Chapter 33

I woke with a start, my hand clutching my chest and my brow covered in sweat. I drew in great gulps of air, looking for the monsters, but seeing only warm walls and a burning fire.

I blinked around, trying to work through the fog in my head and the dull throbbing in my foot.

There had been a snake in my room, and it had bitten me. Someone had come in and picked me up? And this room… It looked a little like mine. I was in a bed, but it was much bigger than the one in my room. All the blankets were black and silver, and the furniture was all oversized.

There was a door on my left, half open, and through it I could see a sitting room, with an armchair I thought I recognized.

The walls weren’t maroon. The significance of that filtered through the bleariness slowly. I had only been in one other room that didn’t have the blood-colored walls.

I was in the Prince’s rooms.

Had he come and dealt with the snake?

Movement caught my eye through the door, along with the sound of angry footsteps, and I forced my tired eyes to focus.

“Tell me where you were.” It was the Prince’s voice, and he sounded furious.

A human man backed into view, both his hands held up and fear on his bearded face. “Your highness, I was tasked with guarding the floor, not the raven rooms. I didn’t know—”

Shadows preceded the masked Prince stepping into view, swirling and diving at the terrified man. “Tell me who did this to her.” His voice was the hissing of a thousand snakes, laced with power and rage.

“Your Highness, I saw nobody,” the man whimpered.

“Lies.”

“Nobody came through the stairs I was posted at, I swear it.” He hunched his shoulders as the shadows closed in around him. Crying sounded in the distance, high-pitched and fearful.

“Tell me who did this to her.”

The man began to lift off the floor, the shadows pouring under his clothes and around his face.

He let out a wail and tried to beat his arms. “I can see him,” he gasped.

“See who?”

“My father. He has the axe…” The man’s eyes were wide with fear, and a sob burst from his chest. “Make him stop!” He screamed. He tried to shield his face with his arms, but the shadows pinned them to his sides.

“You will watch that scene, over and over, until you tell me what I want to know.”

“There was nobody. Please. Please.”

The Prince raised his staff, and the man screamed.

“If you will not tell me, I will take it myself.”

The shadows zoomed to the man’s head, rushing into his open mouth.

My breath caught, horror overwhelming me.

For an eternally long second, the man just hovered, black shade flowing into his body. Then he crumpled to the ground, the shadows flowing back to the Prince’s staff.

“Take him,” the Prince barked. Frima stepped into view, picking the man up by his armpits. As she straightened, she glanced my way. I stared back, numbly.

“She’s awake, Maz,” she said quietly, then disappeared.

When the Prince strode into the room, my body reacted instinctively. I scooted backward, tucking myself into a tight ball, covering my head with my arms.

Fear like I’d never known was coursing through my veins, making my limbs shake and my brain too slow.

“You have been poisoned.”

I moved my arm a fraction. The shining black skull stared down at me. I tucked my head behind my arms again.

“Stay out of my head. Please, please, please. Stay out of my head.” The words issued from my lips in a stumbling unbidden stream.

Silence answered me. A long, painfully fearful silence. When I finally moved my arms again to look, he was gone.

* * *

I stayed huddled in a ball, the after-effects of experiencing such fear making me feel as sick as the growing pain in my foot.

I had seen cruel bullying, vicious beatings, and painful grief in my time with the fae, none of which had produced such an extreme reaction.

The only time I remembered ever feeling so scared was after I had the first vision.

I tried to make myself think about the snake, about the fact that someone had apparently tried to kill me.

But my exhausted mind kept tracking back to the shadows filling the man’s mouth, and the Prince’s shining black skull mask. Cold and hard and utterly emotionless.

I tried to get angry, tried to let my default emotion to take over, give me strength. But I was too tired. Too confused.

I knew who the Prince of the Shadow Court was. The rumors were true.

I tried to stay awake, fear making me believe that sleeping wasn’t safe. But exhaustion dragged me under, no amount of adrenaline able to contend with it.

