We reached the castle a short while later, a hulking mask of steel gray buildings, its highest peaks narrowing into sharp points that cut through the bulging clouds. I shivered as I stared up at it. While this realm might be beautiful, the castle sorely wasn’t. In fact, it looked downright ominous.
“My father had this place built three hundred years ago,” Prince Taveon said as he helped me off of my horse. “He wanted to something that reflected his approach to ruling this kingdom. Something intimidating and cruel. As you can see, he succeeded in finding the appropriate architecture for that.”
“Lovely,” I said, my voice dripping with disdain. “I truly can’t wait to meet the fae behind this...thing.”
“So.” King Midas sneered down on me from a throne made of skulls. “This is the great daughter of Marin. I’ll have to admit that I’m disappointed. I thought it would take far longer for my miserable son to capture you.”
I kept my face blank, my gaze steady. King Midas was more like what I’d expected from these lands. Cruel and harsh, his entire body brimming with the taste of pure chaos. This was all a game to him. And he’d won.
I lifted my chin and met his sharp gaze. “Why am I here? If you want me dead, then why didn’t you have your son kill me on the battlefield?”
He let out a low chuckle, one that sounded like knives scraping down an old chalkboard. “I don’t want you dead. You’re a Greater Fae who has been infected by the Redcap virus. I want to study you. Use you. There is no telling how much energy a fae like you could extract from the human realm with your powers.”
Despite my urge to remain constant and calm, a shiver went down my spine. I glanced at the Prince beside me. His face was a mask of indifference. That or he just didn’t care, regardless of what he’d said that day on the mountain.
The wicked smile on the King’s face widened, and he motioned to the steward on his left. A moment later, he brought out a girl, her wrists bound together behind her back. I let out a sharp cry of surprise, stumbling back. The slices down her cheek were deep and bloodied, and her hair was matted like chunks of fur. But I’d recognize that face anywhere, and that defiant look, the angry eyes.
It was the Redcap girl who had attacked me. The changeling I had replaced when I’d been born.
Confusion rippled through me. How had the King gotten her? And why?
The King’s laugh echoed through the expansive room when he saw the look on my face. “I see you haven’t even realized how I’ve defeated you.”
My heart thumped hard, but I didn’t ask the question I knew he wanted me to voice. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of that.
The smile vanished from his face. “I sent this Redcap after you. The abandoned changeling whose fate is inexplicably tied to yours. You see, if it weren’t for you, her life would be so much different. Safer. Happier. She’d have herself a mate. It wasn’t difficult to encourage her to turn her anger in your direction. And now here we are.”
“Let me go,” she hissed, her cheeks splotched with red. “I did everything you asked me to do.”
“And everything is not enough.” His eyes lit with a brilliant fire. With a snap of his fingers, he turned to his steward. “Take her away.”
“I’ve come with your dinner,” the Prince said as he eased into the cell they liked to call my living quarters. It was a small square room with a bed and nothing else. I didn’t even have a window, so it was impossible to tell whether it was day or night. Prince Taveon balanced a tray in one hand while holding a goblet in the other. A goblet of something that smelled suspiciously like wine.
I raised my eyebrows, not saying a word.
He set the tray onto my bed and backed away toward the open cell door. “Listen. I know this situation is far from ideal for you, but I am attempting to make it as comfortable as possible.”
“You have separated me from my mates, my friends, and my people. If you truly wanted me to be comfortable, you would release me. “
“You know I cannot do that. My father would never allow it.” A pause. “If you cooperate, then I might be able to get you moved to some living quarters with a window and a view of the scenery that you seemed quite taken by.”
I glared up at him, fisting my hands. “If by cooperate you mean turning innocent humans into beasts, then I’d rather have a view of the sewers. Why did you warn me if you were going to attack the castle early? What was the point of all that?”
A pause. “I warned you because I do not agree with my father. Unfortunately, he has many eyes and ears. One of your spies turned on you and has been watching your every move. My father was made aware of my contact with you. As you can imagine, he was not very pleased with me. He gave me an ultimatum, one I couldn’t turn down. If it were up to me, none of this would have happened, but I’m not King.”
One of your spies, he’s said. My stomach flipped over. Prince Taveon must be referring to the spy that Kael had sent into the realm of the Dark Fae to keep tabs on the King. To find out that all this time, it had been the other way around...
“So, you see. My father has been one step ahead of you all this time, and he always will be.” Prince Taveon gestured to the tray of food before backing out the cell door. “Have your dinner. Scowl at the wall. Throw things if you’d like. But the next time I come? You should be ready to do whatever I say.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Time for your training.” The door of my prison cell cracked open, and the Prince stepped through. Sighing, I rolled over in my bed. He couldn’t be serious. It was the middle of the night, but the Prince was as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as someone who had gotten a week’s worth of sleep.
“There is something seriously wrong with you. Aren’t you tired?”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Not in the least. I’ve left you here to sleep for twelve hours. Certainly that is enough.”
I furrowed my eyebrows. “You’re lying. I can see the moon through that window at the end of the hallway. It’s still dark outside.”
