Chapter 49 Kaitlyn
KAITLYN
Warden is a huge man, possibly eight feet tall or so close as it not to matter, but even so, he’s still not so large as he was in his centaur, or Brag, form.
He stares at us insolently from Linton’s throne.
“Yes,” Warden says. “I did free Linton from the Shadow Keep, selfishly perhaps as I wanted it for myself.”
“You wanted a prison in the Night Lands?” I ask.
“Who wouldn’t?” Warden growls.
Linton huffs out a hot breath. “I wouldn’t. It is a foul place.”
“Fouler still since I began serving justice on those who wish the Yeavering harm.” Warden glowers. “Don’t you have any food in this place?” he adds.
“I am in my mating cycle,” Linton announces proudly.
Warden narrows his eyes.
“The food I have is for my mate.” He fluffs up his wings, making himself look bigger.
“The mate.” Warden’s gaze rakes over me once again. “The reason Tam Lin searches for you, I expect.”
“I have done nothing for Tam Lin to want me,” I retort. “I was brought here via a lottery which the Faerie set up, tossed into the hands of Lord Guyzance, and left to rot.”
Warden rubs his chin, which makes a sound like gravel over sandpaper.
“You were with Lord Guyzance.” He looks past me at Linton. “When did you get your orders?” he growls at him.
“Before,” Linton rasps back.
“Before what?” Warden demands.
Linton stares at him. Warden expels a long breath.
“The Faerie have much to answer for. Even with the Barghest in charge,” he says. “Tam Lin is emboldened because supporters of Queen Mab have risen near the Wall, and he thinks Reavely’s attentions are elsewhere.”
“I will not give up my Kaitlyn to Tam Lin,” Linton growls. “He will die if he attempts to take her.”
“I’m sure he will…eventually,” Warden says.
“Is Reavely fighting?” My chest constricts. “His mate is going to have pups. He shouldn’t be fighting.” My heart thumps. Linton draws me closer.
“He is not personally leading the fight. Some of his Barghest warriors have been dispatched to deal with the threat, and the chances are the Faerie will flee in the face of force. As you know, they only battled in the Night Lands because they were contained.”
“Contained? How?”
“The Night Lands have a barrier which prevents those within from moving into the Yeavering. Only certain creatures can penetrate it. Unlike the Yeavering and beyond the veil, where there are portals all can use,” Warden says.
“So the Faerie were using you, Linton, and others because they can go into the Night Lands?”
Warden and Linton nod.
“What was it in there they disliked so much that even if it couldn’t get out, they had to fight with it?”
“It wasn’t that the inhabitants of the Night Lands couldn’t get out. They can. It was the fact the Faerie couldn’t get in. And they wanted it.”
“What’s in the Night Lands they wanted?” I ask, feeling like I don’t want the answer.
“Ultimate power. Power over not just the Yeavering but beyond the veil too,” Linton says, his eyes glassy.
“And they know how to get it,” Warden adds.
I touch Linton on his cheek, and it’s clammy.
“What’s wrong?”
“I know,” Linton says. “I know.”
He staggers away from me, his wings drooped and his antennae flat against his head.
“What is it?” I go after him, but he’s already racing down one of the passages. “What do you know?”
“He knows why Tam Lin wants you,” Warden says from directly behind me.
He pulls an apple out of a pouch around his waist and bites into it.
“Why does Tam Lin want me?”
“Because you are the jewel which will grant the Faerie access to the Night Lands, and Tam Lin has been waiting for this moment for a long time,” Warden growls, his eyes glittering with interest, his jaw working on the apple.
My stomach chills. Warden has echoed the words of Gloriana. It seems that, instead of knowing what I was and why I came here, all of this is pre-destined.
Would it have been the same for my sister? Would our fates have been to end up in the hands of Tam Lin, our souls sent to hell so he could have all the power he wanted?
“So, where did he go?”
“To get ready. Linton has the knowing now. He has to fight for your life…and your soul.”