Chapter 9

NINE

Zane

Ripples of pain travel through my body with each step I take, but I press on, following a staggering figure with flesh hanging off of its discolored bones and a torch clutched in its skeletal hand. Hisses of pain slip past my lips as I continue walking. This last beating had been fierce. Out of the darkness, a dozen of the Keeper of Death's soldiers had emerged to carry out the beating, and soon they were all around me, making my broken ribs, and the rest of me, hurt on a whole new level.

"With sharp bones used to cause pain," I whisper into the darkness.

Only the clattering of the dead man's bones responds.

"A dozen dead tasked with causing pain and nothing more."

Yet, I wasn't in that room with them for long. My mind had shifted to an even bleaker place, as it often did. This… shifting of my mind is something that had taken time to notice, but I'd determined that it was yet another of the Keeper of Death's powers. She could play with our mi nd. Make it seem like we were here for longer than we were, make us feel pain that's beyond what our bodies can actually take.

What a horrific power.

In the darkness with the scent of death all around us it was hard to notice what she was doing for awhile, but I slowly did, and now that I have, I've tried to focus on the world around me rather than where she tries to pull me within my mind. To focus on the cold floor, or the scent of the decaying bodies. It's unpleasant, but it makes it harder for me to be pulled into that… other world that the Keeper can draw us into.

Blood fills my mouth, and the coppery tang washes over my tastebuds. I spit the mouthful of blood out, but the taste still lingers. A gasp slips from my lips. The simple act of spitting feels excruciating with my back, shoulders, legs, and arms raw with the strikes from the dead.

The staggering figure disappears into a new room. I follow, more slowly, wondering what will happen next. What new hell the Keeper has in store for me. But when I enter the room, the creature has placed the torch on the wall. It stands, staring at me with one eye hanging out of the socket, a plate of food in its hand. It lifts the plate toward me, and even though I already know the food will taste like shit, I snatch the plate eagerly away.

Before I can give into my growling stomach, the figure staggers away, and the door closes behind it, sealing me in this new place. Whatever. I don't give a shit. There's light in here, food, and none of the dead to hurt me… I think. This is as close to paradise as I've experienced since coming here.

I grip the plate, surveying the room, wondering if dead hide in the corners. The faint light in the room does little to offset the darkness concealing most of the room, but it's so much better than being lost in the shadows. Lost to the world of light.

I stagger forward, each step a struggle, but I'm unsure of where to go. Nothing feels safe. Then I sense something in one corner. Heart in my throat, plate gripped in my hand, I inch closer. My skin feels clammy. What is this? What new hell am I stepping into?

A figure materializes from the shadows as I draw closer. Cobar . Slumped against the wall on the ground. Broken, beaten, but breathing. It can't be him. They won't let us see each other, no matter how much I've asked. The thought that I may be hallucinating flashes in my mind, but as I approach, I see him, a mirror image of my agony.

"Cobar?" My voice is husky due to lack of use.

His head shifts up a little. "No, no, you're not real." He sounds… almost frightened.

"I am. I swear, I am."

He presses a fist to his forehead, then drops it, looking back at me, blinking against the light of the torch. "Okay."

"Okay." My voice cracks for entirely different reasons.

With as much urgency as I can muster, I close the distance between us, even though each movement makes my ribs scream in agony. I haven't seen another living soul for so long it hurts, much less any of the other princes, and until now I hadn't realized just how important that was. As the Prince of the Winter Fae, I'm known for being cold, but I guess I need human affection more than I thought.

I guess I need my friends. My brothers. To help me through dark times .

Kneeling down in front of him, I hiss at the agony the movement brings, but I don't care. The pain doesn't matter nearly as much as my friend. I hug him, causing both of us to suck in air from the pain it causes.

But then one of his arms wraps around me. "You're real."

A laugh catches in my throat. "I'm real." I slowly release him, drawing back. "Have you seen them? Sulien? Forrest? Have you learned anything?"

Please let him have seen them. Please let them be okay.

His eyes meet mine, and I'm taken aback by the amount of pain and suffering reflected in his bruised and beaten face. He shakes his head slightly and winces. Damn. My heart knew he wouldn't have any information, but that simple shake of his head bursts what little hope I had.

"Absolutely nothing," he murmurs, and I can hear the frustration and anger in his voice.

We're on the same page, and it's blank.

"What does she want?" I ask the darkness. "What could she possibly gain from doing this to us?" My anger builds, but I have no one to take it out on, and no energy to even try.

Cobar shakes his head again. "She was just supposed to humiliate us, force us to do favors for her, even strip us and gawk. What she's doing isn't the standard for our courts. These kinds of deals aren't followed through like this. It's one of those unspoken rules of engagement. I don't get it."

