Page 3 of What Lurks Between the Fates

Clink.

My shoulders throbbed with each sound of metal smacking together. An involuntary noise that seemed to come from above me, pulling me from the moment of peace that wasn’t mine to have. I lingered in that strange place between sleeping and awake, where the sounds surrounding my body filtered through my mind without drawing me from my slumber.

“I don’t want to wake up,” I whispered, uncertain if the words ever reached my lips or if the protest was only inside the confines of my mind.

“And yet you must. It is not your time to die just yet, Estrella Barlowe,” a male voice answered.

My eyes popped open, actively searching out the man who spoke the words. The man who had the voice that felt so familiar and somehow wasn’t all. He was a stranger to me, a haunting from the deepest recesses of my mind that I couldn’t seem to grasp. He slipped through my fingers like water in the river, drifting away before I could focus on him.

My stomach swayed as reality crashed down upon me. My vision lurched, and my head throbbed. My shoulders strained as I unsuccessfully tried to move them. I was strung up by my wrists, and the bite of pain spread through them and down my forearms as I hung over a pit in the stone floor.

Snakes coiled among themselves in that crater, their bodies twining and writhing as if they could climb upon themselves to reach me. I didn’t fear snakes any longer, but I tried to curl my legs up for a moment, avoiding them. Would the serpents of Alfheimr obey my command just as those of Nothrek had?

Hands touched my feet, and I swung forward. My stare locked on the eyes of the male who had knocked me out and carried me. His stare was intent, a smirk gracing the lips on his ethereal face. His eyes glowed green in a way that put mine to shame, almost luminescent in the darkness of the room surrounding us.

“Ah, the pretty birdie is awake at last,” he murmured, turning toward the dais and leaving me to sway like a pendulum.

Back and forth. Over and over. My joints groaned with every swing of the iron chain above my head. Rope had been wrapped and knotted around my wrists and was attached to the chain. It chafed my flesh where it restrained me, growing slick with the blood that leaked from the abrasions.

The male’s steps were casual as he approached the stairs at the front of the room, relaxed as I squirmed through the pain in my shoulders.

Two enormous stone columns stood to either side of the staircase the Fae male ascended. A snake entwined each of them, etched in perfect detail and looking eerily similar tothe ones below me that waited for their next meal. At least two dozen Fae waited at the foot of the dais, staring up at me with devious grins on their faces. They murmured softly, their voices echoing and carrying around the room. I couldn’t isolate a single whisper or voice. They droned, buzzing like the bees in the gardens during summer.

Metal cages hung from the ceiling high above, filled with creatures. Human and Fae alike, they existed in various stages. Some still breathed, though the wounds upon their bodies implied they’d be better off dead.

A woman sat in the cage closest to me, what remained of her face pressed against the iron bars so that I could stare into the eyes of one of the first women to show me kindness in Nothrek. Half of her face was untouched, unblemished by the violence that had torn the other side to shreds. Her body lacked skin. One side was burnt, blackened by flame, while the other half had been peeled away in strips, hanging from the bars of her cage like ribbons.

Adelphia stared, blank and unseeing, at the wall of the throne room, her eyes clouded over in white. I squeezed my own closed, swallowing down the burn that tried to claw its way up my throat. The knowledge that her death had been so horrific clung to me, promising to taunt me in the dead of night. I would see those eyes for the rest of my life, the first injustice of what I suspected would be many to occur during my time in the Court of Shadows.

I forced my eyes open, following the path the male cut up the steps. At the top of the stairs was a stone dais, and Mab sat upon a throne crafted from skulls. Fallon stood beside the throne where Mab perched, wincing back from her so-called mother as Mab poked and prodded at her with a disgruntledlook upon her face. My heart soared at the sight of seeing Fallon alive and unharmed—at least as far as I could tell.

Given the fate that had met Adelphia in the time I slept, I couldn’t begin to guess how long I’d been unconscious.

Or the things Mab could do to my friend during that time.

“What do you mean you haven’t got any magic? You’re mydaughter,” Mab said, her voice ringing through the crowded throne room. I glanced at the select few Fae who had been chosen to stand with Mab on her dais, noting the way they watched Fallon with a mix of both trepidation and excitement.

None stepped forward to help Fallon when Mab reached out with thin hands, grasping Fallon by the chin and pressing a black nail into each of her cheeks.

“I’ve never used magic,” Fallon said, and it was only through the bond between us that I heard the whisper of her words. Only through my knowledge of her that I read them upon her lips. I would have known her voice anywhere, been able to separate it from a crowd of hundreds.

Blood welled beneath Mab’s thumb as her talon dug into Fallon’s flesh. I pulled on my bond with Caldris at the sight of it as I looked around the room for him, not allowing myself to feel the panic and worry over where he was and what might have been done to him. I would have known if he’d been taken from me. It would have splintered my soul in two. There was no sign of him in the groups waiting; no sign of the male who would have never chosen to be far from me—especially not when I suffered. The bond between us was silent, the threads associated with his magic frayed and faint.

I grasped one of the golden threads that radiated off a skull from Mab’s throne, twisting my numb, bloodless fingers around it and pulling it toward me. The edges were frayed andblackened, as if the thread itself was ready to fade into the shadows as it stretched out toward Mab herself, swaying to be closer to her.

The skull shifted, turning to face Mab. It drew her attention, and her face paled for just a moment before the thread fell out of my hold. I couldn’t hold on to it, and worry struck me in the gut for my mate. For what must have been done to him to weaken him so much that I couldn’t pull from his power at all.

I didn’t dare to touch my own magic, having the distinct feeling that it would only draw attention to myself that I didn’t want. I wanted Mab to release Fallon, wanted her to forget all about her fury over her daughter not possessing magic, but I didn’t want to turn that anger on myself.

Mab narrowed her eyes on Fallon, glancing cautiously back toward the skull that had changed positions and shaking her head before she finally turned to look at me. Her dark eyes collided with mine from across the cavernous throne room, making my heart skip in my chest. There was something so empty in her gaze. It lacked all humanity and emotion until only a thirst for power remained.

She stood from her throne as the Fae male reached the top of the stairs, using graceful hands to lift the skirts of her gown as she descended the first steps. Her pointed shoes touched the red carpet that ran up the center of the stairs, the train of her dress gliding out behind her smoothly as she moved.

The stone of the steps was gray, but the dark speckles upon it reflected centuries of torment. There was only so much one could do to wash away the relentless flow of blood that must have lain upon those steps through time. The crown atop her head gleamed with silver, the bright color jarring against thedarkness of her hair. Shadows bled from it the same way they did with Caldris’s crown, but it was the shimmering black gem the size of my palm that drew my eye.

I knew it from the story Caldris had told me all those weeks ago in the sanctuary of our cave, huddled beside the fire.

The Cursed Gem. Delivered to the Seelie Court by the dwarves of Elesfast. Created by Edrus himself.

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