Chapter 34
I waited. Inside, my confusion and outrage roiled, but I remained frozen, staring at Sybelle while I waited for her to speak.
“Are. You. Fae?” I asked again, grounding out each word.
She inhaled a sharp and jagged breath, her face turning ashen. The fear emanating from her body was potent enough to taste. My hands tightened around her waist, keeping her pinned to my chest.
Neither of us moved.
Sybelle wet her lips, her breath shuddering. “Varius?—”
“It’s a simple question. Are you fae? Yes, or no?”
Her eyes closed. “You have to let me explain.”
“ Yes or no ?” I bellowed.
“Yes!” she squeaked. “Yes, I am fae. Half fae. But?—”
I slid her off me, depositing her on the stone floor while I lunged to my feet.
An anguished sound built in my throat. I spread my arms wide, my wings flaring out, and unleashed a roar of fury.
Shadows burst around me like puffs of ash, clouding the air and thickening until I could see nothing but darkness.
Sybelle was fae. My supposed human bride was fae.
She was a liar. Her entire family, they were liars.
I had been deceived .
And the curse… Mother of Shade, the curse ?—
I whirled to find her cowering on the floor, her small frame trembling. She stared at me with horror and dread, her eyes wide as saucers.
This was how she should have seen me from the beginning. When I had first shown myself to her, it had been this very emotion I had expected.
She was afraid for her life. She thought I would kill her.
I wanted to. I wanted to wrap my hands around her throat and choke the life out of her.
My entire kingdom was at stake. Tens of thousands of fae were endangered by the Necro Shadows every day.
And Sybelle and her family thought this was all a joke.
They thought they could simply substitute a fae for a human and no one would notice.
I was a bloody fool . How had I not seen it? I knew what fae creatures were like. The way they talked, to avoid uttering untruths… Sybelle spoke this way, too. I should have known .
“Varius,” Sybelle said in a broken voice.
“Don’t talk to me,” I growled. If she exacerbated my anger, I didn’t know what my shadows would do. It was a miracle they hadn’t suffocated her already. “I don’t want to hear another word out of that lying mouth of yours.”
“I didn’t lie!” She climbed to her feet. “I can’t lie. My fae blood prohibits it.”
My lip curled with my sneer. “You preached to me about twisting my words . That’s exactly what you’ve done this whole time, isn’t it?”
“No!” she cried. “I was born with fae blood, but I was raised by humans. Every part of my life has been human. It’s all I’ve ever known.”
I shook my head, baring my fangs at her. I couldn’t believe anything she said. How was I to know if half fae could lie or not? Perhaps they could, and this was another deception.
“Get out,” I snarled, jerking my finger toward the door .
“No.” She lifted her chin, her eyes flashing. “Not until you let me explain.”
“Get out of my damn room!”
“ No !”
I turned away from her, my fingers flexing as I let out another terrible roar. The walls shook, and the window pane rattled. When I turned to glare at her, she was staring at me, unflinching. Her fear had vanished.
Only stubborn determination remained.
I was tempted to throw her over my shoulder and toss her from the room. But I was afraid if I touched her, my claws would cut her to ribbons. I had very little control over myself and my body right now.
“Talk,” I seethed.
She sucked in a breath, as if she hadn’t expected me to let her speak. After a moment, she said in a rush, “My father wanted to produce an heir with fae gifts to defend against your kind. He trained me from birth to be the perfect wife, but it was all meant to deceive you.”
A rumbling growl poured from my lips, but she raised a hand.
“I don’t intend to deceive you,” she said in an even voice. “If I did, would I be telling you all of this? Would I be betraying my father’s trust and exposing his lies?”
I had no response to that. This was all under the assumption that she couldn’t lie. I nodded, indicating she should continue. But I hadn’t yet decided if I believed her.
She exhaled before going on. “My human bloodline protects us from violating the terms of our treaty. Technically, the Earthen Court still provided a human bride. But she was only half human.” When I snarled at her, she quickly added, “This was how my father saw it.”
“Oh yes, and you are completely blameless in all this,” I sneered .
Her gaze sharpened. “This is what I was born to do, Varius. For my entire life, my father and my kingdom preached to me about the evils of the unseelie fae. How the Wraith King stole human brides to feast on them like a creature of the night.”
