Chapter 45

Chapter 45

H ow long had she been lying here? How long had she screamed? Had she fought against the chain holding her? How long, how long had she shouted and sworn, screaming herself hoarse, screamed until her words had turned to sobs? Sobbed until she'd collapsed, exhausted, and slept.

Hours? Days? Fey wasn't even sure. More than once, though, someone had brought her food and something to drink. She hadn't touched any of it. There was no point.

She was dead.

That's what her sisters would think, anyway. And it wasn't far from the truth, was it? Her heart was still beating, but what did it matter anymore? What did anything matter anymore?

Everything she was, everything that defined her, was gone. She wasn't a Queen's Blade. She didn't have her sisters, had lost that incredible connection that they had shared. She wasn't anything, not anymore.

She was empty. A broken husk of a Witch.

Fey heard steps descending the stairs on the other side of the basement but couldn't bring herself to care. Whatever they brought her, she wouldn't eat. Wouldn't drink .

She was already dead. Now she was just waiting for her body to catch up.

The steps grew closer and closer, finally stopping just a few feet away.

"You really should eat something," Alice said. She almost sounded concerned. Fey could have laughed at that, laughed at the idea that Alice cared about her at all.

"Fuck off," Fey told her. The words burned in her sore throat.

Alice sighed and crouched down closer.

I could kill her , Fey realized. Alice was close enough that Fey could have reached out and touched her. I could kill her and pray to the Goddess she has the key to my shackles on her. I could escape . Run back to the palace, back to my sisters...

But her muscles didn't move.

What's the point of escaping when I'm already dead? she thought.

"At least let me clean that," Alice said, motioning toward her arm, toward the cut that she'd made. "You don't want it to get infected, and this room isn't exactly clean."

Fey didn't answer. After a long while, Alice sighed again.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her words barely audible.

Then she stood, turning as though to leave.

"Why?" Fey asked. Her voice was hoarse. She raised her head from the ground to look at Alice's back. "Why do it, then? Why do this to me if you're so damned sorry ?"

Alice turned, blinking hard, and for a moment Fey was sure there were tears in her eyes.

"I didn't have a choice, Fey. Believe me. They can find you if you're connected, you know. I don't know if our sisters have figured it out yet, but it's how I always found you. And I can't risk that, not yet. I can't risk bringing them here."

Fey sat up slowly, and the room tilted around her as she did so. Her head hurt and there was a dull throbbing behind her eyes that got worse when she moved. As if she could sense it, Alice grabbed a bottle of water from near Fey's food and brought it to her.

"Here," she insisted, holding it out .

I shouldn't drink it , Fey thought. I should just lay back down and die .

But she didn't. She took the bottle from Alice, twisting the cap open and drinking half of it in one go. It wasn't cold anymore. It was room temperature and had the plastic aftertaste of bottled water, but it felt so soothing against her throat. Her headache lessened, just a bit.

Alice watched her, silently. Then sank back to the ground to sit across from her.

"Why not just kill me?" Fey asked. "Why even bother keeping me here alive?"

Horror filled Alice's eyes as she shook her head violently, like she could shake the words away. "How can you even ask me that, Fey? I don't want you dead. I could never hurt you."

Fey raised an eyebrow as she held up her arm, mockingly, the shackle trapping her there speckled with dried blood from the cut on her arm.

Alice at least had the decency to wince.

"Okay, well, you've got me there," she said with a sad smile.

"Why?" Fey repeated.

"Because I need you to listen to me. I need you to believe me, and I can't let you leave until you do, Fey," Alice told her, her eyes dark and serious. "I love you, babe. You know I do. But this is bigger than you. Bigger than me. And if you leave here and tell the Crown anything about what you've seen, then all of this—" She motioned to her own arm, to the scar running through her Blade's mark. "All of my sacrifices, everything I've been working to achieve will have been for nothing, and we might never get another chance to save this city.'

"But if I listen?"

"Then you can go," Alice assured her. "If you still want to, after."

Fey considered this, taking another long drink of water.

"Okay," she said, finally. Her voice was starting to sound like her own again, and the throbbing in her head was almost gone. "If I can't leave until I listen to you, then talk."

"Eat something," Alice insisted, motioning toward the plates of food.

When Fey didn't move, Alice sighed in frustration. ‘It's not drugged, Fey. Give me a little credit. "

Fey still made no effort to move, so Alice grabbed the plate. Taking a piece of flat bread, she scooped up the flavored rice and stuffed it into her mouth, smiling.

"See?" She held the plate out to Fey. "Not drugged. And pretty good, actually."

Fey took the plate from her cautiously, slowly pinching rice into a piece of flat bread, and chewing it. Her stomach groaned in approval. It was pretty good, even if it was room temperature.

"Talk," Fey demanded, swallowing her mouthful of food and scooping up more.

But Alice didn't say a word. Instead, giving Fey a measured look, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the bottle of golden liquid.

"What is it, Alice?" Fey asked, looking at the vial in her hand. "If it's not Allium, is it some sort of elixir? A weapon?"

Alice laughed, sadly. "A weapon? Yeah, I suppose it is a weapon, of sorts."

"What is it?" Fey demanded.

"It's the truth," Alice responded with a shrug.

"No," Fey threw her plate aside, not caring about the mess it left as food scattered on the floor. "No, no more fucking riddles, Alice. You claim that shit is truth? Then tell me. Give me the truth, sister. No more running, no more bullshit, no more cryptic clues and addresses hidden in my fucking room. Tell me what's going on, so I can leave."

Alice sighed. "Okay," she said, and she tossed the vial to Fey.

Fey caught it reflexively, still staring at Alice.

"You want to know the truth, Fey? Then drink it," Alice told her.

"No," Fey snarled. "You drink it."

"I have," Alice said. "It didn't do anything for me. But you, Fey? I think the Goddess had her reasons for sending you here."

" You sent me here." Fey reminded her.

Alice almost smiled. "I left you that note months ago, Fey, the same night I blew up my apartment. But you found it now , just as all of this is coming to a head, just a few days before this will all be over, one way or another. Just when we need someone like you. I think you're the final key to all of this. The final nail in the Queen's coffin."

Fey shook her head. "I don't understand."

"You've always been different, haven't you Fey?" Alice asked. "Not just strong, but different from who you've been told you are. Your primary element is Water, but you don't heal, do you? You hurt. You kill. Your power hasn't ever been a calm stream. It's a storm."

Fey didn't answer. Just stared at her, waiting for Alice to make her point.

"What if everything you've been told about yourself was a lie, Fey? What if you're more than you think?"

Fey growled. "And, what, this?" She waved the small bottle. "This will change all of that, huh? This will solve everything?" Her voice was angry, full of sour disbelief.

Alice shrugged, but her eyes glittered with mischief. "Maybe. Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you drink it, and nothing happens at all, and I unlock the chain holding you and you walk out of here like you never saw me. But there's only one way to find out, isn't there?"

Fey looked at her, assessing. Could she really trust Alice? The sister who had left them, the sister who had chained her down here? Who had stripped her of her Blade's mark, stripped her of everything she was?

What do you have to lose ? Alice's smile seemed to say.

Raising the vial to her in a mocking salute, Fey snapped the wax top open and drank it down.