Chapter 5

The bone hall was unrecognisable.

She’d thought it unrecognisable yesterday, too, with the walls stripped bare and the Mother’s throne gone – but it turned out she’d underestimated Emelin’s threat to bring the entire place down, or perhaps miscalculated the lingering fury of the crowd she’d left behind. The entrance door was half-collapsed. Soot-black scorch marks covered the walls. The hole in the floor had grown and took up at least half of the hall now, leaving nothing but a narrow strip of marble around the perimeter.

Beneath it, the hollow of the Labyrinth gaped. An eerie pink glow emanated from the bowels of the mountain, shrouding the ruined hall in a dusky light.

It was on the other side of that jagged hole that Naxi was sitting in her flowery dress, bare feet dangling over the edge of the crater, dried blood covering her hands and forearms up to her elbows. She was humming some monotonous song as Thysandra slipped through the crumbling doorway, but she interrupted herself the moment their gazes met – jolting up with a smile so bright and delighted that one might think the corpses littered around the castle were just a good-natured joke.

‘Sashka! Finally !’

Gods have mercy.

But there was no turning back now, not unless she wished to face a demon’s wrath and the mistrust of her own court; she cautiously ventured two steps into the hall, nudged the door as close to shut as the skewed frame allowed, and began unfolding her wings. The remaining floor looked beyond unreliable. If she could just fly to the other side—

‘Oh, I wouldn’t do that,’ Naxi merrily said, her voice unnaturally loud in the ghastly, corpse-pink glow. ‘A couple of fae tried to reach me by flying, and the Labyrinth took them all down as they crossed. Poor dear is still a little grumpy from all the time the Mother kept it locked away, you see, so best not to vex it.’

Poor dear .

What in the bloody world?

‘It’s sentient, of course,’ Naxi added, cocking her head like a clever little bird – the tone of her voice suggesting they were discussing nothing more shocking than the care a particular houseplant required. ‘Didn’t Emelin tell you? Its emotions are slightly different from humanoid feelings, of course, so I can see why Creon didn’t pick up on it right away – but once you know what to look for …’ She grinned, baring her sharp teeth, each of them a tiny, ivory weapon in its own right. ‘It’s unmistakable. Intriguing, isn’t it?’

Thysandra stared at her.

Intriguing ? She was supposed to accept that there was a sentient fucking mountain slumbering beneath her castle – a sentient mountain murdering people, if the rumours about the Labyrinth were true – and this was the first response this madwoman could come up with? To call the matter intriguing ?

Who in hell had given a mountain consciousness in the first place?

More importantly, how in hell’s name was she going to explain this insanity to the rest of her court? Had the Mother known? Most likely she’d at least had a suspicion, and the fact that she had never told anyone else suggested—

‘You don’t seem to be particularly enchanted by the magical mysteries of our world,’ Naxi dryly added, swinging her legs back and forth so that her pink skirt billowed up around her knees. ‘A shame. Let’s talk about something else, then. I presume you had a good night? Your head is feeling much better.’

For fuck’s sake.

She kicked herself into motion, damn the crumbling marble edges and the gaping cave below – because the hall may be ruined beyond recognition, but it was still her hall, and she wasn’t going to stand here on the doorstep for however long this conversation would take. What did the little murderess think – that a steady string of pleasantries would somehow make her forget about the several dozen corpses sprinkled across her castle right now?

‘We need to talk,’ she bit out.

‘Which is what I told you yesterday,’ Naxi reminded her, her fluttering lashes and wide blue eyes somehow distracting from the blood stains on her dress and arms. How did she manage to look harmless in this light, like a fragile pink flower rather than the monster that lurked beneath her almost translucent skin? ‘And then you forced me out of your rooms, if you recall.’

‘Yes, of course I kicked you out!’ Heat was stirring in her gut – anger, or at least mostly anger, hands itching with the feverish potential of violence. It took four centuries of self-control to slow her steps instead. ‘I wasn’t looking for your bloody company. I’m still not looking for your bloody company. If you hadn’t killed half a regiment to get my attention, I wouldn’t be here at—’

A scoff. ‘You know that’s not why I killed them.’