I scoffed, but I knew there was truth to her words. Even in my own kingdom, villagers whispered about the horrible Wraith King. Those who did not know me thought I was a phantom who haunted the realm.
Was it really so outlandish that humans thought the same, if even my own people were saying such things?
“So, what then?” I asked, my voice carefully level. “You came here to kill me?”
She grimaced, her expression twisting with unease.
I barked out a laugh. “Who, you ?” I gestured to her figure, which looked so small compared to mine. Especially with my wings out. “This slight, pathetic creature was meant to kill me?”
Her face flushed. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“You’re right. I don’t. Because you’ve been deceiving me from the day we met.”
“So have you!” she cried, waving a hand toward me. “You’ve lied to everyone about the whole reason behind the human brides! We’ve both kept secrets, Varius. I am not the only one to blame.”
My nostrils flared. “ Your kingdom is the one plotting against me, Sybelle. That’s pretty damning.”
She shook her head. “Father would never invade. He’s too afraid of your shadows. And with me here, his plan is still in play. None of this makes sense.”
“It makes perfect sense. You are fae. So is Warwick. Clearly, your kind don’t mind mingling with the fae if it suits their own purposes.”
“ No ,” she said firmly. “There are no fae in my court. I swear it. Father only had one fae concubine, and he killed her shortly after my birth. He despises the fae.” Her eyes turned dark. “He despises me .”
I refused to pity this lying creature before me, no matter how much her dejected expression tugged at something within my chest. “Then, what is your explanation for all this?”
She chewed on her lower lip. “I don’t know.” She paused, her gaze dropping to her hands as she wrung them together. “It—It is possible … that my father would invade, if he believed I was unsuccessful in my mission.”
My eyes narrowed. She wouldn’t look me in the eye. “Is it, now?” My voice was low and dangerous.
She finally met my gaze with guilt and fear swirling in her eyes.
“But he would never ally himself with fae. That is what doesn’t make sense.
Even if my father is sending an army to invade, I know for a fact your forces can overpower him.
And it still doesn’t explain how he is connected to Warwick.
If there are fae involved, this changes things. ”
I rubbed my chin, unsure if I believed her or not. I heaved a sigh, frustrated that I wasn’t getting the answers I needed. My gaze suddenly snapped to hers, and I frowned. “What is your fae power?”
Sybelle blushed again, her mouth tightening. I was certain she wouldn’t tell me.
But, to my shock, she said, “Gemstones.”
I blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
She reached into her cloak and pulled out a small topaz stone. “This was how we were camouflaged earlier. It isn’t a magical stone. It produces magic only when I touch it.”
I frowned at the small jewel tucked in her hand. “Do all stones perform the same function?”
“No.”
I waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t. I couldn’t entirely blame her. She had already been more forthcoming than I’d anticipated. Certainly more forthcoming than I would have been if our roles were reversed.
Assuming she wasn’t lying.
I crossed my arms. “Can you show me?”
Her brows lowered. “You want me to prove I’m telling the truth? Fine.” She wrapped her fingers around the topaz and closed her eyes. She slowly backed up until she was up against the stone wall.
The air around her rippled, and in an instant, her coloring had changed. I could still make out the shape of her against the wall, but she matched the stone precisely. It looked as if she were shrouded in a cloak made of stone.
My arms dropped, and my mouth fell open in surprise.
Sybelle stepped forward and broke the enchantment. She tossed the topaz at me. I caught it easily, then turned it over in my hands.
It was a simple stone. No magic emanated from it. That much I could tell.
“Satisfied?” she asked.
I ground my teeth together, incensed at the accusation in her tone. She had no right to be irritated with me right now. She was lucky I didn’t toss her in the dungeon for lying to her king.
“You never answered my question,” I said slowly. “Did you come here to kill me?”
She was silent for a long moment. When she spoke, her voice was quiet.
“I came here to infiltrate the Shadow Court and locate the source of the toxic shadows that are threatening my people. But, as I’ve come to learn, it isn’t quite that simple.
My court was under the impression you controlled all the shadows. Now I understand that’s not true.”
“You think I would simply allow my shadows to poison your people?” I growled.
“Yes!” she shouted, waving her hands in the air. “Because you’ve told us nothing , Varius. What other conclusion are we supposed to draw? You are the king of shadows, and shadows are attacking my court.”
“And you didn’t think to ask me or my court?”
