CHAPTER 32

We’d been deceived from the moment we arrived .

Rinholm wasn’t empty of Hunters as we had been made to believe. Because, as we followed Aldrick through the castle, the hallways and rooms became thick with bodies. The stench of stale, sticky skin infected the air, successfully burying the sweet kiss of spring.

They were like statues. Unmoving and frozen, guarding the inner castle like a forest of waiting soldiers.

Duncan kept close to me. Even if I wished to reach out, I dared not. I could have brushed my fingers across his waiting body behind me, but any connection could’ve given us away. His solid presence was a shield at my back, and I was thankful for it. With the countless eyes following our every move, I couldn’t do anything but keep my gaze set on the back of Aldrick’s thinly silver-haired head as his presence parted the walls of Hunters like a rock did to a river.

“Pardon the audience,” Aldrick said, turning his face slightly until I glimpsed his hooked nose and drooping chin. “My creation requires the best of our numbers to protect it. Each man and woman has been hand-picked and would sacrifice themselves willingly to ensure the gate is safe from those who would wish to see it destroyed.”

This is what he was doing. Protecting the one thing that really could destroy the world as we knew it. Not the gate on Irobel, but here, in Wychwood – made by the madman himself.

“And you trust them all?” I asked, eyeing the stoic and still bodies.

A shiver coursed up my arm as a smile twisted Aldrick’s face. “I have peered through every thought and every memory that occupies their minds. There’s not a shadow that I have not infiltrated. Each of these brave humans has laid themselves bare for me. I trust them all, not because they have earned it, but because I have judged them and found them worthy.”

“Does that answer your inquiry?”

“Yes,” I replied aloud. If Aldrick heard the frozen sharpness of my voice, he didn’t react to it. “It does indeed.”

We finished our short journey in silence. I took the time to map out our surroundings, or the little I could see through the haze of Hunters standing around us. All I could do was memorise the turns. Keeping a trail clear in my mind for a way back… if that was ever an option. The second I killed Aldrick, we would have a wave of Hunters ready to fight for him. I was suddenly thankful for the proximity of our friends, even if I didn’t know where they were. When the time came, I would need them close.

The castle walls receded, giving way to an open garden brimming with light. If there had been doors to exit through, they had been long removed. From the jagged walls, it seemed something had torn them free with force.

The garden beyond revealed itself slowly the further I followed Aldrick into it. I couldn’t see much through the multitude of bodies, but I could hear everything. As I stepped out into the cooler air, I ducked with a gasp as the Draeic made their presence known. It was above this place that they flew in their endless circle, chasing one another’s tails in a circle of dark, scaled flesh.

“Only Duwar’s enemies should dread his hounds. Creations born of chaos power that even I cannot comprehend.” Aldrick pierced through my mind, searching for something, I was sure of it. “You are his champion, Kayne. You have nothing to fear from them.”

Aldrick saw the fright in my mind, an emotion even I couldn’t hide. But it wasn’t only the monster’s presence that scared me.

The faint pulling that I’d felt when we first arrived had returned. Perhaps it never disappeared, but I simply grew used to its call. Now, stepping free into the open garden within the heart of Rinholm Castle, it spiked with intensity.

Like the Draeic, the gate they flew above called to me, for I was its key.

Four mounds of dark stone speared through the earth and reached up to the heavens. Labradorite. Altar’s bones. Even from a distance, I could understand their sheer height and size. Decay spread beneath them. Like blood pooling from the body of a victim, the stones drew the life from the grass bed, turning it brown and wilting flora until they were unrecognisable.

I blinked and saw Gabrial’s vision. It was as if this scene had been plucked directly from it and recreated before me. She’d shown me the gate the Nephilim had protected in Irobel, but here one waited before me. Different in location, but the details were all the same.

But how? Aldrick said this success was down to Kayne, but Kayne had never seen this vision, and nor did I share it with him.

More questions overlapped others, and I knew I was missing something in the path to Aldrick’s success.

Hunters pushed Aldrick’s chair, wheeling directly through the circle the stones created. Whispers of silver-grey mist twisted around his chair, disturbed by his presence. I hadn’t noticed the sea of it hanging inches from the floor, as though repulsed by it.

Duncan kept me walking, his firm hand pressing into my back. I didn’t care if anyone noticed anymore. It was the least of our concerns. Instead, I took the quiet to filter through every conversation that Kayne had stolen information from. He had always been there, stealing knowledge and sending it to Aldrick, but he wasn’t the only one – that was clear now.

Kayne knew of our plans to infiltrate Lockinge. It was Kayne who tipped off Aldrick for our move to Aurelia. Jesi had been taken solely to punish me for Duncan’s affections. What else had he gleaned from me and shared with Aldrick?

