Kellee growled.
Eledan sauntered around the table to Pierce’s side and perched himself on the edge beside her. He studied the captain—like he did everyone, dissecting her with his glare—then glanced at the rest of us.
“Do I know you?” Pierce asked him.
“You dreamed of me.” His mouth tilted, dialing up the charm a notch. “Many times. Do you not recall? Never mind. Do you know who you negotiate with?”
She blinked, her thoughts tumbling over his appearance and his words. It must have been unsettling for her to see someone she thought a dream come to life. “Who are you?” she whispered.
He waved her off. “That one…” He pointed at Talen. “He can empty out your human mind with a single touch. You might not even feel it. Just the smallest brush of his fingers and he can whisper in your ear to slit your throat, and you’d do it, after killing your entire crew, of course.”
“Eledan,” I warned.
“That one…” He pointed at Kellee. “Well, you know all about that one, having dreamed of him every night since you met him. He’s somewhat twitchy, partly because he gorged himself on my brother’s blood, and partly because he’s an animal most of the time, anyway.” Eledan hesitated, making sure Pierce was riveted. “The drone behind me, recently upgraded into a man-suit, could kill you before you opened your mouth to beg. You once had him strapped down and probed in all the wrong ways. You can bet he harbors a grudge for that. And Kesh? Kesh is something of an anomaly. You’ve only just met her, right?”
Pierce’s throat bobbed. Her eyes darted round the room. Eledan’s words were exposing her fears.
“All those monsters and more, Kesh controls them. So ask yourself what kind of monster she must be for the others to fall in line behind her?”
“Eledan,” I sighed. “You’re not helping.”
“Not helping you.” He gave me a pointed look. “This Earthen should know the creatures she liaises with. It’s only fair.”
“And what about you?” she asked in a small voice. “What kind of monster are you?”
His devastating smile was all the more disarming now that he was wrapped in human clothing. “The one you never see coming.”
“Kesh, get him out of here before I do the Hunt a favor,” Kellee warned.
I checked Talen for his agreement, saw his soft nod, and mentally counted out my frustration. “Eledan, come with me.”
He didn’t have to obey, but as he left the room alongside me, I wondered if he hadn’t made a nuisance of himself to separate me from the others.
He ran his hands along the smooth, metal walls. The tek behind the panels must have burned him, but he showed no sign of discomfort. “A marvelous piece of human engineering. Humans—Oberon’s creations—really are ingenious.” His voice carried far into the empty ship, drifting into hollow spaces and farther, into the quiet darkness.
He just had to mention his brother, didn’t he? “Are you going to idolize him now he’s dead?”
“I can hate him and admire his accomplishments. Don’t you feel the same way about me?”
“I’m supposed to admire you now? For what?”
“Making you what you are.”
I planted my boots on the grated metal catwalk. The whip at my hip buzzed, itching for me to pull it free. “Do you want me to hurt you? Because that’s where this conversation is going.”
“It’s true. I made you who you are.” His blue eyes sparkled. “And you know it.”
He was trying to get a rise out of me, but it wouldn’t work. “Your bargain with the Wild Ones, tell me about that.”
“Ah, they approached you?” He shrugged and leaned back against the wall, appearing so casually human that I wanted to wrap my fingers around his neck and rattle the truth out of him. “One promise cannot supersede another. They were fascinated by you as soon as Sirius introduced you that day in Ailish’s cave.” He saw my alarm. “You did not think me idle while I dreamed?”
“You bargained my life away to them?” Just hearing it reignited that itch to wrap my whip around his throat and squeeze the immortal life out of him.
“I suppose it looks like that from your perspective. The truth is, I made a deal that protected you. They cannot take you by force. They can’t move against you while my deal stands.”
“You think you’re protecting me? Really? Is that how you see this?” I circled my hand between us. “I don’t belong to you, Eledan. My life is not yours to bargain with.”
“Yet.” He bristled. “You’re being overly sensitive. A ‘thank you, Eledan, for saving my life’ would be appreciated.”
