The Gatekeeper's Trials: The Complete Trilogy

by Emma L. Adams

  My mouth parted. He thought I’d meant to end my sentence with considering you were too busy spying on me. “I meant because you were drunk. Are you still drunk now?”

  “No.” He took a step closer to me. “Why?”

  He stood closer than I’d thought, and my heart started beating faster as though my body remembered how he’d touched me, how his magic had slid along my skin and brought tingles to the surface. “Because you’re not usually so… open.”

  He drew in a breath. “No, you’re right. I’ve been a fool, but after yesterday—after Lord Daival left you for dead—I realised there’s something much more important to me than my mission.”

  I licked my dry lips. “You said something similar before, yet you then abused my trust and brought me to Etaina against my will. You’re here for her sake, Darrow. Whatever you think you feel for me—”

  “I don’t think,” he said. “I know. And I also know you feel the same for me.”

  I couldn’t bring myself to step away, even though I knew we had no future together. We barely had a present, and it would only last until someone opened the door.

  His hand cupped my chin. “You’re covered in blood.”

  “Not mine. I stabbed Lord Daival with an iron knife.”

  “Of course you did.” His lips swept over mine, and my heart stuttered to a halt. “Are you sure he didn’t hurt you?”

  “Not as badly as last time.” I stiffened beneath his touch. “Come to think of it, he wasn’t trying that hard. He only fought me because I chased him down when he tried to run.”

  Darrow released me, his expression darkening. “It did surprise me to hear he showed his face in the Courts at all.”

  “He was on his way to the jail.” Unease slithered down my spine. “Which is where he’s going right now. He might be in handcuffs and bleeding from an iron wound, but it’s where he wants to be.”

  I shouldn’t have let Lady Aiten leave me behind. The Sidhe had handed Lord Daival exactly what he wanted… access to his queen.

  19

  The instant I exited the tapestried room, the two Sidhe guarding the doors stepped in to bar my way. “We have orders not to let the Gatekeeper leave this room.”

  Oh, for crying out loud. “I’m positive Lord Daival got himself arrested on purpose so he could bring down the jail from the inside, because you’re more focused on me than your own criminals.”

  Behind the guards, Lord Niall and a few of his cronies stood arguing with Lord Raivan, while Coral stood at the side with some of the other half-Sidhe. From the expression on Lord Raivan’s face, he was not thrilled with the master of revels.

  “She’s right,” added Darrow. “You must send word to Lady Aiten and warn her at once. Tell Lord Raivan, too.”

  Magic tingled in his words, and the guards’ expressions grew slack. Then they spoke in unison: “We will send word to Lady Aiten.”

  The two guards walked away, somehow picking up Lord Raivan on the way out the doors and leaving Lord Niall and his companions behind.

  “You again?” Lord Niall glided across the room and halted before Darrow and me. “You shouldn’t be allowed to stay in our Court after the lies you told. You should be locked up with the other traitors, including this one.” He jerked his head at Darrow, whose eyes narrowed right back at him. The bite of magic in the air warned me to avert my eyes, and Lord Niall took the full blast of it in the face. His jaw slackened, his eyes glazing over.

  “You have no authority here,” said Darrow, his voice low, dangerous. “Step aside, or I won’t hold back this time.”

  Lord Niall did so without a word of protest. Damn, Darrow. Lord Niall’s adoring gaze was fixed on him as though nothing else existed in the world.

  “What is the meaning of this?” The female Sidhe with thorny hair stepped up behind him, followed by the blond male who bore more than a passing resemblance to Lord Raivan. “What did you do—?”

  Darrow’s magic locked the two of them to the spot, rendering them speechless.

  “How long will that hold them?” I looked between the Sidhe, marvelling at how efficiently Darrow had shut them down. He’s definitely been holding back. Then again, that ability of his is about as subtle as a hurricane.

  “Not long enough,” said Darrow, his hands alighting with green Summer magic.

  Lord Niall’s gaze cleared. “What devil are you?”

  Coral appeared behind him, swinging a vase. The blow connected with Lord Niall’s skull, and he crumpled into a heap. Quickly, I directed my magic at the thorny plants against the wall and ordered them to bind Lord Niall’s legs and arms together. Then I did the same to his companions.

