Chapter 1

ONE

Forrest

I thump the back of my head against the wall again in frustration. What the hell does the Keeper of Death want with us? The unspoken fae code for these types of deals is simple: humiliate and move on.

Just last year, a fae swore his life to another fae if she would only give him a kiss. The deal was done, and she made him parade about the party in a see-through dress while people laughed at his erection. It was at the Spring Palace, so of course, it ended in a very willing orgy before the young man was freed from the deal.

Years before, a Winter Fae swore his life to a Fall Fae for help after he'd been lost in the woods. The Fall Fae made him build a glass house piece by piece with his own two hands. When it was finished, the Winter Fae was freed, and the glass house stood as a reminder that the Fall Fae had put the Winter Fae in his place.

Yet, we'd been given no indication of what this Keeper wanted. We'd simply been thrown into this room and left to rot. This is not in the sport of a fae deal .

How many days have passed? It's weird, but I truly have no idea. I don't know if it's the darkness or something else, but my sense of time has made this miserable experience seem even longer than it's actually been. I think.

"What does she want?" I whisper angrily.

But my words travel in the dark, uncomfortably silent room. "To bore us to death," Cobar responds, irritation in his voice.

The Keeper hasn't been to visit us since we were first left here. I have no idea how much time has passed, but I'm getting angry. Angry because I'm hungry. Angry because the darkness hurts my eyes in a way that's hard to describe. And angry because this isn't how these deals typically go. I mean, I knew making a deal with the House of Death would end in weirdness, but this is more than weirdness.

"I can smell the dead," Zane says. "I don't like this place one bit."

"No surprise that dark catacombs deep underground aren't a fun and cheery place to be," I say.

Sulien sighs. I know it's him, because he's been sighing a hell of a lot since we got here. "We just need to play the Keeper's game, no matter how long it takes, and try to get back to Cassia and fix things."

" If they can be fixed," Zane adds.

There's silence for a minute before I speak. "We were idiots to make a deal with the Keeper of Death that Cassia would marry us when we didn't know how she'd answer," I say, feeling my heart ache at the memory.

"We took a chance. Maybe the next time we try, we'll win," Cobar says solemnly.

She seemed pretty adamant that she wasn't open to the idea of marrying us. Which is strange. I'm pretty sure when my dad discovered my mom was his mate, he fucked her in front of everyone at the party, and they had a drunken wedding that very night.

If Cassia wants more romance than we're giving her, I'm not sure we have it in us. Or is it not about the romance? Is it just that she doesn't want us no matter how we're packaged?

"We're her mates. Eventually, she has to come around." I sound confident, but I'm not. Nothing about Cassia makes me feel confident.

"Maybe we should be trying to escape," Cobar says, surprising us all. "Maybe that's what the Keeper wants us to do in order to be free from the deal."

It's embarrassing that I never even thought of that. I've just been sitting here, glaring at the darkness. Cobar's smarter than we give him credit for.

"That's actually… a good idea," Zane says. "The House of Death isn't exactly known for communicating well."

I climb to my feet awkwardly, hearing the sounds of the others doing the same. Between the chilly underground and sitting still in the darkness, my body is sore. I roll my neck and touch my toes, shaking out the stiffness. "Alright, let's do this. I'll lead."

"I should," Sulien says.

It's hard not to roll my eyes. "Why exactly? Because you're the mighty Sulien? The man whose cock never gets soft?"

"Is that my reputation?" He sounds amused for a second, before continuing. "I guess you can lead, if you remember how we got in here. "

Damn it. "Fine, lead, whatever, I don't care." Smug asshole.

"Alright," he says. "Be careful. There are both bodies and bones on the ground. Stay close to each other. One hand on each other's shoulders."

We line up, me behind Sulien, Frost behind me, and Cobar at the rear, and make our slow way toward one of the walls. Sulien stops when he reaches one, and even though I can't see him, I can hear him running his hand along the wall, searching for the opening. Vaguely, I do recall the Keeper leaving from somewhere around here.

"Stairs!" he says, and then we're going upward.

"You really think this is the Keeper's plan? To see if we can escape?" Zane asks.

Sulien shrugs in front of me, but only I can feel it. "Maybe. What other purpose would there be for her to just leave us in the dark like that?"

"Maybe she simply forgot about us," Zane suggests, which seems like a Winter Fae idea to me. Fall Fae would never forget an enemy, and yet, we typically don't leave them alive long enough to cause problems for us.

