In The Gilded City, you were innocent until proven guilty. Here, you were locked up until you proved yourself worthy to be let out. From what I could tell, based on the guards talking, there was a city outside the prison and some mountain ranges but little else. And they were all bound by the rules of these Accords, lest they be basically incinerated out of existence. They took laws and rules very seriously here, which was the only reason I was alive.
Snake-tatted fae with the red hair, who I’d come to learn was named Maze, walked over to my cell door with a grin.
“Pretty boy, you have a guest,” he said.
I looked up from the bed where I’d been resting my broken ribs and, for the hundredth time, wished I had my healing powers. Was this what it felt like to be Ayden, Fallon, any of them? It sucked. Ongoing pain, without any relief in sight, sucked.
He waved me over. I sat up, wincing at the sharp stab in my side. I needed to learn Fallon’s powers ASAP, or I was a dead man. They were toying with me at this point, laughing as they punched or kicked me, but I knew they had powers and they would start to use them. I’d lost my last two fights to forfeiture, and I had no idea what that meant for my overall score.
It wasn’t good.
As he led me somewhere, I walked with a bit of a limp but tried to cover it.
Maze grinned. “You’re weaker than I thought.”
I growled but said nothing. If I had my powers, I’d liquify his insides and make him crap them out.
We turned a corner, and I stopped dead when I saw her sitting in a chair. Long, glossy black hair over one shoulder, startling green eyes. Not a day over nineteen. She looked somuch like Fallon, my stomach knotted up, and an ache formed in my chest.
“Hello, Marissa.” I played it cool. She couldn’t kill me here. I was under some weird accord the Light and the Grim had with these evil bastards.
She raised one eyebrow and smiled. I was shocked to find that her eyes were green here, not black. “So it’s true.” Her gaze slowly raked down my body, and shivers ran the length of my spine. When her yellow-spotted snake familiar popped out of her shirt and coiled loosely at her throat like a necklace, my jaw clenched.
“You know I heard snake meat tastes really good battered and fried.” I was going to say all the things I wanted to say to her, and she wasn’t going to do anything about it.
The snake hissed, and Marissa’s nostrils flared. “I heard you’re losing,” she shot back.
I shrugged. “Or waiting to unleash my dark powers and kill everyone.”
She grinned. “You know, in another lifetime, I could have liked you.”
“Gross.” I made a fake retching motion.
Marissa stood, walked over to me, and peered at the tops of my hands. She looked pleased and nodded to her snake as if they were sharing some unsaid conversation. “I’m delighted to see Fallon is growing in her power, even without a decent tutor.”
She was excited to see that Fallon had dragged me down here and switched our magic? Of course she was. Because itdidshow power. But what did she care?
“She’ll never fight for you,” I told her.
Fallon was a good person; she would always do the right thing.
Marissa nodded. “I don’t need her to.”
That caused a frown to pull at my lips. Whatdidshe need from her daughter? Nothing, I hoped.
She turned on her heel then and walked over to the female fae with the serrated teeth. Her name was Amethyst, and I still couldn’t figure out why she looked familiar. Again, I wished I’d paid better attention in school. She was no doubt in my history lessons. Amethyst was in charge down here but didn’t frequent the cells or the fights. From what I could tell, she wasn’t a Nightling in the sense that she didn’t poof into her shadow form and go back to earth. Some of them just stayed here, never having been given the power to be reborn, or not wanting to.
“Is it true he has Fallon’s power?” Marissa asked Amethyst loudly enough that I could clearly hear.
The serrated-toothed fae nodded. “You smelled it on him, I’m sure.”
She could smell magic? That was interesting.
Marissa flicked her gaze to me and then peered back at the female fae. “I smell his mortal body, which shouldn’t be here. So what happens to my daughter if he dies down here in one of the fights?”
Maybe that’s why they were going easy on me—they weren’t sure what would happen if they killed me. Neither was I. Would I go to the Realm of Eternity? Or would I end up back here? Or, worse, would I cease to exist? There was no protocol for mortals entering the realms of the dead.
Amethyst clicked her tongue. “Theoretically, Fallon’s power would flow back to her upon his death.”
