by Casey Bond
Heartmates, it whispered.
Carden’s dark eyes widened as they looked from the tether to me. Then, as if the happiest moment of our lives was snuffed out, Rule coated the tie that bound us in dark, writhing shadows. He hid away the light and beauty, and when he was finished, Carden wasn’t looking at me with awe, but with disgust.
“What’s going on here? Who are you people?” he cried, no recognition shining in his eyes.
My mouth gaped open. “You took his memory?” I accused Rule.
He shrugged his shoulders. “There are consequences to every action, Bella.”
“Then why was my memory left intact?”
He frowned. “For the same reason.”
“You talk in circles,” I sneered. “I’m so sick of your games.”
As I stood up, the Queen looked over my tattered, filthy dress. “Please make yourself presentable,” she reprimanded me. “Do not return to my throne room in such a state again.”
“You did this!” I screamed. “I was dressed just fine, and then you had some freakish faery try to eat me!”
Rule flinched beside me.
The Queen smiled cruelly at her son and then at me. “I want you to remember something as well, Arabella. Remember that I told you never to disrespect me in my own home, and never to threaten me, little girl. But most of all, remember that I warned you that hearts are beastly things…”
“What does that even mean?” I whimpered.
She turned her back to me and walked to her throne, sitting regally on the gold frame as if she were part of it. “You’ll soon find out, I promise you that. Dinner is in twenty minutes.” She raked her eyes over me disapprovingly again. “You should hurry.”
Rule removed his hands from his pockets. “Will she be escorted to her room?”
The Queen inspected her fingernails. “If my guards risk their lives, Rule, it will not be for another one of your women.” She snapped her fingers and the heads of the two fae disappeared.
“Then I shall escort her,” Rule offered chivalrously.
The Queen waved him off, annoyed. “Do as you please.”
“Oh, like you don’t care. I thought you wanted him to prove his loyalty!” I yelled.
Rule grabbed my elbow and squeezed tight. “Are you mad? Do you want to die tonight?” he gritted.
There was a gaping hole in me, a void; a darkness that was taking over everything I’d ever been and might be. “Everyone in this place is mad,” I countered. “Why shouldn’t I join in?”
He kept his vice-like grip on me until we were out of the throne room and then let go. I rubbed my arm as he put his hands on his hips. “I’ll help you get through this night, as well as every subsequent day and night, as long as you breathe,” Rule vowed. “But I want you to know it will get worse, Arabella. That was nothing compared to what she has in store for you. Every day, she will tear you apart and then glue you back together, weaker, not stronger. Every day, you will break a little more. Every day, she will win and you will lose until you are completely broken. Until you can’t fight anymore.”
“Why are you helping me at all? Isn’t that the opposite of what she wants? She wants your obedience. How is helping me going to prove your loyalty to her?”
“Because your tether to me is almost as strong as mine is to her, and if I can resist you while we are bound and Carden has been set free, it will prove my loyalty to her.”
The rigidness in my muscles and bones melted away. She was punishing him, too. He said tonight would be even worse, but I couldn’t imagine anything worse. Carden and I were still tethered, but he didn’t know it. Would he forget about me, or would he rip me to shreds in an animalistic rage?
“She wants him to kill me,” I deduced.
Rule’s lips thinned. “I won’t let that happen.”
“You just said it would,” I challenged, “and the Queen always gets what she wants, right?”
He began to say something and then closed his mouth. “We’re wasting precious minutes. Let’s hurry to your room.”
“We wouldn’t want to be tardy,” I snapped.
He put his arm around my waist and in a flash, we were standing in my chamber. He was pensive, his brows scrunched up in the middle. I suddenly felt awful for yelling at him. He was trying to help me.
“Rule…”
“Get dressed, Bella. I’m not leaving.”
“I wasn’t going to ask you to. I was just going to thank you,” I offered quietly.
“Don’t. Don’t do that.” Pain wrinkled his forehead slightly, marring the perfection for the slightest of seconds before he schooled his expression.
“Why shouldn’t I? You’ve helped me at every turn.”
He shook his head. “I won’t be able to fight her will for much longer.”
I nodded. “I know.”
“I am sorrier than you know,” he apologized, hands in his pockets again.
“It’s just the tether, right? If it wasn’t there between us, I’d just be another human girl your mother tormented. I wouldn’t matter at all.”
He tried to grin. “But the tether is there, and that makes all the difference in the world.” Silence thickened between us. “You’ll hate me in the end. If you die, your last thoughts will be of my betrayal,” he foretold quietly.
“I’ll always hate her more.” He knew I meant his mother.
He tried to smile. “I know from experience that won’t be the case.”
Rule turned his back as I tugged a random gown out of the wardrobe and pulled it up over my hips. It was form-fitting through the bust, waist, and thighs, and then fanned out at the bottom, covered from top to bottom in white sequins. Probably made by fae magic, or by human hands who would never be seen again if Coeur had her way.
He watched as I picked twig pieces from my hair and brushed it out.