When I next awoke, Brynja was leaning over me, concern filling her bright eyes. “My lady? Do you need anything?”

“Water,” I mumbled thickly when swallowing made my throat stick.

She passed me a full glass of cool water. “The Prince said you would need lots of water.”

“Thank you.” I gulped down as much as I could manage. My foot hurt less, though my head pounded.

The crippling fear that had swallowed me whole had mercifully released me, my limbs working again, my mind clearer.

Images of the guard and the shadows, and the Prince’s mask, churned around in my head though, and I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

He had seen me weak. Physically terrified. A coward, backed up and begging.

“Are we in his rooms?” I asked Brynja without opening my eyes.

“Yes, my lady. He’s in the sitting room.”

My heart stuttered in my chest.

I couldn’t be scared of him.

If I was scared of him, he would win. I would never be able to take my chance if it arose.

Die trying.

I wasn’t going to give up.

I had to face my fears.

I opened my eyes. “Could you ask him to come in, please?”

She nodded nervously and scurried out of the room. The Prince strode in a second later.

My stomach flipped over at the sight of his face. No mask. And no staff either, I realized as I scanned his empty hands. “Why did you do that to him?” I forced the words out, relieved when they came.

“He was lying to me. And I needed the truth.”

“Why was he talking about his father?”

“This is not what is important.”

“Tell me.”

He stared into my eyes, and I made myself hold the gaze, even though my insides trembled. “I made him see his worst memory. When I realized that wasn’t enough to make him tell me the truth, I took it from him by force.”

“What did his father do with the axe?”

“Reyna, that is not important,” he snapped, and I flinched. When he spoke again, his tone was calmer. “What is important is that he was lying. Rangvald came up the stairs he was guarding.”

“You think Rangvald put the snake in my room?”

“It is possible. The only other person seen in that wing was Svangrior.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. And he is under my stepmother’s protection, so it will not be easy to find out.”

“Why can't you just send your shadows into his head?” I couldn’t help the wobble in my voice, and I clenched my teeth as my cheeks heated.

“He is warded against me. As I warded you against the Queen.”

“You…” I trailed off trying to find the words I needed. Shame and anger were making me hot, and I couldn’t deny the trickle of fear that had started up on seeing him.

Shade danced across his bright eyes, and he lifted a large hand to his jaw, rubbing his fingers across the stubble. “You were poisoned. By the snake bite.”

My foot was covered by blankets, and I shifted it awkwardly. “Did you… Was it you who… saved me?” I ended reluctantly.

“I killed the snake and administered the antidote, yes. You will be ok, but your foot will hurt.” More shade crossed his eyes. “The venom may have caused other adverse effects.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Heightened emotions. Strange dreams. Out-of-character reactions.”

His words hung in the air and I stared at him. Was he saying I got so scared of him because of the snake bite?

Hope flared through the shame. Could it be true?

The thought of him inside my head terrified me, for sure. But if he was willing to see my reaction as the result of poison over cowardice…

“I need you to visit the shrine.”

“But someone just tried to kill me with a snake. And my foot hurts.”

His huge body tensed, and his eyes narrowed. “I will find out who tried to kill you. In the meantime, I need you working on the statues.”

A tiny gold rune sparked to life on his jaw, before rising into the air and fading away. He took a hurried step backward. “I will send in your maid. Get washed and dressed, and we must return to the shrine.” I didn’t have time to open my mouth before he had gone.

I stared mutely at the empty space he had just filled.

The Prince of the Shadow Court had secrets.

Any misconception I had started to build of him, any false notions of integrity, or even compassion, had been irrevocably dispelled on seeing what he had done to the guard.

My bound betrothed was the the monster the world said he was. Which meant I was in a war.

An all-powerful fae with a plan, versus a lowly human with an unknown past and future.

But the folk of Yggdrasil were born for war.

I would do whatever I could to win.