Chapter 6

F or a beat or two, I couldn’t catch my breath. Icy fear doused me from head to foot, and numbness took my fingers.

Shadows pushed at my mind, edging my vision, making my thoughts cloud.

Was this how it started? Was he about to take over my mind and force me to kill Lhoris? The huge man beside me hefted his axe with a snarl and the Prince chuckled from beneath his deep hooded cloak.

Was he about to make Lhoris kill me?

Paranoia and magic-induced fear was paralyzing me. For the love of Odin, get a grip on yourself, Reyna!

My fingers finally moved, tightening on the hammer handle.

Slowly, the Prince lifted his staff. Shadows swirled gently from the end of it. The staffs I made were topped with huge gemstones, or if the owner was very wealthy, orbs of gold, but this staff had a skull. A black skull, barbed with spikes, with a halo of twisted thorns arching protectively over it.

The shadows tightened into ribbons, then rushed toward the Prince’s head, pushing his hood back.

I sucked in a breath and did everything I could to hold my ground.

He was wearing a mask that matched his staff. The black skull covered his own, save for the gaps large enough to see his bright grey eyes through. His black shadow-fae hair was braided away from his face at the top, but fell over his shoulders. The beads in his braids were skulls too. His body was wrapped in black furs and leathers, and everywhere my eyes skimmed I could see the gleam of weapons.

“My Prince!” roared a voice from beyond the doors he had just broken through.

The shadows whirled from where they were circling his neck, flying toward the heavy doors and slamming them closed.

Odin help me, he was strong. I was around magical fae regularly, and whilst gold-fae magic was less visceral and violent than shadow-fae magic, few of the fae I knew could control objects like he just had.

“You will come with me. Now.” His voice was deep and rich, and I couldn’t tell if the command was laced with magical compulsion or if he just had lethal authority.

What I was certain of though, was that the command had been aimed at me.

I tried to force my racing thoughts to slow enough to think straight.

Lhoris stepped forward. “We are going nowhere.”

Where the fuck were the guards? The gold-fae had a chance at repelling him, but us? We had absolutely none.

The numbness seeped from my limbs and adrenaline began surging through my body in its place. I gripped the hammer, lifting it higher. If I was going down, I was going down fighting.

The Prince took a step toward us. “I do not need you. Just her.”

Me? If he was here to round up and kill rune-marked, why didn’t he want Lhoris too? My mentor was more skilled than I was, and a greater asset to the Gold Court.

“I will defend her to the death,” barked Lhoris.

The Prince cocked his head. “You are lovers?” The deep, rich tone had turned to a hiss.

Lhoris growled. “She is family. I will die before you take her.”

All the emotion that had built up over the last few hours and all the work I had done in convincing myself I could leave the two people who loved me, blazed hot in my chest. And for me, emotion meant anger.

Lhoris would die to protect me.

And I, he.

“We’re going nowhere,” I said, finally finding my voice. “The gold-fae will be here any second.”

The Prince laughed softly. “Your gold-fae are pathetic, greedy peacocks. They will defend their riches before they come anywhere near you.”

He was probably right, but I lifted my chin, and shifted the hammer. His shadows swirled around him, and light blazed in his eyes. “You are not alone here.”

A band of terror tightened around my ribs at his soft words. “We are.”

He shook his head slowly. “No.” With a flick of his staff the shadows whooshed toward the larder.

Every instinct in me wanted to race them there, but that would give Kara away. “There is nobody else here,” I repeated, louder.

“I can smell her fear.”

A sickening feeling joined the tight band.

He knew.

There was a scream from the larder, and with a piercing glance at me, he swept past us.

“Lhoris, what the fuck do we do?” I hissed.

His face was grimly set. “We fight.”

The Yggdrasil way.

But we couldn’t win. I was no coward, but I was no fool either.

“Reyna!” Kara ran into the room from the larder, the shadows whipping at her leather apron as she rushed toward me. I held out my free hand, gathering her into my side. The shadows skimmed my clothes, and a rush of cold tricked across my skin.

I looked at the Prince, who was staring into the now empty larder. The mask prevented me even guessing at his thoughts, but something had his attention.

Without hesitating, I moved, pulling Kara with me. I had only gotten six paces toward the doors before they burst open again.

A warrior ran into the room. Black war paint covered his skin, and his black braided hair marked him as shadow-fae. An axe in his hand was crimson with blood.

“Time to leave, my Prince,” he called.

The Prince whirled. “All of you, then,” he said.

“No! If it’s me you want, just take me.”

His eyes found mine and he gestured at Lhoris. “This man is determined to make my life difficult, and I do not have time to kill him now. I would rather do so at my leisure, in my own Court.”

