Chapter 6 #2
She returned the smile. “My duty is to you, my lady.” She strode toward the door, then paused. “It makes me nervous, leaving the doors open like this. Anyone could come in.”
I swallowed. “I think I’m more afraid of what the castle will do to us if we disobey Enzira's warning. ”
Ramia grimaced. “I suppose you’re right. Well, if you need anything—and I mean anything , my lady—please come and fetch me.”
“I will. Thank you, Ramia. And…” I paused, emotion welling in my throat. “Thank you for coming here with me. I feel terrible, dragging you into this when?—”
She raised a hand to stop me. “None of that, my lady. I would feel wretched if I had abandoned you to this fate when my sole duty has been to look after you. You should not go through this alone. And every queen needs her handmaid.” She offered me another smile, this time with a gleam in her eye.
When she turned to leave the room, that word hung in the air: queen .
I was going to be Queen of the Shadow Court.
With a shaky exhale, I sank to the edge of the bed, wringing my hands together on my lap. It was almost too much to swallow. I had been preparing for this my entire life, but now that I was here… Well, it was all a bit surreal.
To keep my panicked thoughts at bay, I mentally ran through the positive things. For starters, I was alive. I hadn’t been attacked or thrown in a dungeon. And the unseelie fae were far more accommodating than I’d expected.
Within a few minutes, Enzira returned with a steaming plate of food. She gestured to my clothes in an offer to help me undress, but I politely declined. I really just wanted to be alone.
Once she left, I drew closer to the food, my stomach growling. A large gray fish lay on the plate, covered in a creamy brown sauce and a plethora of seasonings. My stomach churned as I realized the fish hadn’t been gutted at all. Its lifeless eyes seemed to stare straight through me.
But I couldn’t deny how delicious it smelled.
I picked up the fork, only to realize it was more like a small dagger.
With a grimace, I clutched it gingerly, then dug it into the soft flesh of the fish.
It came apart easily, the meat sliding off the bone.
With great care, I speared a piece of meat, then brought it to my mouth, careful not to cut my tongue in the process.
An explosion of flavor burst in my mouth, and I groaned with pleasure. The meat was soft and succulent, warm and juicy as it slid down my throat. The creamy sauce added just the right amount of moisture and spices.
In only a few minutes, I had torn apart my fish, leaving the eyes, bones, and much of the more disgusting-looking guts that I couldn’t bring myself to consume. The meal settled in my belly, making me feel satisfied and a bit sleepy.
I tugged at the strings of my dress to loosen them, but it was too difficult to remove it entirely without the help of a maid. I didn’t want to bother Ramia or Enzira, so I simply shifted the fabric as best I could to allow me more room to breathe.
My hand went to the necklace at my throat, and I ran my thumb along the hard edges of the amber stone. “Azure? Are you there?” I whispered in the darkened room.
A beat of silence. Then came my dragon’s voice: “What has taken you so long? I’ve been trying to speak with you.”
“Sorry. This is the first time I’ve been alone since I got here. Are you all right? Are you safe from the shadows?”
“The shadows do not affect me.”
I paused, then blinked. “They don’t? Are you sure?”
“Quite sure. I noticed other creatures roaming about, heedless of the shadows. At first I thought they were Shadow Fae, but not all of them are. Some aren’t even sentient, and they are not bothered by them.”
I frowned. “So the shadows only affect humans? How does the Wraith King manage that? It must be a very specific type of magic.”
“And powerful,” Azure agreed .
Perfect. The Wraith King already had an advantage over me, being an unseelie fae. But now his shadows had more power than I thought, too. How could I ever manage to kill him when he possessed such strong magic?
“Where are you?” I asked her, my eyes flicking to the window. Moonlight shone from high in the sky, filtering into the room. She had to be close by; otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to speak.
“Just outside the stables. These strange skeletal beasts can smell me, but they are not threatened.”
I suppressed a shudder as I remembered the lethal creatures that had drawn the carriage. “Be careful around them, Az.”
“Just because a creature appears frightening does not mean it is dangerous. I think I am proof of that.”
I huffed a laugh. “True.” I thought of Enzira and the fangs that gleamed when she smiled. She, too, had seemed quite harmless, after the initial shock of seeing her for the first time. In fact, I’d been pleasantly surprised by her desire to be helpful.
Not everything here was as it appeared.
“Do you need me to find you?” Azure asked. “It shouldn’t be hard to locate your window.”
