Chapter 7

7

C rimes against the?—

Noren exploded into action without my having to give the command.

Adrenaline pumped through me, flooding my system and obliterating the exhaustion and pain. I swung my legs over the side of the bed just as Noren slammed into the nearest guard.

They scattered at the sight of his sharp teeth and bulk.

I had to move now .

A foot of space between their bodies was the only chance I’d get to make it out of the room before they caught me. A sharp throb pulsed at the crook of my elbow and blood dripped from the puncture wound.

I pushed it all to the side.

Noren barreled between the guards and they gave way, providing me just enough space to duck past their grasping hands.

The direwolf was a step behind me as we sprinted down the hallway, with Baldric yelling after me.

No clue whether he wanted me to come back or to go faster.

The pit at the bottom of my stomach doubled in weight and dragged everything inside of me down too. I pumped my legs, heart thundering, every instinct urging me to get to the door.

It led to a stairwell, the curving steps polished oak rather than the cold cement of human hospitals.

One hand on the railing, I spiraled down one flight and then the next with Noren’s nails clicking at my side.

“Go, boy, go!”

He hit the exit door first, and the bright shards of afternoon sunlight seared my retinas. Footsteps pounded behind us, the soldiers already hot on our trail.

The exit led out to a small cobblestone street at the side of the building. Noren and I darted left, toward the forest ringing the crater-like valley that held the king’s city.

As far and as fast as possible.

I reached for my wolf inside of me, but the transfusions had added a layer of numbness to my system. She was about as far away as those mountains in the distance, and the harder I pushed, the more my strength ebbed.

Noren barked and rammed his head against my rear to get me to change direction. I pulled up short just as a couple strode down the street, eyeing us strangely.

My chest constricted as rough hands grasped the back of my shirt, tugging me backwards.

“Think you’re going somewhere, Miss Alderidge?”

Metal clanked and sunlight flashed off a blade poised at my throat.

Noren erupted in a terrifying flash of movement. His jaw clenched down on the pommel of the sword and he tossed it aside easily, moving in to fight the soldier.

As the soldier dropped his hold on me, I lost my balance and stumbled, arms windmilling.

Noren attacked beautifully. He made quick work of the soldier and left the fae a mess of blood and armor.

I started to speak but my senses screamed at me to keep moving and my heart jackhammered into my throat.

Noren straightened, shook his head and sent blood spraying everywhere, and with the fever pitch inside of me rising higher, we took off.

He shifted to my side to help me along but my legs were weak and my muscles sore. No matter how hard I pushed, I couldn’t go as fast as I normally would.

The ragged pulsing of my heart blotted out every other sound and obliterated my other senses. Fear was fuel. I didn’t have the energy to keep going. Or to stop and beg for a break.

Adrenaline leached out of me as fast as my system produced it.

Another corner and two guards stood waiting for me. The soldier on the left broke out in a dazzling smile. They lifted their weapons, and I held out a hand as if it would make an actual difference.

“You see nothing .” The command lifted out of me on instinct.

I had no strength left for transfiguration. My cognitive manipulation rose of its own accord. So much for accomplishing great things . I used my gifts to survive.

The soldiers stopped in their tracks with identical gazes unfocused.

Without the spell, I had no way to see their energy signatures clearly. I still reached for their minds with a pulse of magic.

“I’m not here. Neither of us are here. You’ll leave us alone.”

What I saw didn’t matter. I had to make sure the soldiers perceived that what I told them was true. And I wasn’t going to wait around to see if the command stuck.

In the lull, Noren and I took off again.

The spell wore off when we were halfway down the block and their shouts trailed us.

Adrenaline filtered through me and urged me on faster than my weak body could accommodate. Noren had to slow his strides to stay with me, but turned to gnash his teeth at the soldiers when they inevitably caught up to us.

I kept moving even as Noren attacked the two fae and took them down until their screams cut off abruptly.

Faster, faster.

I had to go faster if I wanted out of here.

Where was I going, though? Where could I go? My head spun, and somewhere along the way I lost one of my shoes. The hair on the back of my forearms prickled with awareness, and when I tried to call for the change again, nothing happened.

“Tavi?”

I swiveled automatically at the sound of Mike calling my name. Before I could take a step toward him, a guard swung his fist and slammed his knuckles into my temple.

I saw Mike in the distance, clutching a handful of flowers to his chest, before I dropped, out cold.

The slow drip of water on stone came first, before my other senses returned.

I focused on the sound, the sensation of cold unyielding stone beneath my back. A few more breaths and I found the strength to open my eyes. I regretted it instantly.

