24. Twety Four

twenty-four

I faded in and out of awareness, rousing only long enough to ascertain that I was being carried over someone’s shoulder like a sack. A floppy, limp sack of fluid and tissue held together by a container that was feeling increasingly fragile by the second. Like if someone applied a little too much pressure in the wrong place, everything might spill out.

My face felt like it had taken a pounding. Swollen and uncomfortable. One eye sealed half shut. I was pretty sure my cheekbone or eye socket was broken.

The skin felt stretched tight over my skull. As if someone had tried to pack too much stuffing into a bag that should only contain half the amount.

My arms and hair dangled toward the floor, swaying back and forth in time with my captor’s gait.

Through the crack in my eyelids, I could see the leather and fur lined vest that my face was currently pressed against. The rancid smell of piss and decaying blood brought bile to my throat.

I swallowed it down with difficulty.

“She’s waking up.”

I was dumped on the ground, barely having seconds to get a look at the Red Cap looming over me, Nyx hovering by his head, before a massive fist knocked me out for the second time that night.

“You were told not to hurt her. She’s damaged now.”

I woke to my cheek pressed against soft grass, the smell of fertile Earth beneath.

“She was being a pain in the ass. I did what I had to.”

Nyx.

I didn’t know the pixie well, but that high-pitched annoying voice had to be hers.

“Aileen is always a pain in the ass. It’s part of her charm,” Inara snarled.

“That sounds like affection. Did you actually develop feelings for the fanger?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. She’s a means to an end.”

There was a noncommittal hmm from the other pixie. “I hope so. Otherwise, our king might have to punish you again. It would be a shame if you lost the last member of your court because of a vampire.”

“Don’t you threaten him,” Inara snarled with a viciousness that couldn’t quite conceal the undertone of fear.

Whoever Nyx was, she wasn’t the gofer or spy she’d been pretending to be when I’d caught her lurking around the mansion.

And I’d missed it entirely.

How did she manage to escape Nathan? Did he like me underestimate her? Or did she take advantage of the confusion when the mansion was hit to escape?

I didn’t have time to consider for long, as the madness lurking in the edges of Inara’s voice made me aware of how perilous the situation currently was.

I knew my roommate. She was close to cracking. Pushed a little further and she might release all that chaos inside with no regards for consequences.

She might regret it after, but it’d be too late by then.

Needing to see just how close Inara was to losing it, I risked discovery, shifting little by little until I was on my side, my face aimed in the direction of the pixies’ voices.

Inara looked a lot worse than she had the last time I’d seen her. Her wings hung tattered behind her. The tip of one was missing. The bottom of the other was half shredded. There were holes in the membrane in places. Blood leaked out of a few of the broken veins along their surface.

Despite the bruises riddling her features, and the obvious signs of trauma to her body, Inara’s posture was regal as she faced the other pixie. A little tragic looking but with a grace and nobility that refused to be broken despite what had been done to her.

In comparison, Nyx’s presence was lackluster. No matter how much she postured, she still seemed like a supplicant in front of her queen.

“I’ll do as I please, sister dearest,” Nyx sneered.

Sister?

I took a closer look at the two, trying to see the resemblance.

Nope. I got nothing.

The two looked about as much like siblings as me and Connor. Didn’t mean that they weren’t. Just that there were few points of commonality in their features.

Sibling was a rather broad term that could be applied in situations where you weren’t actually related by blood.

I didn’t get that sense here though. There was too much antagonism for them to be siblings by choice—as me and Connor were. This read like resentment. The kind that built over decades until it boiled over and there was no salvaging the relationship.

That was the road Jenna and I had been heading down before we’d decided to change the narrative.

Nyx’s wings fluttered, bringing her closer to Inara. “Maybe instead of being here talking to you, I should have a visit with your consort again. As I recall, he was quite the energetic companion last time.”

“I’m warning you—”

Nyx laughed, waving her hand at Inara. “Spare me the threats. We both know you can’t do anything to me. You’re his now. His puppet. His tool. Which means you’re mine. Don’t forget that.”

With a flick of her hair, Nyx stepped off the branch to hover in midair. “Though if you do, I’ll be happy to remind you again.”

“Where are you going?” Inara called in a harsh voice.

