Page 80 of Flirting with Darkness

"Let's go."

"I don't have shoes," I mention, though shoes are the least of my concern.

What I truly lack right now is freedom. And perhaps dignity.

"Do you deserve shoes, given your tone and your misdeeds toward your master?"

Master.

The word brings bile up my throat.

I can't say anything that would work in my favor, so I remain silent and follow, barefoot, each step shifting this poor excuse for a dress so as to reveal glimpses of my flesh underneath.

How could this happen to me?

Suddenly, I think of Scarlett. Careful, dull, sweet Scarlett, whose life bores me to tears.

My lips trembles, but I don't sob. I won't give him the satisfaction of seeing me break.

At least not yet.

8

AEDRON

Over the last decades,I've travelled all of Ilvaris and beyond with the Hunt, but never the Hollow.

At the core of our world, the once great, sacred lands to all the folk lost its shine since the death of its mistress; me most of all. No one has ever accused me of being sentimental, but I mourned Morrigan's death, if only because under her rule, we were allowed to live as we saw fit, true to our natures. Still, I did not avoid these lands. I simply never needed to come here because the eldritch cannot cross its borders. Morrigan's powers—the might of all the original courts—still linger, though her bones have returned to the air, water, earth, and ashes.

I feel the shift the moment my carriage crosses the bounds of the wild and enter the blessed domain of the forgone high court.

It is here, in this land, where no one can spill blood lest they wish to be cursed sevenfold, that the conclave is held every hundred years.

The four warhorses I've ridden since the dawn of time and will ride until my last breath fly at great speed, passing all other carriages, either because they've recognized me and slowed out of deference, or because none are faster than the wild steeds.

"I've never reached the High Keep in less than a day," Silevra muses, gawking out the window as we approach the empty halls. "Your beasts are beyond compare."

I don't bother to attempt a reply.

Though none have entered the castle in a thousand years, it stands as proud and untouched as the day its queen raised it from the ground, waiting to be claimed.

All doors, all openings have remained shut.

We're to camp on the extensive grounds, that once were too well-groomed. Now the overgrown briars and wild things roaming in their shadow are quite to my taste.

My horses do not need to be commanded to gallop straight to our place, right at the edge of the queen's grove.

The sea princess frowns."Aren't we to stay closer to the castle?"

I understand her confusion.

The seelie courts never united, each of their lords too proud of their own power to bend the knee. Their seat, far up in the western peaks, is a council where each monarch has a voice.

In contrast,I am king of the Wild Court,andlord of all who consider themselves unseelie. I may listen to the will of the lower kings and queens, but my word is law to all. While the high throne remains vacant, there is no one with more power in all of Ilvaris. Not even the prince of the bone court, though he had the reign of the kingdom these last hundred years.

When the locations were assigned at the first conclave, I was allocated a large area right at the steps of the keep, which shows the herald of the crown knows nothing of the wild folk, and even less about me. I took this spot right at the edge of the woods, upsetting the former clear hierarchy. The higher ranked lords were closer to the keep before. Now many set their tents around me.

"Stay where you wish," I say, dismissively. "Your mother will have her own camp."

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