Page 66 of What Lurks Between the Fates

“I know about the sacrifices,” Estrella said, the grimace in her voice reaching me even though I could not see her face.

We approached the much smaller doors to the pens, making our way inside and out of the brutal elements of the Shadow Court. Some areas were more lush; the Cove was as beautiful as any of the beaches of the Summer Court, but the area directly surrounding the capital was far from it.

Estrella dropped my jacket to hang from her shoulder as we stepped inside, shaking it off until the floor was covered in salt.

The pens were lower, settled into a pit in the center of the room as we all stood around the edge. Estrella glanced down,studying the humans who huddled in a mass in the center of the pit.

“What is this?” she asked, looking at me as she moved closer to the edge.

“This is where Mab keeps the sacrifices until the time comes for them to be given to Tartarus,” I explained.

They’d be taken care of to the best of the Sidhe’s ability, well fed and kept safe in the interim, even if they weren’t given the comforts they should have been. There were no beds within the pit, nothing but sand and rock walls to surround them.

How far we’d fallen from the old days.

Prior to Mab taking over the Faerie courts, prior to the war with the humans, those who were sacrificed to the Tithe had volunteered for the honor. They’d been human and Fae alike, beings who grew tired of living or were ill in ways the healers and witches of Alfheimr couldn’t help. Humans who were approaching death in old age.

It hadn’t been a perfect system, but it hadn’t involved the regular, ritualistic murder of seven people.

“They’re treated terribly in their final weeks of life,” Estrella said, shaking her head sadly.

Her anguish wafted off her in waves, to the point that I didn’t need our bond to sense her feelings. Her bleeding, broken heart would be the end of her one day, making her do things for creatures who didn’t deserve her loyalty.

I would do everything in my power to protect her from the consequences of such care, to save her from those who would use it against her, but sometimes I wished she could harden herself in the way that came with centuries of witnessing life and death.

But I loved the joy that lit her face when she uncovered a new wonder, and in the same breath knew I would miss thenewnessthat existed within her when she’d seen it all and lived through it all.

“Why didn’t they just sacrifice the Fae during the years that the Veil meant they couldn’t find Changelings? I can’t imagine Mab has any hesitation in killing her enemies. She could have used that as an opportunity,” Estrella said.

She was right. “Mab doesn’t kill often. She’d much rather torment her enemies for an eternity than give them the peace that comes with death. When she does kill, it’s usually in a moment of blind rage. She isn’t methodical about it, otherwise she would have been wise to keep Fae locked in the dungeon until the next Tithe. There will be consequences for the fact that so much of the boundary has been weakened. Aside from the creatures that have escaped and terrorized the courts already, I cannot imagine Ubel will be pleased that he’s been denied the souls he was promised.”

“What do you think will happen?”

“We have to sacrifice a more powerful soul to the magic alongside the humans as an apology for the lack of payment these last years,” I explained, heaving a sigh as I tried not to think about the possibility of either of us being chosen to pay the price.

I could fight. I could survive the battle if it meant I would be there to protect Estrella. But if Mab decided to treat her like one of the Gods, I wasn’t certain she was strong enough to protect herself. Her magic was strong, and she was good with a sword, but there was a difference between fighting humans and fighting the Gods themselves.

“A Sidhe?” she asked, swallowing as she stared at me.

She knew the answer to that, knew that the life of a Sidhe wouldn’t be enough to make up forcenturiesof missing souls.

“Mab summoned the remaining Gods here because she has determined that we will all fight to the death. Whoever is deemed to be the weakest of us will be given to Tartarus on the day the holly tree burns to ash,” I said, grasping her by the chin and turning her to face me. I cupped her cheek as I stared down at her, leaning forward to touch my forehead to hers.

“But you—”

“It won’t be me,” I vowed. I wouldn’t allow anything to take me from her.

Especially not something as permanent as death.

I looked up as Mab stepped up beside us, her dark eyes gleaming as she undoubtedly read the realization on Estrella’s face. “Don’t worry, Little Mouse. Whatever you are, you’re no God. I’ve no interest in your soul.”

Estrella’s chest quaked with the slightest sign of her relief, filling me with agony. Of all the ways to die, of all the ways for her to fear she might lose me,thiswould be the most traumatic for her.

It was a curse, as if the sacrifice was hunting her through her life, waiting to claim the soul that was promised. But I was the God of the Dead, and I would not bow to death.

Estrella stepped closer to the edge, moving away from Mab. I nearly reached out to pull her back, fearing how close she came to that sudden drop. To imply she was so fragile that the drop into the pit would hurt her would have been an insult to who she was—what she’d become.

Even if it was my own selfishness that drove me to my desire, I couldn’t act on it. Not when she would condemn me for what she saw if she thought I’d had any part in it.

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