Chapter 8

T hat night was no less horrifying. The darkness, the screams, the slithering. And to make matters worse they’d moved Eli because he was no longer next to me. Then come morning, I was given my first meal since I’d gotten here. A stale piece of bread in cold broth. It was disgusting but I lapped it up like a starving dog.

Lord Stryker came by a little after my “meal” and brought me into his torture room again. As we passed the hallway I became nervous to see a long line of guards queued up and leading into the room. There must have been a hundred of them.

“Umm, what’s going on?” I asked Lord Stryker.

He led me into the room and closed the door so that we were alone. He loomed over me, watching me with an inexplicable gaze.

“If you want to live another day you will use your truth magic on all of my guards and ferret out the disloyal.”

I sputtered, nearly choking on my own spit. “You want me to use my magic on all of them out there?”

Lord Stryker nodded and then pulled a dagger from the sheath at his thigh. “Or we can arrange for you to take a nice dirt nap.”

Dirt nap? I got the joke after a few seconds of thinking about it.

I growled. “Ha ha, funny. First of all, using my power that much will weaken me. I’m no good to you unconscious. Keep ten of them and send the rest away to come back tomorrow.” I flicked my wrist with the command and he raised an eyebrow. “Second of all, I need real food.” I grabbed my tiny waist. “I don’t have much in the way of reserves and using my magic takes strength.”

His gaze slowly raked over me and my body heated at the gesture.

“And thirdly. If this is going to be a long-term arrangement I would appreciate a bed and bath.” I placed one hand on my hip and tipped my chin high.

He burst into laughter, a deep and rumbling sound, and I knew I’d asked for too much too soon. My stomach growled knowing it would not be eating honey-glazed pork or chocolate cake anytime soon. Oh, how I missed my palace chef.

“That was cute. Sit down,” he ordered, all evidence of his mirth gone.

He thinks I’m cute. Maybe I could work with that.

“One more thing.” I dared to push my luck.

He just glared in response.

“Is my dagger still safe with your blacksmith?” I tipped my chin. If he did anything to that blade I was as good as dead, and so were my people.

Stryker rolled his eyes. “The weapon you intended to carve out my heart with is perfectly well, I assure you.”

I sighed in relief and got to work.

In the end I questioned sixteen of his male and female guards before I fainted. One of whom was harboring a minor secret that he’d smuggled truffles out of the kitchen for his daughter’s twelfth birthday because they were her favorite.

As the dizziness washed over me and the blackness danced at the edge of my vision, I almost welcomed the void.

* * *

When I came to, I reached above my head and stretched, the sunlight warming my face as I yawned. I dug my head into the soft pillow, wanting just ten more minutes before meeting Father and Mother for breakfast.

“Little witch.” Lord Stryker’s gravelly voice reached me and my eyelids snapped open.

I was in a bed. An amazingly soft bed with luscious white satin sheets. I moved to sit up when something tugged at my ankles. I lifted the bedding and glanced down at my leg only to find metal biting into the soft flesh. I was chained to a four-poster bed. And not only that. Someone had changed me into a thin white robe.

Shock ripped through me, but I tried not to let it show. “I didn’t take you for a man who likes to tie his women up before bedding them.”

I could barely believe the crass words had left my mouth, but if I was going to play the seduction role, I needed to play it hard.

Lord Stryker looked horrified at the thought of bedding me. “You smell like a pig pen. Bedding you is the last thing on my mind. I’m not completely unhappy to see you are alive though. You proved useful, and I have more people for you to question.”

Alive? That was a little dramatic, wasn’t it? Of course I was alive.

A woman in a white apron with small horns protruding from her forehead came over to press her fingers to my wrist. “Her heart is finally steady, my lord. I think she’s going to make it.”

Make it? I sat up quickly, scooching down so that my leg didn’t pull on the shackle. I tried not to stare at the unseelie fae. I’d read about them, of course, seen sketches of what they might look like, but never had I gazed upon one in real life. It was less jarring than I thought it would be.

“How long was I out?” I asked, peering down at myself again. It looked like someone had attempted to give me a sponge bath and there was a tube hanging out of my arm and going to a clear bag that hung on a post. I’d seen them in the medical ward back in Faerie for severely dehydrated patients, but I’d never had need of one.

“Three days,” the women who I assumed was some type of nurse said.

Three days!

Fear flushed through me. That was the longest ever.

The nurse called out to someone who stood at the door. “She needs food. Start with mush and work up to solids.”

Mush. My stomach groaned in discomfort. It felt hollowed out and like it would swallow me up at any moment.

