And I enacted elven law.
Chapter 32
Brisk footsteps echoed around me, unbearable against the pounding in my head. And the ground, it was so cold, so hard. But of course it’d be: Grýla wasn’t in the business of making her captives comfortable.
I rolled to the side, the space next to me empty. My eyes fluttered open and shut.
“Ryder?” I rasped.
Black spots dotted my vision, and for a moment, I swore I was back in that dimly lit royal hall beneath the tall archways, curled up on the ivory stone.
Wait a minute.
Sucking in a sharp breath, I propped myself up on my elbows. My skirt splayed beneath me in a pool of liquid silk. The footsteps crept closer. I was in the castle. I’d made it back.
My heart pinched. Oh my God, I’d made it back.
With those ancient words I’d enacted elven law, and it’d ripped me from the spirit realm, bringing me… here. My fuzzy gaze scanned the cavernous space. No bird masks. No Ryder.
Where was he?
My stomach tumbled. Was he still stuck in there?
The click-clacks slowed, and I knew who was behind me.
Spine stiffening, I glanced over my shoulder, and there she was: all violet eyes and sharp cheeks and cunning lips. Royal, regal. The person who had just tried to sacrifice me.
She lowered herself into a crouch, diamonds shimmering off her cream corset. I didn’t so much as flinch when their bright and glittering reflection hit me in the eyes. “What did you do.”
Not a question. It was an accusation, mixed with disappointment and barely leashed anger.
Something dark and twisted stirred inside me.
“You bitch,” I said, hunched over my knees. “Where’s Ryder?”
“Don’t you dare talk to me like that.” Her slim fingers pinched my chin, lavender gaze flaring bright. “I’m the queen, and you will give me your respect.”
“You’re no queen of mine,” I snarled. “Where. Is. He.”
“In his cell. Where he belongs.” A vein bulged in her neck; her hold on her temper was slipping. “For now.”
Relief swept through me—he’d made it back, too—but those last words cut it short.
Shoving me aside, she quickly straightened. “Do you know what you’ve done?”
“Me?” I pointed at my chest, flinching when I struck the bone a bit too hard. “What about you? Demons under the castle, unfair bargains, feeding souls to an immortal being you’ve locked away for over a century. You tried to sacrifice me! You gave me no other choice.”
She steepled her hands, fingertips pressing against her red lipstick. “You have no idea what it takes to rule a kingdom, to keep my people safe.”
“And part of that is choosing who lives and who dies?”
“Sacrificing the lives of a few to save the many from a bloody, pointless slaughter your kind will inevitably try to drag us into.”
“You’re not God.”
“No.” She barked out a laugh, cold and menacing. “But you’ve woken something much, much worse.”
“I know how it works.” Staggering to my feet, I grabbed the nearest column for support, fingers digging into the grooves. My body slumped against it, tender and shaky but ready to flee, as if I were still stuck in the Heimer Töfra. “You owe me a chance to fight for my freedom.”