“Have you always been beautiful?” he asked.
“Have you?” I countered.
“Yes, but sometimes humans grow lovelier with age.”
“We’ll never know if I’ll be prettier, will we?” I asked sarcastically. His lips thinned in response. “We should hurry. I don’t imagine we have much time left.”
Rule looked at me with an unreadable expression. “Your sense of humor is confusing sometimes.”
I laughed. “I’ll consider that a compliment, coming from you.”
He extended his arm and when I took it, he spirited us away to the throne room. We appeared in front of the clock, where it was busy tick, tick, ticking away. The enormous minute hand moved, clicking into place just as Carden sauntered into the room, wearing a stark white suit. For the briefest of moments, the three of us were the only ones in the room, and then she appeared, sitting on her throne, looking bored. Her heart-shaped lips pursed together.
Carden barely glanced at me, turning his attention to her instead. “Come to me,” she said sweetly. In a trance, the boy with dark hair and dark eyes strode across the floor, the soles of his shoes clopping across the white stone.
No, not white. Marble. White with swirls of black. Almost as if the white tile that had always been here managed to swallow up its dark counterpart, leaving only traces behind.
“Sit,” she ordered him. He obeyed, sitting at her feet and looking up at her as if waiting for her next instruction.
“How’d you train him so fast?” I asked.
Rule stiffened beside me and flashed me a look of warning.
“I am efficient in everything I do,” she replied confidently.
Rule looked around the vast space. “Where is everyone?”
“Oh, here and there,” she replied. It was vague enough that he began looking in earnest. When his eyes locked onto the floor, I began to study the swirling patterns more closely. Trapped in the stone were the fae of her court. Their features were contorted, b
ut I could make out pointed ears and looks of sheer terror.
My heart thundered. Life… the lives of others—even her own subjects—meant nothing to her.
Rule sighed. “If no one will be here to celebrate, are we dismissed?”
The Queen’s eyebrows shot up. “Your presence is required. Tonight, we will have a celebration unlike any you’ve witnessed.” She raised her hands, and as she stood, the fae and humans emerged from the floor in the form of ebony statues. Like an imposing forest of fear and pain, I could almost hear their screams as they clawed at the air around us.
A growl emerged from beyond them. Low and guttural and one I would recognize anywhere.
“Card—”
Rule’s hand clamped over my mouth. “Shhhh,” he whispered into my ear.
The imprisoned began to break out of the stone that held them, chunks of obsidian crumbling to the ground all around us. Rule kept his eyes fixed on his mother, and at the same time watched Carden beside her. She’d turned him into the beast again. I noted it was getting easier for him to change. He didn’t cry out in pain anymore. It was a smooth shift for him now. As easy as taking down weaker prey.
His upper lip curled upward, exposing long canines. My shoulder ached remembering how efficiently they’d torn into it. Rule had cloaked our tether, or so I thought. But if that were the case, why did I still feel a pull to Carden? Why did I want to tear the Queen’s head off for being close to him? Why did I want to run to him and throw my arms around his neck and beg him to find a way out of this place with me? To escape and never look back? Together.
Not at Rule.
Not at Queen Coeur.
Not even at Brave and the others trapped here unfairly.
I just wanted him. I just wanted us both to be safe.
With a snap of her fingers, the marbled stone disappeared from the floor and the fae began chatting and smiling as if they had no idea what she’d done to them. They either didn’t, or they wouldn’t risk it happening again by not living up to Coeur’s rigid expectations of courtly behavior. How often had she terrorized them in the past?
Rule removed his hand from my mouth, slowly peeling it away. “Keep quiet tonight,” he advised.
“But—”
He quirked a brow. “Keep your mouth closed and your ears open. I’d like for you to sit with me tonight.”
There was a small table set up on the dais, its center lined with dripping pale flowers. There were plates inside of plates, crystal goblets, fine linens, and chairs crafted of white ash. Rule waltzed through the crowd like the prince he was, his crown appearing on his brow as we ascended the steps together.
His mother took her seat at the table’s head and Beast Carden sat at her right hand. Rule sat opposite her and I sat at his right hand. In an instant, Carden changed back into human form. His hands shook as they gripped the table, rattling the goblets and sloshing the fairy wine they held onto the table.
I opened my mouth to ask if he was okay, but Rule gave my shin a sound kick beneath the table. When I shot a look his way, he was glancing over the room as if he wanted to be anywhere but there.
Carden’s attention was solidly fixed on the Queen.
The Cursed and Unseen served every course of the meal in silence. Platters and plates glided through the air. Goblets floated while they were filled. It became darker and darker in the space until Rule finally waved his hand and made two candelabras appear on the table, and on various surfaces throughout the enormous room. Their flames appeared all at once.
No one batted an eye at his show of power—except for me… and Carden. Carden was studying him too closely for my comfort.
If Rule noticed, he didn’t seem to care. That both comforted me and set me on edge, because he was a puzzle in and of himself—one I still hadn’t solved.