“No. Mush isn’t necessary. I’ll take a steak, roasted potatoes, chocolate cake, honey chicken, and vegetable soup please.” I smiled sweetly. “Oh, and some soft bread with butter would be wonderful.”

The nurse raised her eyebrows and she looked at Lord Stryker who appeared to be trying to conceal a smile. “She gets the mush. We will see if she can earn the steak,” he ordered.

I genuinely wanted to weep then. I hadn’t realized how much I loved real food until this very moment.

“And please, for the love of my sanity, bathe her and let me know when she can use her magic again,” he told the nurse.

“Yes, my lord.” She bowed and he left the room.

The woman peered down at me and clicked her tongue. “I’ve been doing this awhile. Never heard a heartbeat that faint on someone who survived.”

Her words frightened me to my core. I knew my heart was weak, of course I knew, but my mother babied me so much my entire life I had never really experienced anything like this. Three days? I had never thought it might kill me … until now.

After taking the tube and needle out of my arm, she unlatched the cuff around the bedpost only to quickly reattach it to her own leg. So instead of being bound to a bedpost I was bound to a nurse.

I eyed her. She wasn’t tall, but she had some girth. I was weak, but after I regained some of my strength, I thought I could take her.

She must have read the calculating gleam in my eye because she sneered at me, “I feel it wise to tell you that my magic is powerful. If you try to subdue me I will boil your blood from the inside out.”

My eyes widened and I nodded. Scratch that, I would not be trying anything with her.

After a blissfully hot bath where I scrubbed my hair and skin so raw with scented soap that I was quite pink, she gave me a housemaid’s dress to wear. It was navy blue cotton, simple and clean, so I wasn’t complaining.

When the mushy oatmeal came I scarfed it in under a minute.

“What’s your name?” I asked her, practically licking the bowl clean. I was back to being tied to the bed.

“Shantel,” she said as she felt for my pulse like the doctors did back home.

“I’m fine now,” I told her. “Once I wake up I’m fine until the next overexertion.”

She pursed her lips but nodded. Shantel didn’t like me but she seemed serious about her job of keeping me alive.

I begged for another bowl of mush and she had it delivered. “Don’t eat too fast or you will throw up,” she cautioned.

I inhaled the bowl and asked for a third, but a huge belch had me retracting the request. I put my hand over my mouth after, my eyes wide. Somewhere along the way I’d forgotten I was the crown princess of the Fall Court. It’s amazing what an empty belly and a few days in a dungeon had done to me.

“Apologies,” I said. “I forgot myself.”

Shantel just waved me off, ignoring my unrefined behavior. “Rest. Tomorrow we will see how you feel so that you can complete this project for Lord Stryker.”

Project . Is that what we were calling it when I interrogated fae to see if Lord Stryker needed to kill them?

I was tired though. “Hey, did you hear about the Northern lord marrying someone named Dawn?” I asked her.

Her gaze clouded over and she looked at the doorway as if to make sure we were not being overheard. “We don’t speak about that abomination,” she said and got up and left the room.

Abomination? Wow. They must really have done it. Dawn married an Ethereum lord.

I lay there in shock for a full hour before I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The next several days were a monotony of questioning Lord Stryker’s guards, castle staff and anyone else close to him. I was beginning to see this man’s paranoia when he sent me his very own tailor. What, did he think he was stealing fabric from him?

But his suspicions proved fruitful. It began to become sad the amount of people I caught that had stolen from him or planned to. I even stopped an assassination attempt on his life.

After a full day of interrogation Stryker unlocked my leg cuff to release me from the interrogation room and bring me back to my bedroom, but I grasped his hand to still him.

He looked up at me, a wayward strand of hair falling across one eye.

Although I still referred to him by his formal title out loud, at some point over the last couple of days I’d shifted from thinking of him as Lord Stryker, to more often than not just Stryker. It wasn’t a development I wanted to think too deeply about. We’d spent so much time together a familiarity had developed.

“I’m sorry that you can’t trust anyone in your life,” I said honestly.

Today was the first day that my heart had softened to his cause. I didn’t condone what he did, but today I understood it. The man was so rich that a quarter of his household staff was either stealing from him or thinking about it.

His breath hitched, and his eyes fell to my lips.

“I told you not to use your power on me,” he growled.

I grinned. “I wasn’t.”

He released my hand and a slight flush crept up his cheeks.

“I have interrogated every person you have asked me to, at the risk of my health, for days on end. I want to ask two things from you in return. If I may.” I humbled myself.

