I watch in stunned silence as he uses his magic to transform the ruins into a sturdy, solid castle. Using immense power as if it’snothing.
For centuries, Cauval has laid here in frozen waste, and within seconds, a single fae transforms it.Erasesit.
There’s so much power in the air I can taste its dust, as if it’s signifying the ashes of Orea itself blowing away.
No longer are the walls reaching for an open sky. They stretch and close, the stones groaning and grinding as they move. The stone melds into an arched ceiling upon solid brick walls. Beneath me, the floor rolls with stonework that flows over the snow like roughened ripples.
Then the pillar we’re tied to moves too, tearing a frightened screech from my throat as Dommik and I are lifted with it. The pillar stands upright, making our bindings slip down until we crash upon the floor.
I jerk my body up, trying to fix the bindings that hold me sideways, adjusting until I can sit upright. On the other side of the pillar, I can see Dommik’s legs sprawled out, head lolling upon his chest.
The noises stop as every crack and crevice is filled in and smoothed, and then the stone becomes inanimate once more.
The king looks at me with triumph.
“See how quickly Orean history is replaced?” he says, hands dropping down to his sides. “See how easy it is for fae to lay claim? The stronger, better species will always win.”
He walks over to where I now sit, and the cavernous hall echoes the sounds of his footsteps bouncing against the solid gray walls. “You see now, don’t you, Cold Queen? Fae are superior. You’ve always known that. It’s why you wanted our magic in your veins.”
I swallow hard as I look up at him, seething and shaking all at once.
“Oreans can never win against the might of the fae.”
After he makes sure his words have sunken in, he turns, and the stone doors he’s created scrape open.
It feels as if something inside of me has been scraped open too.
“Leave them,” the fae king says to the twins. “Make sure she can hear every soldier that marches through. Let her lay witness to our victory until she is nothing but bones and frost. Let this be her living tomb, where she’s left to die while fae thrive.” Then he strides out of the building, leaving my teeth to chatter in his wake.
Outside, I can hear the army march in, just like he wanted me to.
I glance around, but the inside of this new castle he’s built is nothing like what Cauval used to look like. Anger stabs like chips of ice behind my eyes as I stare at the twins.
Pruinn is dead at Ravinger’s hand, but I wish he’d been able to kill these two off as well. I wish more than anything that he was still here. Stone wouldn’t win against rot. I’d take great pleasure in seeing Ravinger decay the fae king’s flesh from his bones.
But he’s not here, and the twins stand over me with a condescending curiosity that enrages me. If only these two had been a part of the casualties Dommik burned. If only he’d killed them before I’d been such a fool and willingly let them slice open my hands and let my blood drip.
I’ve had so many failures.
“How did you get here?” I ask, my voice hoarse. “You and Pruinn. You three were in Orea when he lured me here. How? The bridge was still broken.”
They shake their heads in unison.
“How were you and the king here right now?” I go on. “How was he on this side to break down my barriers?”
Still, they stay silent, their identical expressions filling me with an outburst of anger. “I’m here to die,” I spit. “What does it matter anymore?”
“All of it matters,” they say together.
I strain against the bindings that pinch into my arms, the unrelenting pillar at my back a reminder of just how stuck I am. “Or perhaps none of it does,” I argue coldly.
None of what I’ve tried to do has mattered at all.
They walk closer, their steps sounding hollow through the empty building.
“Did you know why Pruinn chose you?” Fassa asks, cocking his head as he studies me.
“Because I’m an Orean royal.”
