We headed out of my bedroom and down the hallway toward the prison. Unlike the Seelie fae, I kept my bedroom on the same side of the castle as the prisoners; I didn’t want my people to believe I feared those imprisoned here. To maintain control at such a tender age, I’d been forced to be fearless … or pretend to be.
Eldrin kept pace with me, our feet echoing against the floor, though we could easily fly or tread lightly. But I enjoyed the prisoners hearing our presence, their fear a small benefit of having to keep them fed and somewhat clean while they stayed here. Each imprisoned fae had committed either a crime against an innocent or against me, one that wasn’t severe enough for me to kill them on sight. As a reminder to my people, once a month, the guards would drag the prisoners outside to remind our people of what would happen if they broke my laws, which were quite simple.
As we made the sharp turn that would lead me to Lira, I heard Malikor’s deep, angry voice threatening her. Without thought, my wings flapped and sped me forward. Desperation to reach her before something horrible happened set in.
A sickening pop came from the room, and Faelan winced from his spot in the hallway. His head turned my way, and he froze.
I shoved him out of the way, entering the cell to find Malikor’s back to me and Lira lifted up by her throat, her face flushed. Hot rage thawed my icy blood. I removed the sword from my hip, knowing the perfect spot to hurt any fae.
Lira whimpered, and tears filled her eyes.
“You don’t think we know to guard our cocks?” Malikor snorted.
I swung my sword and sliced off his left wing, close to the base of his armor. The wing hit the floor with a thud as black blood gushed from his wound.
He dropped Lira, and I darted around him and wrapped my free arm around her waist before she could crash to the floor. Everywhere my arm touched her, even through her strange clothing, tingles erupted between us. My breath caught at the sudden barrage of weird sensations.
“My wing!” Malikor exclaimed. His face blanched as his right wing fluttered to help him keep his balance now that one side of him was significantly heavier than the other.
Lira’s body leaned into mine, catching me off guard. She should have known better than to trust me like that. She was here because of me.
However, that was her problem, not mine, so I lowered her to the cot.
“You cut off my wing because of a blasted sunscorched?” Malikor yelled, his nostrils flaring.
I kicked him in the chest. He flew back several feet into the hallway and crashed into the wall.
No one spoke to their king in that manner.
No one .
Not even Eldrin .
Malikor groaned and sagged forward, blood puddling underneath him.
I stalked slowly toward him, anger tightening my chest. “She’s in a prison cell with no recollection of who or what she is. She has no means to protect herself, and you swooped into her cell to choke her and cut her. What sort of blasted coward are you? You know the rules . They aren’t hard to remember because they’re that simple.”
Behind me, Lira whimpered and gasped. Each tormented noise she made pushed me farther along the edge of control.
“She’s not one of us.” Malikor’s breathing quickened. “She’s our enemy. You brought her here—”
“ I brought her here.” I could feel the darkness inside me surging forward. “Not you . She’s mine to do with as I like. Not yours.”
Eldrin and Faelan stood together on the other side of the cell, watching me. Eldrin’s expression remained stoic, but the way the skin around his eyes tightened informed me he didn’t like this confrontation. Whether it was from my actions or Malikor’s didn’t matter. I made the laws for my people.
“There’s only one way to make this right.” I pressed my boot into his chest and lifted the sword, holding it level with his eye.
“My King,” he rasped. “You’ve cut off my wing. ”
“For abusing your position as a guard.” I dug the tip of the sword into the top of his cheek, going deep so he had matching scars on both sides of his face. I’d learned at fourteen that I couldn’t be merciful. People mistook kindness and empathy for weakness. Unseelie fae understood only fear and violence .
He screamed, the sound getting louder as I dragged the blade all the way down to his neck. I didn’t worry about killing him; if he died from this, so be it.
“And that is for attacking a woman in a cell who had no way to defend herself,” I rasped, allowing frost to lace each word.
Lira’s breathing slowed, and her whimpers sounded muffled as if she were covering her mouth or face. I hated that I was so attuned to her, but she was important to the kingdom. That had to be the reason.
Malikor fumbled onto his knees, his hands covering his cheek as black blood slid between his fingers.
I spun and headed back into the holding cell, my focus locked on the sizable white wing that lay on the ground, blood oozing out of the muscle that had held it. I lifted the wing and used the skin to clean the blood from my blade.
Lira gagged, and Malikor’s bottom lip quivered.
When I glanced at Faelan, he swallowed hard, while Eldrin could’ve passed as bored. However, I could see the gleaming approval in his eye. He loved it when I embraced my ruthlessness. He believed it strengthened the crown.
I smirked, continuing to play the part. “Faelan, take Malikor to his chambers. If he survives until morning, he gets to clean out the prisoners’ buckets.”
“My King.” Faelan grimaced. “Should I not take him to a healer first, or do you prefer that I send one to his room for treatment?”
“He isn’t allowed to be treated,” I growled. The mere sentiment of him receiving healing when I’d bestowed the same level of punishment on him as he’d wanted to give her with no aid didn’t settle well with me. “He broke the law, same as any other prisoner here. His only saving grace is that he’s been loyal until now. If he survives, he’ll join the prisoners. If he doesn’t, I won’t mourn his death. But this is his one chance.” I looked at him. “Do one more thing wrong, and I’ll stab you in the heart myself.”
Everyone knew I would follow through on those words. I’d proven it numerous times over the years.
“Do you understand?” I squatted and placed my blade over my knee then held up the hand holding his white wing, now coated in his blood. Another visual to remind him of what he’d done.
Malikor kept his gaze trained on the floor, but he whispered, “Yes, Your Majesty.” Black blood dribbled into his mouth from the wound.
“Good.” I dropped the wing and kicked it. “When you come back, Faelan, clean this up.”
He nodded. “Yes, Your Majesty.” He then helped Malikor down the path toward the guards’ quarters.
I turned toward Lira.
She was breathing erratically, and her face had turned faintly green. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a bad color on her.
“Though I enjoyed the show, I’m not sure that other guards won’t try to harm her.” Eldrin leaned against the doorframe, tilting his head as he watched Lira. “Unseelie hate thornlings. They just won’t be so obvious about it.”
My stomach hardened strangely. I couldn’t deny he was right, and the way Lira kept glancing at the wing and blood made me certain that they bothered her.
How peculiar.
If I were her, I’d be thrilled that my attacker had been punished. He’d bled for his wrongdoing.
But that didn’t solve the actual problem. And there was only one solution.
I grabbed her hands, and she fought me through the buzz that sprang up between us again. She tried to tug herself free from my grasp.
Good. I liked seeing her fight and not look so defeated. Her challenging me would be the best way for me to break her … and destroy her.
Tightening my hold and ignoring the unwelcome sensation where our skin touched, I forced her to her feet. She leaned away and tried to step back but stumbled.
What the hell was her problem?
She removed something from her pants pocket and opened it up, revealing the smallest dagger in the world.
“Let me go, or I’ll hurt you,” she seethed.
Then the strangest thing happened.