He stood, leaving me locked to the chair. “And what might those be?”

“I would like you to bring the prisoner named Eli up to me so that I may prove his innocence and he can be released.”

His gaze darkened. “What do you care about some kid from the mines?”

I matched his glare. “I care about innocence and justice. I am a princess where I come from. I have a duty to my people as you have a duty to yours.”

He bristled at the accusation that he might not be doing his duty very well.

“And the second thing?” he asked.

I straightened in my chair. “Tonight, for dinner, I want a twelve-ounce medium-rare steak with garlic potatoes. I’m sick of the mush, and I’ve earned it.” I’d eaten mashed potatoes, broth, creamed rice, oats, anything you could think of that made a slop noise when you threw it in a bowl. I was done with that.

The corner of his lips quirked into a smile.

“Jennings!” he snapped and the door opened to reveal his most loyal guard. My interrogation had gotten the man a promotion. He loved Lord Stryker and would never think of stealing from him, and wanted to kill anyone who dared speak against him.

“Yes, my lord.” Jennings stood erect, waiting for a command.

“Go fetch the miner boy, Eli,” he said and relief washed through me. He was giving me what I wanted. Well, half of it.

He peered down at me then. “I’ll tell you what. If Eli is innocent, like you say, you get your steak dinner.”

I gulped. “And if he’s not?”

“Then I’ll make you carry out his sentence.”

My stomach clenched.

“And what is his sentence?” I asked.

Nervousness rushed through me as Stryker held my gaze. He wasn’t smiling, but the gleam in his eye told me he was taking pleasure in making me squirm. “Death.”

The uneasiness in my belly exploded into full-blown panic.

“What’s that look for, little witch?” Stryker asked with a hint of a smile. “You’ve been so adamant that the young boy is innocent, that he was falsely accused. Surely there’s no need to worry.”

I swallowed my fear, not wanting Lord Stryker to see the truth, that I hadn’t actually used my magic on Eli so I didn’t know if he was in fact innocent. Although it felt like he already knew.

I put my shoulders back and lifted my chin, putting on my princess front and forcing all emotion from my face.

“And when you learn he’s innocent?” I said, challenging him.

Something sparked in Stryker’s gaze, and if I didn’t know better I’d say it was respect. “If the boy is in fact innocent, like you claim, he’ll be released and given rations to bring back to his family for the amount of time he’s been in my dungeon.”

I blinked back at him. I’d hoped for the release, but hadn’t expected Lord Stryker to go above and beyond, atoning for a false imprisonment.

He must have seen the shock on my face because his mouth flattened into a scowl. “I’m not a monster,” he snapped, and I kept my mouth shut because I still wasn’t fully convinced that was true. “If the boy is blameless that means I’ve deprived his family of an extra set of hands to help feed them all this time. They are owed their due.”

“That’s very … just of you,” I said, reining in my emotions once again. They had a nasty habit of getting out of my control when I was around the growly fae. Something I found very annoying.

“I pay my debts,” he reiterated, getting agitated, but before he could say more the cell door creaked open and a guard hauled in a young unseelie fae that I assumed was Eli.

With his rounded face and lanky figure he looked even younger than I’d imagined. On the cusp of being a young man, but not quite there yet.

I’d met many different types of unseelie over the last several days, but I’d never seen someone like him before. His skin was gray with hardened patches over his cheekbones, the ridge of his brow, and along both forearms. It almost looked as if he was partially made of stone. Two small horns peeked out from his mess of black curls. And rather than nails on the ends of each finger, he had small talons that came to a point.

The boy’s wide eyes swiveled back and forth over the room, taking in Stryker first before swinging over to where I was tethered to the torture chair at my ankle. At least I wasn’t strapped down fully like I had been the first day, but it was still obvious I was as much Stryker’s prisoner as he was.

When his gaze collided with mine I saw that his eyes were filled with terror. My heart instantly went out to him.

“The prisoner you requested, my lord,” the guard said and pushed the boy further into the room.

“M-m’lord,” Eli said and tried to bow deeply, but he was shaking so badly that he stumbled a step. The guard roughly yanked him up by the scruff of his neck and Eli winced.

“Stop,” I yelled, pulling at my ankle restraint as I positioned myself to leap up if needed. “Don’t touch him!”

Fear flashed over the guard’s face, showing he had some sense after all, and he instantly removed his hand from Eli and took a half step back.

That’s right. I might be shackled to this infernal chair, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t dangerous.

“Aribella?” the boy tentatively said, his gaze searching. He must have recognized my voice.