“Would you care to do the honours? I would, but as you can see, my body is not as it once was,” Aldrick asked, arms open as he beckoned me toward him. At the side, his Hunters fussed over Kayne’s body. He was placed delicately at the base of one stone pillar and left slumped against it.

“I would,” I said, drawn forwards like a moth to a flame.

“I remember all the things you wished to do to him. Now is your chance. Even if his soul has departed, you can still leave your mark on the king’s skin. You have been patient for this moment. Come. Bleed the Icethorn King dry. For Duwar, and for your future.”

“For Duwar,” I muttered, stepping away from Duncan, whose fingers dropped hesitantly away.

Like the interior of Rinholm, its exterior was decorated with Hunters. All around the outer edges of the garden, a line of them waited. Hundreds of them, far more than the two of us could take. But as long as Aldrick died, I would follow in death happily.

They just stood still and watched. I felt every eye burning a hole through me. I risked a quick glance around. There were too many for me to take. There was no telling if the Hunters were powered with fey blood or mundane, but regardless, I couldn’t comprehend the number of them.

I wondered if they recognised the internal battle I suffered. Was it plastered across my face as each step toward the gate was like wrestling against the tide of an ocean? The curls of mist were corporeal, like fingers gripping onto my boots, trying to get a hold of them. My footsteps grew heavier the further I walked, and I was certain I felt a heavy vibration from the ground, as though it growled in threat or hummed softly in greeting.

“Isn’t the gate useless without the final key?” I asked, wishing to stall Aldrick with my questions. “Elinor still roams free.”

“All is in hand, Kayne. Thanks to your insight, we were ahead of the Oakstorm’s attack on our eastern borders. The summer court is fractured. It wouldn’t surprise me if their queen were returned to me by her late husband’s supporters. From what I have learned, Doran would have been an interesting man to break bread with. It is a shame someone of his ilk was taken from us too soon.”

I wasn’t surprised to learn of Aldrick’s knowledge of our plans. Part of me wondered if Kayne had revealed Elinor’s reasons for the attack on Elmdew. Did he already know that it was meant as a distraction for this very reason?

“Tell me what you need me to do with him,” I said, biting my nails into my palms to still my panic. “And I will do it.”

“Bleed him,” Aldrick rasped. “Altar’s bones will contain the Icethorn power. Just as ribs house the heart or the skull shields the brain, the stones will devour the key. Stain the ground red. Feed the gate.”

I knew that the death of a fey wasn’t required, but was an extra layer to Aldrick’s desire to be destructive. All it would take was the skin to touch that stone for long enough, and the key would slip free.

Which was why I couldn’t allow myself to get close enough, even if it lured me.

One look at Duncan and I caught the shake of his head. His dark forest eyes were wide, pleading. They screamed for me not to do it.

“Surely you would prefer to be the one to do it?” I asked, sauntering toward the slumped body. The second I took a blade and cut into Kayne’s skin, this would all be over. “I brought him for you. I wouldn’t want to take such an important moment from you, Master.”

“I flayed the Elmdew King and his consort.” Aldrick frowned as he spoke. It was the first time I noticed his impatience. “Once you skin your first fish, you have skinned them all. I admit I allow you to do this because Robin is past the point of putting up resistance. It is not as enticing when their minds are quiet.”

I swallowed hard. “I don’t have a knife on me.”

Aldrick clapped his crooked hands. “Supply Kayne with a blade.”

Before the command was completed, the Hunter closest to me shot forward. I tried not to allow my hand to tremble as I reached out and grasped the hand of the plain dagger held out for me. As my fingers curled around the leather-wrapped blade, I felt a shock of warmth. It was warm, the leather slick and sticky as it fitted into my palm.

Warm, hazel eyes glared back at me. The helmet did little to hide the bridge of freckles and a strand of fire-ruby hair. Her heat alone revealed who hid behind the Hunter’s outfit.

Althea Cedarfall, I’d recognise her in any life.

“Kayne, there is one more person I’d like to witness this success, someone who deserves to see Robin Icethorn cut open.” Aldrick gestured behind him, directly toward where Althea stood.

I thought it was all over, but one moment she was there, the next, she melted back into the wall of Hunters she had come from. Before I turned my back on them, I looked across the line. I searched for others who seemed out of place. Gyah, or Lady Kelsey. But among the line-up, I couldn’t identify Althea again. I just had to hope they were all there, like Althea, waiting to attack if the time required.

It wasn’t Althea who Aldrick had gestured to, but someone else.

Two Hunters forced the frail body of a fey out of the crowd. My heart lodged in my throat, and I was powerless to stop my reaction.

