I kept an eye out for encroaching darkness, but everything was quiet. The sky was silent and bright, no desperate shadows in sight. It was possible the darkness couldn’t exist here in the sun, and it was only at night it could appear. The sound of a hawk came from far away, but no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find a trace of the raptor. The sound of its screech grew louder and louder, and I could feel my hold on the dream slipping.
I awoke inmy bed, decidedly not where I fell asleep, but more concerning than that— the hawk was next to me on the bed.
“What are you doing here?” I asked the hawk, feeling silly. It squawked at me and took off, leaving me blinking in confusion. I looked out to my balcony where he’d just flown off, seeing it was mid-morning. I was still in my dress from last night, only it was covering me fully. Had Cyrus actually bothered to dress me?
I forced myself up and off the bed, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I stretched out my muscles, trying to loosen the tight feeling crawling under my skin. I wandered out to the solar, surprised to find Cyrus working at his desk. He looked up when I entered—fuck—I should have waited to come out after I had time to process how my principals had bent from a combination of logic and pure horniness. How I seemed to always lose my mindand forget why certain acts with certain people were a bad idea the moment I grew aroused was concerning.
That couldn’t be allowed to happen again. I’d given Cyrus enough now to think he was winning in this battle of ours, so I wouldn’t let him gain another inch. I nearly snorted as I thought of the inches he had quite literally choked me on, but I fortified my resolve.
Shoulders back, chin tilted up, eyes narrowed. Cyrus,the bastard,seemed amused, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth.
“Asteria, I’m glad you’re up.” Cyrus said, his smile fading as a storm began brewing in his eyes. “Priscilla will be coming by this afternoon to help get you prepare. We’ll be holding a feast tonight to celebrate Dawn’s arrival. Which reminds me, there will be a ball in a few days’ time. My mother decided a masquerade would be ‘just perfect’.” He rolled his eyes.
At least the events gave me plenty of opportunity to gather information to use to make my escape. Gathering resources and finding a path out would be more complicated, but I would persevere, no matter how long it took. In the meantime, as much as I hated attending these affairs, they were a necessary evil.
“I have a meeting to attend, so I’ll be unavailable for a couple of hours.” Cyrus said as he stood and began gathering the papers before him on the desk.
I didn’t remember any meeting planned for today in his schedule, but I nodded my understanding before he swept out the door. I was surprised Cyrus hadn’t taken the opportunity to harass me over what happened between us last night. It was so unlike him not to dig in and try to pry for more.
I took the rest of the morning to check in with our spies and gather whispers from yesterday. With the arrival of Dawn, there were bound to be many I would have to sort through, trying tofind the legitimate threads to follow amid a pile of blustering dead ends.
By early afternoon,I needed a break, and I still had several hours until Priscilla would arrive, so I took the opportunity to go visit Emmie. Traveling through the dark tunnels always left me uneasy, but it was the best way to travel unseen. My mind kept wandering to Dawn’s arrival and what that would mean going forward, so I didn’t realize I had somehow wandered into the wrong tunnel until it was too late.
“Fuck.” I cursed, turning around and trying to find my way back. The area looked vaguely familiar, and I was sure Whina had shown me this route when she toured me around, but I couldn’t remember what part of the palace it was in.
Whispers caught my attention, bringing me to a dead stop in the dark tunnel. No, not whispers, voices some distance away. Curious, I wandered forward, the voices becoming louder the closer I got to a fork in the tunnel. Listening for a moment, I followed the voices to the right.
There—the voices were coming from an alcove within the rock. I moved into it and found a poorly concealed hole. Shifting away the cleverly designed fabric mimicking the material of the wall, my hand flew up to stifle my gasp as I realized it looked directly into Queen Stelara’s rooms.
Or what I assumed was her rooms, as there the queen was, lounging back on a sofa upholstered in white silk. Directly across from her sat Cyrus, leaning forward on his elbows, his furrowed brows at odds with the ease of his mother as she relaxed and sipped her wine.
“Just because it’s been forbidden for thousands of years doesn’t mean we can’t use it.” Cyrus argued against his mother. Whatever was said leading up to it, I had unfortunately missed.
“You’re talking about risking the balance of our kingdom.” Queen Stelara said, raising her eyebrow pointedly.
“It’s too late to worry about that.” Cyrus replied as he stood, beginning to pace back and forth. Too late to worry about the balance? What were they talking about?
“It was only forbidden because others deemed it cruel and inhumane. Not to mention, if all the Fae used it against one another, we’d have wiped ourselves out.” Cyrus continued, his voice rising as he began passionately defending whatever argument he was making. I was lost on what he was referring to, other than it was about something forbidden, obviously, and for good reason it seemed.
“Yes, and that remains true. If we began using it, and others followed, we would face the same issue, Cyrus.” The queen insisted as she placed her wine down, leaning forward as she spoke to her son.
“It’s been enough years that no one will suspect us of using it. They won’t know where the power came from.” Cyrus continued. “And we have more than enough slaves available to power the magic for years. Blood magic would solve all of our problems, Mother. You have to see the logic in this.”
More than enough slaves? Blood magic? A horrible weight filled my chest as I realized he was talking about actuallyusinga forbidden type of magic. Magic was supposed to be natural and good—a gift from the gods themselves, generated by nature. But now Cyrus was about to use a magic that apparently needed humans to power it.
“I do.” Queen Stelara admitted, a belabored sigh slipping through her lips. “But we have to be careful. If we use all of our slaves to power the magic, we’ll have none left to actually assist us. Nor do we want them finding out we’re sacrificing them for this. The very last thing we need is the humans trying to rise up in revolt.”
By the Otherworld, it felt like Adamah was spinning around me. They were going to kill us to power this magic. I swallowed down bile, I couldn’t afford to be sick and give away that someone was listening. My plans for escape were more important than ever. I had to get myself and those I cared about as far from Dusk as possible.
But could I really just run and forget the countless innocent humans who would be sacrificed in the name of power? Cyrus called it a cruel and inhumane magic, and the indignity of what he planned lit my blood up from the inside out. Rage rushed through my veins until I could feel something inside me rise up, only to fall back down before I could unleash it. I shook it off; this was too important to let rage cloud my judgment.
It was said that you needed to arrive in the Otherworld with your body as intact as possible. Having pieces, even one’s blood, stolen away could affect one’s ability to properly enter the Otherworld, preventing them from facing judgment. Meaning they wouldn’t be sent to Elysium or Tartarus and would instead linger as nothing but a spirit, haunting this world. That was worse than just killing someone, it was destroying their soul, ruining them completely, along with their chance for eternal peace.
“They wouldn’t get far.” Cyrus scoffed, shaking his head. “We’ll be able to overpower any we need to using blood magic. Think of it. We could make iron weapons to use against Night or any other who challenged us. The plans I’ve drawn up will work.”
I bent over, my hands on my knees as I processed this. Cyrus may be able to hold the unruly Night Kingdom at bay, but the words of the Fae soldier I couldn’t seem to forget crossed my mind once more.
How do you know, when you don’t recognize the monsters you’re surrounded by? You see lambs where you should see lions.
