Page 156 of Court of the Fae Princes

She tilts her head as if thinking. “The iron demons have always been drawn to our lands more than any other. No one knows why. The creatures tend to line up along the barrier and push and shove, trying to break through. Usually focusing on a few points to weaken the princes the most. If one of those points were to fall, I imagine hundreds of the beasts would cross over and cause quite a bit of death and destruction before being killed. So, it’d be bad, but at least it’d help the vampires.” She gives a harsh laugh. “They’d be flooding our lands instead of trying to get into theirs.”

I don’t laugh. It’s not funny. “I think we should get going.”

Her pointed ears twitch. “Eager for battle, princess?”

“Eager to end this thing,” I say, ignoring the fluttering in my stomach.

TWELVE

Cobar

The acrid scent of despair hits me first as I’m thrown into another room. I’ve learned the hard way that this place is about deliberate cruelty. Moving boulders, whipping me, beating me, it’s a game of cruelty and nothing more. They want me to push my body beyond its limit to drive me to madness.

Unfortunately for them, I won’t let that happen. If I can help it.

Nothing’s ever been this difficult. Not the rigorous training I was forced to do during my youth, not even the brutal bloodshed of war could compare to this torment. It feels like we’ve been here for months, but I’m not sure. All I know is that my head pounds with each breath I take. I have to clench my teeth and focus on the barrier, or else I know it’ll fall.

Some of the princes aren’t reinforcing it any longer.

It’s frightening. The only reason any of us would stop reinforcing the barrier is if we couldn’t any longer. What has the Keeper done to them that they can’t?

“Bastards.” Every one of the House of Death fae. They know what’s happening, and they’re allowing it.

“Do you think this is a game?” I clench my fist and press it into the wall, trying to stay upright in this new room. A new room that probably has some new horror in it. “If you keep this up, the barrier will fall. Is that what you want?”

But no one answers my angry words. Of course not. The cowards. But truly they’ll be the first ones to come running to us if the barrier falls, pleading for safety from the iron demons. Their lands, after all, are closest to the barrier.

A fire of frustration burns in me as I glance around the room, my eyes jumping from the pools of light from the torches to the shadows in between. Another hell hole. Lovely. But at least I don’t see any dead lingering in the darkness, waiting to cause more pain.

Then, my gaze slides over a figure on the ground, then back. My heart sinks. Sulien’s body lies in a heap like forgotten garbage rather than the Prince of the Summer Court. Sulien?

I rush to his side and kneel down, unable to breathe. My hand trembles as I roll him over and see his pale face stained with blood. And for one terrible second, I’m gutted. I feel like a man who has lost everything and has nothing left to cling to. And then, he breathes.

“Sulien,” I whisper raggedly. He doesn’t move or say a word in response, which is alarming, but as long as he’s alive, that’s all that matters. “What did they do to you?”

I shift, hissing in pain as I do so, and go and grab a torch to study his body, looking for the most severe of his injuries. It only takes a minute to spot his back. The wounds on his back are so bad they take my breath away.

“They must be giving me the easy treatment.” That was one thing about being a Spring Fae, everyone saw us as dancing, prancing, giggling fairies.

But the Summer Fae? They see them as warriors.

“This must be why the barrier isn’t being held up by all of us.” How can he reinforce the barrier when he can’t even take care of himself?

Anger rises inside of me, but I push it to the side, knowing it won’t help. I want to use my magic to heal him. I could use it to help his injuries. Not all of them, but a lot of them. But I’m not sure I could do that and keep the barrier in place.

“Fuck.”

Luckily for him, I know some first aid from our time battling the iron demons. I peel my shirt off and begin to shred it to make something to bind his wounds together, trying not to look at the strips of flesh on his back and the gaping wounds as I do so.

He blinks. His gaze falling on me, except there’s only blankness in his eyes. I don’t think he sees me, not really. Does he even know I’m here?

“Sulien, I’m here. Cobar’s here.” I wrap a strip of my shirt around a gash on his neck. “I’m going to get you put back together, okay?”

He says nothing. Just stares.

I loosen another strip of my shirt and keep talking, trying to sound cheery even though part of me wants to collapse right beside him. There’s something about the way he’s staring. It worries me, and makes me envy him at the same time. Is he somewhere else in his head? Somewhere far from here?

Shaking myself, I try to focus. No, we can’t be far from here. If we are, we’re not reinforcing the barrier, and then everyone dies. Our people. Our Cassia. I have to stay here, where it’s dark and painful. And I have to bring Sulien back to us.

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