‘No, but—’

‘Although I’m happy to kill a few more of them, if it helps?’ Her blinding smile returned, the blushing light from the Labyrinth below lending a disconcerting gleam to those pearly white teeth. ‘A small sacrifice, if it means I get to tell you—’

‘You’re getting to tell me now!’ Thysandra snapped, control slipping through her fingers with disconcerting ease. Gods help her. How in the world was she supposed to lead the entire bloody Crimson Court if she could barely handle a single infuriating demon on her own? ‘I’m just asking you to stop beating around the bush, for hell’s sake. What do you want?’

‘I told you.’ Naxi shrugged. ‘You.’

Her heart stuttered.

Damn her body for betraying her so easily – for being so stupidly susceptible to the sound of that single treacherous word. She knew it was a lie. At least, that it could not possibly be the full story, and yet the eagerness of her own flesh and bones was making it far too hard to remember the lesson life had painstakingly taught her again and again, the lesson that should have been second nature to her by now—

That no one wanted her .

They wanted her magic, yes. Her loyalty. Her secrets and her skills. The Mother had been the one exception, until she hadn’t – and if even that had been a lie, then how could she ever think a gods-damned demon would be any different?

‘And what part of me do you need, this time?’ she choked out, hating the way the words shook on her lips, the way her hands clenched and unclenched no matter how hard she tried to keep them still. ‘My information? My helpful surrender in battle? Or perhaps—’

‘I could name some parts, if you like?’ Naxi humbly suggested.

‘Fuck off .’ And damn the flare of warmth sizzling down her stomach, her burning anger tangling up with some twisted, nauseating feeling she refused to name. ‘I thought you might have something to say, but if we’re not getting anything but coy innuendo …’

‘Oh, as you wish.’ Naxi rolled her eyes as she swung up her legs and turned away from the hole in the floor, then crossed her ankles and planted her willowy elbows onto her knees. Her eyes were suddenly so blue they almost seemed to glow. ‘I want to get to know you better. I want you to stop pretending you’re not smitten with me. And most of all, I want to pull you out of this hellhole and make you come live with me on some nymph isle far away from here, but I’m willing to negotiate on—’

There was no helping the shrill laugh that burst from her lips. ‘Oh, it’s not me you need to negotiate with. Your fucking friends are the ones who just chained me to this island, in case you forgot.’

‘They did,’ Naxi slowly admitted, flicking the tip of her tongue across her upper lip. ‘And I’ll confess I was thoroughly unhappy with them when they first told me. But then Emelin said you’d be free to leave once you’d restored order here – so now my plan is to help you restore order first and then convince you to come to some superior island with me.’

Wait.

Free to leave ?

There was an end date to her obligation here? A caveat to the threats Agenor’s daughter had made, and no one had even told her?

‘But …’ Her thoughts were reeling. ‘Look, what if I don’t want to go anywhere with you? Have you considered—’

‘Oh, yes, yes, of course you’d say that.’ The point was discarded with a quick, flitting gesture, as if it was nothing but a stubborn fly to be chased away. ‘We’ll work on that. Just let me help you for now, alright? As I was trying to tell you yesterday, you can clearly trust me, given that it is in my own interests to help you succeed as soon as possible.’

‘Have you considered that I may not want to work with you?’ What little remained of the marble floor stayed unmoving beneath her feet, and yet she felt as though the ground was shifting beneath her, crumbling towards her at an alarming speed. ‘I could just say no. I could just refuse to tell you anything, and you—’

‘Hmm,’ Naxi interrupted, thoughtfully pursing her lips. ‘You could. I could also kill a few more people, of course.’

Thysandra gaped at her.

Her small, blood-stained opponent sent a smile dripping with honey up at her, eyes gleaming guilelessly, fingertip tapping a gentle rhythm against a plump bottom lip. As if she hadn’t just uttered that ice-cold threat. As if she didn’t mean it, this creature without a heart or a conscience – as if she wouldn’t truly commit twelve more grisly massacres, and do it cheerfully, for nothing but access to the inner workings of the Crimson Court .

Tonight’s corpses were still lying in their beds and rooms outside this hall, screaming in eternal soundless agony.