Jesibel limped ahead, a dirtied and torn dress hanging from her limp body. Just as I’d seen her in my dreams, she looked terrible. Gaunt and thin, skin marred with unknown substances, her cracked lips forged shut.

It was a miracle she was still standing. In fact, if the two Hunters didn’t hold her up, I hardly imagined she would be.

“A gift, Jesibel,” Aldrick called, gesturing down to the corpse before me. “All your help led to this. Do you see now that your constant attempts to resist me were wasted, for nothing? Robin Icethorn, your king, is dead. Now you can watch as he bleeds out before you.”

I couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything but look at Jesibel. Her gaze was fixed to the corpse, unblinking, skin pale as death itself. Duncan sensed my hesitation, hearing the name of the very person I’d have done anything to save.

“Kayne, you may begin.”

A cacophony of emotions burned through me. Fury, pain, anguish and sorrow. I longed for Jesibel to look up and meet my eyes. But her grief, her guilt, was so thick I could feel it even with our distance.

“Kayne?” Aldrick leaned forwards in his chair.

I was losing control, everything blurring before me. Slowly, I lifted my eyes and locked them with his, and watched Aldrick recoil slightly. “Is there a problem?”

“Yes.” It was all I could manage. Duncan tried to get closer to me, sensing how close I was to losing my sanity.

Aldrick might not have known it, but he’d just paraded my one weakness before me. He didn’t need his magic to ruin me, his actions against Jesibel had already done that.

But she was alive. That had to count for something. And I vowed that it would stay that way.

“You must have been so disappointed to have missed the murder of the Cedarfall Queen,” I said, voicing the confidence with rolled-back shoulders and a raised chin. It was easy to see Aldrick as the weak man he was. Curled up in a chair, with the inability to raise even a hand from its armrest. I glared down at him, hearing the leather of the warm blade squeak in my grasp. “Perhaps you would like me to describe it to you?”

I was vaguely aware of Duncan opening his mouth to say something, but no sound came out.

Aldrick’s lips pinched into a thin, tight line. I felt his power press into my mind again, searching as the beginnings of distrust were planted. The Mariflora kept his will at bay but did little to dilute his vile presence.

“I do hope that is not regret I am sensing,” Aldrick said.

“Regret?” I echoed, feeling my power swell in my chest. All I could think about was giving Althea enough time to get Jesibel to safety. That’s why she was here, I had to believe it. Althea had found what I needed her to, and she knew how it would affect me.

“No, not regret,” I forced out louder. “I just thought you might like to know what you have achieved?”

Aldrick’s eyes traced me, then pressed a bent finger to his lips. “No. I do not care how she perished. What matters is the Cedarfall key was collected and brought to me. That is where her power now resides.” Aldrick pointed to the large stone at the north of the forged circle. “As you will soon watch, it is like watering a flower on the brink of death. The stone will devour the key and hold it. If you were cursed with fey heritage, you would sense the gate. It grows stronger with the presence of each key.”

Oh, I felt it. The humming beneath my feet and the way I longed to reach out and dust my fingers across the stone at my back. It called to me, the song of power even I couldn’t explain.

Perhaps this is what enticed Aldrick. The whisper of Duwar promising power.

“Death seems like a steep price to pay.” It was hard not to smile at Aldrick, especially when one of his Hunters was currently moving through the crowd. I knew, without a doubt, it was Althea, getting closer to Jesibel, using Aldrick’s distraction as the time she needed.

Aldrick was entirely focused on me, sensing the oddity to our conversation. He leaned forward, grasping the arms of his chair as he attempted to make his frail body look larger.

“They could have opened the gate for Duwar freely,” I said. “No one needed to die for this, did they?”

“The fey chose to stand against us. All the death is merely a means to an end,” Aldrick seethed, spit dampening the neckline of his stained tunic. “Enough of this. Kayne, finish the task, or I will take your hesitation for weakness and act accordingly.”

Without taking my eyes off Aldrick, I lowered myself to my knees. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Duncan hesitate. If only I could infiltrate his mind and tell him what I knew. That our allies were around us, that I couldn’t act out until Jesibel was removed to safety. Although we were not alone, Jesibel was still an unknowing shield before Aldrick, placed so perfectly I almost believed he sensed our deception.

But from the look of surprise across his face, Aldrick had no idea what was to come.

My fingers wound through the dark hair of the dead body. I tugged it hard, pulling the head back and exposing the white of the neck. My neck. Aldrick’s eyes seemed to light with excitement. It was like he was a child, looking at the most delicious of treats. He followed the slow lift of the knife as I brought it to the skin.