“Then leave the girl. She’s just a child.”

“No.” He moved toward the warrior, and his shadows spun around us. “If you do not follow me without a fight, I will slit her throat. If you try to run, I will turn her body inside-out.”

A guttural sound escaped my throat, causing him to pause and look over his shoulder at me. “You have three seconds to make your choice.”

I knew with all the certainty in the world that he was capable of his threat. I looked from his black skull mask to the warrior’s blood-soaked axe.

“Reyna?” Kara whispered, terror in her voice.

“We go without a fight,” growled Lhoris, before I could utter the same words.

We stood no chance of winning a fight. But I wasn’t giving up on running.

I hugged Kara to me. “Do not leave my side, you hear?” She nodded, her trembling arm tightening around me.

* * *

Beyond the doors to our workshop, the tiled floor was littered with bodies. They wore both gold and black armor, Gold and Shadow Court humans alike, dead for their cause. I could see no fae victims though. My heart skipped in my chest as we were pushed toward the thrall’s stairs. There on the ground, her lifeless eyes staring at the tiles, was the guard I’d so desperately wanted to punch just earlier that day.

As we started down the spiral staircase another two warriors joined us, out of breath and covered in blood.

“The battles rage on the upper levels, my Prince. We need to make haste, but we should not be hindered once out of the palace,” the female warrior said.

The sounds of fighting died away, and when we exited the seemingly eternal stone staircase into the entrance hall at the bottom level of the palace, there was indeed no battle raging. Just more bodies of the fallen.

They will feast in Valhalla, I told myself as the tang of blood filled my nostrils.

They died fighting. Honorably.

Their cause wasn’t honorable though. Anger bubbled through me as we passed more dead slaves as we moved through the glittering courtyards, and at the grand palace gates. Their cause was nothing but fae greed.

The golden cobbled path beyond the palace gates was eerily quiet. One lone white stallion galloped past us, riderless, disappearing into the vast copse of yew trees on our right.

Jealousy of the animal’s freedom coursed through me, and I tried to work out any way of following the horse.

But the three warriors that had joined the Shadow Court Prince had closed in around us, walking in formation. There was no chance of running yet.

The Prince was in the lead, his cloaked back to us and shadows still whirling gently around the top of his staff. He moved with lethal grace, and he’d not said a word since entering the workshop.

Why did he want me?

The question was burning to be asked, drowning out most other thoughts in my head.

I could understand the Shadow Court raiding the palace and killing gold-givers . But we should already be dead. All three of us. Why the fates had he taken us captive? Why the fates had he looked me straight in the eye and said he just wanted me?

I glared at his back, as though the power of my stare alone could make the terrifying fae answer my question.

His cloaked head moved slightly, as though he were about to turn back, and suddenly I wasn’t so sure I wanted to know.

But he didn’t turn to me.

Instead, I turned to Lhoris. “Where are the gold-fae? Why aren’t they defending the palace?” I hissed. My voice was louder in the eery silence than I thought it would be, and the female on my right snorted.

She had raven black hair braided in intricate knots, and she too wore a skull mask, but it only covered the top part of her face. “They are defending the palace. The gold they keep in the top of their pretty towers,” she said.

“Why risk your own life when you have humans to fight for you?” said the other warrior, looking right to grin at me. This one was apparently not fae, from his brown hair. He was a hulking man though, easily as tall as the Prince, and swaddled in thick brown furs. His face paint was navy, a blend of the fae black and human blue, and more intricate than just the usual cheek smears.

“You dishonor our kind,” Lhoris spat at him.

He shrugged with a cheery smile. “There is no dishonor here. You make your fate, and I’ll make mine.”

The male behind us, the warrior with the axe who had come into the workshop, spoke. “Your gold-fae are cowards. Greedy, and stupid. They hole up in their towers, believing that they are protecting what is most important. But they overlooked the rune-marked. Fucking verslingrs , all of them.” Hatred laced his words.

Was he right? Had the gold-fae really just left the humans to die for them while they protected their gold? They had magic. Humans had swords and spears.

I ground my teeth as hopeless anger coursed through me. I didn’t know why I was surprised. I had never been given any reason to believe they would behave otherwise.

* * *

We had reached the crossed paths at the end of the palace road. Straight on led to Upper Krossa, where I had been goading Skegin what seemed like days ago, and the path to the right led to the palace stables.

But the left path led straight to the root-river. The one and only way to move between the Courts.

The Prince didn’t pause as he took the left path.

It sure as Odin wasn’t the way I’d planned it, but I was finally leaving the Gold Court.