Chapter 42

UNA

I awoke to being jostled off a horse, my hands bound in front of me. My head pounded where Ferryn had struck it, nausea rolled in my belly. Some foul force enveloped me, tightening until I had to expel a breath from the pressure. It emanated from Ferryn.

It wasn't the same disgusting rot radiating from the wights. It was a palpable energy with fierce power and dark intentions. A sinister force independent of Ferryn's will, but also entwined with his.

I was in his arms being carried up a small hill. I caught sight of stars through the mostly bare trees overhead. Hazy, but aware, I took note of my surroundings.

Ahead of us, a rocky outcropping came into view against the backdrop of the half-moon. It looked like we were near the foothills I'd seen as Goll and I flew over Meerland toward Solzkin's Heart. So we were slightly southwest of the camp. How long had I been out? I couldn't tell since the half-moon still hung high, not seeming to have moved since the stream.

Mother of stars. Please let Hava be safe.

"Get your bag," Ferryn told someone, snapping my gaze to him. "You'll need it."

Had Meck helped him? No. They had been fighting right before Ferryn knocked me unconscious.

"Glad you're awake, my mizrah. I'll have you comfortable in a moment."

His voice was different. His inflection was too intimate, not the same as when I first met him and how he usually spoke to me. Had he been hiding his true intentions all along? Or had something changed?

That darkness I now sensed wasn't there before. Or was it? Since I'd ingested Grindolvek's blood, I'd been highly attuned to the wrongness inside those crazed wolves. I'd sensed dark magick when no one else did.

And afterwards, when I went to see Ferryn, I'd thought what I sensed was a lingering of the wolves. But now I realized that this was what I was sensing, this dark force living inside of him.

We were moving closer to the outcropping of mountainous rock. But that wasn't what held my attention. It was the clicking of bones and the groaning of the dead surrounding us. So many. As Ferryn stepped up toward a cave opening, I finally looked out.

Hundreds of them. Where had they all come from?

Their hollow eyes glowed white under the moonlight, a sinister sign that there was life there after all. A twisted, warped life intent to do their master's bidding.

"Why, Ferryn?"

He looked down at me, his expression somehow serene despite the insanity of what he was doing. "I should think that's obvious, my mizrah."

I hated the way he kept saying "my mizrah." Many had used the title before, but not with the possessive glee he held. That's when it truly hit me. He intended me to be his. I swallowed down the panic threatening to overwhelm me. I needed to keep focus and alert and find my way out of here.

But the wights. Terror wound its claws around me at the thought of those creatures taking hold of me. Flashes of them in that pit in the dungeon flickered in my mind.

No. Keep focused.

Ferryn carried me into a cave that was already outfitted with a blue-coal fire and a pallet on the floor. There was also the stump of a log on its side, like a table set next to the pallet, with a vial set on it. The liquid in the vial was deep purple, even by the light of the blue coal-fire. He had prepared this place to bring me here.

What in all the hells was he planning?

There was soft rustling in one top corner of the cave. A hive of bats clustered on the ceiling, some dangling upside down, others moving restlessly on a rocky ledge. Their eyes glittered silver-blue. Dozens blinked down at me, their ears and black wings tipped with yellow. Banshee bats. I'd heard of them but had never seen them.

Then I saw Dalya, her gray skin pale as the moon, walking not far behind with a satchel on her shoulder. It was the bag she had at Ferryn's tent when he was wounded. It would be filled with bandages, oils, and ointments to work with her healing magick. But none of us was injured. She met my gaze with overwhelming fear tightening her features, her mouth a grim line.

"What are you going to do?" I asked him, my voice a soft tremble.

He didn't answer as he laid me down on the pallet.

Dalya froze when she saw the vial on the log. "Ferryn. What is that tincture?"

I sat up, pushing my back to the cave wall that the thick covering of blankets was jutted up against. My feet were unbound, but I was also sluggish from being hit so hard in the head. Pain throbbed at my temple, and I could feel a slight wetness on my cheek. Blood.

"What do you think?" he snapped.

She shook her head. "You can't do that. It could kill her."

He grabbed her by the wrist and jerked her toward him. "Not the right amount, it won't. Just the child."

Horror unfurled with sharp claws sinking deep. Poison.

" No. " Dalya shook her head. "You can't do that."

Ferryn scoffed like her protests were annoying. "I'll hold her down, and you give her just enough to kill the babe." Then he let go of her arm and cupped her face like a lover. "I can't plant my heir in her with my brother's still inside her."