He quirked his lips. “Yes, because it’s always night in the realm of the Dark Fae. The moon rises and sets, but we have no sun.”
Okay, so I’d been wrong. This place really was a nightmare. I groaned and pulled the covers over my head. Regardless of day or night, I still felt horribly exhausted. The past few days had finally caught up to me, and my mind and my heart were in desperate need of a break.
I wouldn’t get one though. Not here.
“The sooner you get up, the sooner you can come back to bed. I don’t care what you do outside of training hours. Sleep, eat, read some books if you’d like. Just as long as you make some daily progress.”
I groaned and forced myself to get up. I didn’t think he’d leave me alone unless I did.
When I entered the vacant stone room, the guard shut the door behind me. The lock clicked, a sound that echoed in the cavernous space. Through the bars, I could see the guard standing tall, his head facing away from us. I made a note of that. There was only one of him, and there was a lot I could do to the Prince before the guard would see a thing.
Of course, my own powers didn’t really work here. I’d tried to shift several times, but I hadn’t gone anywhere. The shadow power that hid me from view didn’t work either. And the animals of this realm? They couldn’t care less about me.
“Trying to plan an escape?” The Prince’s icy voice drifted to me from where he lurked in the shadows of the room. “You wouldn’t get very far.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and lifted my chin. “You underestimate me.”
“Maybe so.” A ghost of a smile. “Best not to inform me of that though. If I were you, I’d hold my cards as close to my chest as I could.”
I growled in his direction. “Whatever. Let’s just get on with this...whatever this is.”
“You know what this is.” He stepped out of the shadows then, and the moonlight reflected off the blade he carried in his hands. “The King wants more energy. You’re
a new Redcap. We need to make sure you’re able to control the beast within.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Why? You don’t teach any of the human changelings you’ve corrupted. You let them loose on the human realm without any training, left to their own devices, completely out of control.”
“You aren’t a human changeling. Your beast is different than theirs. You need to be trained. Now, enough talking. Transform into the beast.”
I just stared at him. Little did he know, I couldn’t. It was a precious tidbit of information I’d kept to myself all this time. Because if he knew I didn’t truly have a beast inside me, then he might very well kill me on the spot. I’d no longer be any use to them. I’d just be the nuisance daughter of Queen Marin, a fae they’d had assassinated because she didn’t fit into their plans.
And if I didn’t fit into their plans? My fate would be the same.
“Go on.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I am not asking for anything complicated for now. Just transform. Let me see your beastly self.”
“I’ve got a bit of stage fright,” I said, lying through my teeth. “Like you said, I’m new to this whole thing. I don’t think I can control it that well just yet.”
The Prince let out a heavy sigh and made a few attempts to rile me up, hoping to draw the beast from my skin. I pretended to make an effort, straining and panting and curling my hands as if they were claws. After several hours of this, he finally gave up. And, luckily, he didn’t appear to be suspicious just yet.
“That is enough for today.” He knocked on the wooden door to alert the guard that we were done. “We will try again tomorrow. Get some more rest. Perhaps your body is too tired for the transformation.”
But he was wrong, of course. The next day, I ‘tried’ yet again to shift into a beast, but it was impossible. I was immune to the Redcap venom. I was never going to change. Still, the Prince pressed on, trying to coach me through a transformation that would never come.
Three days later, the knock didn’t come on my door at dawn. ‘Dawn” as I had quickly realized, was the moment the moon began to peek over the horizon. A light silvery glow would fill the sky, signalling the world that it was the start of a new dark day. I still hadn’t gotten used to it, and I doubted I ever would, but I was beginning to find the rhythm of this strange dark place.
The knock finally came several hours too late. The Prince had a strained expression on his face, and he averted his eyes as he stepped inside the room before murmuring something to the guard that always stood outside my door, all day and night. I swore he never slept.
The guard disappeared, and the Prince cocked his head to listen to the distant sound of his footsteps.
“Be honest with me, Norah,” the Prince said suddenly, dropping his voice into a low whisper. “You are no Redcap, are you?”
I pressed my lips tight together. I’d known this day would come eventually. There was only so long I could keep up the charade. The Prince, no matter how horrible he might be, wasn’t stupid.
“I’m not sure what you mean,” I finally said. “Your father sent that girl after me. She slashed my neck to pieces.” I pointed at my throat. The marks were still there, though they’d begun to fade over the past few days as the healing magic of my heritage shot through my skin and blood. “A lot of venom filled my body.”
He pursed his lips. “That is neither a yes or a no. Tell me, Norah. Are you a Redcap?”
“What do you think?”
He blinked at me, and then kicked the stone wall of my cell. Swearing under his breath, he strode from one end of the small room to the other. He jammed his fingers into his dark hair, almost as though he were trying to jerk out the thoughts spinning through his brain.
Which were what, exactly?
He stopped short and gave me a nod as if we’d been in the middle of a conversation all this time. “I cannot believe I am doing this.”
“Doing what?” I arched an eyebrow, doing my best to mask my own emotions. Fear churned through my gut at the knowledge that he knew the truth about me now. Would he take me before the King? Would he slice off my head right here and now?
