Chapter 4
For three days, I lay curled up on the cavern floor, quivering in agony as the change ripped through my body.
By now, both wings had split through my flesh, carving new scars along my body.
Barbs coated my tail, the tender skin still festering from where the sharpened points had pierced it when they had emerged.
Clermont was right. It had never been this severe before.
The curse was growing stronger, and I couldn’t stop it.
I should have sent for the human girl sooner, I lamented.
Perhaps if I had, I could have done more.
Now, I feared I wouldn’t even survive her arrival.
The pain was so excruciating that I often blacked out, only to awaken several hours later, trembling in cold sweat, with fresh blood dripping down my body from my new wounds.
A loud caw jolted me from my anguished haze, and I blinked incoherently toward the sound. A flutter of wings, and then a large raven appeared, cocking her head at me in curiosity.
“What,” I bit out, my voice hoarse from screaming.
Tislora spread her wings wider. Her feathered form stretched and morphed, the wings growing until they eclipsed her entire small body.
When she withdrew them, she had shifted into her full unseelie form: a tall, shadowed figure with long, black claws, charcoal skin, and eerie silver eyes.
Her raven wings were massive. They fluttered behind her, leaving several black feathers in their wake.
“I thought you’d like to know that Clermont has just left to fetch your human pet,” she said, inspecting her lethal claws and flicking a feather off them.
My eyes closed with relief. Good. She would be here soon. Perhaps her presence alone would help alleviate the fury of my curse. Though I doubted it would be that easy.
When Tislora only continued to stand there watching me, I snapped, “Anything else?”
She hesitated before replying. “Do you wish for me to extract her blood upon her arrival?”
I growled, the sound low and menacing in my throat. Behind me, my wings flared with my anger, despite the festering cuts along my back that throbbed from the movement. “No,” I said through gritted teeth. “You should know better than to ask.”
“What I know is that you are a step away from death,” Tislora countered. “Your temper doesn’t frighten me, Varius. I will do what it takes to keep our sovereign alive, even if your own stupidity gets in the way.”
“I… can manage,” I rasped, “without her blood.”
“I don’t believe you.”
My strength was failing. Darkness crept into the corners of my eyes. I was in danger of blacking out again. I didn’t have the energy to argue with her. As a fae, I couldn’t lie, but Tislora knew that if I believed the statement, then I could still utter the words.
I believed I could survive without human blood. But Tislora did not.
Tislora knelt to the ground, her black cloak spreading around her like an ink stain. Her silver eyes flashed like orbs. “If you do not emerge from this cave by tomorrow, I will extract her blood. Better to risk her ire than to lose you.”
I looked up at her, trying to glare, but my head was spinning, and all I could do was rest my head on the rocky ground with a ragged exhale.
“That’s what I thought.” Tislora stood, her wings quivering as if preparing to take flight.
“Lor,” I called out.
She turned to face me, a single eyebrow raised.
“Do not harm her.”
She rolled her eyes. “I can’t take her blood without injuring her, Varius.”
“I mean…” I swallowed, my mouth parched, then tried again, “Do not use excessive force. Do not frighten her more than is necessary. Understand?”
Her lips tightened, and I couldn’t tell if it was amusement or irritation that flickered across her features. “Fine.”
Without another word, her wings spread wide, and with a whoosh , she left the cave. A burst of magic indicated she had shifted to a raven once more, and her echoing caw was the last I heard before I succumbed to unconsciousness once more.