“To give my report to His Majesty.”

With that, Nyx disappeared into the forest beyond the oak’s grove. The Red Cap lumbered after her.

“Bitch,” Inara snarled.

Creaking came from the trunk of the oak tree behind me. Like branches rubbing together. They were interspersed with the low call of something deerlike.

My body went rigid at the sound of hooves whispering over soft grass. It felt like my bones would snap from how tight my muscles were strung. It was a struggle to hold still and not let my breathing or pulse pick up.

At long last, the eldritch passed into view, his appearance just as terrifying and beautiful as the last time.

“Yes, I’m aware it’s not time yet. I don’t need you telling me the obvious,” Inara snapped

Another sound that was between a grunt and a low bugle.

“Oh, shut up,” Inara grumbled before her gaze fell on me. “Aileen.”

I kept my eyes closed, pretending to be unconscious.

“What did those assholes do to you?” Inara whispered.

Her weight settled against my chest. It was negligible, so light I barely knew she was there until tiny hands rested just beneath my broken cheekbone. Their touch fleeting and soft.

“You promised me she wouldn’t get hurt.”

There was grief in those words. A helplessness and rage every bit as potent as the one she’d shown when Nyx had threatened Lowen.

Warmth spread through my chest. She did care.

I didn’t know why she’d pretended with Nyx earlier, but the upset she showed told me she hadn’t abandoned me quite yet.

At least not in an irreversible way.

As hopeful as her reaction made me, I held still, not letting either her or the eldritch being know I was awake.

Inara, I might have chanced it with. Him, no way. Not after our last encounter.

Something told me this being wasn’t on a level I could understand. As unknowable and mysterious as a black hole.

Or more aptly—the sun.

Sound flowed from him, lifting and falling in that strange call that sounded somewhat like an elk’s bugle. The words of the conversation I could just barely detect incomprehensible and fathomless.

Inara sliced her hand through the air. “I don’t care what you and Brin have planned. Aileen was never supposed to be part of it.”

A pause.

“Yes, I know what’s at stake,” Inara declared loudly. “The Summer Lands can burn for all I care. No one saved us when we needed it.”

Except him.

The words blared loudly in my head. Somehow my whimper of pain went unnoticed, the two of them too focused on each other to pay attention to me.

Inara’s expression shut down. “I’m aware of my debt. That doesn’t mean I’m willing to sacrifice Aileen to pay it.”

You may not have a choice. You are caught. As I am caught. He owns your will now. The only escape is through your magic breaker.

“He doesn’t know what she is,” Inara argued.

Even to my ears she sounded unconvincing. More desperate than rational.

He will soon .

Inara bowed her head, preventing me from seeing her expression at that announcement. In the end, I didn’t need to with the way her curled fists trembled.

Come, the eldritch ordered. They will be here shortly . You don’t want to be punished again.

There was the crack and rustle of underbrush as the eldritch moved away.

When he was out of sight, Inara lifted her head, looking me dead in the eye. “Foolish vampire, why couldn’t you have left well enough alone?”

She didn’t seem surprised to find me awake. I guess my whimper hadn’t gone so unnoticed after all.

“Next time use words instead of a ‘forget me’ spell,” I mumbled with a wince.

Speaking hurt more than I thought it would. It seemed in addition to my cheekbone and eye socket, my jaw may have been broken at some point tonight too.

“Maybe then I’ll actually have an idea of what you’re trying to do.”

If it was possible, Inara got heavier as I tried to sit up. With a grunt, I gave up and laid back down to stare into the canopy of the tree. “Did you really think I wouldn’t care if you and Lowen just upped and vanished?”

Our relationship may have been a little fractious, but I’d always thought of us as friends.

There was a watery laugh from Inara. “I counted on it even when I hoped you wouldn’t.”

That brought my gaze back to her. “How did you end up here?”

I was pretty sure I knew Lowen’s story, but the last I’d seen of Inara she’d been with Baran. Since he was now in Noctessa, it made me wonder how she’d got to this point.

“Arrogance—and trusting someone I shouldn’t have.”

The bitter ruefulness on her face brought one name to mind. “Nyx.”

“She was a trusted member of my former court. I thought she would help me. I was wrong. She handed me over to them instead. Apparently, she’s been working with them since before my court fell.”

