36. Chapter Thirty-Six
Although I tried my best, tears were brimming in my eyes the second we turned away from Eero and Sapphire. We walked separately at first, but when Azalea’s arms wrapped around my shoulders, the air caught in my throat, and I let the droplets fall free.
The fire was a speck of light by the time we stopped walking, and Azalea twisted me by the shoulders and pulled me into her arms. She wasn’t the sort to cry. In fact, I don’t know if I’d ever seen her cry, but when her nose burrowed into my hair, she lamented.
“I’m so, so, so, so sorry,” Azalea rasped. When she parted from the embrace, she palmed my cheeks and smiled desperately. Her bottom lip trembled, and she choked on her sob. “I want you to know that I made a lot of mistakes, but I never intended for it to end like this. Never like this.”
I frowned, brows knitting upward. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked quietly. The term mother was never commonplace between us, not verbally at least. She raised me, scolded me, and gave me my values—but she also raised me as if we were equals. There was love, a lot of it, but now more than ever I wanted to curl into her and listen to her words of wisdom, for her to tell me all would be okay.
I wanted her to be the mother I’d missed for the last six months.
“There are a lot of reasons. None of them are very smart, in hindsight, but I had so much fear about what might happen if my theories were true. Aurelie, you have to believe me when I say I didn’t lie to you about your origin. I never knew you were of fae blood—not until it was too late, at least. You were an adult, living your life in the ways I’d always hoped you would. I just…well—well, I just hoped you’d never have to know the truth. The consequence of it, at least.”
My lips clamped shut, and I backed away from her. Her hands slipped from my face and fell back to her side as I hugged my torso. “I don’t think you understand how difficult it made adjusting to my new home, Azalea. If I had known even two years ago, I could have been…prepared.”
“Home, Aurelie?”
I nodded and twisted away when the heat of her judgmental stare grew harsher. I breathed out the anxiety and started pacing. “Home. I’ve escaped my captors, and it’s been…pleasant. I’m happy.”
“Aurelie…”
“Do not chastise me when this was the hand fate dealt me,” I snapped back, unable to hide my frustration. I flailed my arms out. “Our beloved queen tossed me aside and threw her only Court Mage into a dungeon cell in a different kingdom. How is that a home? How are any of these places home, Azalea?”
“People want you dead in the fae—”
“And more want me dead here,” I said, cutting her short. Her mouth clamped shut, and she drew her arms over her chest. A finger tapped nervously against her bicep, but she nodded once. It was stiff and quick, but it was enough for me to know she was giving in. For now. “But you’re right. There are cruel people in the fae courts, crueler than I ever imagined—but some of them are far too familiar. Yenira is…not safe. Apparently, she has a fucking throne, though.” The words were bitter against my tongue. I cringed and lowered my stare to the ground. I wasn’t prepared to believe she was capable of hurting me in the way she had—directly or indirectly. “Julius, either. Gods, especially Julius. He attacked me when the Spring Court was under siege, and when I told him to stay back, he didn’t listen. My magic protected me when I felt all was lost. By the time I saw him again, he was a different man. Blinded by stars, speaking nonsense. They think I did it, Azalea, but…I, well, I don’t know.”
“There are ways to manipulate starlight to your advantage, Aurelie. I’m sure you know this now, but...I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if you used it to protect yourself. You’re a halfling.” I looked at Azalea as she, too, started to pace. She rubbed the tip of her chin and sighed. “What perplexes me is why Julius would put you in danger. The boy was practically in love with you.”
“I wouldn’t call what he felt for me as love,” I muttered and let my hands fall to my side. Azalea gave me a sidelong, motherly look. “Especially not after what he did to get Yenira back. No friend, lover, or even acquaintance would do that to get another person back.”
Azalea blinked and moved in front of me once more. “What happened to you?”
Here, my lip quivered yet again. I opened my mouth to try and explain, but the words escaped me. I shook my head and turned away from her, running into something hard. Something physical and cold to the touch.
