Chapter 10

T he Shadow Court Gates were just as grand as the Gold Court Gates, and significantly darker.

Black, leaden doors loomed high above us, silver etchings catching the light and bringing life to the gruesome scenes they portrayed. Images of battles, and their fatal outcomes, were shown in gory detail, snakes slithering across the battlefields. More images of dungeons, figures screaming, faces twisted, bodies mangled, made me look away.

A snake’s head reared up over the gates, similar to that on the front of the boat, except the eyes and the tongue gleamed blood-red.

At a prompt from the Prince’s shadows, the doors began to ease open.

The karve seemed to speed up, as though it knew it was almost home. We sailed through the imposing Gates as soon as they were open wide enough to admit us, and the air around me changed immediately.

It felt cooler, and sharper somehow, as though something was pricking at my skin. The view beyond the gates was just like that of the root-river on the way in, dense green foliage above us and high brown tree-roots on each side. But there was no question we were in a different world. The bird calls were different, and the damp soil smell that had accompanied us before had been replaced by something sweet and tangy.

I took in a quick breath, feeling my stomach swoosh as the gates began to close behind us.

The Shadow Court.

The realization made me dizzy, as though my brain had refused to fully accept we were truly leaving the Gold Court before. My home, the place I’d lived in, the place I’d despised, my whole life.

I’d been keeping my panic at bay, but sailing through those Gates into another world left me no choice but to face reality.

We were in the Shadow Court. Heading to the palace, escorted by the strongest fae I’d ever seen. And he had come for me.

Shadows crept into my vision on my right, and when I looked up, I saw streams of dark smoke-like shadow licking over the water.

I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. A strange taste was filling my mouth, something utterly foreign to me. Salty-sweet, I couldn’t tell if it was unpleasant or not.

“I—” I tried to say, but more movement caught my eye. The boat was moving much more quickly now, and I wasn’t sure I’d seen what I thought I had. I leaned forward, cursing the dizziness that was plaguing me, and my pulse hitched up a notch as I managed to focus.

A hand was gripping the side of the riverbank. Someone was trying to pull themselves up and over, into the root-river.

But how? How could anything be outside, in the void of darkness?

A head crested the edge, then disappeared from view as we sped around a bend.

Bile rose in my throat.

It had been no normal head. A large chunk had been missing from one side, and a mismatched piece of flesh sewn on in its place.

It had belonged to a Starved One.

How? How could there be a Starved One out here? There were folk who believed they were a myth, it had been so long since one had been seen in the Five Courts.

We lurched around another corner, and big black dots began to flash across my sight. My stomach lurched, the bile burning hot in my throat.

I swore as I stood, stumbling to edge of the boat just before I heaved, losing the bread and cheese we’d been given to eat earlier. I distantly heard Svangrior swearing and saying something about humans and boat-sickness.

I heaved again, and heard Kara’s voice, coming closer, trying to soothe me. I felt a small hand rubbing my back, along with more disorientation.

All that was in my head, as my chest strained and my eyes stung, was the Starved One trying to get into the root-river.

I gripped the edge of the boat, sucking in air, trying to make my words work, and trying to clear my swimming vision.

Should I warn them? The shadow-fae were my enemies. But surely nothing was worse than being eaten alive?

I felt a looming presence beside me and turned unsteadily. The Prince, eyes blazing, stared at me. For a second, in my confusion, I thought I saw concern in his eyes. But then a stabbing pain pierced my skull, and those bright grey eyes filled with swirling shade.

He’s trying to get into my head.

The realization was sudden and terrifying.

Fear turned my skin to ice, and I stumbled backward, straight into Kara. Another stab of pain lanced through me, almost making me cry out, and I reached out blindly, trying to steady myself.

“Reyna!” Kara yelped, I felt a physical pain in the back of my skull, and everything turned black.

* * *

A dull throbbing in my head was the first thing I was aware of, followed by a strong desire not to open my eyes.

Memories tumbled through my mind, and I gasped in a breath as I remembered where I was. The Shadow Court.

There had been a Starved One.

And the Prince had tried to break into my thoughts.

My eyes flew open, my glare landing not on the Prince, but on Frima.

“She’s awake.”

“Which one?”

I struggled to sit up, a wave of dizziness forcing me to do it slowly.

“The irritating one.”

They were talking quietly, as though they didn’t want to be heard, and I blinked around. We were still in the boat, but I didn’t think we were on the root-river anymore.

We were moving through a dark cavern, stone walls rising on either side of us, slick with water and covered in inky green creepers.

“What do you mean, which one?” I mumbled, my tongue not working properly and my words coming out slurred and thick.

Frima gave me an annoyed look, then pointed. I dragged myself around on my backside, using the benches to pull my weight. My limbs felt out of place, and a rising panic about my vulnerability was cloying in my throat.

“Kara,” I murmured.

She was laid on the bottom of the boat, her head in Lhoris’ lap. He gave me a reassuring look. “I am glad you are awake,” he said. “Kara is fine.”

I frowned and looked for the Prince. He was standing at the front of the boat, by the carved snake, but as soon as my eyes fell on his cloaked back, he turned to me.

Slowly, he moved toward us, the boat rocking slightly.

“You are going to ask what happened, yes?” There was anger in his quiet tone.

I swallowed but my throat was so dry it made me cough.

“I know what happened,” I croaked. “You tried to get into my head, and… And my head shut off. So you couldn’t.”

It was the best I could come up with. And it must have been that, or he had knocked me out by pushing too hard. Could he even do that?

“If you do not know something, why pretend that you do?” he hissed.

Because I hated looking stupid. I said nothing, just glared up at him.

“I want to know what made you sick.”

“That’s what you tried to get into my head for?” The frisson of fear I felt that he could do that at all made my fingers tighten on the bench. All fae could project images, and it was well known that the shadow-fae could instil fear. But could he actually read minds? I stared up at his fierce mask and burning bright eyes.

I was pretty sure he could do anything he wanted to.

“Why did you knock me out?”

His eyes narrowed behind the mask. “You fell.”

“W-what?”

“You tripped and fell, and collided heads with your friend,” Frima said, a smirk on her face. “You have been out cold for over an hour.”

I let out a long breath. Guilt over hurting Kara washed through me, but relief that the Prince hadn’t got into my head accompanied it.

And given that none of us appeared to have been eaten since I was knocked unconscious, I guessed the Starved One hadn’t made it over the bank of the root-river. But that didn’t make it any less alarming that one had been trying. I wondered again if I should say something. “Where are we?” I asked instead.

Ellisar lumbered toward me in the boat, handing me a skin of water. I took it gratefully but refused to say thank you.

“My Court. My palace. You will do as you are bid here, or you will die.”

“I thought I was going to die anyway,” I said after a long swig of cool water. I watched the Prince for a reaction, hoping for any hint of what lay in store for me.

“No, your friends are going to die. I never said a word about your death.”

I launched the skin at him. His hand flew out, catching it deftly. Something quirked in his eyes.

“Leave my friends alone,” I snarled.

“You understand that you are the reason they are here? If you had just come with me as I’d asked, they would be safe in the filthy hole you call home.”

More guilt hammered through me. He was right.

“And this is what you call home?” I gestured around the dank cavern. “It’s charming.”

He hissed, then turned away from me.

“Actually, this is what we call home,” Ellisar said quietly, and pointed. The boat was emerging from the cavern, and despite myself, my mouth dropped open. Slowly, I got to my feet as we sailed into a world I had only seen in my nightmares.