  “That’ll hold him.” I ran for the doors, Darrow and Coral close on my heels.

  Lady Aiten had left the path to the jail open outside the palace gates, but the absence of any Sidhe outside the sprawling building made my gut clench.

  “Where are the guards?” Coral whispered. “My brother…”

  “Stay safe,” I warned. “I think Lord Daival has made his move.”

  I led the way up the short path leading up to the jail entrance. Outside, two guards’ bodies lay unmoving on the ground, the branches and roots that formed the door severed as though by a sharp instrument. Their faces had turned grey, their eyes bleached of colour.

  Iron poisoning. For an instant, horror rooted me to the spot. Lord Daival hadn’t been carrying iron—but I had, and I’d lost several knives in the forest when I’d thrown them at him. The Sidhe had hauled me away before I could retrieve them, and while Lord Daival had been bleeding badly, he’d had enough strength left to grab a knife. And if the whole structure was made of magic… We’re too late.

  “Hazel!” Coral grabbed my arm and yanked me back as the building trembled to its foundations. The great oak trees flanking the jail quaked from their roots, and a tremendous crash sounded as part of the ceiling fell in. A cascade of similar crashes followed, while other sections of the jail sagged, no longer able to support the weight of their roofs and walls.

  Dammit. There’s got to be something I can do to stop it from falling apart.

  I ducked into the doorway, calling on my Gatekeeper’s powers. Magic lit my hands with a green glow, and I transferred it to the branches, but I couldn’t make them grow fast enough to counter the effects of the iron poison.

  Backing out the doorway, I ran for the trees around the sides of the jail, the ones from which its branches and roots originated. My hands found one of the trembling trunks and a jet of magic shot from my palms, urging the tree to repair itself.

  “Hazel!” Darrow shouted.

  A horrible cracking sounded, and I conjured a shield in defence as the tree’s neighbour toppled, sending its companion crashing down. Elsewhere, another section of the jail fell into dust and ashes and broken branches. My Gatekeeper’s magic wasn’t enough to keep the place from falling apart. Lord Daival was still in there, and until I got the iron away from him, it’d be impossible to repair the damage.

  “Where—” I whipped my head around to face Darrow. “Where is Lady Aiten? And the other guards?”

  “They must still be inside.” He lifted his hands, which glowed with blue-green magic. “If I try to get in, it’ll cause more damage.”

  “I don’t think it matters at this point,” I said. “We have to get them out before Lord Daival murders them all.”

  I ran back to Coral’s side, where she stood frozen to the spot, her gaze fixed on the west side of the collapsed building. I followed her line of sight and saw figures crawling from the ruins of the jail, feeling blindly through the dirt.

  “He freed them,” she whispered. “He used them as bait.”

  “Get them!” A cry came from the surrounding forest, and a group of Sidhe guards ran at the prisoners, weapons in their hands and bloodlust gleaming in their eyes. One transformed into a wolf and seized a prisoner by the throat, flinging her body into the bushes.

  Coral pressed her hands to her mouth. �
�My brother—I don’t see him.”

  “Save yourself first,” I ordered her. “Don’t let the Sidhe run you down along with the prisoners. I’m going in.”

  Despite the jail’s collapsed state, no signs of Lord Daival were to be seen. He’d have stayed behind to help the Seelie Queen, and when I found him, I’d cut his throat with the iron he’d taken from me.

  I climbed over piles of shattered branches, stilling each time they shifted under my feet, following my memories of the corridors. When I found a gap large enough to climb through, I conjured a shield around myself before ducking under a low-hanging branch and into the corridor within.

  Devastation greeted me. Guards lay dead or injured beneath boughs the size of cars, and whole corridors were blocked with piles of debris. I drew my spare iron blade and began hacking my way through the ruins. The iron would hasten its collapse, but the Sidhe would have to rebuild the jail from the ground up whatever I did.