“Tomorrow will be the most challenging yet. Are the two of you prepared?” the Queen asked, cutting daintily into her duck breast.
“Is it even possible to prepare?” I countered.
Her knife screeched across the porcelain plate. “Not really.”
“Then why should we bother worrying about it?” I challenged.
Rule changed the subject. “Esmerelda sends her warmest regards, Mother.”
That certainly got Coeur’s attention. The Queen’s back straightened until I thought it might snap. Who was Esmerelda, and how did she manage to crawl under Coeur’s skin?
“I’m sure she did. Is she still wasting her time at her paltry hobby? The girl’s entire existence is insignificant. I wonder how she tolerates her own life.”
“She seems to manage just fine,” Rule said with a grin, raising his glass to his mother.
Coeur turned to me and reached over to pat the back of my hand. “Esmerelda is his heartmate. But I’m sure he’s already told you all about her.”
I tore my hand away and fed her a smile and a lie. “Of course he did.”
The Queen’s eyes flicked from me to her son for a brief moment, and then she returned her attentions to Carden. “You have a very interesting history, human prince.”
“Thank you,” he responded woodenly.
“Did you know of the fae when you first set sail to the Southern Isle?”
Carden finished chewing before speaking. “I’d heard stories, but I thought them to be nothing more than children’s tales.”
“Faery tales…” the Queen mused. “They can frighten human children and delight them at the same time. They’re such simple creatures. So easily entertained.” Coeur dabbed her napkin at the corner of her mouth.
“You aren’t the only fae queen, though,” I observed. “Tell me – have you met the Witch Queen?” I asked conversationally, wondering how the fae queen territories had been divided. Did these bitches have tea together and decide who got which dark part of the forest?
Coeur stiffened, her eyes slicing into me, but Rule answered for her. “No other fae rulers are welcome here.”
“I am the only queen who matters,” she argued.
Carden’s head swiveled between Rule and his mother. When he caught me watching him, he frowned.
How could he be so callous? I still felt the tether between us. Couldn’t he?
“I’m afraid we’ll have to cut this conversation short,” Coeur apologized. “Dinner is over.” In a flash, the table was cleared onto large, silver platters that floated out of the room via a back door.
“Thank you for the fine meal.” Carden pushed his chair away from the table, suddenly interested in something across the room. I followed his gaze, realizing with a start that he wasn’t looking at something, he was looking at someone. And she was beautiful. Pointed fae ears, delicate features, and wearing a gauzy white gown that left little to the imagination. She shot him a coy smile and he gave her a wolfish grin.
“You’re most welcome, Prince,” the Queen accepted graciously. “I hope you enjoy dessert, as well.”
The Queen gave me a satisfied look as he jogged down the steps and made his way through the crowd to the woman. “I believe wholeheartedly that different people awaken different beasts within you.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Carden
Day 3
I woke when a clock in my room began to chime. Immediately assaulted by my throbbing head, I peeled open an eye to glance at it and groaned when I saw the time. I flopped back on the bed and let out a groan.
A willowy female arm slid across my stomach and gave my side a squeeze. “That was fun,” she rasped.
I leapt out of bed. “Who the hell are you?”
“Ouch. I was certain you’d remember our evening together.”
What? Where’s Arabella?
“Can you get out of here?” My head thundered.
“Excuse me?”
“I need you to leave!” I roared.
She m
ade her way to the door and slammed it closed behind her. This was a trick. It had to be a trick. Coeur was still playing games with us. There was a time I’d have invited a girl like that to my room, but not now. Not now that I’d met Arabella.
I tried to think back on the previous evening, but I found that my memory wasn’t blurry; it simply wasn’t there at all. After the game ended, after the escapade with the mirrors, the world just stopped. It made no sense.
The color of the day must be black, because my wardrobe was filled with garments—all the same deep hue. I dressed quickly and ran to find her. I had to talk to her before the game began today.
When I finally saw her, she was standing in front of the clock, arms crossed over her chest stiffly. She wore an outfit of black leather that fit her like a second skin. Every male in the room watched her, feasting on her with their eyes. The beast inside me roared to life, warning each being to keep their distance. She was my heartmate.
Her pony tail swished as she turned to face me.
She motioned to my cheek. “You have a little slut-colored gloss just there.”
I rubbed it off. “What happened last night?”
Arabella rolled her eyes. “You had a great time with a fae girl. Don’t tell me you don’t remember her.”
“I… she was in my room this morning, but I don’t remember last night at all. I don’t remember anything after Rule came to get you out of the mirror.”
She pursed her lips and turned back to the clock.
Dejected, my shoulders slumped. “You don’t believe me.”
“I don’t know what to believe, Carden. I just want to get this day over with. I want to survive this game and go home, and then I want my family back. I want our things. I want my mother to come home and my father to care about more than the liquor in his bottles. I want my brother not to have to do… terrible things in order to barely survive, and I don’t want to have to do them, either.” Her voice sounded as tired as I felt.