Enemy? I don't know why I thought of that. We're not her enemies. The House of Death may be odd, but they obey the courts. We're not their enemies, we're their leaders. They should be wanting to impress us. To flatter us. To make us remember the House of Death and bestow upon it more wealth and power.

This? This is a waste.

"Why aren't they working harder to impress us?" I ask, being cautious with my footing on the stairs as I do.

"Maybe they are," Zane suggests. "Maybe in showing us that they don't care for our opinions, they're trying to impress us in their own way. "

Cobar snorts. "You see, we Spring Fae tend to impress people with naked beauties, lots of food, and enough liquor to take down a dragon."

"Oh, I've been to the Spring Court, remember, Cobar?" Zane teases back.

"The Summer Fae are no better!"

There's a smile in Sulien's voice. "We have fewer orgies."

I laugh. "The Fall Fae often find themselves in the woods, lost among a number of naked beauties."

"Mostly other men though, right?" Cobar teases.

I'm glaring, even though they can't feel it. Technically , our hunters spend a lot of time alone and hunting away from the women. And, technically , I have seen quite a number of them finding comfort in the assholes of their friends, but I didn't like the implication that I swung that way. I mean, it's not like the Fall Fae are as dainty as the Spring Fae. A Spring Fae, in the dark, might just pass for a woman until you felt their erection.

"Lost in memories?" Cobar asks sweetly.

"Fuck off," I grumble.

"The stairs have ended," Sulien warns ahead of me, then slows, so we each come off the stairs carefully.

We're in another dark room, but Sulien isn't bothered by it. Instead, he's back to trailing his hand along the wall, leading us forward. Warning when there are bones or bodies under foot. It's strange working together like this. I wouldn't have thought to warn the people behind me about what's up ahead. It bothers me that Sulien always falls so easily into a leader's position and does it so well.

"Doesn't it seem like the House of Death has… too many dead?" Cobar asks from the rear.

He's right. Most of the creatures we've seen since coming here were dead. There were handfuls of fae, but they looked worried. Rightly so. The House of Death had made a deal with the fae princes, and The House of Death appeared to be taking advantage of that deal. The fae here have to know that in doing so, they're putting their entire house at risk.

There's silence for a minute before Sulien answers. "During all the great wars and the times of darkness, the most powerful fae among the House of Death would call home the dead. My grandfather said you could see the dead walking the streets, walking through the woods, marching back to the House of Death. The dead work these lands. There's always been some humans, but it's mostly the dead who plow the fields, build things, tend to the livestock. So the more dead, the more help they have here."

Another moment passes before Cobar's voice comes again. "There doesn't seem to be that many dead here."

Zane's voice comes, cool and calm. "Didn't your tutors go over all of this? The House of Death can only use the bodies for so long. They go from bodies to bones, and eventually they can't pull them together enough to be useful. The longer they're dead, the less useful they become."

I kind of want to change the subject. All this talk of death in a painfully dark place is unsettling. I could go the rest of my life without ever returning to the House of Death again.

"I've met a few people from the House of Death before," Sulien says, followed by a warning about bones just up ahead. "Most return here when they're pregnant and never come back to the courts, but they were always quiet, powerful, and unsettling when living amongst the other fae."

"They are always powerful… and weird," Cobar adds.

"Because they kill their babies if they aren't powerful," Zane whispers.

I shiver. Were there babies amongst the dead in these catacombs?

"Light up ahead!" Sulien whispers.

Our pace quickens. We make it through the room, and through another opening. Up ahead, a light grows brighter with every step we take and my heart soars. Daylight! Fuck! I had no idea how much I was missing daylight!

But then Sulien begins to slow. I'm forced to match his stride, and we enter another room where I see undead standing in all directions in the room. The light wasn't daylight, it was from a torch, held by the Keeper of Death herself. Her cruel smile adds an even eerier layer to the dark-haired woman as she stands in a gown that appears to be made of spiderwebs.

"Princes," she greets. "How good of you to join us."

Cobar strides forward and inclines his head to her. "We've made it out of your maze, m'lady. I hope that fulfills your wishes."

"Fulfills my wishes?" She smirks. "No, good princes, that was nothing. Just the beginning of our time together."

That wasn't our task? Fuck. "What do you want from us?" I ask, trying not to sound as angry as I feel.

Her eyes twinkle. "What do I want? I want everything."

Around us, her soldiers close in, and I feel a sense of dread sweeping through me. This Keeper of Death, I don't understand her, or what she wants. All I want is to return to Cassia again, but the Keeper seems determined to draw this painful process out as long as possible.

But why?