I nodded, forcing a smile to help put him at ease. “Yes, Eli. It’s me.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “I didn’t know what happened to you,” he said. “I was moved into a different cell. I was worried that Lord Stryker might have—” His head snapped toward Stryker, who he’d likely momentarily forgotten was there, and he shrunk into himself.

Stryker took a step forward and fear filled Eli’s eyes again.

I made a noise of protest and shot Stryker a look of admonishment. Couldn’t he see the fae was terrified enough?

Catching my glare, Stryker rolled his eyes but didn’t move any closer to Eli. Instead he gestured toward him as if to say, get on with it already .

“It’s going to be all right,” I assured the young fae. “I’ve told Lord Stryker that you are innocent. You’re here right now so we can prove it and then you’ll be released to return to your family.”

Eli peered back at me, his face part-hopeful and the other part still stuck in fright. “Prove it? How?”

Oh no. If Eli kept talking he might reveal I hadn’t used my magic on him to get him to tell me the truth. I couldn’t let that secret get out. Stryker would be furious.

“Remember how I used my magic on you back in the cell?” I asked, knowing he was going to nod, which he did because I’d used my magic to calm him. “Well, I’m just going to do that again. I’ll make you feel relaxed and all you have to do is tell Lord Stryker what you told me before. The truth about the smuggling and how you had nothing to do with it. And I promise everything will be okay. Can I use my magic on you again?”

I hadn’t asked any of the other fae I used my magic on if they were okay with it, but none of the others had been a terrified young boy who’d had to endure weeks of torture in Lord Stryker’s horror-filled dungeon. The boy had been through enough, the least I could do was show him this kindness.

Eli nodded, his curls falling onto his forehead as he kept a wary eye on Lord Stryker.

Taking a deep breath I tried to calm my heart. I felt it flutter, an early warning sign that an episode was coming on. I’d already exerted myself today, so I probably shouldn’t be using much more of my magic, but I wasn’t going to let Eli suffer just because I was worn out. I could do this.

Closing my eyes I took some relaxing breaths, willing my heart to slow. When I felt the beats even out, I pushed my magic on Eli like I’d been doing for days on others. I’d done this so often now that it wasn’t hard anymore to layer on the emotions and feelings I needed to in order to put a fae in a truthful state of mind.

After only a few seconds Eli’s body started to relax, then his eyelids drooped. I peered at Stryker to make sure he saw that Eli was in a suggestable state of mind. He nodded to me.

“Eli, are you part of an underground smuggling ring that is stealing gold and gems from Lord Stryker?” I asked, getting straight to the point.

Eli shook his head. “No. My family could use the coin, but I would never take something that wasn’t mine.”

Anxiety I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding onto exited my body, leaving me feeling almost euphoric. I knew Eli was trustworthy.

I shot Stryker a triumphant look. I was about to pull back my magic, but he held a hand up and told me to wait. Stryker took a step toward Eli, but this time the unseelie barely noticed the lord moving closer.

“Do you know anything about the smuggling ring?” Stryker asked.

Eli nodded and fear pierced my heart. I’d forgotten that he said his cousin asked him to be part of it. Stryker might still punish Eli for knowing something, even though he wasn’t technically part of it. But even if Eli went free, he was about to damn one of his family members.

There was nothing I could do about that now, though. If I pulled back my magic, Stryker would just force me to use it against Eli again.

“My cousin, Caleb, asked me to join, but I told him no. I didn’t want any part of it.”

I released a relieved sigh. At least Eli was clearing his own name. There’s no way Stryker could accuse him of being a traitor. Even under the influence of my magic it was clear he was a loyal citizen who wanted to do the right thing.

“When will the thieves strike next?” Stryker asked, taking another step forward so that he was practically in Eli’s face.

“I don’t know,” Eli answered calmly.

“Who is helping them get away with it?”

“I don’t know,” Eli answered again, his voice monotone.

“Well, what do you know?” Stryker ground out, a muscle in his jaw popped because it was clenched so tightly.

After spending so much time with him over the last several days, I’d picked up on some of his tells. The clenched jaw was definitely one of them. He was furious, and that didn’t bode well for Eli or his cousin.

“About what?” Eli asked.

A vein throbbed in Stryker’s temple and I worried he was only seconds away from lashing out at Eli. I didn’t think the young fae was being purposefully evasive, just that Stryker wasn’t asking the right questions. With my magic keeping Eli enthralled, he was simply answering them as honestly as possible, not picking up on what Stryker was really looking for. Details on the smuggling ring.

