“It’s a trick of the light,” Lennox said as Kayla blurted, “It’ll settle into black. It’s because she’s human.”
Bangs leaned back as Lennox finished. His eyes narrowed. “Well, which is it? A trick of the light, or because she is human?” He tsked. “I think it is something else. What is His GrovelingHighnessreally up to here? This isn’t just a human, is it? Where did you get this creature? The wylds? Is it twisted and therefore a more effective human? It’s no secret that simpering fool wants to kill the royalty and take their place but can’t because of the magic locking him in his station. The whole court laughs about it. Is this his solution?”
Kill him,Lennox thought forcefully.Quickly?—
Daisy popped up, the loosened straps falling away. She was on Bangs before his eyes widened. Had her hands in the right places before he could start. Delighted in the viciouscrackbefore anyone had made a move to stop or help or shriek in surprise.
Bangs’s lifeless body slid to the ground.
Kayla and Lennox looked on with rounded mouths and raised eyebrows. Both had also frozen, Kayla with her hands held out.
Daisy panted, shakily sitting down on the cot. Her body was still jittery and her brain felt fuzzy from the treatment.
“What was that about?” she asked, her voice hoarse from screaming. She wiped sweat from her forehead.
“The gods smite me, human.” A crooked smile worked at Kayla’s lips. “You’re quick to kill, huh?”
Daisy frowned at the fae. “Isn’t that what you wanted? Lennox saidquickly.I assumed that meant quickly. As in fast. As inget it done. What’s the problem? I’m hoping it isn’t that my thoughts will stay fuzzy for the rest of my life. That’ll fuck us all in this venture.”
Lennox huffed out a laugh and bent over to grab Bangs. “Tarian said she was vicious for a human. I didn’t think that meant she was on par with a fae. That’ll be useful.”
“Bloody right it will.” Kayla donned a full-fledged smile before it withered. Her expression took on a perplexed look. “We’d planned to mark you for Tarian, but…that can’t happen now. You’ll have to make a show in the court to get the point across.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
Kayla stepped behind her and brushed her hair out of the way. She pushed Daisy’s head forward.
“The procedure we did tends to leave marks at the base of the hairline, at the back of the neck. That’s how you can tell it has worked and for how long it will work. If the marks start to fade, that means the magic protecting your thoughts is fading. Given it is applied by someone with unseelie, obsidian magic, the markings show up black. Like our markings and Tarian’s. But your markings…”
“Aren’t ink,” Lennox finished. “They look like…diamond dust. Not even the Celestials have markings like that. Theirs are golden. I’ve…” He swallowed thickly. “I’ve never heard of this. We need to consult Tarian.”
“Oh super,” Daisy said dryly. “One more way I’ll stand out in this place.”
Kayla nodded. “I’ll get rid of the body. You get her some food and water and then take her back to the dungeon. The magic won’t fully solidify for a sun’s turn. Threaten those fucking guards while you’re there, Lennox. If she is taken to the king, we’re all fucked.”
8
Daisy
The day waned.Her mind had cleared somewhat, but a huge, throbbing headache persisted. Her head felt like it was glued onto her neck poorly. When she moved it, it felt creaky and like it was about to fall off. Her belly was full, at least. Before Lennox took her back, he’d given her a heavenly loaf of bread covered in the finest cheese she’d ever tasted, drizzled with something that tasted somewhat like honey. With it, he’d set out hunks of meat so tender she could pull it from the bone and suck the juices from her fingers. None of it tasted exactly like what she was used to in the human world and was presumably various types of fae animals, but it didn’t matter. It was rich and filling and delicious.
Lennox had tilted the stone slab until it was almost flat, but she hadn’t been able to sleep much. Each time someone walked by her cell, they’d rake something metal across the bars. The racket gave her no peace, even if she was successful in ignoring the latest screamer.
Now, as the light slowly disappeared from her cell, she was startled out of a fitful doze. Her cell door whined as it opened.Her heart kicked up its pace, and she rolled her head to the side to see who was coming. Deep shadow obscured her view, like a solid black haze covering whoever walked within it.
Beyond it, in the hallway just outside her cell, a broken and grotesque body had a hook shoved down its throat and protruding from its ribcage. The skin was torn away to show the metal, and the insides of the ruined stomach dripped onto the floor. Limbs were snapped and dangled strangely. An arm was severed, and fingers littered the ground. The sign around its neck read,I touched Tarianthiel’s property.
It was the guard who had “checked” her for the king. Its face was no longer obscured and almost seemed like a wax sculpture after too much heat.
She licked her lips, bending her wrists to capture the chains. It was the only weapon she had for whatever was entering her cell—the other’s friend seeking vengeance, perhaps.
Easy, little dove.The familiar voice was like a gentle lick in her mind.
At once, her whole body relaxed. The nervous breath gushed out of her.
The black haze peeled away from that handsome face and regal, stoic bearing. He was refined brutality.
Tarian drew up beside her, his hand reaching out for the top of the slab. He pulled, straightening her until her feet hit the ground. Then he stepped in front of her, and the black haze filled the cell around them, once only obscuring him from view and now obscuring them both. No gold shimmered within. The dawn-light colors were totally absent, his magic cloaked in midnight.