Cobar pauses and eats his food from a plate to his side that I hadn't even noticed. I look down at my plate. It all looks terrible, but I need the energy. I begin eating too, sinking down next to him, pondering if I should share what I think with Cobar or keep it to myself and let him flounder with his thoughts. Floundering would do his heart some good versus knowing what I think is the truth. Telling him will drain him of any hope he may have left.

But he deserves to know.

"The House of Death has chosen a different path," I begin, debating about how carefully I should speak my thoughts aloud. "It's not about humiliation or favors or anything like that. The Keeper of Death is isolating us. And keeping us hidden. There's a reason."

Cobar clenches his fist in frustration. "But what is it? What the fuck do they want?"

I release a slow breath and decide the hell with it. "They don't intend to ever free us."

Cobar turns to look at me, his expression surprised. "What makes you think that?"

Don't hold back. He needs to know.

"If they let us go at this point, our courts would rain down their wrath on the House of Death. They've gone too far. Their only solution now is to never let us go, knowing the deal we struck will provide them with some safety."

His eyes widen. "That never even crossed my mind."

I wince as I feel the iron demons bashing against the barrier. It takes effort, more effort than I ever imagined to reinforce the barrier, but I manage it, with the help of the other princes' magic. I can feel it feeding the barrier, from all four of us. When I look at Cobar, dragging in air once more, he's rubbing his head, looking miserable.

He finishes the food on his plate, his expression upset. "We're the only ones who can rule. The only ones who can keep the barriers up against the iron demons. We can't last forever against this torture. "

"I know."

"So, how do we get out of this situation? How do we keep our word and keep our people safe?"

That's the question of the hour. It lingers in the air, heavy with the fate of our courts in its answer. How do we get out of this?

"We don't have any good options," I say. "If we fight back or try to escape, the breaking of our word will cause pain beyond even what the Keeper of Death is capable of. We won't make it far enough to make any difference at all."

"So, we have absolutely zero good options." Cobar shakes his head in disbelief. "There's no way to escape a deal with a fae."

He's right… but my thoughts start turning. All wealthy fae hear fairy tales about the fae from a young age. Fairy tales that we more or less consider our history, since we have so little written history from the time the humans ruled. These stories are used to teach young fae about our ways. In those tales, we learned that it was rare, if not impossible, to escape a fae deal, but there was still hope.

I lean in, glancing around the shadows of the room, and whisper, "We find another deal. We strike an agreement that tips the scales in our favor. It's the only way out."

"Another deal," he repeats, then he smiles. "Zane, you're a genius."

"Yet, it'll need to be a good one to entice the Keeper."

He frowns, nodding.

"One that doesn't involve getting a woman to love us."

Without another word exchanged between us, Cobar and I sit in silence. Despite my best intentions, my intentions to focus on a deal to get us out of this, my thoughts drift to Cassia. At the very thought of her name, my head pounds with a different kind of pain than I've been experiencing over the past few days. I feel our connection. I feel the way my soul is tied to hers. And yet… she rejected us.

"Why?" The question slips from my lips before I can stop it, my pain too raw to control my mouth. "Why did she reject us?"

It's the question we've all been asking ourselves since we climbed on our horses that morning and made our way here. All logic says that Cassia should have accepted us without hesitation. She was our mate. She would be elevated to queen after marrying us. We had saved her, risking life and limb for our bride.

And she'd rejected us still.

"There must have been something she needed that we couldn't give her."

"But what?" I ask, my voice raw with my pain.

He hesitates. "Maybe she saw the ways we were broken and had no desire to be with broken men."

"Cobar…?" How can he say that? Are we really that bad?

He closes his eyes and rests back against the wall. "Would you want to marry us?"

My entire chest feels so heavy it's hard to draw in breath. "Yes, I would marry any of us, broken or not. The cocks might be a bit of a problem, but otherwise, you're not an ugly lot."

To my surprise, his eyes open, and he laughs. "I could tuck it back for you."

I lean beside him, so our shoulders touch. "You'd make a lovely woman. "

His head rests on my shoulder. "You would make a hideous one."

It's my turn to laugh, but the silence steals room in my heart once more. "Maybe we'll never know, but I don't think it was us. Maybe Cassia just meant what she said. She needed more time."

He's quiet, but then he says, "She hadn't had an easy life. Maybe trust doesn't come easily to her."

"And she doesn't like the fae to begin with," I add.

He shivers and curls in tighter next to me. "We'll see her again, right?"

Even now, our mate has our hearts. "Right," I lie.

A sudden shift in the air makes the hairs on my arm stand up. Beside me, Cobar stiffens. Fuck. What's happening now?

I don't know, but someone is coming for us.