"Your brother?" The question slipped from my lips as my breathing became labored from cold panic taking hold of me.

He continued to stare at Dalya, who visibly trembled in his grip, but he spoke to me. "Half, actually. We shared the same father, which gives me the right to sit on the throne of N?kt Mir. I've always known I was meant to." With chilling tenderness, he wiped the tears streaming down Dalya's face with the pads of his thumbs. "On her deathbed, our mother forbade us to tell anyone who our father was. A good son keeps his promises. But that didn't mean I would ignore my destiny. Isn't that right, Dalya?"

She wrapped her hands around his wrists. "Please don't do this, Ferryn. I'll do anything you ask. Just not that."

"Oh, sweetness." He chuckled and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I won't forget about you." Then he gazed into her eyes and said softly, "I'll still keep you. I know that you love me."

She sobbed, and I heard in that tender cry that she did, indeed, love him. Even while he spouted the most despicable things to her.

"You'll be my first concubine next to my mizrah. I promise." Then he dropped his hands from her face and turned to look at me. A myriad of emotions tightened his hard gaze—determination, excitement, lust. "But she is marked by Gozriel."

His gaze shifted to my black wings. Unlike the times Goll had looked at them in a similar fashion, his attention repulsed me so much I wanted to hide them from him.

"She is marked as the divine mizrah, and so she must bear my heir."

I swallowed the lump of fear lodged in my throat, but I refused to cry. I refused to give in to any form of despair. There was no way I was going to allow him to murder the child growing inside me. I hadn't been certain this babe truly existed until very recently, and yet, I loved him or her with my whole heart. This was complete madness, and whatever was driving Ferryn reeked of evil.

"Oh, don't worry, my love," Ferryn told me with true sincerity as he knelt on the pallet, taking my bound hands in his. His eyes appeared near black now, those strange striations having splintered to swallow his irises almost entirely. "The pain will be little. And Dalya will ensure you heal quickly."

"She won't be able to travel." Dalya's voice shook.

"She'll have to. But we'll rest in a few days at my home in Belladum as planned."

"King Goll will be looking for her. He'll find you there."

"Good." He grinned at me, his fangs flashing menacingly. "My wights and I will be ready for him." He caressed his thumb over the back of my hand. "By then, his babe will be dead, and his mizrah will be officially mine."

I flinched, but he gentled his hold on my hands and his voice. "Don't worry, dear Una. I'll give you a new babe soon enough. You won't even miss this one." Then he flashed his fangs again and stood to face Dalya. "Set up whatever you need. We need to give her the hemlock now so it has time to work."

Dalya shook her head. "I can't, Ferryn."

He backhanded her so swiftly I screamed and pressed my bound hands to my mouth. She fell to the floor next to me.

"You'll do as I say, Dalya, or I'll feed you to the wights."

Bile crawled up my throat. "Ferryn!" I cried.

He snapped his head toward me, violence written in every taut line.

"There's something wrong"—I gentled my voice—"with you. I can see a darkness in your eyes. I can feel it inside you. It's not really you that wants this. Something is driving you to do these heinous things."

He chuckled, his mouth tilting up on one side. "No. The darkness has freed me. The Voice has shown me the truth. It's shown me visions of who I am to be, the true king of Northgall." His eyes flared with menace. "The god of Northgall."

Dalya pushed herself off the floor and shuffled on her knees to the stool. She uncorked the vial and smelled its contents, her sad gaze finding mine, a bruise already blooming on her cheek.

"I'm sorry," she whispered shakily. She set the vial back down and opened her satchel, pulling a thick rag from her bag, the kind we used to absorb blood during our monthly bleeding time.

I pushed the rising panic aside. I had to get out of here. A flash of Goll smiling down at me from atop Windolek pierced me hard. Then it hit me. Drakmir.

While Dalya rummaged in her satchel, I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself as I reached out to Drak. We'd connected telepathically several times now. Almost instantly, I felt him in my mind, then I could see through his eyes, searching from the night sky. Searching for me.

There was a nudge on his end, a palpable yearning question, his gaze still sweeping the tops of trees in the still darkness.

Then I realized he wanted me to show him where I was. I had no idea. Showing him the interior of a cave would give him nothing, but I did anyway. I had to get out of here and show him the land where I was being held.

