“So that’s what this is all about,” I mutter. “Look, the castle servants and Mountain Goats didn’t mean any harm. They’d just never seen flowers before, and they were excited to help out. You shouldn’t hold that against them.”
“I do not hold anything against them,” he assures me.
I let out a relieved breath. “Good, because?—”
“As you said, everything that came to pass this eve isyourfault.”
Moist.Why could I never remember the rule about waiting until the other person was done talking to let myself feel relief?
The Stone Fae King continues, “And as I promised…”
Suddenly, his shadows stop drying and vine around my wrists. They bind them together tighter than cuffs—and lift.
High. Too high. So high that my toes lose contact with the bath floor. I float just below the ceiling, limbs stretched, heart pounding.
Before I can cry out, the shadows pull me forward like something ferried across an invisible clothesline.
“What in the—” I start to say…
Only to yelp, sharply, when Ijerkto a sudden stop.
I’m left hanging, suspended just above the floor, face-to-face with the Stone Fae King seated upon his throne.
“As I promised,” he says, picking up where he left off. “This eve, you will be punished. Without mercy.”
Torture
Sallie Rose
“You haveanother choice to make now.”
The Stone Fae King’ssmoke-and-glass voice tendrils into my ears as the shadows set me down in front of him, wrists still bound above my head.
My arms already ache from being suspended. Prickly tingles crawl up them from my shoulders.
But I grit my teeth against the discomfort and roll my eyes. “Oh, yippee. Another choice. I’m sure it’ll be fair and completely reasonable.”
“There’s that word again.” He cocks his head. “If you truly wished forfairtreatment, you would not continue to invite these displays of my dominance. And you most certainly would not have kissed me last?—”
“Oh, my moons, youmoistpsycho.” My heart hammers against my ribcage, but my mouth refuses to shut up. “The only thing I’ve invited is a head examination for kissing you.”
He leans forward on his stupidly dramatic throne. “Kissing metwice.”
“I didn’t know that statue was the real you!”
“But you did know you were not to leave my chambers.” He regards me with a blank expression. “My note was clear and explicit.”
“I mean, sure, but you only live once. And my life is scheduled to be over by this time tomorrow. I needed to use the time I had left.”
“So this is what your defiance is about?” He lifts an eyebrow. “You believe your punishment is worth installing an unasked-for garden during your final hours?”
I mumble in response.
“I did not hear you. You will need to answer again.”
“The garden asked me to grow it,” I answer, enunciating this time. It’s the truth. The moment I touched the ground, I could feel its need as if the earth had spoken out loud. “The brambles were choking it alive. I have to save it…realizeit, even if it’s the literal last thing I do.”
He tilts his head. “Your words make no sense.”
