Page 12 of Crown of Wrath

And I hit the ground.

I land on my toes, the impact moving from the balls of my feet to my ankles as I let my heels hit next. Then to my knees as my legs bend. Then to my waist as I fall into a crouch, my body leaning forward.

Like a piece of paper unfolding in reverse, I go from standing straight up into a folded up Immortal in less time than it takes to breathe, and nearly all the force of the fall is absorbed in the movement. I stand back up and glance to the sky where Darian stands on the edge of the tower, wings growing from his back.

He’s staring at me, but I ignore him and go to my room. I’d meant to get away from everyone, not end up in a private conversation with Darian. All three of myfriendsare valuable to me, but I don’t want these kinds of conversations. They’re too reminiscent of how things were in the past.

Maeve is gone. I’m the Queen of Earth, and trying to dredge up memories of how Maeve felt is a recipe for pain, not for productivity.

Chapter 7

Binding any of the Fae in iron or steel will prevent their magic from working unless they are very powerful, with the exception of the House of Steel. The magic from that House is unaffected by steel as the power never leaves their body.

~Sir Alistair Hawking, Magical Combat for Humans

Cole

An entire room made of steel. Floors, ceiling, walls, and door. Every inch from top to bottom is covered in it. I attempt to summon flames to my fingers, and the power is drained from me almost instantly. Only the slightest spark appears.

This is what the House of Steel uses for its prison cells for good reason. It will be enough to keep my father secured here.

“This is excellent work,” I say, my altered voice reverberating through the cell.

King Aric looks at the room, his eyes going over the details. “How thick do the walls need to be?” he asks. “To hold the strongest of High Fae, I mean.”

“It doesn’t need to be very thick. The same thickness as a breastplate is sufficient. The thickness is not as important as the coverage. Even a small, two-inch long segment that isn’t covered in steel will reduce the effectiveness drastically. Iron works as well, but I’m not sure of the specifics on that. We never use it since it rusts too easily, and who wants to oil prison cells?”

Aric’s eyes sharpen at my less than formal tone. I’ve never spent this much time as the Shade before, and I slipped for a moment. “We’ll be back sometime today or tomorrow. When we leave this room, no one should enter this cell for any reason. The prisoner we’ll be bringing back is one of the most dangerous High Fae alive, and no human will be safe even in a completely steel covered room.”

King Aric nods to me. “I have no desire to have a High Fae loose in my castle, much less one that doesn’t want to be here. We’ll leave the door locked.”

I move to the door where Darian, Lee, and Maeve stand, and King Aric follows me. “It will do,” I say. “Now it’s time that we go back to Draenyth.”

Maeve nods, completely calm and collected, while Darian and Lee look more than a little nervous. It’s for a good reason. We’re the most wanted people in the world, and there won’t be any real safe houses in Draenyth.

That doesn’t matter. We have to get my father away from Gethin. Shadows pool at my feet, and I grip Darian and Lee’s hands. Maeve holds onto my sleeve, not nervous at all. Why would she be?

I glance at Aric, who’s watching us intently, and then we’re falling through the floor as the shadows bring us to the void between worlds. Immediately, the pressure of this place presses against me. Darian and Lee’s hands tighten on mine, their fear rolling through them like a wildfire burning through a forest in summer.

I imagine one of the few safe houses that I trust to still be hidden. Right there in the Keep of Flames, it’s a secret passage that even my father didn’t know about. It’s hidden in the western guard tower. I connect myself to the shadows that cling to the red marble that was my world for my entire childhood.

This was the place I went to when I was hurt and couldn’t let my father see. It’s different now, though. Forgotten. Unused. Abandoned.

I draw us out of the void and into my safe house. Pain shoots through my chest at the amount of power it takes to haul all of us through the void. It will take more than a day to recover from that. I… I don’t know if I’ll be able to get us home tomorrow. I’d built up so much excess power from deals that it surprises me just how draining that long of a shadow walk can be.

A gasp escapes my lips, and I crumple to the floor. Darian and Lee kneel beside me, their worry overcoming their fear of the void. Maeve knows what happened, and she isn’t worried at all.

She moves to the wall and puts her hand against it. This is the first time since she’s had control of her House of Earth powers, and when she presses her fingers against the red marble, she laughs.

“Did you know that the other guardhouses have secret rooms like this?” she asks. My vision is blurry, and I’m having trouble catching my breath, so I don’t answer. It doesn’t seem to matter to her. “I bet that the House of Earth is full of secret places. I wonder if the House of Shadows is…”

At first, Maeve sounds excited at the thought of secrets to discover, but at the mention of her mother’s House, her voice wavers. Then she turns to me, and I meet her eyes. Thin streams of shadows trail from her fingertips.

Her heart is pounding faster than normal, but only for a few seconds as she stares at me. Then she shakes her head and turns back around to face the wall where the hidden door lies. “I need to rest for a few minutes,” I say. I slowly stand up and move to a chair that I put here all those centuries ago. A thick layer of dust covers everything in the room, from the wooden chairs to the small bed to the long forgotten empty clay jugs I’d kept water in. A small collection of books lies on a table, and it seems to be nearly as much a part of the room as the furniture and just as coated in dust.

“Don’t rush,” Lee says. “There’s no need to hurry. The last thing we need to do is go in and make a mistake because you’re too tired for shadow walking.”

She glances at Darian, who looks sick to his stomach. He’s never done as well with shadow walking, especially after Maeve almost let them both be taken by the void.

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