“We still didn’t make it to the very center,” she says.
The empty circle on the map. The odd curved walls of Reign that seem built around something. The energy surging up from the drains, the voices wailing to be heard. The strange magic that felt more right than anything ever before. We uncovered the truth of Maxian that night, but that does not mean we learned the truth of Versara.
Hello again.
“You heard the screams, too, the first time we went into the salon,” I say. A shiver ripples down my back.
“Something is there,” Lila urges.
A thousand voices, screaming for help.
“Or someone.”
That afternoon, as Eli leads me out of the House of Healing, stuffed with our world’s knowledge, forever gatekept from faeries, I think that Lila and I are so close to the center of a labyrinth that keeps our kind wandering aimlessly in the dark. But mazes must be built around something. For what is a game without a prize?
What do the High Fae play with the most?
Our freedom.
Chapter Forty-four
“I wouldn’t go in there,”Briar says. “The guests just arrived.”
I stand on the threshold of the servants’ entrance into Kassandra’s dining room while my friend pushes a cart of fruits and lettuce and bread by me. I glance at my old cotton dress I changed into after Healing. “I’m in uniform.”
“Kassandra requests that you stay in your room. You’re still Healing, and I can handle a party of three.”
“Depends on who the party is,” I mumble.
Briar arranges three tea sets, saying nothing.
“Does she not want me to know who—” I stop as it dawns.
“Avery, no—”
I swing open the doors with an unexpected rush of strength, my power spooling away faster than I can rein it in. It hums along the plane of magic, sparking when it comes into contact with three other pooling energies: the twinkling cold of Kassandra’s, the deadly darkness of Dominik’s, and a third I do not recognize, a quiet rumbling.
Dominik lounges in a black tunic at the head of the table, facing my direction. He splits into a slow, lupine grin. His silver hair falls loose around his shoulders.
Someone drums their nails against the wood. Kassandra sits at the head closest to me, stunning in a powder-blue gown thatplunges to her belly button. One long red fingernail taps against an empty wineglass, while her other hand digs into the armrest. When she faces me, her eyes narrow for a moment.
Idiot,I can see her thinking.
“Mistress,” I say, curtsying.
She turns away, bored. “As you were saying?”
“The king has extended a marriage proposal to our guest. I thought you should like to know, Kass.”
“Congratulations, Lady Rose.”
My breath catches. Seated along one side of the table is the pink-skinned fae who had been panting in my arms in the king’s bed last I had seen her. Had given her two orgasms and shared her with a royal, telling them both what to do.Rose Tunes.Heat rushes up my face.
“Thank you,” Rose says.
Briar rolls the cart into the room, and after moving to her, I reach for the basket of bread. Does Kassandra know I coupled with Rose? Is that why she’s here and my mistress told me not to be? No, it can’t be that. It must have something to do with…
“You and Maxian know each other through the Reign reunions, no?” my mistress asks.
