1. Keira #2
My eyes flick to the litter behind her.The platform has a four-poster frame draped with velvet curtains and a bed of cushions. Long poles extend out of it for servants to hoist onto their shoulders and carry the entire structure as its occupant lounges within.
Titania laughs. “Oh, not that one, you silly child. You will see how low you are to become here.”
Florian thrusts me forward to a second litter. A bare cage is built onto the platform, with no curtains or cushioning.
There is nothing to hide behind.
Then I realize we are nowhere near the palace and the City of Vertical Gardens. Titania plans to parade me halfway across Spring, like a spoil of war. Like a captured enemy.
A sickness rolls through me.
I can do this.
I have endured worse.
There is an untempered strength within me.
I tell myself all these things. If only I could believe them.
I whip back around to Titania. “You cannot cage me. Surely the bargain will not allow it. I am to be treated with the dignity of a noble guest.” My breaths come hard and fast. I dig my heels into the ground and thrash out my elbows. Anything to stop me from being forced into that cage.
It is no use. My back crashes into Florian’s chest and he wraps an arm around my waist. I am lifted from the ground like a child, my legs kicking and striking the metal plate of his armor uselessly.
The High Chancellor’s laughter rings out behind me. “You will be surprised by what the bargain will allow me.”
Another guard rushes forward and unlocks the gate, swinging it open so Florian can toss me inside. I am airborne for a single heartbeat, my stomach bottoming out, then I crash to the wooden floor. My hip and shoulder strike the hard surface and pain explodes within both.
Somewhere far away, Aldrin curses colorfully. This bond is going to be the end of him.
The cage door slams shut and the lock clicks as it engages. The bars close in on me until they suffocate me.
“She is a disappointing thing to have caused so much trouble in her realm.” Florian’s mocking tone snags my attention.
I glance up to where he and Torin watch me with a group of others like I am some exotic animal on display for their entertainment, the rest of the amassed warriors moving on with purpose.
“I was expecting some great beauty, not… this .” His features are pinched in disgust.
“All you see is a human, Florian, and you can’t see past it. I bet she will clean up prettily when we get back to the palace.” Torin gives me a predator’s smile and my stomach lurches.
Florian rolls his eyes to Torin. “Like you said, humans are beneath my notice, but this one is particularly plain.”
I am so incredibly tired, and I suspect my treatment is about to get far worse.
A man pushes his way through the center of the crowd, shoving fae out of his way.
He brushes past Torin and Florian and walks up to the bars of my cage.
Intense brown eyes stare like he is analyzing me right down to my soul.
There is a bitter twist to his lips and his thick, dark eyebrows are furrowed.
He is revolted by what he sees in me. That look makes me feel small and undressed, but I lift my chin, refusing to cower.
Torin nudges the man in the ribs. “What do you think? I was just making a bet with Florian that she would be ravishing after a bath and new clothes.”
“I made no fucking bets,” Florian grumbles, spitting to the side.
The man drags his eyes away from me to study the crowd. He is peculiar-looking, with deep golden-brown skin, a youthful face no older than mine and pure white hair that hangs loosely with a few rough plaits through it.
“We are about to move out. I suggest you all stop gawking at the prisoner and get in your positions,” the man bites out. “You know how Titania likes these processions to go.”
“Oh, come on, Rainier, you’re no fun.” Torin puts an arm around his shoulders. “Are you bitter because we didn’t convince your treacherous parents to come back?”
I watch with horror as the two men walk away.
This is Rainier.
Oh gods, no.
This is the son Drake and Klara thought they had made amends with. Who saw the truth of Titania’s reign and was no longer one of her greatest supporters. My heart hurts for them. At the betrayal that must be coming their way from the son who was turned against them.
I can’t stop staring at Rainier as he moves through the crowd. He glances back at me only once, the fire of rage burning hot in his eyes.
Perhaps he feels abandoned and blames me.
He looks nothing like a child of Drake and Klara. I would have expected purple eyes or hair like Klara, or skin a shade of bronze so deep it is almost red like Drake. Even the shapes of his features don’t match.
A whirlwind of dark thoughts makes me spiral. I am completely out of my depth here.
By the darkness, what I would do to feel Aldrin’s strong arms wrap around me again and press me into the warmth and hard planes of his body. For his mere presence to wrap me up in a bubble of safety.
I am here, dear heart, Aldrin’s voice rumbles as he embraces me within a ghost of those very sensations I crave. I am always here, in your mind and bound to your soul.
A tear rolls down my cheek and I think I will be undone by the knot of emotion exploding within my chest. Love.
Fear. Deep, desperate need. There is immense comfort in his soul wrapping around mine.
It is like the sun coming out on a cold day and bathing my skin in its heat.
Like the first bite of chocolate that has my tastebuds tingling and my brain hitting that high. Like the glow after mind-blowing sex.
My thoughts hit a wall at high impact as I register that Aldrin is falling, falling, falling, through inky blackness with no end.
That in the darkness around him, there are terrifying beasts and demons that should only belong in nightmares.
That he is surrounded by Assassins of Belladonna in their telltale indigo robes.
Worst of all, is the four horsemen of the Wild Hunt, wearing armor of metal and bone, mounted on ethereal warhorses that look ghoulish and half decayed.
Fear like I have never known before cuts through me and I think I will vomit. Aldrin! What have you done? I whisper, but I already know. How did I not see this before?
The only thing that could be done, he says. Hold tight, dear heart. I am coming for you. When I do, I will have the Assassins of Belladonna at my back. This is the only way.
The blackness around him winks in and out, as though the group is making jumps through shadows to cross courts and kingdoms.
