“I’llneverfeel my mother’s love again. Not after the day king and your daughter took her from me.” I strike her other cheek hard enough that it whips her head to the side. “My mother is dead because of your child and her vicious master.”
She doesn’t cry out when I strike her. But something inside me does. That part of me I don’t understand, the part I wish would stay silent or, better yet, disappear altogether.
I back away and re-take my seat so she can’t see I’m shaking. What is wrong with me? I should be flaying the skin off her. Instead, I’m too weak to stand?
“It’s all the lies.” She feels her cheek where I struck her. “And his blood. It’s mixed up inside you. And inside, it’s mixed you up.”
I rub my temples. “Don’t speak in riddles.” I should strike her again, stomp her disgusting face into the ground.
“It’s not riddles. You’re under his command. A seeker’s thrall is powerful indeed, but the prince of seekers … soon to be king?” She shrugs, her bony shoulders peeking through her thin dress. “His domination of mind and spirit is absolute for all seekers. All except … you. But you aren’t what you seem, now are you?”
“I’m under no one’s command.” I drop my hands and glare at her.
“Oh, no?” She smiles, her remaining teeth a deep shade of gray. “You don’t do everything Eraldon says, down to the last word, even though there’s something inside you trying to push back, to break free? That’s the part of you he can’t touch, no matter how hard he tries. The part still connected to—”
“Don’t.” I want to sound commanding. Instead, I sound … afraid.
“His thrall over you isn’t unbreakable. Not yet.”
“I do as Eraldon commands.” I refold my wings at my back and lean against the chair. “But because Iwantto. He’s the true king of night and day, and soon all of Arin. I’ll be by his side when he—”
“By his side?” She sucks a remaining tooth. “Not in his bed, though, are you?”
I swallow hard. She’s clever; I’ll give her that. “You won’t turn me against him, witch. No matter how hard you try. You deceive almost as well as your daughter, but not quite. And no matter what you think, you know nothing of Eraldon.”
“I know everything.” She extends one long, skeletal finger. “About you, Eraldon, and your mate.”
I smirk and lean forward. “Clearly not, because Eraldonismy mate.”
Her cackle sends shivers down my spine. “Oh, little nightling, your mate is coming for you. He is.” She nods to herself. “And when he finds you like this—a dark thing under the thrall of an even darker thing—he’ll destroy you, won’t he? Surely the day king won’t suffer you to live.”
Her words steal the breath from my lungs. That bright glow of light bursts in my memory, warm and sustaining. Solano. He is my … enemy. I clench my eyes shut hard and focus on Eraldon, on everything he’s given me.
“Tragic ending,” she continues. “But it’s his turn to feel the curse of day. Selene sealed it, and no day king has ever been able to break it. It slept, you see. Slept for eons while the obsidian witch traipsed through Arin. But when she returned to the day realm?” She snaps her fingers. “It awoke. The curse lives, breathes, and it’s already tearing your mate apart. Solano’s realm is in danger, and not just from Eraldon. The curse is the reason you’re here. The reason your mate couldn’t save you. The reason your mother was taken.”
“You’re lying.” I stand and kick the chair away. It shatters in the corner of her stone prison.
“Not me, nightling. Not me. Only truth have I spoken to you,” she singsongs. “I warded you against the day as Eraldon commanded. Soon you’ll be back in that bright realm to rip it to shreds. The curse demands it.”
“I know you’re lying. I’ve read the story of Selene and the first would-be king of day. The old curse was that no mortal could sit on the throne of day, nothing more.”
“Nothing more? What happened when Solano claimed a changeling as his mate? What happened to you, Emma Druzy?”
I’m on her so quickly she doesn’t scream. My hands wrap around her throat, my claws digging in as I squeeze. “Shut your lying mouth.”
“One more … truth.” She fights to get the words out as I keep squeezing. I could crack her neck right now, end her miserable existence.
I bare my teeth as I stare into her eyes, into her soul where malice and magic dance. “Then tell me, Lex. What’s your final lie?”
She sputters, her chained skin sizzling as I pull her away from the wall, wracking her body as I throttle her. I want to destroy her, to send her to the Spires. But even so, I wait. Because I want to hear the lie. The one last lie that will seal her fate. What fanciful falsity will she give me now when I’m the one who holds her life in my hands?
“Well?” I growl.
Lex gasps shallowly as her blood runs along my claws. “Your mother … lives.”
* * *
“Lies.” I pace through Eraldon’s tent deep within the hidden camp at the edge of the Nightkeep.