Inara touched her throat self-consciously, right over where the collar would have rested if it had been visible to the mundane eye. A bitter smile twisted her lips. “I’m sure you can guess the rest.”

Yes. Enslavement. Enthrallment. The whole shebang.

“What about Baran? Was he with you when this happened?”

Inara shook her head. “I knew there was danger and that there was a chance something could go wrong. I left him behind as a precaution.”

“And Arlan? Is he part of this?”

Inara’s gaze strayed to her left, a flash of sympathy appearing. “He’s cooperating for the same reason I am.”

I followed her glance. Even anticipating what was waiting for me, I still wasn’t prepared.

A mass of roots protruded from the ground of the meadow. They intertwined to create a cage of wood, dirt, decaying leaves and moss.

This time I had a better vantage point to see what was caught within them.

Breandan was positioned on his knees, his arms suspended by roots. The same roots that were wrapped around his knees and legs, along with his torso and neck. They bound him in place. Forced him to kneel without respite.

From the way he sagged in their grip, I had a feeling he was unconscious. Though I couldn’t confirm it. His head hung low, his hair falling forward to conceal his face.

Blood, old and new, stained the clothes he must have been wearing when he was taken. I could also see signs of it on the ground around him. He’d been wounded at some point and left to bleed out. Probably the only thing keeping him alive was the fact that Fae were incredibly hard to kill unless you had the right tools.

“What did they do to him?”

“The same thing they do to all of us.”

Inara had a lost look as her gaze drifted to the tiny root cage suspended from one of the branches. I didn’t need the flash of purple and blue from within to know that was where Lowen was being kept.

“The same thing they’re going to do to you,” Inara added, her gaze swinging back to meet mine. “Unless we get you out of here.”

“I’m not going anywhere without you and Lowen.”

Now that I knew what they had endured, it made me all the more determined to save them. There was also Deborah and Brax’s pack to consider.

“Where are we anyway?” I asked.

“Summer’s Heart.” Inara’s face was sad as she took in the assortment of root spheres and their dead and dying victims. “It used to be beautiful. The tree limbs and the oak’s trunk were home to an assortment of Fae species. This was once a sacred place for the Summer Fae.”

“And now?”

Inara’s features hardened. “It’s a prison.”

I’d gotten that from my first visit to the meadow. Now that I was here, I could see it was worse than I’d previously imagined.

In addition to the many root cages, there were bumps in the otherwise flat meadow that I suspected housed prisoners who’d been imprisoned here for centuries. So long that a carpet of grass and flowers grew over them.

The worst part was that I wasn’t sure all those who’d been pulled underground by the march of time were entirely dead.

“A realm’s heart isn’t a place you can trespass into lightly. You either need power or the custodian’s permission. No one in or out unless he wills it.”

“Custodian?”

Inara nodded in the direction the stag-like creature had wandered off into. “You met him a little while ago.”

“Are you allies?” I asked.

From their interactions, there seemed to be some type of relationship between them. Inara had been the one to stop him during my first visit. From their conversation just now, he seemed just as much a prisoner as she was.

I could use that. Especially if I could undo the enthrallment that they were under.

My gaze dropped to Inara’s collar. Its design was more complicated than the one I’d found around Brax’s neck.

“Maybe once. But now he can’t be trusted any more than I can. As long as we’re under the Summer King’s control, there’s a chance we could be forced to betray you. Even if we don’t want to.”

“The solution for that is easy.” I reached for her neck. “I’ll just break the enthrallment.”

Inara evaded my grasp. “No, Aileen. This is one thing you can’t break.”

“Nonsense.”

It’d be difficult, but I was always up for a challenge.

“Aileen, no!” Inara barked, making me freeze in the process of reaching out again. Her expression softened. “Thank you, but no. It’s not necessary.”

“Why won’t you let me help you?”

I genuinely didn’t understand and it was frustrating me. Of everybody, Inara was probably the most aware of what I was capable of.

“There are things I can’t tell you.”

I narrowed my eyes as she avoided my gaze. “Does this have anything to do with Brin sending you to keep an eye on me?”

Inara froze, her gaze locked somewhere in the vicinity of my chin.