"Come lay down," commanded Ferryn, now kneeling in front of me. As he said the words, he gripped me by the shoulders and maneuvered me flat on my back on the pallet. His touch amplified that nauseating energy inside him and spread through me.

" No. " I struggled and begged. "Please, no!"

"Calm down," Ferryn said soothingly, now leaning his face close to mine, those haunting black eyes sending a shiver of dread down my spine. "All will be well shortly and as it should be." He smiled again, his dark gaze dropping to my mouth. "You'll see."

Without warning, he pressed his lips to mine. I froze in shock till I felt the wetness of his tongue and jerked my head to the side, cutting my lip on a fang as I broke away from his appalling kiss.

He only chuckled against my ear. "You'll see." Then a sharp, "Hurry, Dalya."

I couldn't suppress the desperation speeding my heartbeat at an erratic pace. All the same, there was a well of fury swirling through my veins. It wasn't mine, though. It was Drak's…and Goll's. Of course. While he was connected to Drak, he could also see whatever I showed his dragon. His fury rolled like thunder through my body.

A squeak drew my attention to the ceiling again.

The bats.

Instantly, I snapped my eyes shut and severed the connection to Drak. A fierce roar vibrated through my mind, but I had to break the chain so I could connect with another.

I reached upward to the tiny creatures, trying to find one who'd let me in. Their energy was restless, high-intensity, and hard to grab hold of. Every time I tried to grip the tether of one of them, it slipped free. Then I realized my mistake. They were a hive mind. I couldn't grasp onto one. It had to be all of them. Even better.

I spread my magick outward like a net, feeling it pulse and build, seeking with a hundred tiny threads toward the squeaking and crawling creatures. It was almost instantaneous. The connection to dozens of them at once made me gasp, their thoughts a busy mess of movement and erratic energy.

I'd only ever opened myself up to other winged creatures and let them show me what they wanted. But I was as sure as I was of Lumera's guiding light that this new magick wasn't given to me for nothing. So rather than coast through the connection, I commanded them to act and do what I showed them.

Dalya lifted my head, which had me opening my eyes, my connection still strong, buzzing with all the tiny living heartbeats tethered to me, skittering in my mind. Not to get away, but to hear my purpose. They felt me speaking through the tether.

Ferryn held me down by my shoulders.

"Open, Mizrah." Tears trekked down Dalya's bruised face. "It will be over soon."

"No," I told her, my gaze flicking to the ceiling. Now! I shouted in my mind.

In one fell swoop, the bats dove from the ceiling with the high-pitched scream they were named for. It was enough to make both Ferryn and Dalya startle back. Dalya spilled half the vial, and Ferryn loosened his hold, turning his head to look up at the bats now diving straight for him.

I didn't hesitate. Bending my leg, I pressed it to Ferryn's chest and shoved with all my might. He went sprawling backwards onto the cave floor with a snarl right as the bats swarmed in a giant wave of wings and screeches around his head. He swatted the air with a snarling growl. Not even glancing at Dalya, I rolled up onto my knees and staggered to my feet, my hands still bound, then ran for the cave opening.

Standing on an outcropping of cliff, I peered down with helpless fear at the dozens upon dozens of wights. They'd been standing motionless, but now their hollow-eyed skulls tilted up toward me. They began to moan and move toward the cliff where I now stood not too far above them.

"Una!" bellowed Ferryn with fury.

I glanced back to see the bats still doing my bidding. I pulled at the bindings, trying to get free. I'd need my hands to climb down. How could I climb down with the wights right there waiting for me?

Then I shut my eyes and called the bats to me. I could only give them one command at a time as they were all intertwined, connected with the same will as one. Instantly, they shot toward me, winding around me in a tornado of beating wings, many attacking the bindings at once, the others whirling around my head, still squeaking and screeching.

A few nicked my skin with their sharp teeth, but I didn't care. I peered through the swarm at Ferryn coming toward me. But then Dalya was behind him with a rock raised above her. She slammed it hard against his head. He yelled and whirled around, lunging for Dalya.

The bindings were loose enough. "Go!" I shouted, sending the bats back after Ferryn, hoping it would save Dalya.

Then I turned and looked out in desperation at the treetops right in front of me. Lumera's moonlight glowed on the few leaves still grasping the trees, like glittering stars in the night, showing me the way.

"Una!" yelled Ferryn again from somewhere behind me, still in the cave.