Tempting as it was to have my dragon here beside me, I couldn’t risk it. My door was open, and I had no idea who lurked in the hallway. “Not yet,” I said. “Let me get acquainted with the castle first. Once I figure out the best way to sneak you in here, we can locate the enchanted rose together.”
“As you wish. But, for the record, I could easily smash my way into the castle with or without your help. I thought it prudent to remind you of how much more powerful I am than you, tiny human.”
I chuckled and sat back, resting against the mountain of pillows behind me. With Azure’s soothing voice in my head, my initial alarm faded, and I felt safer. My dragon often had that effect on me; I knew no harm would come to me when she was near .
“What can you sense about the magic here?” I asked.
Azure was a Blue Amethyst, which meant she had magic in her blood.
She was able to sense powerful enchantments and spells, although she was still practicing how to identify specific elements of them.
She knew earth magic quite well, but I was curious to know how shadow magic differed.
“Everything here is… clouded,” she began, her voice contemplative. “And I don’t mean that in reference to the shadows. The magic itself is shrouded in something, like it has been cloaked. It’s so powerful that even I cannot penetrate it.”
My eyes began closing, but my brow furrowed at her description. “Is it the Wraith King?”
“I’m not sure. But I doubt even a king holds enough power to blanket the entire court. I sensed it the moment we crossed the border.”
“Well, he is unseelie. And he’s powerful enough to send his poisonous shadows to other lands. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s powerful enough to contain his own kingdom in a sort of shield.”
“Perhaps.” Azure’s tone sounded doubtful.
“What else do you notice?”
“All manner of strange creatures. Nothing like what we’ve seen back home. I came across a two-headed stag. And also a winged fox. It’s almost delightful, the possibilities that exist here.”
“You aren’t afraid?” I mumbled, stifling a yawn.
“So far, I’ve been the largest creature I’ve seen. But I’m sure I’ll encounter more dangerous species later on. And yes, I will be careful.”
As I slipped into unconsciousness, her voice began to fade. And in my mind, I saw winged horses and skeletal demons that danced around my thoughts with laughter and mockery.
A loud pounding jolted me awake. With a startled cry, I jerked upright, blinking blearily at the warm sunlight that illuminated my room. My chestnut hair stuck up all around me, and the sheets had tangled around my legs. Several of the plush pillows had wound up on the floor.
Someone knocked again, this time more urgently.
“I’m awake,” I mumbled. Then, more loudly, I said, “Come in!”
“The door is already open,” said a rich, feminine voice. “But I thought it polite to knock all the same.”
Slowly, the door opened, and a creature shrouded in darkness entered the room.
The first thing I noticed about her were her great wings, folded tightly behind her.
But even folded, a single wing was as wide as her slender figure, and nearly as tall.
The points of the wings almost dragged on the floor behind her.
Her skin was the color of charcoal. The only light parts of her body were her silver eyes, which gleamed with an otherworldly glow.
One look from her made me feel as if she could peer into the depths of my soul.
I unconsciously drew the sheets up to my chin in trepidation.
The beautiful fae’s eyebrows lifted, her crimson-painted lips curling into a smirk. “I am impressed, human. Most of your kind either weeps or shits themselves at the sight of me.”
“I… I…” It took a few tries before I could find my voice. “I am growing accustomed to the unique forms of the unseelie.”
She chuckled, the sound just as musical as her voice. It almost sounded like a smooth purr. “Just wait until you meet Varius.”
Varius. This fae was on a first-name basis with the king?
I cleared my throat, clutching the sheets more tightly around myself. I had been expecting Enzira or Ramia to come to my rooms, not this beautiful and terrifying being. “Is there… something I can help you with?”
She pressed a hand to her chest, and I noted the long, black claws protruding from her fingers. “Forgive my manners. My name is Tislora. I am the sorceress of the Shadow Court.”
My blood ran cold. Sorceress. Stones, why had she come to see me ? Was she going to curse me? Bind my fate so that I could inflict no harm on the Wraith King?
Tislora laughed, tossing her sheet of shiny black hair over her shoulder. “Fear not, little human. I mean you no harm. I only wish to collect a vial of your blood.”
My brows knitted together. “My blood?”
“Yes. For the marriage ceremony tomorrow.”
My head jerked back, panic coursing through me in violent waves. “ Tomorrow ? I—I am marrying the king tomorrow?”