I could flit from here, return to my suite. I could curl up on our bed among the soft flooferdar blankets Vexxion so lovingly provided for me. I could read a book and dream about an impossible future by his side. Lounge in relative safety.
Should I betray the promise I’d made to him and go through with this?
I was certain I’d find a clue to the collars inside this room and if I did, I could unravel this appalling situation. I could free my friends and every other Nullen unjustly bound by the fae. I wasn’t sure where we’d go or what might happen afterthat, but collaring us, claiming us, and then draining us was wrong.
Silence roared around me—deafening me. Each of my heartbeats echoed in an abyss where time seemed to cease. Anxiety pressed against my eardrums, creating a throbbing ache.
Enough, I snarled at myself. Ivenrail was in the dining room. Glaring at his guests. Wooing Brenna, who was making moon eyes at Zayde. The king wouldn’t know I was here.
Gulping down my fear, I slipped inside the dark room and gave my eyes a moment to adjust before stepping further into his lair.
A vast canopy bed dominated the room, its pillars carved with writhing vines. No surprise there. He adored the wretched things.
The ones in my collar sensed their brethren and perked up, twisting, tightening. I laid my fingertip on my skin, and drawing a touch of my power, sent it at them, scolding them. They surprisingly stilled. I’d explore this later. For now, I was grateful not to have them tightening their noose around my throat.
Heavy crimson drapes pooled from the canopy, the tails resting on the floor made up of polished black marble matching those I’d seen in the Claiming cave. Like then, the pattern sent a grim feeling through me I couldn’t define.
A chest made of dark wood stood along the right wall and matching nightstands held orb lamps casting eerie luminescent light across the room. Intricately carved silver candelabras had been placed like silent sentinels on top of a big bureau—the mirror above reflecting my wide-eyed stare back at me tenfold.
To the right of it, I took in a full-length painting with three twisting pixies dressed in the finest, pale yellow gossamer fabric, so thin I could see their impossibly bony frames beneath. They writhed like Iasar had in the door, like his mate still did, contorting their frames in a macabre dance for the king’s pleasure alone.
An equally stark forest stood tall behind them made up of bone white trees with steely leaves that chittered in a wind only they could feel. Snow dusted the ground lightly enough to expose dark gray soil and jagged rocks that must pierce their bare feet while they performed. I knew it did because their blood splattered the snow beneath them.
As if they sensed me standing nearby, their dance slowed, and their gazes locked on me.
I swallowed back my dismay. They were as helpless—hopeless—as me. No, they had less hope than I did. At least I was free to roam the castle. If I chose, I could give up my plan and leave this place. I could travel far from here. Run. Vexxion would still love me. He’d support me.
The pixies came to a full stop, still staring at me.
“Free us, my pretty,” the one in the middle said, her voice more of a tinkling whisper than spoken words. They danced into my ears, melodic yet not, grating across my bones before sliding into the floor at my feet.
“I can’t. The king will know I did it,” I said softly. Maybe not me specifically, but I was sure Ivenrail could narrow it down to a few suspects. He might pin it on Vexxion, and I couldn’t let that happen.
“But he won’t, pretty,” the middle one said softly, dreamily, her voice still twinkling like the brightest star in the sky.
Utterly mesmerizing.
Her sheer gown fluttered around her thin frame in wisps, and mist flickered across the moonlit meadow. And her eyes, so light blue, reminded me of the ice shards one might find at the top of the tallest mountain peak. The sun’s rays might reach, but they couldn’t penetrate deeply enough to melt the ice formed at the beginning of time.
Yes, yes, I knew what she was doing, what any of them would do if I allowed them this moment.
I dragged my gaze from hers. “I won’t let you lull me.”
“Look at us. Help us, pretty.” Her words held a frantic cry, the shriek of a rabbit with its throat locked in the mighty jaws of a beast.
“He’ll know, and he’ll kill me.” I moved away from them, though it wasn’t easy. I wanted to stand in front of them and stare. Whisper the words they longed to hear. Reach out and let them tug me up into the portrait to join them.
Then I could dance in a furious pace beside them forever.
As I stepped to the right to continue through the room, I kept peering back. The two at her sides started writhing again, lost in their motion while she remained still, watching me.
“I can’t,” I whispered.
“Won’t,” she said simply.
I didn’t darewas more like it.
When had I started to let fear take hold of my mind? Was it when Kinart’s death broke me? Or when I thought Vexxion had betrayed me? No, it could be when Seevar died. Or when Reylaand Brodine were stolen. So much loss, everything taken until there was nothing left to cling to but me.