“Come on.” He grabbed my arm in his rough grip and yanked me out the cell door. “We better hurry before the guard comes back.”
“Wait,” I said, my feet stumbling over themselves. “What are you doing? Where are you taking me?”
“I’m taking you back to your goddamn realm.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Prince dragged me all the way back to the Faerie Ring and through the dark jagged rocks before he spoke another word. His body was brimming with an intense kind of energy, that same dark power that felt like chaos and greed. He dropped his grip on my arm and stepped back, staring at me as though he were looking at a ghost.
I took several steps back, putting some distance between us. Enough for me to shadow myself and run if he so much as looked at me funny.
“Go,” he said. “Go back to your people. Find another way for us to get the energy we need to survive.”
Without another thought in his direction, I turned to run, though my feet slowed before I got very far. I cast a glance over my shoulder, staring hard at the dark figure that still stood there shivering in the white mist. “Why are you letting me go? Your father is going to kill you.”
“He wouldn’t kill me literally, but he would kill you.” The wind whipped around his face, and his dark hair slashed against his skin. “The Dark Fae cannot go on as we are. I truly believe we can find another way. But hurry. I don’t know how long it will be before my father finds out—”
His eyes went as wide as saucers, and an arrow slammed into his back. He tumbled forward, falling face-first onto the blanket of snow. King Midas rose up behind his son, evil delight dancing in his reddish eyes. He held an empty bow, and a quiver of arrows was slung across his back.
I took a step back. And then another, heart pounding in my chest.
“It looks as though a male cannot even depend on his own flesh and blood.” King Midas grabbed the arrow and yanked it from his son’s flesh. I squeezed my eyes tight and glanced away. “My own son betrayed me. My own son stole my Redcap away from me.”
“I’m not a Redcap,” I shouted into the wind. No more hiding. No more cowering. I threw back my shoulders and stared into the King’s devilish eyes. No more standing behind the memory of my mother. “I am the Princess of Otherworld, and you are not welcome in this realm.”
He barked out a laugh. It started out soft but then grew louder and louder until the sound was so deafening that it bounced off the towering mountains that surrounded us. His smile went razor sharp, and then he pulled another arrow from his quiver.
“Well, then if you’re not a Redcap, there is nothing stopping me from killing you right here and now.”
I kept my body tight as the King began to raise the bow. Unfortunately, I was unarmed. I had the power running through my veins, but I didn’t know how much that would help me now. I could pull the shadows around me and run, but the tracks in the snow would give me away.
Besides, I didn’t want to run. I wanted to stand and fight.
Breathing in the scent of Otherworld, I let the magic of my world fill my head. The blood in my veins pulsed with life, and the soft caress of winter whispered across my skin. I called to Summer and basked in the glow of the sun, and I smelled the sweet scent of Spring flowers bursting to life. The last to call was Autumn and its colorful tapestry of oranges, yellows, and reds.
Every single part of Otherworld had filled me with the kind of strength that King Midas would never have.
And then he loosed an arrow. It was aimed right at my heart.
I stepped to the side to dodge the hit, and the steel tip clattered against a large rock behind me. Smiling, I watched the King curse as he grabbed another arrow. This time, I ducked down so that the arrow soared over my head. He gave it two more attempts before he decided he was done.
He snapped the bow in half and s
tormed toward me.
King Midas moved much faster than I could comprehend. He was a blur of motion. One moment, he was still standing within the circle of rocks. The next, he was before me with his hand wrapped tight around my neck.
Eyes wild and heart racing, I jerked away from him, but his strength held me in place. His fingers tightened around my neck, chocking the breath from my lungs. Horror shot through me, and logic fled from my mind. I kicked at the King, twisting and turning and screaming against my bonds, though no sound could escape from my gasping lungs.
The King began to cackle as he stared at me. Stars dotted my eyes. My whole body yearned for oxygen.
A scream ripped through the night, and something slammed hard into the King’s side. He loosened his grip, just long enough for me to twist out of his meaty hands. Alwyn stood panting beside me. Her eyes gleamed as she tossed me Silverclaw, and a slight smile turned up her lips.
“Alwyn?” My heart pounded. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard the Dark Fae were attacking. I couldn’t let you face them alone. I know we’ve had our differences, Norah, but I’ve always believed in you. And I’d do anything to keep you safe. I—”
The King shoved his blade into Alwyn’s throat. For a moment, all I could do was stare. Alwyn’s eyes met mine. Our gazes locked. A tear slid down my face. And then her life-force whispered into the wind.
She was gone.
Pain roared in my head, drowning out everything else around me. Alwyn was dead. And she was dead because of me. If she hadn’t come here to save me, then she’d still be alive, leading the Academy changelings through the training that would help them survive.
I squeezed my eyes tight.
No, I thought. I couldn’t keep blaming myself for things that weren’t my fault. Yes, she’d come here to save me, but I wasn’t the one who had killed her.
My eyes flew open.
This was all on the King.
A Touch of Starlight Page 15