‘Yes,’ Naxi murmured, such impossible sympathy in her unblinking gaze. ‘That would be rather unpleasant, wouldn’t it? All the more so because we both know you don’t even want me to stay away in the first place. Wouldn’t it be a shame, if all those lives were to go to waste just because you didn’t get over your own denial in a timely manner?’

Fuck.

Did she … did she want this?

The rational answer was clear – the answer given by the part of her mind that knew the rules of the game and played it to perfection, that wouldn’t let her take so much as a nap without a lock on the door and three knives beneath her pillow. The part of her mind, most of all, that had suffered the sting of betrayal before, and knew that a fickle ally could do much more damage than even the most vicious of enemies.

And yet …

And yet .

Gods, how could anyone not be tempted by promises of such loyalty – by the unimaginable luxury of even a single person one could safely fall asleep around?

‘Does it matter what I want if I’m unable to trust you?’ she rasped, barely hearing her own numb voice.

Naxi scoffed. ‘Why wouldn’t you trust me? I hate this place and everyone in it. Do you really think I’m sticking around at a court itching to kill me for the sole purpose of betraying you to people I don’t care about?’

Did she think so?

Hell, how did that argument sound so bloody sensible – how did everything the little vixen was saying sound so bloody reasonable, when the words couldn’t be fuelled by anything other than treacherous, violent insanity?

Cold sweat prickled down between her wings as her thoughts spun in all the wrong directions. Was she overlooking anything? But there was no denying Naxi could simply have left with the rest of the Alliance. She should have left, if her wellbeing meant anything to her – and since she was a demon, egoistic by nature, her own wellbeing had to be at the heart of her decisions. Which meant there was something at the Crimson Court she wanted more than her safety. More than her friends, more than the home she was dreaming of – some goal, whatever it might be, for which Thysandra was in whatever way necessary.

And if that was the case …

Couldn’t she, if not be trusted, at least be relied upon?

Looking at the sharp-toothed, blood-soaked demon sitting before her – the same creature responsible for the tortured corpses in the hallways, for the demise of the Mother’s empire and the treason Thysandra had committed – it was an utterly laughable thought. And yet …

Yet she was thinking it.

Eagerly, even.

‘There’s no way I can let you stay at the court after your murders this night,’ she hoarsely said – as close to a confession of her wishes as she dared to come, falling back on those of the rest of the world instead. ‘Every single fae in this castle will be dying to take revenge, and I don’t have the authority to make them leave you alone. They’ll riot if I try.’

Naxi shrugged, a gesture that was all willowy limbs and wicked glee. ‘Just tell them I’m here on behalf of the Alliance to keep an eye on things.’

‘That will only make them want to kill you more !’

A devilish grin. ‘Wishing them the best of luck, then.’

‘It’s not funny,’ Thysandra snapped – more vexed, admittedly, by the needless stutter of her heart than by the reckless flippancy itself. What in the world was wrong with her, to get all hot and bothered by threats and murderous smiles? ‘Do you realise they might come for my head next, once they figure out you’re not the easiest target?’

‘Oh, they might,’ Naxi admitted, her dazzling smile dimpling her cheeks. ‘I suppose they are like that. I’m here to protect you, though.’

There really was no reason for that sentence to knock the air from her lungs.

She knew better. She could do better. This was not how the world worked, and this cunning, scheming creature had to know it as well as anyone else – relying on anyone else to shield your back was a glaring weakness, and a sign of stupidity, too. Because one day you’d lose your use to the people you’d thought your friends and allies and just like that, they would be gone – leaving you twice as vulnerable as you’d ever been before, and twice as attractive a mark.

She knew . She’d learned the lesson too many times to ever forget it again … so why, why did her heart still shrivel in her chest when good sense kicked in?

‘I’m afraid I must disappoint you.’ Her voice came out too harsh, too sharp, to compensate for the strange, weak mushiness creeping up on her. ‘I don’t need anyone’s protection, yours least of—'

‘Oh, I know you don’t need me,’ Naxi sweetly interrupted – looking the epitome of radiant innocence in the rosy light, a girlish pout on her lips, her round face framed by the pink and pale blonde of her curls. Her eyes were so large they seemed to swallow the entire hall. ‘You’re far too strong and capable to ever need me, of course. But I could help you all the same.’

Gods help her. This had to be a trap, hadn’t it?

