21 SCION
THE QUARRY, INBETWIXT
“This is a miserable place to hold the hunts,”
Bael said, clambering over a group of jagged rocks, and stepping gingerly onto the mud on the opposite side. “There are more spirits here than even in the woods by the palace.”
Glancing back at him, I rolled my eyes. “You never cared what the hunting grounds looked like before.”
“There are a lot of things I never cared about until recently.”
I paused, refusing to indulge the conversation he was clearly trying to trap me into having. “True enough.”
It was nearing nightfall when we left the inn and arrived in the forest near the quarry to hunt for one of the old ones.
The obsidian quarry in Inbetwixt had been exhausted and abandoned for over a hundred years, leaving behind a massive crater that gradually filled with rainwater to become a seemingly bottomless lake. The lake was home to many monsters, including the enormous serpent that guarded the surrounding woods.
I hadn’t met the snake myself, but from Bael’s description, I agreed that it was one of the old ones—the ancient creatures that had protected this land long before the Fae ever arrived. We might be the dominant race in Elsewhere, but we were far from the oldest, or even the most powerful. There were things in the depths of the Waywoods, the high mountains of Nevermore, and the swampland of the Wanderlust that even I feared.
“What do you plan to do when we find it,”
Bael asked, his tone unnaturally cheerful.
“Ask our questions, then kill it before it kills us first.”
“I’m not sure it’s possible to kill one of the old ones.”
I didn’t look back at him, this time keeping my gaze on the steep, muddy ground so as not to slip. “Anything can be killed with enough effort.”
I fell silent again as we trudged closer and closer to the murky, algae-covered edge of the lake, my boots sinking slightly into the muck with each step. My mind raced with half-formed ideas on how to lure the monster out of hiding and toward us.
“Forget killing it,”
I commented. “How do you suggest we find it?”
Even without looking, I could tell Bael was grinning from his tone. “We could use your bird as bait. It would be like killing two birds with one snake.”
I kicked a stray rock at him. “Fuck off, be serious.”
“I was,”
he replied. “I’d be perfectly happy to be rid of that cursed creature. But in truth, I expect it won’t matter. We will not have to do the finding.”
“What do you mean?”
He nodded toward the water through the trees. “From the looks of that, it will find us.”
Frowning, I followed his gaze, squinting at the amorphous shapes floating over the surface ahead. We were still some fifty paces away from the edge of the water, and for a long moment, I couldn’t tell what I was looking at. Then, as realization dawned, I turned away swallowing the bile rising in my throat.
Rotting bodies, bloated and practically unrecognizable, floated over the surface of the water. I could only assume they’d been here since the second hunt, which meant well over a fortnight. Anything that disposed of its prey like that was a creature I had no desire to ever meet.
For her, though, I would face any number of murderous creatures.
Waking up this morning to find Lonnie gone had caused a torrent of mixed emotions. I was livid, and more importantly, terrified of what might have happened to her. But also, somewhere in the back of my mind, I was relieved.
Guilt ate at me for feeling that way, but I’d spent every waking moment of the night before dreading the inevitable conversation of the morning. She’d expect some kind of explanation and I couldn’t give that to her.
I knew Bael believed Lonnie to be my mate as well—he’d done everything to make that clear but scrawl the words across my forehead—but still, I couldn’t agree with him. I didn’t feel it.
He was right about one thing though: mate or not, I loved her.
I loved her enough that I hadn’t been able to stay away when somehow I felt the pain of her flesh being pierced by the arrow. I loved her enough that I’d been unable to let her die, even when it meant deepening the connection that was already driving me insane. And I loved her enough that if she asked me directly, I wouldn’t be able to lie.
So I could never let her ask.
That was too cruel, even for me, to insert myself in the middle of a mating bond I had no right to destroy.
Last night was a one-time mistake, and now, losing her felt like the gods swift punishment. I’d never realized what it truly meant to be cursed with misery. Now, I wondered how I’d ever managed to live this long with the despair constantly finding ways to torment me.
I would help Bael find Lonnie, and then I’d leave. I’d let them go off on their adventure alone, just as I’d tried to do back in Inbetwixt, and I’d find a way to defy the prophecy my brother had made, and never let her become my wife.
My thoughts came crashing to a halt as behind me, an ominous rattling sounded and I whipped around. Bael, several paces back, had also turned to look. Without my realizing it, or even thinking of where we were going, we’d reached the edge of the dark, churning water.