From the emotions that raced across her tiny features, I didn’t have to wonder if what I’d been told was true.

She and Lowen had been Brin’s agents all along.

Though it was something I’d suspected for a while now, the confirmation caused a weird clench in the vicinity of my stomach.

“People keep telling me to forget about you. That you’re untrustworthy and were only at my side because of someone else’s orders. Are you telling me I should listen to them?” I asked in an even tone.

Say no, Inara. Please.

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you to do.” Her voice was flat and emotionless as she met my gaze with a blank look that made my heart sink. “Playing your roommate and quasi friend was fun and all, but this is serious business now. I don’t have time to entertain the would-be princess anymore.”

Her wings buzzed behind her, moving so fast that they were a blur. Despite how much damage they’d sustained, they still managed to lift Inara off my chest.

Her midair hover was a little shakier than usual but she managed to remain airborne. “If I were you, I’d be more concerned about yourself. After your last incursion, the custodian strengthened the spells around this place. Your realm guardian can no longer use the shadows to gain entrance. Also, those cute little marks that allow the vampires to track you like a stray pet are useless. This is the realm’s heart. Like I told you before, there is no escape once you’ve entered.”

Inara shot into the canopy of the tree, disappearing behind its leaves.

I breathed out in disappointment. “The hard way it is then.”

Too bad for her, I didn’t believe any of that bullshit she’d just spouted. Something had scared my diminutive friend. For whatever reason, she wasn’t prepared to confide in me.

Fine then.

I’d just do things my way.

Whether she liked it or not, I was going to save her and Lowen. But now, they didn’t get a choice in how I did it.

The silence after Inara’s departure was eerie. In the human world, there was always ambient sound in a forest. Either the wind stirring the trees. Insects making their songs. Or forest animals going about their lives. Never this unnerving quiet.

It was particularly disturbing when you took into account the cheerful sunniness of the meadow. Like two incongruous images that hinted at something darker beneath the surface.

I never got this feeling when I was in Noctessa. That realm felt soothing and deep. Mysterious, yes. It was built from nightmares and blood. Such a thing was bound to earn a reputation. Deserved or not.

The Summer Lands, though.

There was something evil here. Buried under the surface. The land’s brilliance and beauty blinding most to reality.

But it was there if you looked hard enough.

Like a meadow of graves and cages in the very heart of its most sacred land.

I drew myself up to sitting, maneuvering until the oak’s trunk supported my back.

I didn’t believe Inara when she said there was no escape from Summer’s Heart. There was always a way.

Unfortunately, I discovered moments later why no one had bothered to imprison me in a cage of my own. The red cap had dumped me in the sole spot of shade in the otherwise sunny meadow. Right at the base of the tree whose roots were imprisoning all these Fae.

I might as well have been marooned on an island. From the prickling of my skin even while sitting in the shade, I knew I wouldn’t make it far before succumbing to the power of this realm’s sun.

“That’s just great,” I muttered to myself.

Operation: save the pixies and get the hell out of here was a dud before it even began.

A husky chuckle interrupted my rambling. “Trouble in paradise?”

Startled, I looked up to find a pair of emerald eyes trained on me, their color reminiscent of the land after it had been drenched by a spring rain.

“Breandan—I thought you were unconscious.”

Or dead.

I didn’t comment on the broken, raspy nature of his voice that made him sound different from his usual self. I had a feeling the disjointed nature of his speech stemmed from damage to his vocal chords. Most likely from all the screaming he’d done while being tortured.

“That would be a mercy,” he rasped.

His eyes drifted shut as he slumped in the grip of the roots. The slight motion caused them to tighten, drawing a pained sound from him.

“Your twin is looking for you,” I offered, hoping it would bring him some measure of comfort.

“I saw,” Breandan murmured, not opening his eyes. “Where is he now?”

“Noctessa.”

I didn’t mention he’d been unconscious the last time I saw him. Or that my bio dad planned to interrogate him when he woke up.

Sometimes hope was enough to carry us.

“At least one of us will survive then.” Breandan breathed with a macabre twist of his lips.

“Hey now. It’s a little early to give up, isn’t it?”

“You can say that because you don’t know what’s coming for you. Like I said before, death would be a mercy.”

