“Thank all fuckin’ seven devils, sweetheart, we were startin’ to worry you weren’t gonna wake.”
I turned my head to the side to see Asher strung up beside me, his body pinned to a thick steel slab with his arms and legs spread and shackled close to the steel. Beside him, Darian and Kade were held in similar positions, and Locke was restrained in the same manner to the other side of me. The five of us were all in a line, our steel slabs connected to a wide platform, and before us stood a sea of well-dressed fae who gawked, booed, and cursed at us. Around the fae, beautiful buildings made from silver and glass towered into the air, the balconies and tiled rooves covered with vines, greenery, and a kaleidoscope of color.
“They moved us outside while we were unconscious,” Asher commented, his violet eyes lacking their usual mirth. “I was the first to wake after they’d placed us here.”
A fae in the crowd threw something in Asher’s direction, and a ball of fire smacked into the steel above his head. The ball exploded, bits of ash clouding the air, and burning embers fell down the side of Asher’s face. The skin beside his right eye and most of his cheek turned an angry shade of red, but he healed quickly, the skin smoothing and returning to its normal color.
“Least I have my healin’ abilities back,” Asher said with a grin, but I couldn’t return his smile. My chest heaved as I failed to control my breathing, fear making my heartbeat thunder in my ears. Gritting my teeth, I tried to yank both arms free, not caring when the metal cuffs rubbed painfully at my wrists.
“The restraints have been laced with the same magic as our cells,” Locke said, his eyes as black as night. “The magic is weakening us, stopping us from using our abilities. I can’t break the cuffs.”
“So what do we do, then?” I asked with a shaky voice. I’d assumed we might be able to escape in the time when we were being led from our cell to our execution. But we were already here, on display, and ready to be slaughtered.
“Kill the monsters!” a fae female in the crowd spat at us, and I tried to ignore her.
Locke’s expression hardened, but there was a trace of fear in his onyx eyes as his gaze traveled to my restraints and settled again on my face. “I don’t know,” he admitted quietly.
I swallowed and peered at the hundreds of fae who’d turned up to watch our execution. Some stood on the balconies of the surrounding houses, gripping the barriers and enjoying the higher view, while the remainder of them crowded the street, jostling and pushing against one another. A line of soldiers stood before the platform we were on, their silver armor gleaming in the sun, but none of the fae tried to get past them. Despite the hate-filled gazes and angry faces of the fae, a wide gap remained between us and them, and it didn’t take me long to figure out why.
No one wanted to get close to the monsters.
Some of the fae clung to their children, their arms trembling, while others gripped weapons and held up their hands, ready to assault us with their power and steel. We were the ones in chains. The ones without power, yet they were afraid ofus.
Kade let out an enraged howl that rattled the glass of the nearby buildings, and the fae flinched, their pointed ears twitching at the noise. Even a few of the fae soldiers before us twisted their heads around to ensure he was still restrained.All right, so maybe they’re right to be afraid.Somewhere a child cried, and instead of feeling satisfied that Kade was terrifying the fae, I just felt sick. Because we weren’t monsters. Not in the way they saw us. But Warrick was.
I thought of what would happen if the fae attacked Katakin. I couldn’t know who would win. I still wasn’t sure of what power many of the fae possessed, but what I did know was that Warrick’s outliers wouldn’t show mercy, and neither would the alphas. There would be a massive loss of life on both sides, and I couldn’t let that happen. I didn’t want my soul sucked from my body, that was a freakin’ given, but getting free wasn’t only about us.
Closing my eyes, I searched for any indication that the dazra’s venom had worn off. When I’d accessed my magic during the battle with the outliers in the ballroom, it had been like a spark buried deep in my mind. One I’d had to focus on to make my power grow. But now when I searched, it was as if there was a blank hole where my spark should have been. I growled in frustration.
Footsteps thudded on the wooden platform, and I snapped my eyes open as King Chalir strode into view followed by a fae with white hair and swirling gray eyes. A shiver went through me as I recognized the fae who had executed the Forgotten Fae prisoner at the king’s celebration.
Lifting his arms, King Chalir waited for the fae to quiet. When silence settled over the sea of faces, he bellowed out at the crowd, “Citizens of Zalei. Not long ago I was standing before you announcing the safe return of my son, the Crown Prince Azaren, war general of our armies. I embraced our human guests, said to be the rescuers of my son, and granted them a place of honor among our kind.”
He took a dramatic pause before continuing, his face becoming grave. “But I have come to learn that I was deceived, as was my son. For these humans are in fact monsters who disguised themselves. They are abominations sent from Katakin to infiltrate our home and assassinate the royal family and all those in a position of power. From there, I believe they planned to open portals around the city and create gateways allowing more of their kind to enter Zalei and ravage and conquer our fair land.”
A ripple of gasps and whimpers of terror swept through the crowd, and I glared at the king, internally cursing him for his lies.
King Chalir lifted his chin. “For nearly two centuries, I had accepted that we would not be able to enact justice for the death of my father, King Jazrec, and my dear sister, Princess Izla, queen to the once human realm of Katakin. Above all else, I have pursued peace, sitting idly, sated by the knowledge that the monsters could not reach our world. But now the beasts have shown they are not happy to leave us be. They have come for your prince,my son, and they will come for everything else we hold dear. This morning, we start the day by executing the monsters who tried to assassinate my son, but once our army is assembled, I plan to march upon Katakin and eradicate the monsters entirely so we shall never have to fear them again!” He shouted the last part, his face reddening with emotion, and the fae roared in response, showing their support and cursing us.
I peered out at the crowd of fae and noticed a hooded figure standing in the shadows of a nearby building. Even with the distance, I recognized the cloak.The Forgotten Fae who tried to murder the prince.The one who created the ice dagger.As if they could feel my stare, the fae slunk behind the building, disappearing from sight.
King Chalir stepped back from the front of the platform and went to stand at the side, and the fae who’d sucked out the prisoner’s soul at the party not long ago moved toward us, his tall, thin frame and swirling gray eyes making him seem more like a reaper than an executioner.
He stopped at the front of the platform, pivoting to face us, and though he looked in our direction, his gray eyes appeared unseeing and devoid of life. Lifting his hands, he stretched out his knobby fingers, and Locke, Kade, Darian, and Asher all struggled at their restraints, their muscles bunching as they fought to get free.
“Go to war against the monsters of Katakin and you will all be slaughtered,” Locke snarled at the crowd. “You have no idea what’s waiting for you on the other side.”
But the fae didn’t stop shouting obscenities at us, and the executioner didn’t drop his hands.
Asher jerked and strained against his cuffs. “We’ll get out of this, Sharachi,” he said to me, but my attention snapped forward as the executioner fae’s magic reached out to all five of us at once. The fae’s tendrils of power were like talons that dug into my body and tore through my flesh to grip my very essence. I gasped and squeezed my eyes shut as my entire body screamed in pain as a part of me felt like it was being ripped away.
Kade’s roar and Darian’s hiss of pain filled my ears, drowning out the thudding of my heartbeat.
“Raine,” Locke rasped, his voice a ragged whisper. I opened my eyes, but my gaze never made it to the vampire. Five streams of shimmering white light were flowing through the air from our bodies toward the fae with the gray eyes, the light beginning to wind around the fae’s bony fingers. The fae’s face was scrunched, strain pulling at his brow, but he held us there.
I fought through my agony, desperately trying to find the spark of power within myself. I knew it was hopeless. Even if the dazra’s venom had left my system, the enchanted cuffs would still nullify my magic, but I had to keep trying.
“See, these monsters are no different from any beings!” King Chalir jeered from the side of the platform. “They can be killed just as easily.”