“Eli,” I said, jumping in to try to defuse Stryker’s anger. “Could you tell us the names of any of the other smuggling conspirators?”

Eli shrugged. “I’m not sure of any of them other than my cousin.”

“If you had to guess,” I said, prompting him to keep going. I hoped that if he gave Stryker enough good intel, he would still honor his promise and let Eli go.

Eli lifted a hand and started scratching his head, completely unaware of how tenuous his position was right now. “Well, my cousin fell in with a rough group a few months back. If I had to guess, I’d say it was the lot of them who were running everything.”

“Do you know any of their names?” I asked, and Eli rattled off a few, which made me breathe a little easier and the vein in Stryker’s brow stop throbbing.

“And when your cousin approached you, did he say specifically what they were going to smuggle?” I asked.

Eli nodded. “Yes. He said they were going after the rubies. Said that they had a contact in the mine that would let them in at night to steal some of the gems.”

I glanced over at Stryker. “Is there more than one ruby mine?”

Stryker shook his head. “Rubies are only mined in one location in the Jewel Spring Mountains.”

The Jewel Spring Mountains sounded only vaguely familiar. I wish I’d spent more time studying the maps of Ethereum.

“Have you had any reports of any gems going missing?” I asked Stryker.

Stryker crossed his arms over his chest. “Not rubies, but plenty of others. They seem to hit only one mine at a time, stripping me of that gem and moving to the next.”

“Which means you might still be able to stop the heist,” I told him, feeling invested now.

“Perhaps,” Stryker said. “But even if they do manage to steal from me, I’ll make them illegal to trade with and they’ll never be able to sell them on the open market.”

“That won’t matter,” Eli said, surprising us both. “They don’t sell the goods here in the Eastern Kingdom. They take them to the Southern Kingdom to hawk them, selling them on the black market there. That’s how they’ve gotten away with it for so long.”

I was nervous with how much Eli actually did know about all of this, but when I looked back at Stryker, his anger seemed to have vanished. Instead he had a thoughtful look on his face.

“Do you have any more questions, Lord Stryker?” I asked, forcing my tone to stay light so I didn’t make things worse by angering him.

“We’re finished here,” he said. My body sagged in relief as I pulled back the emotions and feelings I’d pressed upon Eli, but then tightened back up when he addressed his guard, “Get someone to take her back to her room and tell Shantel to pack a week’s worth of clothing and supplies for her.”

“A week’s worth of clothing. Why?” I asked, feeling my heartbeat start to elevate.

“Because tomorrow we’re leaving for the Jewel Spring Mountains,” Stryker said.

I didn’t know how I felt about leaving the castle. It made me nervous, but perhaps it would be the perfect opportunity to escape. The only problem was that I needed to find my dagger. I couldn’t complete my mission without it.

“And my dagger?” I asked.

Stryker shot me a look that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

“Your dagger will remain safely here with my blacksmith where it cannot hurt me,” he growled.

Okay, point taken.

Stryker started for the door.

“Wait,” I called and he paused and looked over his shoulder at me. “What about Eli?” I asked. “Will you set him free like you promised?”

Stryker cast a quick glance at Eli, who was standing with his head hung low, staring at the floor. “The fae might technically be innocent, but he knows more than he let on and now he knows our plans. I can’t allow him to go back just yet, but I will let him stay in my guest cottage until our investigation into the Jewel Spring Mountains is over. Rations will also be sent to his family. I’m a fae of my word.”

Relief rushed through me at that. He’d get out of this shadow dungeon, that was something.

Stryker strode toward the door and flung it open. He paused right before leaving the room and I braced myself, worried about what proclamation he might say next.

He looked at his guard. “And tell the kitchen staff to make a steak and send it up to her room for dinner,” he barked. “Twelve ounce, medium rare with garlic potatoes, hearty vegetables, a loaf of bread and the cook’s chocolate fudge cake.”

My mouth started to water at the mention of the delicious food, but then Stryker’s gaze swung to me and it went dry again. There was a hunger in his gaze that didn’t look like it could be satiated with food. I didn’t think he meant for me to read his face so easily, but I had. No one had ever looked at me like that before.

“She’ll need to keep up her strength for where we are going,” he said in way of an explanation and then left.

The door banged shut behind him, and I jolted at the noise. I didn’t know if I loved or hated the feelings Stryker just stirred in me, I only knew that they confused me. And that was dangerous, because no matter what, I was still determined to complete my mission. And that meant this could only end one way: with Lord Stryker’s black heart in the palm of my hand.