Chapter 21

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

H eat ran through Rosa's numb soul as Balthasar laughed and kissed her again, "I can taste faerie magic in you, but I don't care." She stopped him after a few agonizingly short moments of his lips on hers.

"Later, Bal. We need to get out of here before one or both of us loses our minds," she whispered, and his hand tightened on hers.

"Don't worry, Rosa Wylt. I'm going to get us out of here, and then I intend never to have you leave my side again," Balthasar swore. "Now keep smiling in your lovely way. We need to get to the doors on the other side of the room."

"How do you know? Have you been here before?" Rosa asked with a frown.

"I might have eaten a few fae on my journey to rescue you." He smiled mirthlessly. There was a feral gleam in his dark eyes, and instead of being afraid as she was the night she was taken, she was now pleased to see it.

"Turn the lot into cocktails for all I care," she muttered. "How long have I been here?"

"At least five days."

"Is that all? It feels like I have been trapped here for a hundred years." She smiled dreamily as they walked, getting Balthasar to turn her now and then. "If I never have to dance the waltz again, it won't be long enough."

"I've always preferred tangos anyway," Balthasar said, watching her with a less than innocent look.

"Stop that. We are in enemy territory," Rosa chastised, fighting the itch to slap him again.

After drinking the queen's cursed wine, she had felt all that she was melting away until only doing what would please the queen remained. She wanted to scream. There will be a time to grieve later. You need to get out of here .

"Hold onto me, my love," Balthasar whispered, and she stepped up onto his feet, gripping him tightly around the waist. The room and corridors bled around her as they moved with lightning speed to the tunnels. Balthasar slowed and opened a large door.

"I think the stables are through here," he said, leading her down a dark passage. She couldn't see the horses but could smell them—animal heat and grass. Three guards appeared, and Balthasar shoved her out of the way as an arrow flew past her head. Balthasar launched himself at the bowman, ripping his throat out as the others drew their weapons.

Rosa's eyes couldn't follow what happened next, but one minute he was grabbing a dagger, opening his attacker's throat before twisting to bury it deep in the skull of the other. Rosa didn't turn away as she watched him drain one of his victims. When he was done, he took her hand, and they kept going.

"I'm sorry about that. I need to keep feeding, or they will detect my blood," he explained. As if he manifested it, alarms sounded through the palace. Rosa gripped his arm tightly. "Don't let them take me again. I can't be like that... I can't forget..."

"I'm not going to let any of them hurt you. I failed you once. I will not fail you again," Balthasar said calmly. "Come on. We need to keep moving."

Rosa jogged alongside Balthasar as he followed his memories to the stables. He opened the gate to a red mare, letting it smell his hands before he led it out.

"Give me your dagger," Rosa said. He handed it over without hesitation. She stuck it into the skirt of her dress and cut a long split before putting the dagger back in its hilt and sliding it down the front of her bodice.

"I need to give you knives more often," Balthasar teased.

"Unlike some people, I didn't grow up riding side saddle," she retorted. "I can't exactly take my dress off and run bare ass through the Aos Si."

"The idea has its merits." Balthasar mounted the giant horse before lifting her up behind him.

Rosa clung tightly to Balthasar as he rode at breakneck speed through the dark tunnels. He seemed to be able to see in the dark, so she shut her eyes tightly and buried her face into his back.

"There it is!" he said as the tunnel opened, and the light of a new dawn shone through. Arrows whizzed past her head, hitting the trees alongside them. Rosa looked and saw two warriors following them, their armor shining brightly. The third was unmistakably Ryn, his fox hair flying.

"They are coming!" Rosa shouted.

"Get ready to take the mane, and don't stop," Balthasar command. "Let me go!"

As soon as her hands left him, Balthasar jumped from the horse. Rosa lurched forward, grabbed the red mane, and managed to stay on. In the distance, she saw the tall monoliths marking the portal she had come through. It was glowing brightly in the morning light, calling out to her.

Rosa looked backward to see Balthasar pulling a soldier off his horse with a spray of crimson. The other soldier turned back to confront him. Where is Ryn? She was almost at the stones when a horse came barreling on the right side of her.

Ryn tried to pull her off her mount, managing to get her over the pommel of his saddle before Rosa pulled the dagger from her dress and buried it deep in his thigh. Ryn dropped her, and she narrowly avoided the horse's hooves as she tumbled onto the grass, the thick fabric of her elaborate skirts softening the fall.

"You vicious little bitch!" Ryn snarled as he wrenched the dagger from his leg and slid down off his horse. "The Queen spares your life, makes you an honored guest in her halls, and this is how you repay her?"

Rosa climbed to her feet and tried to find something to use as a weapon. She turned as Ryn swung his arm around, hitting her in the face. Blood spurted from her nose, and she stumbled backward, clutching it.

Ryn drew his sword. "The queen wants you back, but I don't think she will mind a few pieces missing. I killed Deryn, and I am going to delight in torturing and killing you." He raised his sword as Balthasar tackled him from behind. The sword spun out of Ryn's grasp as Balthasar wrestled him to the ground.

"You think you are a match for me when Bleddyn couldn't defeat me?" Ryn shouted as he hit Balthasar over and over. Rosa ran to where the sword fell and searched the grass, her face pulsing with agony. Ryn pulled a long dagger from his belt and Balthasar screamed in pain as Ryn buried it into his shoulder.

"Feel that, Unseelie? How it burns you up on the inside and steals your strength? My weapons were forged with lighting and sky metal to slay all that is dark and foul. My sword was made from the tears of the Creator God, and it shall have your head before this day is out."

Ryn pulled the dagger out and raised it above his head, ready to deliver the killing blow. Balthasar lifted his arms to protect himself, but the attack never came. Ryn's arms fell by his sides, his expression filled with surprise before his head toppled from his shoulders. Rosa held onto the bloody sword, panting heavily.

"Look at that. It didn't mind taking your head instead," she said, watching the body, half expecting it to get up again. Balthasar pushed the dead fae off him and got to his feet, one hand pressing against the wound on his shoulder.

"You saved my life," he said, his voice choked with pain.

"You can't always be the hero," Rosa replied as Balthasar picked up Ryn's head.

"A present for Eli," he said as he passed it to her. "I need to find where I left Celyn."

"Good. I will take his head too."

"I admire your enthusiasm, but unfortunately, the wretch is our way home." Rosa waited as Balthasar disappeared into the trees before dragging forth a barely conscious Celyn.

"Oh, my, what have you done, my little rose," he whispered, looking at Ryn's head dangling from where she gripped his ponytail and the sword in her hand.

"The same thing I will do to you if you don't get me back to Gwaed Lyn," she said, leveling the sword at him. "You brought me to this cursed place. I want to kill you, Celyn, so no tricks."

"As if I'm capable of anything right now," he muttered as Balthasar held him up. "The queen will want revenge for this."

"Good," Balthasar hissed. "I haven't killed half as many Seelie as I want to."

They walked up the slope and stepped into the center of the stones, Rosa pointing the sword at Celyn every step of the way. Warm gold and silver light wrapped around them, and the earth opened to swallow them all.