Then I bent my knees and leaped off the cliff. Beating my wings wildly, I lifted right over the wights with their skeletal arms stretched toward the sky, reaching for me. But I was too high. This time, I had my wings, and they carried me away over the treetops, my boots touching branches, breaking a twig here and there.

I kept flying, realizing I was crying now. The cold wind struck me hard, freezing my skin, but I pushed on, flying just above the trees whose branches looked like arms reaching up to me. Tears poured from my eyes, not because of fear, but for the gratitude of my new wings. Ones I'd thought useless before the gods breathed new life into them. They carried me farther and farther until I began to grow tired.

Like any muscle in the body, wings needed exercise to grow strong, and I hadn't used mine long enough to carry me far. I hadn't known how high I could fly till now.

Beyond the thin line of trees, there was a rolling hill in the distance, the winter grass shining under the moonlight.

Windolek.

That was the hill I'd seen as we came into shadow fae territory, the one Goll pointed out to me from the parapet of the castle. Windolek wasn't that far.

"Thank you," I murmured to the gods.

Realizing I'd already lost the connection to the banshee bats when I'd leaped off the cliff, I now reached out to Drak, wanting to show him where I was going. If I could get to Windolek, I could summon Drak, and he'd know exactly where I was. I couldn't close my eyes, which always helped me concentrate and form a connection with another winged creature, so I tried with my eyes open as I flew over the treetops, my body growing heavy.

My booted feet scraped the tops of branches, breaking more thin branches. I'd have to go back to the ground soon. The thought of those wights lumbering after me had my heart racing even more.

Concentrating, I tried again to reach Drak, but I couldn't connect. I'd spent so much energy rallying the banshee bats to my aid that my magick felt almost completely drained. My leg hit a branch hard that had me spiraling through the air, down through the trees.

I cried out, fluttering my wings, but my momentum was lost, and my wings were too exhausted to pull me back up. I crashed through more branches on the way down, the limbs tearing at my chemise and scraping my bare legs and arms as I fell.

Landing roughly, I pushed out with my hands to brace my fall, not wanting to land hard on my belly.

My baby.

Something cracked in my wrist. I rolled into a ball on my side, cradling my wrist to my chest, my breath coming out in white puffs. The forest was quiet, only the sound of my soft whimper as I swallowed down the stinging pain in my wrist.

Then something moved beyond the tall oak in front of me. I lurched up into a sitting position, staring at the trunk where I had seen the movement. Two narrow yellow eyes glowed in the dark.

Slowly, I pushed up with my good hand, rising to my feet. The yellow eyes blinked, then a slender figure stepped out. A dryad with green skin covered in small, shiny golden leaves, like scales making a pattern over her body, crept around the trunk, one dainty hand still clinging to it.

She darted her gaze back into the forest, tilting her head, the leaves in her long green hair rustling. She heard something. Then those glowing yellow eyes found me again.

"You must hurry," she whispered. "They are coming." She tilted her head again. "They are coming fast." She crept back behind the tree, her eyes still on me. "Hurry, Mizrah."

I didn't need any more encouragement. I ran. The wights were coming after me. The thought of their gnashing teeth and bony fingers taking hold of me had me running faster as I cradled my wrist to my chest.

The end of the trees was up ahead, but before I reached them, I heard the distant clicking of bones and stomping of feet. I ran faster.

Coming out of the trees, I was at the base of the tall hill. I didn't stop, pumping my legs faster and faster, for I knew it wasn't my imagination that I'd heard something clomping through the woods not too far behind me. The dryad was right. The wights were coming fast.

Once at the top of the hill, I took a second to look back. The thin trees and bright moon allowed me to see movement in the forest. I sprinted forward again, running through the open field toward the dark silhouette of Windolek.

Rather than focus on the creatures making their way closer, and Ferryn most certainly with them, I thought of Gollaya. I remembered what he'd told me today at Windolek, on the parapet I could see from here. I remembered him giving me his mother's handkerchief, a gift of deep love even if he'd never said the words to me. His stories of playing in these very fields in the warm summers when the purple wildflowers bloomed.

That's when I felt it. A hard shove against my mind. I'd always been the one to do the shoving with my magick when trying to connect with another. But someone wanted in. And I knew who.

Still running, I closed my eyes and breathed deeply in, opening the psychic door for Drakmir—and for Goll. They both came flooding in with a violent snap and then tethered with a choking hold.