“I’m not sure Arlan or your twin would agree with you.”

I think they would prefer Breandan stay alive until they could rescue him.

“As long as I am here, the Summer King knows he has a choke hold on my lord.”

I drew my knees up to my chest. “What does he have against Arlan anyway?”

If he suspected treason, he could have just killed the barrow lord when he took over the barrow. Why use Breandan against him when it was so much easier just to enthrall Arlan like Inara, and anyone else who opposed him?

Unless Arlan was immune for some reason.

Or there were conditions that had to be met for his ability to work.

Maybe Muiredach just liked causing the maximum amount of pain. There was never a shortage of sadistic bastards among spooks.

“He exists.”

I waited but there was nothing else forthcoming. “That’s it? He exists?”

“I’ll let you figure out the rest. It’ll be more entertaining that way.”

“Seriously?”

Did he not realize he was knocking on death’s door? And he still wanted to play these games?

Breandan licked cracked, bleeding lips. The smile he offered held just enough of his old self to glimpse the cunning, sometimes cruel Fae, that I was more familiar with. “Your guests have arrived. Good luck, little breaker. Try not to die. We’re all counting on you.”

My retort froze on my tongue as my gaze landed on the forest’s edge. Without Breandan’s warning, I would have missed their arrival. So silent in their passage that nary a ripple came from the forest around them. Not a rustle of a tree branch or the stirring of the wind. Not even the crash of underbrush as an animal fled in startlement at their presence.

They appeared as quietly as ghosts. One moment the space between the trees was empty. The next, Fae clad in the same green and brown hunter garb as the ones who’d chased me and Anton through the Playground and casino stood sentinel in the trees’ shadows. Their gazes vigilant and guarded.

The reason for their presence became obvious a second later as a group stepped into the meadow. The being at their center claimed my attention.

I say being because he didn’t feel human to me. Despite having the form of one. He possessed an unearthly beauty. A perfection that didn’t exist in nature. The presence of which left a jarring sense of disconnection.

His skin was as colorless as a vampire who hadn’t seen the sun in centuries. His hair longer than mine by almost a foot and the blue black of a raven’s wings. With his deep red eyes, he seemed more vampire than me.

A fragile looking crown carved from white wood perched atop his head, with intricate swoops and swirls no mortal hand would have ever attempted.

His extreme beauty was ruined by the haughty expression that made it clear he didn’t see others as people. More like tools to be used and discarded at his whim.

Though I only had rumors and second-hand descriptions to go by, I had a guess as to who this was.

Muiredach, I presumed.

My biological father’s enemy.

I was so dead.

“Why is she still alive?” Vitus demanded upon seeing me curled up at the base of the oak. “We had an agreement.”

Other than Vitus, there were two additional council members present.

I wasn’t really surprised about Sophia’s betrayal. The councilor had never left much of an impression. Her loyalties as mercurial as the wind.

Navya, on the other hand. Now that was a shock.

This must be what Ahrun had meant about rot on the council. For Vitus to secure an alliance with someone as ancient as her, who held nearly the same level of authority as Ahrun, it would cause tidal waves among the rest of the council.

Funny—I’d thought she and Ahrun were friends. I guess he wasn’t entirely wrong about the potential for every relationship to fall victim to the test of time.

The king’s features were aloof and remote as he left the cool shadows of the forest’s edge to step under the searing sun of the meadow. The flowers and longer grass seemed to move out of his way as he paced in my direction.

Vitus grimaced, looking up at the sky before mincing his way after the king.

Navya floated in their wake, the sun seeming to have no impact on her.

Sophia remained under the protection of the forest canopy, keeping herself removed from the situation.

I wished I could do the same.

Instead, I kept all emotion off my face as Muiredach stopped at the edge of the shadow cast by the oak’s canopy.

The anger on Vitus’s face as he stopped next to him made me tsk internally. Someone had forgotten his lessons on diplomacy. That or he was arrogant enough to believe he was this Fae’s equal.

Fool.

The king spent a long time observing me, his strange colored eyes never leaving my face. “You feel familiar.”

I quivered.

If his gaze had been intimidating, his voice was like hearing death speak your name.

“Have we met before?”

I huddled on the ground, saying nothing. My gaze jerked to Navya then away. With nowhere else to look, I dropped it to the ground.