  Prisoners crawled past or huddled in their cells, unable to move or crushed by the falling debris. Some would have been starved of daylight for years, left to rot in the darkness. Lord Daival had freed them as a diversion, nothing more, and those who survived would all face death at the Sidhe’s hands.

  As I hacked through the branches, I made out the shadow of a person, their head bowed over the open door to a cell.

  Lord Daival.

  I lunged at him from behind. He spun around, our twin iron knives colliding in a jarring crash. The thorny gloves on his hands protected him from the iron’s touch, though his face remained grey and his eyes dull. That must be why it was taking him so long to get the Seelie Queen out—the stab wound I’d dealt had weakened him.

  “I knew you stole from me, you scumbag,” I spat.

  “You have written your own demise, Gatekeeper,” he said, in a raspy voice. “If you hadn’t stabbed me, I’d never have been able to hold the iron long enough to get it in here. I suppose it’s like that talisman you stole… you grow used to the pain.”

  “It’s nothing like the talisman, you sadomasochistic weirdo.” I blocked his attack with ease, cursing those blasted thorns for protecting him against my strikes. “But hey, if you’re asking me to poke more holes in you with my knives, I’m happy to do you the favour.”

  Lord Daival laughed. The sound rattled in his chest, but the grey cast began to vanish from his face, his body straightening, the wounds sealing closed.

  Oh… shit.

  I threw up a shield as the cell behind him exploded, walls flying open and sending me crashing into the ruins of a collapsed cell. I landed on my back, breathless, buried under a shower of tree roots. Lifting my head, I shielded my eyes against a surge of blinding light.

  The Seelie Queen walked out of the ruins of her cell, her ragged clothes turning into a gold dress that hugged her willowy figure. Her tangled hair became a waterfall of stunning curls, a crown materialised on her head, and radiance shone from every inch of her.

  “Ah, Gatekeeper,” she said. “So kind of you to come and watch my return. I do wish you hadn’t stabbed my assistant, though.”

  Lord Daival dipped his head. “My Queen.”

  “Get back,” I growled at her. “Get back into that cell, or so help me.”

  I sprang to my feet, directing my magic at the cell walls and willing them to grow once more. Stop her. Cage her back in.

  If she walked free, the Court would fall, and every one of us would crumble along with it.

  The Seelie Queen gave me a smile. “Admirable effort, Hazel, but I see you don’t have that talisman you wrongly claimed in your hands.”

  Magic sparked into her palm, blindingly bright, and the walls of the jail crumbled around us. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for the end.

  20

  My eyes flickered open to vibrant sky and warm sunlight. The remainder of the jail roof had gone, ripped clean away by the force of the Seelie Queen’s power. The Sidhe, if any survived, had fallen into silence, stunned by the force of the blast. Piles of shattered tree branches and roots lay in place of the once sturdy jail, most reduced to a cloud of dust that caught in my lungs and made me cough uncontrollably.

  Beneath the dust, Lord Daival crawled out of a pile of debris. His Queen had left him to be crushed by the collapsing building, it seemed, but she was nowhere in sight. Bodies lay throughout the jail, Sidhe guards and prisoners alike. Dread brewed in my chest. Outside the jail, some of the bodies stirred. My heart contracted at the sight of Coral crouching over her brother’s limp form, her head bowed.

  A pair of thorny vines wrapped around my wrists, swinging me around to face Lord Daival. “You won’t escape this time, Gatekeeper.”

  I bared my teeth at him. “Did your Queen seriously leave you behind? That’s cold.”

  “I had some business to take care of.” The Seelie Queen approached, her statuesque form glowing with health and magic. Not so much as a speck of dirt had touched her perfect visage, and she looked none the worse for her imprisonment. “We will reclaim my old estate first, I think. Bring the Gatekeeper with you, Daival, won’t you?”

  “Like hell.” I fought against the thorny bonds, drawing blood. “You won’t set one foot on the Erlking’s territory.”

  Lord Daival snapped his fingers, and the vines yanked me forward as though I was nothing more than an animal to be herded. Ahead of him, a path appeared, leading away from the jail to a familiar set of gates. The Seelie Queen led the way, not needing a security talisman to urge the gates to open at her touch.