The pain returned along with a swell of dizziness and a sickening drop as I realized the truth—without the transfusions, I’d go right back into the sickness that plagued me before.

Noren wasn’t with me, either.

Had he gotten away? He wasn’t locked down here with me. I’d know.

Dread pressed down heavily and I lost my breath. Worry for the direwolf overrode anxiety about being in the cell. I knew exactly where I’d been brought to.

Darkness pressed closer, but not unconsciousness. Literal darkness. There were no windows, no bars to let in ambient light. Absolutely nothing .

I managed to haul myself into a seated position, taking a second to let my head stop spinning like a top.

I shuffled around on my hands and knees, sweeping my arm across the ground in front of me until I felt a wall.

More stone.

I moved until my fingers brushed against the ninety degree juncture of two walls. From what I made out, two of the walls were bars. The space between the metal wasn’t large enough for me to reach my hand through, however.

I trailed my fingers along the metal.

“You know, you make an awful racket no matter where you go, Tavi. For someone with your skills, you should know better.”

The voice came out of the darkness and I recognized the whiskey-smoke tone.

“You snitched on me,” I growled at Barbara, my companion in this prison. My stomach roiled. “I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t told them everything.”

“Everything?” Barbara said, and her subsequent laugh tapered into a hacking cough. “Do you really think I would have given them everything ? Shame on you.”

“I think I wouldn't be here if you didn’t.”

But that wasn’t entirely true. They came for me no matter how hard I’d fought, and at this point, even the anger petered out underneath the weight of fear.

“You poor, deluded little girl. I didn’t snitch on you. The premier himself used magic to force the truth out of me. I had no control over what I said.” She paused a beat, and then— “But I’m sorry.”

The apology, as surprising as it was to hear, also sounded genuine. I shivered, hugging my arms around my knees and drawing into a tight ball.

“He’s a special little freak, the premier, let me tell you. So many delicious things going on in his head. I don’t need power to know he’s got some major mental issues. He’s lucky he’s got magic. Painful magic, too.”

Barbara groaned as if reliving what she’d gone through.

Well, shit.

“So why the King?” I had to know. “You’re not even Fae. What beef do you have with Tywin?”

“I swear, there’s no reprieve, even here in this hell hole.” The sound of fabric shifting from Barbara’s cell, and when she spoke again she seemed closer. “Just more questions.”

“I have a lot of them,” I told her defiantly.

“And your first one isn’t to ask me if I know of a way outta here?” She choked out another raspy, bitter laugh.

It was my turn to scoff. “I’ve been here before. I know there’s no way out until they come to get us and take us…”

“You can say it, girl. It’s not like I’m the stupid old witch you always took me for. We’re gonna die. Premier Foxfall isn’t a kind man and he will never forgive me for what I told him. Under duress, I will stress.” Again came her hacking smoker’s cough. “So, why the king? You really want to know?”

I nodded before I realized she couldn’t see me. “Yeah, I do.”

“Are you settled in? Because it’s story time.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

In addition to the lack of light, something about the stones muted sound here. No one would hear us scream. It also made hearing her a little difficult.

I leaned against the bars, dropping my forehead into the space between them to better hear her.

If she was even going to be honest. My gut told me yes.

“A few hundred years ago, as all the stories begin, a witch married a fae man,” Barbara said with all the magnanimity of a seasoned storyteller. “She thought it was a match of love because, let’s face it, sometimes good dick can really cloud your judgment. At least, it did for the witch.”

“You’re telling me that you’re the witch?” I pressed.

“Shut up or I’m not going to finish.”

Her usual acerbic wit helped ground me and I found myself grinning in the darkness.

“As is usually the case, the romance eventually petered out, and his eyes began to wander. Not to other women, because the witch was, naturally, a great beauty.” Barbara sounded proud of herself. “But to gambling dens. Anywhere he might go to get his next high. The debts began to rise. They mounted until they were too large for the couple to overcome together. And in order to pay off the debts to the kingdom, the man sold his own child to the royal family. He stole the witch’s firstborn, her joy, her heart…her daughter.”

A shiver shook me and ice crept down my spine from the base of my neck to my tailbone.

I wouldn’t like where this story was going.

I had no choice but to listen and I didn’t want to miss a word.

“The king fell in love with the little girl once she matured into a woman, and he bewitched her with fae magic to forget her past. He obliterated her memories of her life outside of him and his vile, corrupt court.” Barbara stopped, and her hiccup, if I hadn’t known her, might have almost been a sob. “I came here to get my daughter back. She’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

“How…old are you, Barbara?”

