Page 9 of Lady of the Nightmares

And of what I knew might happen if, after all these years, I voiced the one secret I’d sworn never to speak aloud. “Just put it out!”

I moved faster backward out of the room before finally turning and sprinting for the corridor, away from the questions, from him, from the flames now burned into the backs of my eyelids. I could see the irony in it—I was literally running toward death and toward the hunts that, until this morning, I would have called the most frightening thing in my life. Now, I would rather be hunted every day than answer a single truthful question.

“I’ll wait for you to call for me,” he yelled after me, his voice echoing off the stone.

A chill ran down my spine, and I knew his predatory gaze would stay on me until I was out of sight.

Something Bael said to me on the day we met floated back to me, as if on a phantom wind.“I think it will be fun to watch you try and escape me, only to be caught in the end.”

LONNIE

THE DEPLETED QUARRY, INBETWIXT

Ishook myself, refocusing on the threat in front of me rather than the one who, for all I knew, still stood in the cage where I’d left him. “I think you should worry less about what the Everlasts think of me and more about what they’ll do to you if you try and take the crown,” I said with as much confidence as I could muster. “Your life expectancy will go up quite a bit if you walk away right now.”

I needed to take my own advice and stop worrying about where the royals were. It was for the best if the Everlasts kept their distance—the longer they stayed away, the better off I would be.

The nearest male sneered, his eyes fixing on my heavy, obsidian crown. “Or, I could kill you and sell that trinket back to the highest bidder.”

Fair enough.Fuck, he wasn’t a total idiot.

I clenched my teeth together and slowly surveyed each male in turn. Each held a crossbow, all aimed at me and ready to fire in an instant. It felt like I was playing chess without enough pieces—and I was the queen.

“That’s not how it works,” I blurted out. “You can’t give the crown away. It’s magically bound to you.”

Lie.

If that were true, I’d already be long dead. The whole reason I was still standing was Prince Bael had bargained with me to hand over the crown to him after the final hunt in Aftermath in exchange for his protection.Some help that was, now.

“Who says?” one of the hunters jeered.

Dammit, I don’t know.Who would he care about? Or rather, who would he believe? “The priestesses at the Source.”

Another lie.

I had no idea if anyone still communed with the gods, now that the area surrounding the Source was a barren, war-torn wasteland, but I was betting that these Fae didn’t know either.

Sure enough, the three men stood stock-still as soon as the words left my mouth. Fear of the gods ran deep, and I supposed they forgot that humans could still tell untruths since they themselves were incapable of lying.

One of the men nudged their leader. “Maybe the Slúagh bitch is right. I don’t want to meet the royal executioner today.”

“Shut up,” the leader barked, his voice like gravel scraping against glass. He took a step toward me, his face breaking into a grin. “Don’t kill her, but take the crown. I’m willing to take my chances with a few priestesses.”

My stomach dropped with a sharp sense of dread. Well, I supposed I’d done my best, but now it was time to fight or flee.

I dragged my feet backward, feeling blindly for the edge of the cliff. The ground beneath me sloped down into a deep ravine and curled around a cavernous overhang framing paradise several hundred feet below. The water that had made me dizzy seemed infinitely better than taking my chances against three Fae males. My boot grazed the jagged edge of a flat stone, and I clenched my jaw in preparation for the gravity-defying feat. It was a gamble, but staying put was an even riskier option.

The nearest fairy lunged for me just as I threw myself backward into midair.Please, please, Source, let there be no rocks at the bottom.

For one wild moment, I seemed to hang, suspended in midair, before I was plummeting so fast into darkness I had no chance to think. Fear and adrenaline coursed through my veins, and tears streamed from my eyes. My stomach tickled, pulling tight, and far above, the distant shouts of the Fae grew faint, lost in the wind.

Then, all too fast, pain splintered my body, and I submerged into freezing darkness. Then, there was onlypain.Bone-crunching, mind-numbingpain.

For a moment, it seemed as if every bone in my body was breaking. As if all my muscles had stretched and torn, and the rocks I’d feared had indeed become my final resting place. Then, water closed over me, and I bobbed up again, my head breaking the surface.

I gasped for air that felt like it was tearing my throat, and I whimpered, my lungs screaming with the effort of every breath.

Alive—I’m alive.If I could have laughed, I would have, but every movement felt like murder.

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