Page 21 of Kings and Monsters

"What is it?" Rosa asked him, brushing her fingers down his back. He turned around in her embrace and drew the blade of the shaving knife against her pale throat. Her hands lifted up in shock, blood pouring over her beautiful dress.

"Try harder, you bitch," Balthasar muttered, and the illusion disappeared.

He was back in the Autumn Queen' chambers with a dead, female Seelie guard stumbling backward from where she had been teasing him in the illusion.

Bloody and mangled from days under the queen's knife, Balthasar launched himself at the guard, tearing out her throat with his teeth. Hot, heady fae blood shot through his veins, filling him with light. The magic healed over his wounds, his fingers growing back with painful speed. He was going to kill them all.

"Well, that was just rude," the queen said, watching placidly from her bed. She rose up in one languid movement.

Balthasar strained against his chains to reach her, but she held up a hand, and her magic locked him down.

"If you insist on acting like a beast, Balthasar Vane, I think it's time you became one," she said. She pulled a silver ring from her finger and held it over his heart. "I'll have your obedience, prince of death, one way or the other."

Balthasar screamed as the ring sprang to life and wicked veins of silver buried deep into his heart and chest. His bones began to crack and reshape themselves, he clawed at his head as antlers sprung out of it. Black fur burst out of his body, andhe was forced to his knees, his hands becoming wolf paws. His vision narrowed as his body stretched and changed.

When the pain finally stopped, the Autumn Queen unlocked his manacles. The part of him that was still Balthasar made to lunge for her, but his new body refused to obey.

The red lips of the Autumn Queen came down to kiss his furry head. "Come, my pet."

In the darknessof the oubliette, Nimue clutched at her heart, a scream ripping out of her. The connection to Balthasar and the other Seren Du shuddered deep inside of her. Tears ran down her face.

"Balthasar, what has she done to you…" she whispered, her arms wrapping tightly around herself.

Nimue knew the queen was mad, but she didn't think she would be stupid enough to kill a Seren Du. She scrambled across the floor to the loose tile and put her hand inside of it. Her magic trickled weakly inside of her as she tried to reach out for Rosa.

Rosa…Rosa… she called and was met with a solid wall. She pulled her hand out of the hole, curling up on the floor. She knew what it felt like to lose a great love, and if the queen had really killed Balthasar, Rosa's grief and anger would rip the Aos Si apart. Nimue could only hope Merlin wielded enough influence over her to stop her from walking into one of the queen's many traps.

Nimue went to sleep, whispering Merlin's name on her lips, and dreamed of him walking into the Underworld with Arthur and Rosa at his side. Even in the dream, she hoped he wasn't going to be that stupid.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Eirianwen had waited until the Seren Du family had walked through the gates to the sealed palace and then quietly slipped away with only Arthur noticing her leave. That didn't surprise her. Eirianwen didn't believe anything escaped his steady, kind gaze. She managed to move unnoticed through the crowd of curious Unseelie and found her way back to her family's house.

It had taken Eirianwen the better part of five hundred years to convince the scattered Unseelie to return to the Night Courts and to use their collective magic to restore the warding. Once they had returned, life had gotten safer, if not entirely better.

It wasn't until she had bathed and wrapped herself in one of her father's old night robes that she began to shake with hunger. She went to her supply of vials in her bedroom and hoped the enchantment on them had kept the blood fresh. She tipped three down her throat before the shaking stopped.

She had survived on the small animals that she'd hunted the past few days, and Bleddyn hadn't suspected a thing. He hadn't noticed when Zalan—perceptive, clever Zalan—had given her a jug of blood while she had stayed at Gwaed Lyn. Zalan didn't tell anyone, hadn't even questioned her about it, though she'd neverbeen a blood drinker before her death. He'd just known what she had needed and given it to her with a simple, "Tell Bleddyn."

Eirianwen hadn't a quiet moment with him since the day with the traps, everything else happening afterward more important than the craving that now consumed her.

When Eirianwen had set out on a scouting mission six months ago, she never would have imagined that she'd be returning with the remnants of the Seren Du bloodline. She'd almost died from thirst in the damn pit of the queen's. If it hadn't been for the Seelie guard that was now her spy, she would've gone crazy with it. She needed wine. Lots of wine.

"Damn you, Bleddyn," she muttered. She uncorked a bottle and downed half of it. Seeing him across the battlefield, the look on his face, as if she was a horrific miracle. She knew the feeling. She had thought he would come back to the Aos Si, and after three millennia, she'd stopped waiting.

She had fought for her people since the queen had left her for dead, sacrificed for them, bled for them, and dragged them forwards to make them believe in the future. Bleddyn had placed his sword in the earth and had accomplished more in one night than she had been able to do in the past hundred years.Bastard.

The streets were already humming with his arrival and about what it might mean. Generals of militias that would have argued to join her would trip over themselves to swear allegiance to Bleddyn Seren Du.

She wanted to hate him. Shedidhate him, but seeing him restored in the forest, she couldn't have bent her knee fast enough. That damn link between the Unseelie and their king had made her drop faster than any true allegiance. It had helped him being glamoured and alien looking. As soon as that was stripped away, the powerful fae she had remembered was suddenly there. Emotion and memory had almost sent her running into hisarms. Gods, it was pathetic how happy she was to see him back in his full Unseelie form.

Curled up in her own bed, Eirianwen finally went to sleep, feeling safe for the first time in months. She had only just drifted off when her layers of security wards tripped and jolted her awake.

Bleddyn Seren Du was standing on her doorstep, looking distracted and upset. Any anger she had managed to feel the hours before suddenly didn't matter.

"What's happened?" she asked. "Is it the queen?"

"It's my son. That bitch has done something to Balthasar. I can feel it." His hands clenched into fists, anger and despair radiating off him.

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