Chapter 24 – Billie #2
Something sits in my stomach, sour and heavy, and I hate it. Hate that I'm feeling anything other than smug satisfaction at the fact that the Fae royals are just as fucked up as I always suspected.
"So it's as simple as you wanting the throne," I say, and I can't quite hide the disappointment in my voice.
Why the fuck am I disappointed?
He's Fae. They're all the same. Selfish, power-hungry bastards who'd step over corpses to get what they want. Seelie and Unseelie may be a distinction to them, but those words mean nothing to me.
Caelyx laughs. "You should never get your hopes up, little hunter. Especially not about me."
The words shouldn't sting, but they do. I shove the feeling down, burying it under layers of anger and self-preservation.
He's right. What was I expecting? That he'd be different somehow? That I might actually have an ally in this place who kept my secret for something other than an ulterior motive?
I'm not different.
He's fae. I'm a hunter, through and through.
"We can help each other," he says, his voice sounding almost businesslike. "I have a proposition."
I scoff, folding my arms. "Of course you do."
"I'll help you get close to Corvinus." He starts walking again, and I follow because my curiosity is stronger than my disdain. "And when the time is right, I'll tell you how you can actually kill him."
I freeze mid-step. "What?"
"If you want a spoiler," he continues, glancing back at me with those unsettling red eyes, "it isn't by beheading him. That's not how you kill a Fae prince. Not one like Corvinus, anyway."
The ground seems to shift beneath my feet. "That's impossible. Beheading works on all Fae. It's—"
"What your mother thought?" His voice goes soft, almost gentle. "And it got her killed."
The rage that floods through me is so intense I see stars. "What the fuck do you know about my mother?"
"More than you, apparently." He stops beneath a tree whose leaves shimmer between silver and gold. "But I'll tell you eventually. If we have a deal."
Every instinct screams at me to tell him to fuck off. To refuse whatever twisted bargain he's offering. But if he really knows how my mother died, if he knows how to actually kill Corvinus…
"What do you want in return?"
"I want you to do as you're told." He says it simply, like it's the most reasonable request in the world.
My hands ball into fists. "I don't take orders. Not anymore."
"Then you'll die trying to kill my brother the same way your mother did." He shrugs. "Your choice."
The way he says it makes me want to fucking scream.
But beneath the rage, logic takes over.
He wants the throne. That's motivation I can understand and use. If nothing else, our goals align.
We both want Corvinus dead.
What happens after doesn't matter. I'll probably be executed anyway, or fleeing back to hunter territory with a bounty on my head.
"Fine," I grind out. "We have a deal."
His smile is both triumphant and terrifying. "Excellent. Then we have a deal. But we'll need to be careful, even before we make it official. Corvinus has eyes everywhere."
"No shit. He's been following me around like a lost puppy all day."
"Not just him." Caelyx's expression turns serious. "Locke. The professor. He's more dangerous than he looks."
He already looks pretty fucking dangerous to me, but I don't mention that.
Caelyx starts walking again, leading me deeper into the gardens where the paths twist and turn in ways that hurt to follow. "He's been Corvinus's guardian for centuries. Protective doesn't even begin to cover it. If he discovers you're a threat..."
I narrow my eyes. "You wouldn't be telling me this unless he already suspects I'm a threat."
"Suspecting and knowing are different things." He stops at what looks like a dead end, a wall of flowering vines so thick I can barely see the stone beneath. "You need to be particularly careful around him. Don't give him any reason to dig deeper."
"Kind of hard when Corvinus is on my ass like white on rice."
"Which is why we need to meet carefully." His fingers trace a pattern in the air, and the vines part like a curtain. Beyond them is a small iron gate I swear wasn't there a second ago. "I know specific times when Corvinus won't be able to track us. When his attention is elsewhere."
"And you're just going to share this information out of the goodness of your heart?"
"I told you. I hate my brother." He pulls a key from his pocket, old iron that looks nothing like the crystalline excess everywhere else on campus. It's not burning his hand through the glove. "This grants access to a garden hidden by wards. Only the person with the key can enter. No exceptions."
"It's like a shimmer," I realize.
"Exactly."
He presses it into my palm, and the metal warms immediately.
"That's where we'll meet," he says. "Our own little pocket dimension, completely undetectable. Every now and then, I'll give you what you need to begin our plan."
I stare at the key, then at him. Every part of me screams this is a trap. That I'm trading one cage for another.
But I've broken my way out of cages before, and slain monsters bigger than him.
"When?" My voice comes out steadier than I feel.
"Tomorrow. Dawn. Before anyone else is awake." His smile softens slightly, almost conspiratorial. "And Billie? Don't tell anyone about this. Not your roommate, not any friends you might make. No one."
"I don't have friends here."
"Good. Keep it that way." He steps back, the vines already closing over the gate. "You can't trust them."
"I don't trust you."
"Smart girl." He starts backing away, dissolving into shadows like he was never there at all. The literal opposite of Prince Corvinus's showy exit. "See you tomorrow, little hunter. Try not to get yourself killed before then."
And then he's gone, leaving me alone with a key that burns in my palm and a head full of questions I can't answer.
I turn the key over between my fingers, studying the simple iron. No engravings or magical shimmer. The metal has probably been around as long as this university. A key to a secret garden where I'll meet with the prince who should become king.
Who hates his brother as much as I do and supposedly knows how my mother died.
A man who might be using me just as much as I'm planning to use him.