She snorted and crossed her arms. “When were we supposed to ask? Between giving you human brides and fending off attacks from your soldiers, we were a bit too busy.”
My nostrils flared. “Your people haven’t been welcoming toward my kind, either, Sybelle. Unseelie fae are hunted by human soldiers daily because of their prejudices.”
She let her hands fall against her thighs. “I suppose both kingdoms are to blame for this, then.”
“I suppose so.”
A tense silence fell between us. Sybelle chewed on her lip, her gaze dropping to the floor. My wings curled inward, and my shadows thinned. Gradually, my anger ebbed, though irritation still prickled through me.
“For what it’s worth,” she said softly, “I’m sorry. For deceiving you. For not telling you the truth. I—I should have told you.”
I stared at her. She blinked back at me, her wide eyes full of sorrow and regret.
I swallowed hard. “Thank you. I apologize as well. You’re right; we both are to blame.”
She nodded, her mouth forming a thin line.
More silence followed, but this time it wasn’t as tense as before. I sensed something shift between us. Something that made it easier to breathe. Easier to look at her without anger.
“Do you still need my blood?” she asked suddenly.
I hesitated. “Yes.”
“Even though it contains fae blood as well?”
“Yes. I may need more of it to dilute the fae blood. But it should still work.”
She stepped closer to me. “And you still can’t tell me what you’ll do with this blood?”
“Tislora will make an elixir.”
“Yes, you mentioned that before. But can you tell me anything else? What is causing these Necro Shadows? If it’s not you behind it, who is it?”
The words rose to my lips, eager to burst free after all these years. But my mouth clamped shut of its own accord, controlled by the magic of that damned sorceress.
“All right.” Sybelle raised her hands in surrender. “Can you nod or shake your head? Is that allowed?”
Slowly, I nodded.
She exhaled in relief. “Good. Is someone else controlling the Necro Shadows?”
Mother of Shade, how was I supposed to answer this? After a moment, I nodded.
“Do you know who is controlling them?”
Another nod.
“Do you know where they are?”
I shook my head.
She started to pace, one arm curled against her chest and the other raised so she could chew on her thumbnail. “Do you know how to find them?”
Again, I shook my head.
“Hmm.” She walked the length of my bedchamber, her eyes distant as she worked over the information. Then, she stiffened and turned to face me. “Is this person dead?”
I nodded.
“Shit.”
I chuckled without humor. “Shit indeed.”
She laughed, then ran a hand through her hair. I was momentarily distracted by the way the chestnut tresses fell around her head in tousled waves, wild and free .
She looked stunning, despite the pallor of her face and the tangles in her hair from running through the Noxen Forest.
“Everything I’ve read about fae magic says it cannot supersede the fae’s lifespan,” she said. “So it doesn’t make sense that someone can conjure magic and then die , and that magic lives on.”
I said nothing. Even if I could speak, I wasn’t sure what to say. The sorceress had possessed untold power, unparalleled by anyone my court had ever seen before. It was very likely she’d been strong enough to maintain this spell even beyond the grave.
And it was also quite possible the books Sybelle had read from were untrue.
Sybelle’s wide eyes fixed on me. “Was this person fae?”
My mouth pressed together, forming a thin line. It had been nearly a thousand years since the spell was cast. The clans of witches had died out since then. Technically, they had fae blood in them, but it had been a distant line. Distant enough for there to be a division between our species.
I looked at Sybelle and shook my head.
Her lips parted in surprise. “ Not fae, ” she whispered to herself.
I cocked my head at her, fascinated by her process. She began pacing again. I noticed she chewed on her fingernails or her lip when she was concentrating. That faraway look in her eyes was identical to how she looked when something piqued her curiosity.
“You hesitated,” she said, pointing to me as she paced. “Which means there might have been a reason to say yes , this person was fae. If this happened long ago, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to say the bloodlines mingled later on. So…” She gasped and whirled to face me once more.
“A witch,” she said with a triumphant smile. “The person who cast the spell was a witch, wasn’t she? ”
Damn. My eyebrows lifted, and I gazed at her, impressed and awestruck. She was much more brilliant than I gave her credit for. “Well done, human. I’m not sure that this helps you, though.”
“Oh, it does.” Her grin widened. “It gives me answers . It gives me context. I can do a lot with this information.” She rolled up the sleeve of her cloak, exposing her pale wrist to me. “Starting with giving you my blood.”