I gasped, thinking I’d smashed into the wall like the bungler I was, but what stood before me forced every bone in my body still. A chest, arms, and then that face—
Sólkon, a mixture of shadows and light, had found me.
The water droplets had turned silent—and if it weren’t for the distant hissing in the tunnels ahead, I would have thought time stopped. The shadowy figure grabbed hold of me and pushed me backward. I thrashed, but when the back of my head smashed into the stone wall, I cried out and slumped to the floor. Sólkon kneeled, grabbing me by the chin and forcing me to look up at him. His sneer widened, white teeth glistening.
“Hello again, halfling.”
My eyes flicked to Azalea, frozen, with her hand reached toward where I’d stood. Time had stilled…but the distant hissing and clicking of tongues said otherwise. I snapped my head down the tunnel as my breathing grew labored, panicked. I knew those sounds.
“Tell me, what in the world are you doing back in the mortal realm?” he cooed. After tapping his tongue against his mouth, he cocked his head. Strands of shiny black hair fell in his face. “You made it so much more difficult finding you this time around.”
“You’re…you aren’t real,” I sputtered, but when the back of his hand smacked into my cheek, I flew onto my side and groaned. My nose cracked into the stone floor, salty, metallic blood coating the back of my tongue and dripping from my nostrils. When I opened my eyes, I saw red rage like never before.
I kicked him in the chin just as he grabbed my ankle, pleased to see whatever magic had made him untouchable in the carriage was no more. He howled, stumbling back just as I scrambled onto my hands and knees. He growled when he lunged at me, tackling me to the ground and pinning my hands above my head. I spat up at him, watching the spit drip off his nose and back onto my face.
“Listen here, you little bitch,” he hissed and lifted me up, just to slam me back down again. I yelped, a familiar cackle echoing from behind. It was growing louder. Closer. Clearer. “You can fix this. You can save your precious mother if you desire it—but only if you do what I tell you to do.”
The Underfae were here. They were defying the logic of time with whatever magic Sólkon had his hands on—they were going to destroy everything.
“Fucking prick,” I sobbed as I kneed him in the groin. He howled out in laughter before letting go of my arm to put me in a chokehold. I gasped, grabbing hold of his wrist. He was going to kill me. He was going to fucking break my neck. I thrashed, I kicked—but when the magic burned my fingertips, I focused on it.
“You’re going to come with me, and we’re going to resolve this ritual issue before Eero even knows what hit him. I want him to give up his throne willingly, and he won’t do that unless the one thing dearer to him is stripped from his greasy little hands.”
“That’s…that’s not p-possible,” I hissed between broken breaths. He lessened his hold on my neck, enough that I gasped out, leaning down so his nose was brushing mine.
With bared teeth, he muttered, “It is, Aurelie Cane. I made sure of it when I strung you on those silver chains.”
Every part of me froze at the statement. My mouth had gone dry, and my voice had failed me—but the magic was still whirring from the inside out. I could break free of this. I could kill him.
“I’ll let those Underfae sniff their way to your mother first. Just wait, watch as they feast on her flesh,” he said with a chuckle so cruel, it made me shiver. His head cocked Azalea’s way, his eyes licking up her body. “I’d stop them right before she died. I want her to remember who she crossed when she stole my mate from me.”
“You won’t touch a hair on her head,” I growled. With that threat, magic bloomed from my fingertips and looped around his arms before burning like iron to a cattle’s skin. His cry cracked into the air as he jumped off me, but the magic had formed a thread I held onto. As I stood, I yanked it so hard, he fell onto his face. He was weeping, one thousand little stars dancing across his tan skin. It almost looked beautiful—and, in a way it was.
But only because it’d forced him to tears.
That wasn’t painful enough. I grabbed his long black hair and balled it around my fist, forcing his head up so his back was arched, and he was forced to look me in the eyes.
“You’re going to listen to me, Sólkon. You are going to leave, and you will set Yenira free. You’ll send those Underfae back where they belong, and then I will consider whether you’re worthy of my mercy. Because, as of now, I want nothing more than to dig my thumbs into your eyes.”
