Page 28 of The Shadow Heir

Adán looked confused, and Eudoria looked scandalized by the question. Samuel and Tomas exchanged a weighted look. Ivy alone responded.

“We did what they wanted. We entertained them,” she said, not meeting my gaze.

Samuel looked away, clearly avoiding the conversation. Eudoria sniffed. I was suddenly curious what under the stars above that woman had done to entertain the fae.

Tomas leaned forward over his empty plate. “It’s not something we’re proud of. We don’t speak of the trials.”

I nodded once in confirmation. But I wasn’t satisfied. They were hiding something, and I would uncover their secrets to survival.

After dinner, three servants hustled all the entertainers out of the cavern. The halls of the palace were partly underground, as the massive building was built into the bones of the mountain itself. No one spoke as we walked through the vaulted halls. Magical lights bobbed along the tops of stone walls, casting their cool, bluish glow over the shining stone. Everything here was so well polished that it appeared wet, so I reached my fingers out and traced the stone, half expecting my fingers to come back damp.

“Don’t touch anything,” the servant behind me snipped. He was tall and thin and had caterpillar brows.

I wondered how my father was faring after my disappearance. Did he know I’d be able to return in a year? Would his broken heart last that long?

I shoved the sadness away and pressed forward into this nightmarish prison, this beautiful, forsaken place. We walked until we reached a long passage with windows on one side thatoverlooked a sweeping mountain vista lit by bright moonlight on snowy peaks. I rushed to the cold glass panes. A lake covered part of the valley below, and a waterfall burst from the mountainside a level below the windows. I could hear its roar and envied the water’s power to leave this place.

Starlight fell across the long, straight hall. Compared to the halls under the mountain, this one seemed bright. On my left were doors. The servant at the head of our small parade stopped.

Ariana was among the servants walking with us, but she’d remained silent. Now she stepped up behind me, a lamp burning in her hand. “Your quarters.” She marched to the door at the end of the hall, inserted a key, and opened the room.

As soon as I stepped over the threshold into the cold, dark chamber, I sensed that something was wrong. I felt eyes on me, though the room was so dark I couldn’t see. Only the faint outline of what was surely a large four poster bed, barely catching the thin light filtering in from the hall behind me.

Ariana’s white tunic glowed in the candlelight as she walked into the room, dispelling the shadows. Polished wood, elegant drapes, and a large armoire greeted me. No one was in the room, but I still had the creeping feeling of someone watching me.

Instinctively, I glanced behind me. A slanted shadow against the far wall moved. I backed into the doorframe with a small clunk.

A man appeared in the dimly lit hall, his features barely discernable, even as the candlelight hit his face. He looked the way Cas had looked when he’d taken me from my home.

“Welcome to Nightsong,” said the shadowy fae. He wore a suit jacket but no shirt underneath, exposing his muscled torso.

I looked away with a firm scowl, trying to calm the rising panic in my blood. This man surely had somewhere else to be and would be on his way.

Ariana cleared her throat and stepped toward me, almost protectively. “The fae like to welcome the entertainment who survive their first trial.”

My throat closed up and I could barely breathe. The fae was much taller than me, and he leaned one hand against the opposite side of the doorframe, keeping me from easily walking away. But as long as he was there, I was not going to take a single step inside the room.

“I’d love to help you get acquainted with this place,” he said with a hungry smile. When he leaned forward, I tilted my head back against the wall, palms starting to sweat. “I can even offer you protection in the next round of games, if you want it.” With his last word, his breath ghosted against my cheek and I heard his every intention in the timbre of his voice.

I did the only thing I could think of. I ran.

I darted down the hall, back the way we’d come. This place was fouler than any nightmare I could have dreamed.

I blasted out of the windowed hallway and wheeled around one corner, then two, taking a new hallway, then another. My shoes were making such a racket on the floor that I ripped them off my feet, threw them ahead of me, and kept running.

I would rather have drowned in the lake or been eaten by whatever swam in its depths than be forced to endure thewelcomethat awaited in my room.

What little food I’d eaten threatened to come back up as I ran. I had to escape this place or die trying. Father wouldn’t want me to bow my head to these wicked fae.

Another corner, another turn. A corridor, no windows, no doors. Two stairwells, another long hallway. Then a wall. I had reached the end of this escape route. No one chased after me, which only left a sinking feeling in my gut.

A large door braced with crisscrossed metal vines stood at the end of the hall. There was nothing else in this hall save the lightsthat came on as I ran past them. I still wasn’t used to this kind of magic. What must it be like not to have to light a room as you entered it?

I stopped and panted heavily as I stood in the empty hall. I listened, but there were still no sounds of pursuit. I couldn’t go back to my room. I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want to do anything the fae wanted me to do. I wanted to show them that I couldn’t be captured, cowed, and turned into their slave.

But I was so tired. Dancing for my life had taken so much more energy than I’d realized. I leaned against the wall and slid to the floor. My father had always said thatfeelinghelpless was what made one truly helpless.

But Papá, I am trapped here. Thanks to you.

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