Bael swiveled back around, and we made meaningful eye contact before moving as one closer to the water itself.
I held my breath and waited for a long heartbeat, then another. Nothing moved in the forest or beneath the surface of the lake, and I relaxed slightly. Opening my mouth to suggest we keep moving, my words were lost as a menacing voice hummed through the trees, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. “Is thisss my reward?”
I spun in a circle, searching for the voice, then halted. My stomach turned over, horror flooding me as a massive blue-black serpent emerged from the water, its scales gleaming in the setting sun.
My blood ran cold. How the fuck had Lonnie escaped this thing? And worse, why the fuck had I insisted she enter the second hunt alone?
I didn’t have long to dwell.
The snake’s sharp gaze locked onto me as its forked tongue flicked out of its mouth, tasting the air between us like it was salivating at the thought of devouring both of us in one gulp. Its scales glittered as it coiled and uncoiled, its eyes fixed on me.
My heart pounded against my chest as I stood frozen, unable to move as if in a trance. My fingers tingled as I thrust my hand forward, instinctively, aiming to halt it with my magic.
“No!”
Bael’s voice rose in a desperate yell, and he forcefully pulled my arm back. “Stop! We need it alive.”
The shadows that I held in my hand dissipated quickly, and I scowled at my cousin. We also needed us alive, but I couldn’t deny he had a point. We’d come all this way, and despite my best efforts I couldn’t think of another way to find Lonnie.
I lowered my hand slowly, keeping a shred of magic tingling on my fingertips, just to be safe. Perhaps this had been a foolish plan—a deadly mistake.
“Have you brought me royal blood?”
The creature’s enormous head lowered until it was level with mine, swaying back and forth, mesmerizing me with its movements. “Are you here to repay my kindnessss?”
“What kindness?”
I asked, half-entranced by its swaying head.
“What kindnessss,”
the snake repeated, its voice rising as if in excitement…or anger. “What kindnessss, asks the king, as if I have not been waiting far too long for my prize. As if I am not ssstarving. Ravenousss.”
Bael and I glanced at each other, and I could tell instantly we were of the same mind. This had been a fucking terrible idea, and likely a deadly mistake. If both of us left this lake unscathed, it would be a damned gift from the Source.
Hiding his hands behind his back, no doubt to maintain some element of surprise should he decide to use his magic, Bael stepped forward toward the snake. He smiled pleasantly, and offered it a courtly bow. “Forgive us, old one, allow me to introduce myself, I’m?—”
“I know who you are, ssshadow prince.”
It thrashed its long tail, and the water splashed some twenty feet into the air, the floating bodies churning on the newly formed waves. “I know all that goes on in these woodsss.”
I swallowed thickly, before offering a bow of my own. The back of my neck prickled, and I stood quickly, not liking the feeling of taking my eyes off that enormous swaying head even for a moment. “That is why we’ve come to you, old one,”
I said quickly. “To seek your assistance.”
“Asssssistance,”
it hissed, drawing the word out so it echoed all around the quarry. “Why should I offer anything, when the lassst favor I granted has not been repaid?”
Again, Bael and I shared a look. It was entirely too focused on whatever bargain it had recently made to be of any use. Perhaps, then, we should leave and find another way?
I widened my eyes at Bael, trying to convey with a look that we should retreat while we both still breathed. Evidently, he misunderstood my meaning.
“What was your bargain?”
Bael asked the snake. “And with whom?”
The serpent hissed in rhythm, almost as if it were laughing. Its twisted mouth curled into a sinister smile. “The queen…Ssshe promisssed me her life in exchange for another. Her mortal blood, for that of a born royal. Ssso, I ask you again, are you here to repay her debt?”
Shock rocked me. “The queen”
could only mean Lonnie. This, then, was her bargain. This was how she’d escaped during the hunt—by offering another in her place.
I couldn’t help but wonder who Lonnie had planned to offer up as a sacrifice to the snake in order to save her own skin. And deep down, I knew it was me.
I almost couldn’t blame her.
That thought rattled around the back of my mind, and I warred with myself. On the one hand, I wanted nothing more than to fix this for her. Give her no other reasons to hate me, and ensure she would never doubt my love for her again. On the other hand, perhaps it was fate that I’d heard this. Perhaps it would be all the easier to walk away from her now, knowing that not so very long ago she’d meant to offer me a gruesome death.
