CHAPTER 5
KORYN
The same personnever delivered my meals twice. At first, they came while I slept. While I technically did not need sleep to survive, the lack of it dulled my wits. But once I figured out their schedule, I forced myself to sleep in the in-between times and to feign it when it was useful. I used every other moment to study my prison.
I’d never seen the fae palace myself. Witches and fae were bitter enemies, both sustained by the lifeforce of the continent itself. Fae were born with magic, and witches were gifted their power by the Dark God. In the three hundred and seventy-seven years since my resurrection, I’d never set foot in the Old Fae Kingdom. To do so would have been tantamount to a declaration of war that neither of us had enough magic or power to fight and survive.
I guessed that the bathhouse had once been fed by hot springs. Like everything else in Velora, they’d frozen over. I did not know whether the fae abandoned them immediately or only when their own magic faded enough to make heating the deep pools a wasteful expenditure. It did not matter to my calculations.
The wide, short windows along the ceiling further confirmed my suspicions that I was in the base of the palace. It should have been a good sign—fewer floors riddled with fae to navigate on my way to the exit—except that I had no idea where they were keeping Isanara, and I wouldn’t until I could get out of the salt cell and restore our connection.
Dark God, please let Maura not have devised some other wicked enchantment to separate me from my familiar.
A long exhale caressed the back of my neck.
My imagination was running wild from the slow torture of the salt cell. I did not pray to the gods any longer. Not after what I’d seen and experienced at the Seven Gates.
There was no one left in this world that I could trust fully. I’d learned the lesson before, only to forget it. Never again.
With my head clear, I could at least trust my senses. So I waited and I watched.
I watched them through imperceptible slits between my lids.
A tall male with long, dark hair and too-familiar turquoise eyes brought a platter of dried fruit with cheese and bread. Then there was the middle-aged female with eyes so stern they overpowered the beauty of her rich auburn hair and olive skin. She dropped the silver platter with such a clang that I did not have to feign jolting awake. But by the time I sat up, she was gone, whatever magic she bore carrying her away.
It could all be the same person, I realized. If Maura put Elodie up to it, my sister witch could have been the one to deliver every single meal, wearing a different face each time. Or the fae could have disguised themselves with glamours. I kept the clover close, but I had no way of knowing if it did anything.
Alize did not come again.
Nor did the person I most expected.
I watched for a flash of silver hair or the hulking breadth of his shoulders. I hated the nodule of disappointment in mystomach that grew a little each time a new, unfamiliar face appeared. But Garrick did not come, and neither did the Dark God.
That nugget of disappointment was not desire. It was rage.
I wanted him to be stupid enough to reach across the line of salt that kept me imprisoned, as his sister had. I would not hesitate this time. I would freeze the blood in his veins, wither his flesh with cold until his fingers and hand turned black and crumbled away, leaving nothing but a stump. Maybe his half-fae blood would regenerate it. But maybe not. The possibility was enough to sustain my hopes.
I’d always shied away from using my power to harm. But vengeance flavored my every thought. Maura had finally gotten what she wanted, after all.
Maura. The remnants of food in my stomach turned, but I knew that it was not from poison. At least, not the kind that could be ingested.
She’d broken the covenants. By our laws and her own decrees, she should have been ousted from the coven the same way I had. Yet Elodie and Aurienna had followed her commands without hesitation. And Maura roamed free somewhere above me in Balar Shan, while I ached in my cell of salt.
I was helpless while she made bargains with the male responsible for Velora’s downfall?—
No.
I surged to my feet, graceless and ungainly. I was alone. There was no one to see or judge. Even if there had been, I was past caring what others thought. Measuring myself against the expectations of others had brought me nothing but agony and disappointment.
I was not helpless. Not anymore.
I reached for Isanara.They cannot cage us forever, I told her—and myself.This bondage is temporary. But the bond between us is eternal.
Dark memories curled around the edge of my mind. I shoved them away.
Power surged in my veins, pain shooting up my nerves as it searched for escape and found none.
I slammed my eyes shut, forcing in breaths. I imagined the pentagram, sacred to my kind, inhaling and exhaling as I traced its predictable lines within my mind’s eye.