Faerie help me, I was going to kill him with my bare hands. If I did kill him, I wouldn’t be able to stop the Hunt and the worlds would fall into darkness and chaos, but by cyn, killing Eledan might be worth it. “And why are you protecting me?”
“Because I need you.” He straightened away from the wall and prodded me in the chest. “I need that polestar fragment in your saru blood.” His gaze roamed over me, pupils widening, darkening. “I need you, as the Nightshade, to bring the dark fae back to Faerie. Haven’t we been through this already?” Closer, he stepped, so close I could taste him. “I need you and your harem of monsters. I need this tek-ship, and I need to go back to Calicto. So, let’s get on that, shall we?”
Calicto? “What?”
“Do you have a better plan?” He lifted a hand to touch my shoulder or arm, but reading the fury on my face, he dropped it again and eased back a step. “If you do, tell me so we can proceed.”
“What plan? You haven’t told me any plan. You’ve just listed your demands, and frankly, you’re in no position to demand anything. The Hunt wants you and your warfae marks. You’re the key—”
He waved a hand and started down the corridor, apparently needing to be somewhere else.
“We saved you.” I followed him, quickening my pace to keep up.
“Don’t be so naïve. I’m here because I want to be.”
That would mean he’d anticipated our arrival, as though he’d known we’d bring a shuttle to retrieve him. That was impossible. “You can’t claim to have planned this.”
“Can’t I?”
“Hey.” I grabbed his arm and yanked him around to face me. “You don’t get to claim to have masterminded all this when we both know, deep down, you’re just a frightened, homesick fae who dreamwalks because it’s the only place you’re not alone.”
He blinked, long and slow, waiting for my words to settle. The humorous sparkle in his eyes sharpened. His brows cut in, and his easy smile thinned. “Those people who invited you for a meal on Hapters, do you remember them? The nice farming couple who took a liking to you and Hulia? How do you think they knew who you were?” He gripped my wrist but instead of pushing me off, he held firm. “Do you truly believe Lord Devere happened to arrive on the correct warcruiser, out of hundreds, and stumbled upon you? The lord who dreamed of fucking a saru?” His fingers tightened, and my treacherous heart raced. “Kellee didn’t escape the Earthens. Pierce let him go because I was in her head. The only reason Kellee and Talen are here is because I soothed your silver fae’s rampant dark fae side, stopping him from unleashing his power on the entire Excalibur crew. And Kellee… Marshal Kellee was the first mind I seeded with ideas of the Messenger. He wasn’t too keen on the strange girl from the sinks who carried illegal weapons, but after I planted some ideas, he couldn’t stop thinking about you, couldn’t stop dreaming about the Kesh Lasota who might save Halow if he could just wake her from the Dreamweaver’s spell.”
Oh, no, no, no… He didn’t get to do this again. He didn’t get to rip the rug out from under me. What was he saying? That he’d manipulated Kellee into… helping me? That he’d started this? That was impossible. It couldn’t be. But I had met Kellee after meeting Eledan. This all began with Eledan killing the mineworker and framing me for the murder. What if there was more to it? What if Eledan had been in our heads since I’d run into Kellee in the sinks?
What if Eledan had given Kellee the mental shove he’d needed to be in my apartment right as I returned from Arcon? I’d called it a coincidence, but what if luck had nothing to do with it?
I tried to yank my arm free before his words hooked in deeper and deeper, but it was too late. The words were already eating away at what I thought I knew. Was anything between Kellee and me real?
“Let go…” I pulled.
He yanked harder and threw a steel-like arm around my back, trapping me so close his magic crawled across my skin and spilled over my tongue. “And your precious Sota?” Eledan’s blue eyes flashed, their depths suddenly infinite. “He’s not your Sota. He’s my eyes and ears in the real world and has been since I dismantled him in Arcon and rebuilt his processes according to my design. You believe Hulia chose to upgrade him? I’ve been in Hulia’s mind since you stole my heart the first time. I gave her the idea to put him in an Arcon-made tek-body. Sota is mine. Hulia is mine. Kellee is mine. Talen is mine. And you, my queen, were always mine. I let you believe the illusion of being in control because it’s easier for me if your monsters believe in their cause—if they believe in you.” He stroked his finger down my face. “So, my dear queen, your life is mine to bargain with. If you stopped fighting the truth and saw it for what it was, we could rule the worlds together.”