Perhaps it wouldn’t matter either way, because the snake had every likelihood of ending my life before I ever saw Lonnie again.
“Answer me,”
the snake demanded. “I am famissshed, ssstarved, Unsatisssfied.”
“We didn’t know of the bargain,”
Bael said. “But if we could negotiate the terms, perhaps we can all come away with a boon.”
The snake assessed him, and was silent for a long moment, evidently thinking. “What do you ssseek?”
“The queen who bargained with you…do you know her whereabouts at this very moment?”
The snake cocked its head, looking almost surprised before it replied just as slowly. “Yessss.”
Bael straightened, as if steeling himself. “Tell us, and you can take my blood as payment.”
The snake’s tongue shot out again, whiplike. “The bastard born blood of a lesser prince is hardly a prize.”
“What say you to the blood of two kingdoms?”
Bael asked confidently.
I gaped at him. We never spoke of Bael’s parentage, even among ourselves. It was as if to admit it aloud, to acknowledge the unseelie, would be to put power behind it. Of course, for some years now it had been harder and harder to deny who his father was, but suspicions were nothing to confirmations.
“Shut up,”
I murmured. “No good can come from this.”
Indeed, Bael didn’t have a chance to answer before my prediction came true. The snake made an angry hissing sound, and thrashed its long tail once again. “I do know of your parentage, Prince Baelfry, but I do not recognize the court of the unseelie, as I was born before their country was ever formed. Your blood, therefore, is only half royal, and would only sssatisfy me if I were to have all of it.”
That settled it. Fuck this.
We’d find another way. Shit, I’d track down my source-forsaken brother if we needed a seer this badly. There was no world in which we’d learn anything useful from this horrible creature.
“Let’s go,”
I said, wanting to leave no room for Bael to misunderstand me once more. “We can find her another way.”
The snake bent its enormous head even lower, swaying in front of me so I found my eyes flicking back and forth, trying to hold its gaze. “Go then,”
it said. “You might find your wife without my help, King of Elsewhere, but it is unlikely that you will do so.”
My mind went blank, every thought fleeing, as if time around me had come to a screeching halt. Bael whipped around to stare at me, his expression as astonished as my own had to be. I felt my mouth fall open, and heard my own voice as if it came from someone else. “She’s not my wife.”
The snake opened its huge mouth wide, showing rows of razor teeth. I flinched, and it let out another hissing laugh. “You marked her, did you not? Allowed her to claim you in return, and shared blood as well as flesh. Queen Elowyn is your wife in the eyes of this land, and you her king consort.”
My heart raced as I looked at the snake, my mind struggling to comprehend the words it spoke. The fact that it had just uttered her true name—something I’d wanted to know for well over a year—hardly mattered in the face of this new information. Even the fact that the old one had named me king barely registered, my mind too full of the echoing words: my wife, my wife, my wife.
“Take my blood instead, then, in exchange for her whereabouts,”
I blurted out.
Flicking its tongue out to taste the air around me, the snake paused, seeming to savor the moment. “A generous offer, King of Elsewhere,”
it said, “But perhapsss not a wise one.”
“Wait,”
Bael said, seeming as eager to save my life as I’d been to save his. “What if?—”
I cut him off, speaking only to the snake. “Take the offer, for there will not be another.”
“Indeed, I accept your offer.”
I stood perfectly still as the serpent slithered forward, its long, slim body coiled tightly around my torso, and it was nearly impossible not to move or fight it as it let out a sharp hiss.
“Tell us first,”
I said. “So I will be awake to hear the answer.”
The snake moved faster, winding around and around as if it meant to squeeze the breath from me before using its long teeth. “The queen is still alive, and journeys by boat to the land of Underneath.”
“Why?”
I asked, my breath catching in my throat even as I fixed my gaze on Bael, begging him not to misunderstand what I could not say out loud.
Pain and illusion would not kill instantly, but Bael’s magic could. He was better suited to killing in the short term than I was, and seconds could mean the difference between life and death if the snake decided against a mere taste of blood and intended to eat me whole.
Seeming to understand, my cousin nodded behind the serpent’s huge head, and I gritted my teeth, hoping his aim had improved since the last time I’d seen him use his magic on something of this size.
“Why,”
I gasped, again, as massive jaws opened over me.
“To sssee the heir,”
it hissed, as its jaws closed around me. “The lassst true heir of Elsewhere.”