Tenebrys gripped her face and turned it toward him, leaning down until their noses almost touched. "Lookwhat your father did to me. Did he not tell you of his shameful experiments on shifters to make us all monsters?"
A tremble shook Delphi's body, but it was a strange kind of awe, not fear. She forced herself to look into his golden eyes. Hermagic reallyhadbeen released when she had been dreaming, and it had led them straight to her.
"All these years," Delphi whispered. She reached out and touched his cheek. "And you weren't really a dream. You are real."
"Yes. You finally let your guard down enough to lead me right to you."
Delphi flushed hot, knowingexactlyhow she had let it down.
Tenebrys's nostrils flared, and his hand dropped to run his thumb over the scratch on her neck. Delphi's breath caught, heat rising in her chest, and his golden eyes widened just a little.
"Let her go, monster, or I will come and take her by force," Louis demanded, shattering the moment.
Tenebrys looked back at Narcisse and Louis. "You are welcome to get your army together and try, lordling."
Hissing growls and yips echoed around them from the other shifters. They were all laughing at them.
Delphi gasped as Tenebrys tossed her over his shoulder, and the last thing she saw was Narcisse falling to his knees and vomiting on the grass.
Night closedaround them the further they went into the wood. Delphi's ribs ached from Tenebrys's shoulder, and every time she wriggled, his clawed hands held her tighter to him. He smelled wild, like the forest, with notes of black sandalwood and an animal musk that reminded her of the heat of her dream. Every so often, Delphi saw the tip of his tail flicking under the hem of his cloak.
They had been traveling west, but Delphi couldn't be sure. The forest all looked the same to her. Black trees, mist, andmoonlight blurred around them. She didn't try to fight him or think of an escape. There was none. It all felt like a surreal dream.
What had Narcisse done to them? How was it even possible? She never would have believed it, except her father had called him by name.
Delphi thought that Narcisse selling her out to Louis was bad enough. She knew he was selfish to his core, but he hadn't offered to trade places to save her. She had been paying for Narcisse's crimes since she was in the cradle, and now these creatures could enact any punishment they wished on her.
Delphi shut her eyes and swallowed hard to keep the tears from her eyes. She refused to be a coward like Narcisse.
The cloying stench of rotting flesh made her open her eyes again, and she wished she hadn't. She struggled to make sense of what she was seeing. Tall spikes of iron rose in a circle, fencing in an inner ring of gray stones. Bodies had been impaled on the spikes and were in varying states of decay. Some had vaguely humanoid features, while others had rotting wings, horns, and beetle-like bodies.
"What are they?" Delphi asked in a husky voice.
Tenebrys slowed his stride. "Fae that dared to come through the boundary crossing and into my woods."
"I thought the fae were dead and gone," she replied. Her fingers tightened on the edge of his cloak, suddenly more afraid of the dead creatures of legend than of him.
"Theystaygone because of me," Tenebrys growled out. "This is a warning to others not to cross me."
Delphi's voice trembled as she asked, "Is one of these stakes for me?"
"You have fae blood, witch, but you were born in this world," Tenebrys replied, moving out of the glade. "Besides, that death would be too quick."
Delphi didn't dare open her mouth again. She drifted off to sleep until Tenebrys's pace slowed once more, and she jolted awake. Moonlight shone off pale stone, and she lifted her head to look around.
Iron gates covered in vines were pulled back, and a sprawling château of stone rose around her. The gardens were overgrown, and a stone fountain of a roaring lion was dry and in crumbling disrepair.
Wooden doors at the front of the château opened. Torches had been lit in iron sconces hanging from the walls. Dusty paintings and tapestries still hung in their places. It felt abandoned and forgotten.
A coat of arms was carved into the stone above a roaring fireplace, the words 'Lux in Tenebris' etched beneath it in the scholar's tongue.Light in Darkness, Delphi's mind supplied. Something about that family motto niggled at her, but she was too exhausted to remember why.
Her captor carried her up a set of stairs. Delphi didn't think dungeons were kept above ground. She didn't let her mind dwell on what horrors were about to come next.
Tenebrys pushed open a wooden door and dropped her onto a couch, sending a small cloud of dust up into the air. Her bag was placed next to her.
"What do you want from me?" Delphi asked, half dreading the answer. He hadn't put her on an iron stake, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to kill her.
"I want…" Tenebrys began and trailed his large fingers over her chest. Goosebumps spread over Delphi's skin, and she gasped when he plucked the vial of poison out from between her breasts. "This. There will be no escaping me with poison, little flower."