He couldn’t lie.
All those terrible things he’d said, they were all true.
But I’d gotten us this far, hadn’t I? Sjora’s arena battle, the dark fae on Hapters, freeing the saru, reawakening Kellee’s vakaru wraiths, his love for me, Hulia’s friendship, Talen’s devotion—that couldn’t be Eledan. If it was, then nothing was real. Nothing at all.
The game of lies had been Eledan’s game, not mine, and it had started with a Nothing Girl and her nothing life when she’d bumped into a marshal.
His steel grip released, and he backed away, smiling with every step. “I wouldn’t tell your monsters, lest you lose control of them. Then where would we be?”
If Kellee learned of this, he’d kill Eledan. Key or not, he’d gut him. And Talen… Talen would know he’d never truly loved me, that it had been Eledan’s design. And if Sota learned it was all a lie, it would break his heart.
Oh, by cyn, we were all held together by that unraveling thread, and Eledan held its end.
The corners of his mouth tightened with threatening laughter. “We’re going back to Calicto. You’d best find a way to tell them, and make the lie believable, Kesh. Lying is, after all, what you’re good at.”
His laughter trailed off as he walked out of sight. I should have acted, should have wrapped my whip around his neck… but it wouldn’t change anything. Worst of all, Eledan had gotten us this far.
I fell against the wall, thoughts untethered. He’d contaminated every memory. Every word, every touch, I couldn’t trust any of it. Nothing between then and now had been of my own making. Kellee, Talen, Sota, Hulia, they were all his puppets, and so was I.
All, but one.
Sirius lay asleep, shirtless, and bedraggled on the sheets, exactly where I’d left him in one of the ship’s many cabins. His face was a beautiful wonder of auburn lashes and pale freckles. I lingered in the doorway, wondering at what point Faerie had allowed this masterpiece of Her making to become mine and why. Each of my men was unique and precious, just like the star in my veins. I loved them all so much it hurt to think that none of them might freely love me in return.
Only Sirius had been there before Eledan infected my life, and he was the only one I could trust.
Placing a hand on Sirius’s chest, I whispered his name, bringing him around.
He blinked heavy-lidded eyes, sharpening their emerald shine. “Kesh, what is wrong?”
“Has the Dreamweaver ever been inside your head?” I settled on the edge of the bed and locked my hands together in my lap to hide their trembling.
His scowl was back, chasing off the dregs of sleep and hardening his face. “Not to my knowledge.”
“Why not?”
He sat up and ran his tek-hand through his loose hair, gathering it back. “I’m older than he is. I suspect it would take too much power to twist my dreams to his whims, though he is capable when at full strength. Why? What has happened?”
I told him everything Eledan had said, reliving the same numbness and loss of control. Eledan had been playing us since the beginning. “We can’t tell the others.”
He didn’t deny Eledan could have manipulated everything, confirming what I already knew: Eledan wasn’t lying.
Sirius left the bed, picked up his shirt, slung over a chair, and latched it up. “Keeping this from them could be as damaging as them knowing Eledan played them.”
I didn’t want to keep anything from them, but what choice did I have? “I realize that, but Kellee is on edge. If he learns of this, he will kill Eledan, and as much as I want Eledan dead, we need his marks.”
What’s the point? The small voice of doubt asked. If none of my choices had been my own, why was I fighting? Why not accept Eledan as my master as I’d once accepted Oberon? How could I stop someone who was inside all our minds, pulling our strings and making us dance?
Sirius rested his hands on my shoulders, and I ran my gaze up the solid wall of chest to his face. A thousand years old or more and he was looking to me for answers. Sometimes, it felt like all the worlds were looking at me for answers. “I’m not sure I can do this.”
