40. Whats Left of Me

The phantom queen tilts her head to the side, and the motion sends her long black hair cascading down her shoulder. "Why are you sitting on the floor?"

The sight of her knocks the wind out of me. So familiar, like a sickness. I know every inch of this woman by heart. Every single inflection of her voice. So many years without a viable lead… so many unfruitful hunts…

I can't believe she's here. I've both dreaded and dreamed of this moment. A chance to kill her once and for all.

"It's not—" Nell says quickly.

Morrigan drowns out the rest of her sentence. "Nell here has only been spying on you, and reporting everything to me."

I summon every ounce of the old Damian I still possess to the surface and chuckle at the obvious lie, pushing my bluffing skills to their limits.

I can't fight a dozen more spiders. Despite the merge last night, I'm still at a tenth of my usual strength, and basically an ant compared to the king I was before the curse.

The arrogant curl of her mouth waivers. "Why are you laughing?"

Morrigan "Rye" Quinn loves to play games, but she would never have asked another woman to seduce me. No… Her plan sidetracked, and she's scrambling.

"If you need to scheme so hard, you must not be ready to fight me." I stretch my lips into a cruel smile.

She mirrors it right back. "Please. See for yourself." She backtracks and opens her arms to the scenery behind her. "They add a little something, don't you think?"

My pulse throbs. The gardens are crawling with spiders. A hundred of them at least.

"Damian, I swear I didn't know." Nell inches closer.

I raise my hand to warn her off. I need her to stay safe between Two and Three. "I know." I can't afford to look at her, but I hope she knows I still trust her. "Hiding within the Demeter court… It must have been hell for you, Rye. You went through all that trouble to spy on me?"

The familiarity in the nickname irks my tongue. It's a painful reminder of how I almost married this woman, and her presence brings out a side of me I thought I'd buried for good.

She crosses her arms over her chest. "When she returned to you early, I knew you were about to win your stupid bet. But you know me. I can pivot."

I'm too weak to summon nightmares to the fight. Too weak to win this outright. If the spiders attack, most of my hunters will die, and for what? For a dying king?

Exhaustion takes hold of my body. I've been working my fingers bloody for decades, barely holding on. "What do you want? My crown?"

With an exaggerated sigh, Rye walks away. The wind blows her hair forward as she reaches the railing and glances down to the interior courtyard with her arms braced on each side of her. "I've only ever wanted to marry you. I never asked for anything else. You've done all of this to yourself with your stubbornness."

The nerve…I rub down my face, feeling like I'm back at square one. "I told you before I'd never marry you."

"But your life is not the only one hanging in the balance anymore." Her tongue darts out to wet her red-painted lips. "You won't survive Morheim without Nell's magic, and you know it. So you either steal her essence right now, and we can fight like grown-ups, or admit that you're not willing to risk one hair on her head. Make one last deal with me, darling. You used to love our lovers' quarrels."

A dry chortle escapes me. "We were never in love, Rye."

Longing and desire flash in her eyes. "Mm. I remember it differently." She turns to Nell and winks. "He's a greedy lover, isn't he?"

"Don't"—my jaw clenches hard enough to hurt—"speak to her."

Rye used her to get to me, and I never saw it coming. I will never forgive myself.

"I should have known that you weren't telling me the whole truth, Penny. But you played the part of the demure, virginal princess so well."

Nell bares her teeth in warning. "You've been lying all this time. Don't pretend to care for me or Cece."

"I guess I don't." Rye's conspiratorial smile vanishes, replaced by pure disdain. "Given how highly you think of yourself, it must sting that you didn't figure it out sooner. I think it was pretty obvious that I wasn't in it for the joy of fucking a drunk brute and raising his spoiled magic brat. Your mother had more instinct. That's why I had to kill her."

"You monster!" Nell shrieks.

Three wraps an arm around her waist in time to stop her from running blindly at Morrigan, but Two marches out to the balcony with an equal spark of madness.

"Fuck it. Let's kill the bitch," he says.

Three licks his lips, his gaze riveted on our ex-fiancé. The third fraction of my shredded soul looks the phantom queen up and down like he wishes to kill and fuck her all at once. That traitor.

I raise a hand to calm them down. "Nobody moves."

A delighted giggle slips from Rye's throat. "Still fighting amongst yourselves, are you? Let me see if I remember…" She bites down on her bottom lip. "Ah… yes.

One dark shard to hunt nightmares.

A second, wicked piece for dreams.

Three for the fantasies we cannot speak.

Four for a man to simply be."

My teeth grit together. "I should never have breathed a word of that wretched spell."

In the gardens below, a cluster of spiders use their long, lethal legs to drag my hunters across the clearing one by one, each of them bound and bundled in webs. The creatures transport them to the foot of the Hawthorn and hang them from the branches like fucking Christmas ornaments.

Rye was just buying time with her speech, waiting for them to present me with a complete picture of my failure.

I'd rather die than marry her, but maybe it's all I deserve.

"It's time to choose, Damian. Marry me under the Morheim moon, and your little princess, hunters, and sprites will be saved. No one else has to die."

What's the alternative? Fight to the death and drag everyone with me? Even if I manage to kill Rye, I can't take on that many dreamcatcher spiders. Not before they kill the hunters. Not before they kill Nell.

A dry-heave rocks my sternum. "And you promise not to harm her in any way. You will let her live her life? No tricks?"

Rye's hazelnut eyes widen, and her demeanor loses its villainous quality, replaced by the poise of a woman who can taste her victory. And she knows enough not to squander it by gloating. "I swear it."

My arms fall at my sides. "You have a deal."

"No!" Nell screams. My kitten scratches her way out of Three's hold and lunges forward. Her arms fly around my neck, and she wraps herself around me with the strength and speed of an ensnarer vine. "Take my magic and kill her instead. Please."

I nuzzle the side of her face and breathe in deep. I want to imprint her scent in my memory before I release her from the promise that brought her to my doorstep. I want to remember the feel of her skin. The beauty of her eyes. For a moment in her arms, I felt like a man again—foolish as it was.

I bury a hand in her white-blond hair, and the silky strands snake around my fingers. "Don't cry for me, kitten. I will visit you in your dreams until the day I die." I peck her lips, knowing I'm seeing her for the last time in this life. "Penelope Emanuelle Darcy, I release you from the deal."