After she’d heard all she needed to and a few things Kieran wanted to know, she cut out their voices as she disintegrated their forms. There was no afterlife for them to retire into, no veil for them to slip behind, but this place had spirit woven into its fabric, like in her lands. Hopefully like in Faerie. It was whatallowed a soul to exist. Now they would be part of it, no longer existing as themselves. Fuckers.
“Interesting,” Kieran said when she’d finished. “The courts are not harmonious. The Sapphire Throne seems to want the power for themselves even though they’d need the Obsidian Throne to help them make the bridge.” He thought for a moment. “They probably wanted Daisy to give themselves the upper hand. Hold her, hold the power.”
“I still don’t get what kind of power she has. She has no magic other than what I gave her. And that’s just standard blood magic. That barely shows up on the testing units without power of her own.”
He shook his head as Bria’s third cadaver shakily rose from the ground. Lightning streaked across the sky and a saddle went floating by, Dylan and Donovan testing their magic in this place, ensuring it worked like normal. So far it did, Lexi’s included.
“It sounds like she sets off the power, somehow,” John said, having listened to everything. “He said she made it come to life, thereby increasing his power. Remember in the sergeant’s barn? You were standing around for a while, but it was after she got in there that they started to buzz and vibrate. That can’t be a coincidence.”
Lexi squinted at Kieran, knowing John was right but still not understanding. “What kind of magic is that? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“Something the fae want,” Kieran said with a look around them. “Something the dark fae know how to use. Something they’ll kill for.”
Bottom line, they didn’t need to understand it. They just needed to get to Daisy before the dark fae created that bridge. Once she was no longer useful, they’d kill her. Given the fae had a head start and those chalices, it didn’t give them much time.
She stood. “Bria, we need to find a few fae who have been back and forth through the Faegate. I want to know what to expect. Tomorrow, we confront the Celestials.”
10
Daisy
The slap rangout before the pain across her cheek registered.
“Wake up, you vile human.”
The stone slab had been straightened, and she hung from the chains, her feet dragging against the ground. A male fae stood in front of her, and another stood back by the door of her opened cell. Deep night had fallen, only a silvery slice of light coming from her window. It was just barely enough to make out the fae within her space.
They each wore a sturdy tunic of forest green, belted at the waist with two sheaths each for long knives. Embroidery ran across their breasts and down the sides, leaving the stomach area mostly bare. Their sleeves flowed with a material similar to silk, showing more embroidery, which matched what circled the bottom of the tunic. Something like tights covered their legs in deep black, ending in supple leather boots. The fabric was cut simply and looked of moderately good quality, but nothing at all like the Celestial she’d seen in the human world. Unless she was mistaken, their attire and presence here suggested they were amiddling sort of servant. Not someone with mindgazer magic. Not that it mattered if they planned to drag her to the king or some other noble. Or take her for themselves.
Her stomach fluttered as she remembered what Tarian had said. She hoped someone had alerted him and he could get here in time if anything should happen. Otherwise, she’d kill whom she could and hope for the best.
A mask of shadow did not cover their faces, but strange black lines crept from their eyes and over their cheekbones. More spiderwebbed up from the high collars on their necks and along the edge of their jaws. She didn’t know if that was ink or something else. Their skin looked sallow, but that might have been a trick of the light.
“Get her. Hurry up,” the one at the cell door said. “This place stinks.”
She didn’t notice the key until the fae in front of her had lifted his hands to the manacles. Metal clinked before it released, and he stepped around her hanging frame to do the other. She dropped fully to the ground, hitting her knees against the stone floor before rubbing at her wrists. She glanced up in time to see that leather boot, freshly polished but nearly worn through, swing toward her. She rolled as quickly as she could, but the blow connected with her side, knocking the wind out of her.
“Get up!” he barked.
Fucking fae.These didn’t have any more patience than the blue ones that had abducted her.
She treated the situation similarly, doing as they wanted but letting out sounds of panic and fear as she did.
The one near the door walked through, his eyes tight after seeing the mangled corpse still on display. A rickety wooden ladder waited near it, but either they hadn’t gotten around to freeing the body, or Tarian had magically made it so they couldn’t.
Two creatures that were this castle’s version of prison guards waited in the shadows. Darkness obscured their faces, but they were watching the situation.
“Your betters will be hearing of this,” the fae who held Daisy hissed at them. “This isyourjob, not ours. We should not have to come all the way in here to get the human. You’ll be destroyed for this, mark my words.”
The fae who held Daisy tensed as he yanked her out of the cell, his face long as he looked at Tarian’s display. It seemed the prison guards had taken the warning to heart. They didn’t want to end up like their comrade, regardless of who was giving the orders.
The prison guards didn’t respond, and the fae kept grumbling, pulling a handkerchief out of a pocket Daisy hadn’t noticed and placing it to his nose. He led the way toward the tunnel Lennox and Kayla had taken her through earlier. Or was it yesterday?
They each breathed a sigh of relief once they were far enough out, taking in lungfuls of air. The one in the lead ran his fingers through short-cropped hair. They didn’t spend much time, if any, in those dungeons.
Around a couple corners and they headed a different direction than Daisy had been before. The interior of the halls looked similar, but the walls were starting to spread wider apart. The ceiling began to climb. Paintings hung along the walls, bloody affairs with crimson splatter and broken weapons. Servants increased in number, their clothing equally fine as those who were escorting Daisy and sometimes more so, with more embroidery and occasionally pearls or other shiny objects sewn into the fabric.
Daisy’s stomach churned as they turned another two corners, the finery of the halls becoming obvious and ornate golden and onyx chandeliers dripping from the ceiling. They were taking herto someone important. Her gut said it wasn’t Tarian. That it was someone who wanted to have fun with a strange new addition to their cages. Based on what the guards had said, it was likely the king.
