Page 8 of Brutal Fae King
“Wait. What does the witch mean?” I ask.
“No one knows,” the bitter one grunts. “But after they leave to go tothe witch,they don’t come back.”
A harshBANGmakes me jump out of my skin.
“Quiet down in there!” aguard snarls.
I freeze, tingling from head to toe. There’s a small cluster of guards behind the one who spoke, and as the guard walks forward and unlocks the door to my cell, all of them walk in. They all gather around me and one of them grabs a wrist before the lead guard starts unlocking my shackles. As soon as I’m released, the ones holding my wrists drag me forward, and the others go behind me.
“What are you doing?!” I demand.
They start dragging me forward.
“You’re going to see the witch,” the lead guard grunts. “Now stand up and walk straight!”
I scream and shout, trying to stop them, but they drag me anyway.
The guards drag me to a corridor in the middle of the castle, and one of them darts forward to open a door. The door seems to open into swirling darkness, like it opens into the depths of space, and I scrape my heels against the floor to try and resist them.
“What is that?” I shout. “What is that?!”
They don’t answer me. They just keep shoving me, pushing me into the room. The darkness envelopes me. I hear a door echo as it slams behind me.
My ears start washing. My eyes burn. The darkness is warm and smells like burning flowers. The air is warm, but it feels cold as it flows in and out of my mouth.
“Open your eyes.”
The voice is soft and feminine. I have to fight myself to open my eyes. In front of me is a ghostly figure, an extremely tall, thin woman. I feel like I can almost see through her, but the room I’m in is so dark I can barely tell. Her face is snow white, her black hair and black dress melding together at her shoulders. Her piercing ice blue stabs into my own eyes, but I keep her gaze. Then, the woman smiles slowly.
“Impressive,” she purrs.
“Impressive, how?” I ask.
“The king has his guards take many a human in to see me. Regardless, it has been a long time since a human has looked me in the eye,” she murmurs
She glides toward me—it’s like her legs move, but not enough to actually walk, yet she flows through the air toward me anyway. Once she gets close, she produces a small vial of something. It looks like liquid silver.
“Drink this,” the phantom woman says.
“Why should I?” I demand.
“The guards still wait outside,” she purrs. “They will kill you if you don’t.”
“And what will the liquid in the vial do?”
“Hopefully, nothing,” the woman replies.
She presses it into my hands, and I consider my options. Not only could those guards kill me, but I don’t doubt this woman could as well; she’s clearly… something else.
I put the vial to my lips and take a sip from it. I was expecting a metallic taste, but surprisingly, I just taste water.
“How was that?” she asks.
“I don’t taste anything,” I answer.
The woman then smiles wider.
“Then congratulations, My Queen,” she says.