He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “You survived and excelled long before Eledan entered your life. Don’t let him take that from you.”
“I thought I knew him, I thought I had him under control, but he just let me believe it.”
“Kesh, his power lies in suggestion. Don’t allow him to undermine everything you’ve done.” He squeezed my shoulder. “We must focus on moving forward. Consider this. Why would he tell you the truth?”
“I told him he was nothing. He couldn’t handle it. He wanted me to see him and everything he’s done. I think he wants to be noticed. It’s all he’s ever wanted.”
“He cares what you think of him, and this led him to make a mistake. Now that we know his level of control, we can manage it. Kellee and the others will understand our need for secrecy, when the time comes to tell them.”
Lying to them was the last thing I wanted to do. Somehow, I was supposed to convince Talen to have Pierce move this ship to Calicto. How could I look Talen in the eye and lie?
I rubbed my forehead. “Why Calicto? It must have something to do with Arcon. I know he’s stronger there. It’s more his home than Faerie is.”
“Go to Eledan. Listen to everything he says and doesn’t say. He wants to tell you, so allow him that and learn the truth.”
An aching knot tightened my chest. I rubbed it away. “What if him going back there with all the polestar fragments is a bad thing?”
“We’ll deal with it.” Sirius threaded his fingers into my hair and tilted my head back. His warmth and crackle of spicy magic wrapped me in its embrace. “There has never been a force stronger than you and the others in all of Faerie. Trust in yourself, Mylana.” He sealed the words with a gentle kiss, but his touch, his assurance, did little to ease the hollow pain of doubt in my chest.
Chapter 27
Faerie churned and throbbed, suspended in the purplish starscape outside the panoramic window of Excalibur’s command deck. With only a skeleton crew manning the ship, I had the deck to myself. I’d told Sirius to gather the others in the obs room, where I’d tell them about our new plan to head to Calicto, for reasons I hadn’t yet figured out. Instead of following him, however, I’d veered off and found my way here, observing the living planet below us. Sentient. All-seeing. Like a goddess. I’d heard how Faerie loved all Her children, of how She had been torn asunder when the dark fae had been driven from Her surface. And those stars twinkling all round? I’d heard of how Faerie had given Her polestar up to return balance against the use of the Hunt—Eledan’s creation, cr
afted from his nightmares at the behest of the Wild Ones. One saru had been seeded and harvested, reared under the whip to kill her own, and shaped by a king as his key to securing the polestar. It seemed impossible that this person was me. If we were all Faerie’s children, why had I never felt like I belonged?
I pressed my hand to the thick glass, almost covering Faerie behind my palm.
“Beautiful, isn’t She?” Eledan asked.
Pulling my hand back, I turned away from the stars to watch him weave between the control consoles and ascend the steps onto the deck. I’d assumed he’d find me. There was nowhere I could go, no world far enough away, to escape him. The sight of him reawakened the strange push-and-pull feeling that told me to kill him, but also lured me toward him.
I expected his smug smile and horrible laugh, but he stopped beside me and gazed out at Faerie, his expression thoughtful.
Here we were, two parts of the polestar, once again in the sky above Faerie. Would Eledan and I simply cease to exist once all the pieces were back together?
“The polestar will kill me,” I said. I already knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it from him.
“Yes.”
“And you?”
“My death is… likely. Although, as I’m immortal, I have a higher chance of survival than you.” Faerie’s churning colors reflected in his ice-blue eyes.
“Did you know that when you had the Hapters people fix your heart with a fragment?”
“It was a risk I was willing to take.” His cheek pulsed. He kept his glare locked on Faerie and away from me. “I do not want to die.”
“Maybe if you hadn’t been such a dick your entire life, Faerie would have looked more favorably on you.”
He blinked, slowly turned his head, and softly laughed. “I could say the same about you.”
“Everything I’ve done I did to survive.”
“You killed thousands of fae at the Game of Lies.”
That aching knot tightened again. I shifted on my feet. “They were there to watch me die.”
Her Dark Legion Page 16