“Old enough to know you never ask a woman her age, girl. Haven’t you learned anything? But to slake your curiosity, I’m nearly 500 years old. And I’ve spent the last three hundred or so of those years doing whatever it took to hack my way into this cursed fucking palace.”

The pieces fit together, finally clicking into place. My mouth rounded in an O and a small groan of distress got past my defenses.

“Queen Laina is your daughter.”

No. Way.

A low moan escaped my thinned lips.

Barbara sighed. “I know what you’re thinking. Your thoughts are as loud as you are. You’re wondering how she can be so beautiful and I look like this? Well, it takes a whole lot of magic to get into this realm. Magic comes at a cost. Didn’t I tell you that once?”

So she’d given away most of her beauty to gain the power to get to this point.

I dropped my head to my knees. “I’m so sorry.” It was my turn to apologize. “I can’t imagine how it must feel to be separated from your kid.”

Had my mother tried, like Barbara, to get to me even when things felt hopeless? I had to hope.

“I wanted Tywin to pay for taking my child, not only the marriage but for accepting the absolutely ridiculous trade my own husband made, may he rest in eternal fucking misery, in the first place. That’s why I did what I did. And I almost succeeded.”

Barbara sounded wistful.

“You wanted me to give you the Imperium so you’d have enough magic to get to Tywin,” I said.

Barbara sighed again. “I’m the Scooby Doo villain in this case, girl. I’ve lived in the mortal realm for too long.”

“Five hundred years old and you still weren’t powerful enough to actually kill the king.”

Which meant no one would be able to. If she couldn’t accomplish it with the Imperium ?—

“Hey, I got through the wards and put that son of a bitch in a coma. Not nearly far enough, as far as I’m concerned, but I’ll never stop trying. My daughter is worth more to me than anything else. She’s everything.”

It made so much sense now. Laina was a half witch and had to hide her truth from everyone. Tywin of course knew exactly who he’d married and all about Laina’s past.

He must have constantly been on guard expecting an attack. That Barbara had managed to get into the castle and reach him was nothing short of a miracle.

The Augundae Imperium should have been able to do so much more, though. It had been heralded as one of the most powerful weapons in existence. Yet it failed to kill Tywin, and Cosmo Foxfall destroyed it easily.

So what had happened?

“Now we’re never getting out of here and I still haven’t been able to reach my daughter. That’s the rub, isn’t it?”

“What about your doomsday prepping?” I wanted to know.

“Wouldn’t you prepare for the end if you knew an entire kingdom would be coming after you? I had enough supplies for me and Laina.”

But what about her grandson?

The knot in my chest began to twist and writhe as though it was alive. Mike was Barbara’s grandson. Holy fuckballs. Oh, god, why did it make me feel so strange to consider?

The lights suddenly flashed on with such intensity that pain shot through my skull from front to back. The world exploded and dark spots danced in front of my eyes until I got control of myself.

Footsteps sounded, and seconds later a familiar form swam into view.

“Mike?” I scrambled up and gripped the bars, using them to haul myself up to my feet. “Mike, what are you doing here?”

He stared at me without sparing a glance at the prisoner in the other cell.

I couldn't look away from him. He was the single source of air in this desolate place.

The fae light behind him turned his hair into glinting gold but none of the warmth extended to his eyes. They were as frigid as glaciers as he stared at me.

“I really thought after everything we've been through we were finally at a point where we could be honest with each other. Didn’t you promise me, Tavi? Did you say you wouldn’t lie to me anymore?”

“Mike, I’m so sorry?—”

He cut me off with a sweep of his hand. “I don’t understand why you stole the Imperium and teamed up with a witch. At this point, that’s not even the real issue for me. You kept it from me. You put me at a disadvantage not only with us but with the premier and the Elder Council. I needed leverage and you knocked my legs out from under me.”

“Give me the chance to explain,” I urged, then reeled backward from the woozy feeling in my skull. “I-I met Barbara before I entered the Fae Academy, because I needed a potion to suppress my shifter side. I had to steal the Imperium for her as payment.”

He shook his head. “At this point…I’m not sure what to think or how to feel about you. It seems like every time I think we’ve turned a corner, there’s another secret, another lie. You’re not the woman I thought you were.”

The kicker of the matter was that he spoke the truth. “If I tell you this is the last one?” I asked meekly.

“Then I’d tell you I’m at a point where I can’t believe you about anything.” He abruptly turned on his heel and left.

I stared after him long after the lights went out again, and Barbara, in the nicest thing she’d ever done for me, kept her mouth shut.