She was being played like a puppet. Thysandra knew she was, and yet no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t escape the strings – couldn’t stop dancing to this irresistible tune. No one ever helped her. Why would they? Life was not a charity, and the stakes at the court were too high to play nice; why waste time and energy on someone else’s victory?

Then again … the demon before her wasn’t in the game at all.

She didn’t have anything to lose. She didn’t have anything to win. Which meant—

‘Don’t try to tell me you’re not tempted,’ Naxi murmured before that thought could fully fall into place, her unblinking gaze trained on Thysandra’s face with what felt like physical weight. ‘I can read your heart, Sashka. I know you need safety more than you need anything else in this hell of a place.’

Safety, yes. Not building her reign on the quicksand foundations of a demon’s loyalty, and yet, what if …

What if she was just very, very careful?

What if she kept the most important cards close to her chest ?

She’d have to make sure nothing Naxi did was indispensable. That her maybe-ally was never the very last failsafe between herself and death. But if she kept that in mind – and surely she would be able to keep that in mind? – then a demon by her side could make all the difference in a court where not a single warrior owed her their allegiance …

‘I’m going to need a bargain for this,’ she heard herself say.

Naxi jumped to her feet in a flutter of curls and blood-stained skirts, the movement so swift and explosive Thysandra feared for a fraction of a moment she’d lose her balance and tumble into the silent Labyrinth beneath. ‘Of course! Bargains! What do you need me to promise – that I won’t kill you?’

‘Amongst other things, yes.’ She glanced down at the slender nymph hand reaching out to her – soft, slender, and coated in a thick layer of dried blood. ‘I can’t have you disobeying me in public, either. People will think—’

Naxi scoffed. ‘I’m not going to bargain for obedience , Sashka. Won’t willingly harm you, and that’s as far as I’m prepared to go.’

Not willingly – a dangerous clause to add to any bargain. The more foolish a person, the more likely they would accidentally breach the contract. Then again …

This little demon was no fool.

And if Naxi’s magic senses could offer helpful information in cases of emergency, it would admittedly be unhelpful if she had to wait for permission to act.

‘Fine.’ Deep breaths. It wouldn’t help anyone if she were to pass out from nothing but sheer nerves. ‘Do we have a deal, then?’

‘Oh, I would like your guarantee that you won’t quietly sacrifice me to the court either,’ Naxi dryly said, beaming up at her. ‘Not that I could imagine you ever being tempted, of course! But it can’t hurt to be sure. And we need to include an end date – I would like for the bargain to be voided if you ever send me away.’

‘If you decide to leave the Crimson Court for whatever reason,’ Thysandra amended, her throat dry. Demons got bored. There was no use in pretending this one wouldn’t. ‘I’m not going to go on protecting you if you get sick of me tomorrow.’

Naxi rolled her eyes, then extended her blood-crusted hand again, ignoring the alarming red flickers of the Labyrinth beneath them. ‘Deal?’

It took an effort not to recoil as their fingers twined together. The blood was still a fraction sticky in places.

‘Deal,’ Thysandra said hoarsely.

The bargain magic flared between their palms. Blinding light, stinging pain – she barely saw and felt it anymore. It was over in mere seconds, leaving nothing but the bargain mark on the inside of her wrist: a pale shade of pink, like a small shard of rose quartz embedded in the umber of her skin.

The last bargain between them had been white. It was hard to ignore, suddenly, what that one had led to.

‘How lovely ,’ Naxi purred, pulling back her hand to study the identical mark in her own forearm. Against her tender, unmarred skin, the sharp edges of the crystal looked oddly out of place – a violation of something far too sweet to be damaged like this. ‘So where do we start, Sashka? I could murder a few more people for you?’

She thought of the glaring eyes outside. Of Nicanor, stiff with justified disgust. Of Bereas and Orthea, looking for traitors, for people to blame.

Her ribcage squeezed her lungs a little tighter.

‘Perhaps you should take a bath before you start thinking of murdering anyone else,’ she ground out.

‘That’s not a bad idea,’ Naxi blithely admitted, looking down at her blood-stained feet. ‘Not sure where I could safely take a bath in this castle, though. Would you mind if I borrowed your quarters for a bit?’