No, Aldrin! Please tell me you didn’t give yourself to the order!
It is far too much of a risk. They were hired to kill you.
Their trials will attempt to do the same.
Tears burn my eyes again. My soul would wither and die if you no longer lived.
It would be worse than any torture in the darkest realm.
Don’t fear for me, please, he rasps. I always needed to take this path to defeat Titania. I would have preferred to do it while you were safe in your father’s castle. His voice seems distant. Distracted. You can’t stay in my mind, Keira. You need to be vigilant for your own trials.
The cage lurches. I slip across the floorboards and almost slam into one barred wall when someone curses and the angle of the cage is adjusted again.
“Hey,” a man calls out in a hushed whisper. “Hey. Human. Hold on to the rings in the center of the floor. Otherwise you are going to be tossed around in here as we try to lift you.”
I blink at the half-dozen fae who surround the cage at regular intervals.
They are trying to raise it off the ground by the long bars that extend out of the platform.
I rush back to the center and grab hold of the thick handles as the floor tips near sideways beneath me.
There are more curses and shouts, and a few guards run over.
“Are you trying to snap your own backs? Or tip over the cage and kill the woman within and the carriers on the other side?” Florian snarls as he stalks over like a storm cloud. “Bend your fucking knees and lift the platform as one, then maneuver it onto your shoulders!”
“We are not soldiers or servants!” one of the carriers calls out, a slight woman in the middle. “We have never done this before, nor do we have the strength for it!”
“Well, you’re not fucking senators or nobility anymore either,” Florian yells in the woman’s face, spit flying from his lips.“If you can’t cope with your punishment, you shouldn’t have committed treason.”
She straightens her spine, but is so much shorter than him. “Treason? For leaving the city without permission?”
“For visiting the border with the intention of starting trouble.”
The entire cage sways and lurches dangerously as the procession starts moving.
I realize two things: this is as much the carriers’ humiliation as it is mine, and they are going to drop me.
Oh gods. I’m either going to die here tossed on my head or down a ravine, or I’m going to give myself away when I use magic.
I glance at Titania sprawled out on the cushions of her litter, which moves smoothly under the care of professional bearers, and find myself hoping one of them will trip and spill her out of it.
Both tasteless vehicles slow the procession to a crawl down roads through meadows and forests.
As we near the first town built into the trunks of huge trees, the faces of my litter-bearers turn different shades of red.
One woman’s lips quiver at what is to come and another has tendons sticking out in her neck.
A man mutters impotent, angry curses beneath his breath.
“Brace yourself, human.” That same carrier speaks to me again, not lifting his eyes from the road.
“Hold your head high and endure the show of degradation the High Chancellor has designed for you, and don’t make a fuss.
Titania has a short memory and will get bored soon.
Especially if you give her nothing. Many have been in this position before, and have ended up back in the Senate months later. ”
“Why does no one challenge her and remove her from power if she treats her nobility this badly?” I whisper.
The man laughs low, earning a few dark looks from nearby guards. “Do you think people haven’t tried? They have all gone missing. A man can merely think of revolution, not even say a word of it, mind you, and he disappears from his bed.”
I want to say more, so much more, but something soft and sickly-sweet splatters against my face. Its rancid juices run down my cheek.
I jolt as a heavy impact hits my back and squelches as it bounces off. Another piece of fruit smashes against the bars, exploding before it can strike me.
We pass through a town built into trees almost as tall as Appleshield Castle. Balconies wrap around each house that juts out of the trunks, and many staircases and bridges connect them, all filled with fae leering down at us. Their features morph into something demonic as they scream insults at me.
Another tosses a missile, a purple, apple-like fruit that flies straight for my head, passing between the bars. I throw myself to one side, giving it the slightest tap with an air wield to throw it off a collision course. It gives a wet splat behind me and the scent of decay rises from it.
They are pummeling me with rotten fruit.
Most of it is shriveled and brown. Some pieces are coated in furry mold.
I cannot avoid all the blows, and my flesh becomes bruised, tender and sticky.
Juice runs from my hair and soaks my clothes.
My cage keeps tipping violently as the bearers are struck with just as many missiles.
They jump and cry out with each strike. I don’t know if their magic has been taken away or if they are too frightened to use it to shield themselves.
The procession stops in the center of the town and the fae fall silent as Titania climbs out of her litter.
She raises her hands high. “My good people of the Spring Court, by now you would have heard that your king is dead, because of her!” She turns and points a finger straight at me.
“Aldrin not only abandoned his people for this woman, to fight her war in the human lands, but turned his back on this entire realm! For what? A pretty face? A large pair of breasts? Perhaps a set of legs that spread easily?”
Titania pauses and the crowd laughs at me.
“ She was the death of him. It was in her world that the Assassins of Belladonna, hired by the King of the Winter Court, caught up to him. Aldrin died in a muddy ditch in an insignificant world devoid of magic.”
Titania planned all of this. Her followers likely ran ahead of us to whip up the mob.
It only takes a few enraged civilians to start a riot.
For many others to get swept up into the current, believing they are a part of the majority.
It is so easy to become convinced that rumors are facts when enough people believe them.
Those in the crowd who don’t agree are effectively silenced by numbers.
“Aldrin abandoned you, but I will not!” Titania screams. “I will fight for the Spring Court against all our enemies!”
When the procession moves again, more fruit is tossed at me, until the rotten flesh piles up in my cage and every inch of my skin is coated in it.
Until I feel like an entire herd of wild horses has trampled over me.
Somehow, I know that I will have to endure this specific humiliation for days to come.