The king raised his voice slightly. “Inara.”

There was a rustle from the trees above. Inara dropped to the ground and knelt; her head bowed.

“Where do I know her from?”

At any other time, I would have rolled my eyes at the absurdity of his expectation that someone else, an enemy no less, would be able to answer a question like that, but I was too afraid.

There was something about this Fae that petrified me on a level I had never experienced before. Everything about him felt wrong. Off in a way I couldn’t explain.

He set my senses to trembling and no pep talk or rationalization would get them to stop.

“Her features are common. It could be that something about them reminds you of someone you once punished,” Inara responded.

“No, that’s not it.”

There was a certainty in the Fae king’s voice that brought a chill to the back of my neck. My hindbrain screamed that I was in danger.

“I’ll figure it out.” The Fae, it was hard to think of him as Muiredach even in my head, had a self-satisfied smile on his face. The first trace of expression since he’d entered the clearing. “One way or another.”

Inara kept her head bowed, not reacting to his words.

The king addressed Vitus. “The challenge has been issued and accepted?”

Vitus startled, probably not expecting the quick change in subject. “It has. I’ve already made the arrangements. Thomas and I will battle it out in your arena. As requested.”

“You’ve done well.” The king clasped his hands at his waist, his gaze lifting from me to focus on the council member. “When you kill him, I will absorb his death. A vampire as strong as him will fuel me for decades. It’s simply a pity we couldn’t have the challenge here, where I’m at my strongest.”

He was assuming Vitus would come out the winner in that confrontation. An arrogant assumption unless they had something up their sleeve to ensure that outcome.

Vitus dipped his head slightly in a respectful nod. “Our chances of success would be greater if we got rid of his yearling first. It would strike a powerful blow to not only him but the enforcer and Ahrun as well.”

“You speak as if you expect to lose.” The king’s tone was wintry, his displeasure saturating the air. “When you approached me all those centuries ago, it was with the assurance that you could do this.”

“And I can,” Vitus was quick to protest.

“I hope so. My daughter was sacrificed for this plan. I would hate to see that death be in vain.”

Vitus bowed his head, deeper this time. “That was a regrettable oversight on my part.”

The king dismissed his apology with a wave of his hand. “She shared in the responsibility for her demise. I warned her of the perils of allowing a toy too much freedom. That her stag was complicit in her death is no surprise. His patience in planning her fall is commendable.”

He thought Connor was responsible for what happened to Naimh, I realized.

That was good news for me. Not so great news for my brother.

“He’ll still have to die the most agonizing death I can think of.” The king’s gaze drifted to the edge of the forest. “I plan to punish all those who had a hand in my daughter’s demise.”

I admired the way Arlan was able to remain passive in the face of the king’s proclamation. In his place, I would have fled in fear of my life.

“As for this woman, a slow death would serve your purposes better than a quick one. Her sire is sure to feel her pain as her life slips away one drop at a time.”

I dug my fingers into the dirt below me to keep my fear under control. These bastards weren’t going to get the satisfaction of seeing me panic.

Vitus’s head came up, an avid light in his eyes. “I was wrong to question you.”

He liked this idea. A lot.

“Yes, you were.” The king turned toward the forest. “Secure her and ensure she doesn’t die.”

The low bugle from the eldritch came from right beside me.

Sensing danger, I scrambled to my feet, taking two steps away from him. He caught me by the back of the neck and forced me into the sunlight.

His grip was almost gentle as I thrashed, the pain from the sun setting me alight.

My panic made me miss the root that speared out of the ground. It wasn’t until it pierced my chest, taking me through the lung that I realized.

Shock rendered me immobile as I stared into the terrifying face of the eldritch. It might have been my imagination but I thought I saw sympathy there before a second root punctured my chest.

I touched the two blood covered pieces of wood with a shaky hand.

They’d impaled me.

How very Vlad of them.

The eldritch stepped away as the strength went out of my legs and I sagged, the roots in my chest keeping me from falling over.

“She’s all yours to do with as you’d like,” the king informed Vitus. “The tree will ensure she doesn’t die. Have fun.”

Vitus closed on me as the king departed the meadow. “Oh, I will. I can promise you that.”