Page 50 of Fate and Flame
“You have to hold still. Do you hear me?”
She didn’t. Blood poured from her nose, ears, and mouth.
I slammed my magic into her so fast she jolted. I moved first to her punctured lung and then realized the sword had pierced her heart. I fought like hell to save my mate’s mother. I gave as much as I possibly could to her, grasping the cusp of life within her and holding it firmly as I worked. Until a white-hot, searing pain came from Nadra. I lost my breath, my vision, my entire grip on reality as I realized something terrible had just happened to her while I had been trying and failing to save her mother.
“Temir,” Rhogan yelled, grabbing me.
I couldn’t respond. Couldn’t move as every muscle in my body locked up and I too, had blood trailing from my nose and ears. He called for me in the distance, but I couldn’t respond. One moment I was in the rebel compound and the next I was a million miles away, drifting through the rolling pain within my body.
Chapter Thirteen
Ara
Leora never returned. At first, I was glad she probably found a way to get out of the castle and deliver my message to Fen, but as time passed by so slowly, I worried that didn’t happen at all. I knew she was content to stay in the sea, and she hadn’t complained about her job once. Maybe she didn’t mind being enslaved.
I tried at least a million times to get the cuffs off my hands, even cried out to Aibell. Once utter boredom took over in the unending sea of black hell, I began speaking to the beast that lurked somewhere beyond. I had decided he was a male, lurky, ocean beast. A female wouldn’t have been quiet for this long. She probably would have eaten me days ago.
He never answered, but as time went on, I became more and more confident that I was right about something else being in here with me. He knew most of my life story, what I really thought about Leora’s food, and all the ways I planned to kill the sea queen the second I figured out how to free myself.
The water would still when I talked and jerk me around when I was done. The presence became like a distant pet I couldn’t touch or see. But I couldn’t even see my hands, so I didn’t hold that against him.
“I had a pet once,” I told him. “A tiny tree sprite I kept in a jar by my bed. I had him for a whole two hours before my father forced me to apologize and let him go. Now, I know what you’re thinking. That’s not a real pet. But one day his mother came after me with a pair of kitchen shears and I locked her away for three days until she apologized. But then I let her go too. She wasn’t nearly as pleasant as her son, but also, my father was right. Being a prisoner sucks.”
I moved my hands through the sand and continued the longest endless day of my life. Without the sun, it was so hard to tell how much time had gone by. It was probably a year. Or maybe even two. I was starving. That’s all I knew. So hungry, I think I would have eaten another sea slug.
Finally, as if my thoughts were heard, the door opened. I whipped around, expecting to see Leora, but instead, it was the dark-haired mermaid who had captured me, her silhouette lit only by the faint light in the hall behind her.
“Enjoying yourself?” she asked.
“Oh yeah. It’s a real party in here. You should come back later.”
“The queen has called for you to be brought before the court.”
“Oh, shoot. My schedule’s full today. Maybe another time.”
She didn’t appreciate my humor as she reached forward, grabbed the cuffs, and pulled me from the room. A rush of bubbles circled me and swept away as my eyes adjusted to the light. The mermaid didn’t seem to notice. Apparently, solitude was not great for my mind.
Past the crowds of sea fae, down the darkened halls of embedded seashells and sculpted bones, I was once again dragged to the center of the throne room and shoved before the queen. The creepy eyes of a thousand gathered fae watched me. Some in chains and some not. I noticed more servants than I had the time before as I searched faces looking for Leora, for her comforting glow, but I couldn’t find her.
“Something catch your attention?” Morwena asked, bringing my gaze forward.
“Just wondering how you eat fish when you literally are one.”
“No matter. I’ve brought you here today because I’ve come to a rather disappointing conclusion.”
“It wasn’t just a rash?”
“You are insufferable, girl,” she snapped.
“We all need goals, Morweenie.” I shrugged, letting the weight of the chains pull me down.
Her lips pulled back to bare her teeth as her body coiled like a muscle. “King Autus will never stop hunting you. He’s after the Wild Hunt and some damn door. I hoped that would keep him distracted, but alas, it has not.”
“Guess you should have kept your mouth shut about me. Then he wouldn’t have known.”
The room shifted at my boldness, and it brought me a small bit of joy.
“Oh yes, but you know how royalty can be. Always trying to show off the upper hand.”