“That’s it,” Aldrick breathed, relaxing back into his chair as his tongue traced his lower lip. There was a hunger in his expression as his eyes focused on the dead body I drew into my lap. “Allow the blood to fall upon the stone, and it shall do the rest. Let us all watch as it leeches the Icethorn of everything that made him who he was.”

But that wasn’t it. I was in control, and I sensed the draw. It was my choice to give in or ignore it. Rafaela had told me as much.

Kayne’s body had stiffened in the hours since Duncan killed him. Eroan’s glamour did little to conceal the necklace of bruises that encircled his neck. I brushed the sharp edge of the blade against the bruises, pressing the edge into flesh.

I risked one glance toward Althea. She was close now. I longed to watch as the excitement drained from Aldrick’s face when he realised his failure. If only I could memorise the moment the realisation struck that he had been deceived. Witnessing that would make this all worth it.

Duncan must’ve figured it out, because I saw him look to Althea.

Angling Kayne’s neck toward the stone, I felt my skin prickle with its proximity. I could not react, not yet.

I drew the knife across Kayne’s neck. His skin split with ease, like a sack of grain did when cursed by a knife. Aldrick’s focus was entirely on the show before him that he didn’t notice Althea sweep in and take Jesibel away. I almost expected Jesi to fight or cry out at the suddenness of it, but she made no sound, her lips never parting.

Just a few more minutes, just long enough for Althea to get far away from her, I silently urged myself.

Cold blood poured over my hands, staining my skin crimson. Powerless blood. From the gash across Kayne’s neck, it spluttered and splashed across the waiting stone, the sharp tang scalding the back of my throat.

It was as though the entire audience of Hunters inhaled at the same time. Anticipation was as ripe in the air as the rot that scented it. I focused on Aldrick and the sickly grin that twisted his face into one of horror. Then, ever so slowly, that mask slipped.

“More, give the stone more.”

His command was clear, but I ignored it.

Sharp as an arrow, his eyes snapped to me. I’d disobeyed his order.

“Were you expecting something to happen?” I asked, releasing my hold of the hair and letting Kayne’s body fall limp to the ground at the stone’s base.

Aldrick lashed his power into my mind, over and over. But it had no effect. I heard his commands but brushed them away as though they were the weak wings of moths. He longed to find out what was happening. He focused all his power and might into controlling my mind, and he howled in frustration.

“So close,” I tutted. “Yet so far.”

Thunder rumbled as dark clouds spread across the blue expanse, devouring it entirely. The booming rumble made the Draeic whimper like scorned puppies. The world grew dark. A sudden fork of blue-white lightning cut across the sky.

“General Rackley,” Aldrick growled, turning his attention to Duncan, whose body was sheathed in sparks of white light. “Have you returned to avenge your parents with the power I gave you?”

Duncan shrugged, eyes bleached white with power. “Something like that.”

Aldrick looked back to me, unbothered by the flesh-made weapon that was Duncan.

“You,” Aldrick spat.

I smiled, dropping the knife and encouraging icy winds to billow around me. “Hello again.”

His scowl deepened, focus plastering his wrinkled face as he forced more of his power into my mind, but to no avail. “Aldrick, this ends now. If you haven’t figured it out, you’ve failed.”

A storm of emotion brushed over Aldrick’s ancient face. His wrinkled lips pulled back, revealing stained teeth. A bead of sweat traced down his face as he continued stabbing daggers of his power into my mind. Each one snapped and broke. His efforts were wasted.

My glamour meant nothing. Aldrick knew what I was – who I was. I heard my name screech through my mind as he pleaded to take control of it.

“Robin Icethorn.”

The force retreated as though scorned by fire, sent scurrying away like a whimpering mutt.

Aldrick looked between Duncan and me. Tension hummed thickly in the distance between us.

“I admit, I am both surprised and impressed,” Aldrick said, his voice almost buried beneath Duncan’s thunder. When his voice invaded our minds again, it was not to take control. In fact, it was not meant for us at all.

“Stop them.”

His army of Hunters exploded into action. A wave of leather bodies thrashed toward us. Lightning whipped across the sky, and winds screamed throughout the gardens. Better they focused on us than Althea and Jesibel – they needed to get out of here.

And for that, we needed to prolong the distraction, and I had just the idea for it.

I welcomed the attack. As the bodies swelled toward us, I kept my eyes focused on Aldrick, who disappeared behind the wall of leather and flesh. But he still lurked in my mind, trying to get through, failing every time.

“You shall die.” I let my promise fill my thoughts until it was the only thing Aldrick could hear. “ The failure you are.”

Then I let my power free, every scrap of it, including the full force of the key Aldrick so desperately desired. Winter didn’t belong in the spring court, but I invaded it with a single exhale, claiming this land as my own.