“He won’t. He’s too strong to turn,” Charen says.
“Eraldon turned. He was a prince.” Bladin’s voice is quieter, farther away.
With effort, I sit up and lean against the cold stone at my back. The seekers dropped me here like a sack of potatoes, slammed the door, and dispersed—likely going back to whatever evil duties their master assigned to them. What guards they may have stationed nearby to watch us remain unseen.
“Emma’s here.” I close my eyes and see her. She’s changed, so very different from the changeling dancing in the light of day. But she’s still my mate, my heart, my everything.
“Eraldon bit you?” Charen and the others are in a small cell next to mine.
“Emma.”
“Shedid it?”
I nod. “She’s a seeker, but not. She still has warmth, has fire in her. I can still feel her right here.” I beat my chest.
“How?” Charen shakes his head. “That’s not possible. Changelings always turn into mindless drones once they’re turned.”
“She’s not only a changeling.” Selene’s voice bounces off the mossy stone walls.
“Show yourself!” Charen is at the bars, black magic swirling just above the surface of his skin, but it can go no farther.
“Don’t waste your energy. You’re bound, handsome fae. I’m wrapped all around you.” Her voice is almost a sing-song as it seems to come from everywhere at once.
“I will end you, vile thing.” He shakes the bars, and despite having his powers bound, the metal creaks and whines.
“What do you mean, about Emma?” I close my eyes and try to focus on my injuries. The fall through the trees left me gashed and hurt, but Emma’s bite did the most damage, I would guess. Well, that and the blade she wrenched in my gut. If I can send what tiny amount of healing I have to those areas, maybe I’ll have enough strength to … To what? Bust out of this heavily guarded prison, destroy all the seekers, and take Eraldon’s head? Even with the strength of my bloodline, the power in my veins—I cannot pretend to see a way out of this. But there has to be.
“The look in her eyes. She knew me. But she also … didn’t.”
“My high lord, how unwell you look.” The witch’s voice is closer now, almost gloating. “How the kingly hath fallen.” She makes a slurp sound. “All that gristle and yummy entrails. Your beloved cut you deep and twisted the blade. I’m starting to like her.”
“What did you say about her being not only a changeling?”
Her footsteps are near, her claws scratching against rusted metal. “Her mother is a clever one. So very clever. Made a deal with the moon witches, gave her daughter a third bloodline.”
“What?” Charen scoffs. “There are no more moon worshippers. King Sigrid exterminated them all when he came to power.”
“The witches fled to the mountains and hid. They come down to the flatlands to worship and dance—”
“Dance.” I almost smile. “Emma said she used to dance with the witches under the moon. Naked.”
“Her sisters, unbeknownst to her. Performing the moon rites.” Selene’s opal eyes loom large in my vision, even though my eyes are still closed. “Her mother instilled Emma with their bloodline on the night of her birth. The babe was breach, caught between this world and next, dying as her mother and the moon witches tried to turn her. There was nothing for it except to beg the moon for help. The benevolent crescent moon granted the boon. It saved the child’s life. But there was a cost, of course. Always a cost. Cost, cost, cost.”
“What cost?”
“What begets a boon also births a bane.” She grins, her sharp teeth like jagged glass. “Her mother gave up her husband. They had a true love, but the moon took it, and her mother never loved again. Only the child the crescent moon gave her.”
I blink my eyes open to find Selene in my cell, sitting cross-legged before me. “How did you get—”
“I’m the most powerful creature in this keep. What did you expect?” She waves a hand.
I glance at my warriors. She’s bound their mouths somehow, and they glare at her with a hate that could melt the stone walls.
“She has a line of witch blood, pure and strong from the crescent moon. It’s why she isn’t a drone, why she’s powerful, why her blood is warm and her eyes are still clear, and why you haven’t turned.”
“You betrayed me.” I push the words out despite the pounding in my head, the pain in my throat, and the overwhelming burn in my stomach.
“I brought you to the right place, right where you need to be.” She nods and reaches out to pluck a hunk of stagnant moss from the wall behind me.