I wasn't upset at the violence of it. Goll's emotions flowed through the bond, feeding me his intense rage and deep worry and biting fear all at once. It pounded into me like a new heartbeat.

Opening my eyes, I showed both of them Windolek up ahead of me, looming closer. I'd have to fly up and over the closed gate. I was exhausted, but I had to do it. A tingling of power surged through me when I flapped my wings. Tired and sore, they beat hard and lifted me as I was running.

My feet left the ground, and my wings lifted me higher and higher, straight for the gate. I barely made it over, my boot hitting a spike at the top before I dropped heavily to the ground, but I kept on my feet this time. Protecting my wrist, I stared through the bars of the gate to the open field, swallowing the horror at what I saw.

There were more now. More than I'd realized. Hundreds of wights with wings marched across the fields toward Windolek. An army of them. And in the back, Ferryn was astride his horse, galloping down the center line of them. And running alongside him was a Meer-wolf. No. A Meer-wolf wight. It was mostly bone with tufts of fur clinging to its rotting corpse.

I whimpered. But it was a wave of rage that rolled through me again. Not my own. It was Goll's, still looking out through my eyes. His presence, even in a fury, comforted me. He and Drak were with me. They'd be here soon.

I had to hide. Turning from the gate, I ran through the bailey, trying the doors on one of the outbuildings. Each one was locked.

The stables. I hurried toward them, pushed open the heavy door, and then pulled it closed behind me. I rushed deep inside, down a side aisle of stalls and all the way to the back. The smell of old hay and leather and the subtle scent of horse still lingered here. I jerked open the second to last stall and huddled in the corner in a ball, panting heavily, trying to even my breaths.

Then I heard them, the distant sounds of Ferryn shouting commands and metal creaking. Were they bending the bars of the gate? I didn't know wights had otherworldly strength.

I closed my eyes and summoned my courage, calming my racing breaths. I needed to be silent as a mouse.

I waited, hearing nothing for so long I wondered if they'd gotten into the castle walls after all. Then the stable door opened with a loud bang.

I jumped and pressed my palms to my mouth. Something lumbered inside the stables. It was big, much bigger than a skeletal wight. It snuffed the air and wandered closer. The Meer-wolf. My entire body shivered.

Then I felt the presence of Ferryn. Whatever darkness had hold of him was practically pouring off him now. The energy of it made me tremble, but I kept statue still, deathly quiet.

"Unaaaa," he crooned sweetly. "I'm going to find you soon, darling."

My stomach rolled at the intimate tone of his voice and the endearment he had no right to call me.

"I promise I'll take good care of you, sweet Una." His voice seemed closer.

The other creature walked down another aisle, not the one I was in. I could hear his heavy steps. They were searching the right side. I was on the left.

"You hated Goll at first. I remember that day you cried and leaned on me. I was there for you. Do you remember?"

Nausea swirled at the thought I'd ever trusted him.

"But you changed your tune about him, didn't you?" His voice was laced with anger now. "I saw the way you fawned on him at the feast that night. Changed your mind about the king." I couldn't just hear it in his voice; I could feel it. An oppressive weight filled the air. His emotion was affecting the elements around us. "I bet you let him fuck you every night, didn't you?"

I bit my lip to keep from whimpering at the shift in the air, a sharp whip of magick wrapping my ribcage and squeezing. His aggression and anger fueled both his fury and his magick. This was a new level of frightening. Was he aware he could affect the elements with his emotions?

Then he stopped talking. The creature with him was making its way back up the aisle. He'd be coming to search this aisle next, and he'd find me.

Slowly, I crept on all fours and peered out the slatted boards, seeing the back exit door. I knew the wights would be in the bailey yard, but I had no choice.

If I could muster enough strength, I could fly up and make my way to the parapet and wait for Goll. For I felt him drawing closer, there was no doubt of it. He knew exactly where I was, and he was coming.

Hope surged and gave me the courage to do what I must.

Without waiting another second, I shuffled slowly out of the stall and quietly stepped to the door. I'd have to fly the second I was outside.

Calming my breaths, I listened as the big beast snuffled the ground on my side of the stables. Then I opened the door and lunged outside, taking one step toward the castle wall, my wings extending.

But then I was snatched from behind. I screamed as big arms wrapped around me and pressed me roughly to a hard body. Ferryn.

His breath was on my ear, two strong arms banding my waist and chest, squeezing me close. "But it's my turn now, Una. I think I've waited long enough."