  By now, the forest inside the Erlking’s territory had grown thickly enough that the path was no longer visible. Earthy smells, crushed leaves and fragrant flowers replaced the decay which had once drenched the Erlking’s home.

  “You do remember you’re the one who destroyed your old estate, don’t you?” I gritted my teeth against a jab of pain as Lord Daival yanked me after him through the gates. “I suppose it’s a waste of time to ask if you care that you probably killed your own allies when you blew up the jail back there, including those loyal cultists Lord Daival took the time to recruit.”

  “They were marked for death anyway,” she said dismissively. “Come, Lord Daival.”

  The Seelie Queen took the lead. While she strode through the woods, the trees moved aside as though in response to an unheard command. Lord Daival walked one step behind her, a dutiful servant, tightening the vines until my hands were slick with blood. I knew he’d let me bleed out without a thought, but I lifted my head and glared at him, refusing to give ground.

  The ruins of the Seelie Queen’s estate peeked out from beneath a canopy of trees. One wave of her hand cleared the undergrowth blocking the entrance and freed the way into the main hall. As before, vines and weeds choked the hole in the floor where Lord Veren had used the Erlking’s staff to murder Lord Kerien, and the ceiling had collapsed beneath moss-laden boughs.

  Lord Daival dragged me to a halt behind him, waiting for instructions from his Queen. While his attention was on the manor house, I tugged at the vines on my arms, pushing the thorns towards the iron wristband on my arm. It wouldn’t be as effective as hacking away with a knife, but inch by inch, the iron would wear away at the vines until they snapped.

  The Seelie Queen waved a hand and cleared another wave of undergrowth from the doorway. “Pity the crown has gone… have you heard any whispers of its location?”

  “I have not,” said Lord Daival. “But I will find you another one, my queen. We will cure the sickness that has this realm in its grip. Whatever it is you desire, I promise that I will make it so.”

  I made gagging noises, my hands behind my back as I worked on freeing myself from the thorns. The vine on my left arm uncoiled when it came into contact with the iron, and I wriggled one hand free. Now we were getting somewhere.

  Lord Daival twisted around to scowl at me. “I should cut out that deceitful tongue of yours.”

  “You must know she’s glamoured the crap out of you,” I said, hoping to keep
his eyes on my face and not my hands. “She’s the one who killed the Erlking and caused the realm to start rotting away. She’s the sickness in this realm, Lord Daival, and she’s corrupted you, too.”

  The Seelie Queen cleared more debris from the house with a snap of her fingers. “My late husband is the one who caused this when he took what was rightfully mine.”

  “The talisman?” I continued recklessly. She hadn’t killed me, which meant she must still fear the backlash of my family’s curse if she struck me dead. That, or she needed me alive for some other reason. “You must have agreed to the union with him. A vow goes both ways.”

  She was too clever to be manipulated, so she must have married him for a reason. It wasn’t clear to me what she’d got out of the arrangement, except power she’d been unable to exercise. What had I heard once? That she had no magic of her own. The Sidhe had whispered that they must have married for love alone, for he had nothing to gain from their union and she had no talisman. Granted, the ability to heal from any injury was one hell of a useful power no matter how you looked at it, and whatever the Erlking’s motives were, they’d remain as much a mystery as the true identity of the heir. Small comfort that the crown was elsewhere, in a hidden location that even I didn’t know. After all, the Seelie Queen could easily make a crown of her own and rewrite the laws to fit her own agenda.

  The stinging pain in my wrists lessened as the vines snapped. I shook them off, then conjured an illusion of the same thorns in their place. Lord Daival continued to gaze up at the Seelie Queen like a love-struck puppy, so I needn’t have bothered. I took a step back, debating whether to attack or run. I could only stall them, but damn if I didn’t wish the Erlking had left a weapon behind by which I could rid myself of both of them at once.

  The Seelie Queen turned to Lord Daival. “Before I settle in here, I have a few matters to attend to,” she said. “My late husband’s talisman, for one. I think I can guess where you hid it, Hazel… the one place with magic that comes close to mine. But not close enough. Lock her away, Lord Daival, wouldn’t you?”