Though his stare glossed over, his lips tugged into a wicked smile. Even wickeder was his laugh. “You’ve got some fire in your soul now, halfling. Maybe what I did to you served you well.”
Every part of me had turned cold. His teeth marking my skin were insects fragmenting across my body, forming the recollection of a hazy night. I let go of his head and stared for a minute, my magical whip still forcing his strong arms limp.
He was at my mercy.
When I smiled wide, the blood from my nose seeped into my mouth. I placed my boot over his head, and he started laughing wickedly. I looped the whip around my wrist a few times before tightening my fingers.
I’d dismember him.
For all he’d done, he didn’t deserve his arms. Didn’t deserve to feel another body.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” I said quietly as I tugged on the strand. Slowly, it sliced through his skin. Vermillion red blood started pooling beneath him, and he screamed so loudly, my ears rang. When I felt bone, I tugged harder, and he choked out on a gasp.
He tried to thrash, to kick his feet so he could roll away, but I harshened my boot on his head and held him in place. He was cursing at me and belittling my magic. He egged me on to do more, so I did. I screamed at him as I yanked on his right arm, watching the skin tear and the muscle squish—
And then, something sliced back.
It paralyzed me, and when I looked down at my gut, I saw two midnight black talons torn through my skin. The adrenaline coursed through me, but as the magical hum faded and my hold on Sólkon was severed, I heard the tittering hisses that had been deafened by my rage.
There were ten of them circling me now.
As I stumbled back with the Underfae, the air choking out of my mouth, Sólkon raised to his feet. My vision blurred, but between the haze of agony and reality, I could see his cruel glare latch onto mine. His arms hung together by strands of tendons, milky white bone exposed to the open air. Blood rivered down his skin, eventually dripping from his middle finger onto the dirty ground.
“You vindictive little bitch,” he said and grabbed my chin with the arm injured the least. I didn’t know how he was so strong with the injury I’d inflicted, but he was already bruising my skin. I could feel it.
I gasped, howling out in pain as the Underfae squirmed when I was jostled around. It cackled, and I could feel my insides being shredded slowly. Insufferably.
“Listen here and listen closely. If you come with me, I will make sure you are healed. I will make sure you live to see another day—and so will Sólvon, for now. They will be spared from my wrath.”
“I-I,” I sputtered, blood covering my tastebuds from the back of my throat. I choked, splattering crimson across his face. He inhaled deeply and leaned in. “I will never…never listen to you.”
My body was going cold, the darkness consuming me from the peripheral of my vision inward. I could no longer see his cold glare, but I could feel his lips brushing against my cheek as he whispered.
“Then I will kill each and every one of them. Starting with your mother, then Sapphire—and when Eero is defeated, when he has lost every person near and dear to him, I will tear out each of his bones. One by one. Each tooth, every nail, then his arms…legs…toes.”
My heart cracked at each threat. I knew Eero was stronger than Sólkon—he had to be—but he had the advantage. Time was frozen; there was no helping the violence inflicted behind those cold, cruel hands. I needed them safe—even if I fell, even if my life was lost in way of freedom or death, I needed them safe.
They’d done everything in their power to keep me safe. Why would I not do the same? Why would I die a coward knowing they’d face a similar demise?
“Halfling bleeds,” the Underfae giggled abruptly, curling a talon inside me. “Halfling dies.”
My head snapped back as torturous pain rocked through my body. I yelped, my life flashing like a bright light. I was going to die. Every drop of magic had faded, every inkling of control I’d just had was stripped from me. Sólkon would win. If I was selfish, they would all die.
Like a shattering piece of glass, I croaked, “Fine!” I wept and wept, and then the Underfae twisted me from within. A blade that severed the fragile thread of life. “I’ll…I’ll go. Whatever you do, spare them…Spare…Spare—”
I fell, cast into an abyss I feared I’d never break out of.