I made a strangled sound, and Maze hooked his arm under my elbow. I couldn’t stand, swaying on my feet as I thought of my aunt, dead at Marissa’s hand—she’d been the closest thing I had to a mother after Marissa killed my actual mom.
Maze dragged me forward before I could hear any more. My mind went wild with dark scenarios. Marissa attacked The Gilded City again? She killed Queen Solana? I was the heir, but now that I was dead for all intents and purposes, it meant Ayden would rule. Was he ready for that?
I barely registered Maze unhooking my cuffs and tossing me in my cell.
I’d grown up without a mother and father. Solana was the only parental figure in my life. She’d raised us with a nanny, sure, but she’d always treated us as her own children. I knew that she’d be there for me if I ever needed her. She bought us our first swords and taught us how to be men. I couldn’t believe she was gone. It felt like my anchor to the world had just been cut away, and now I was floating without an aim or purpose.
“My aunt is dead,” I rasped to the empty cell, the loneliness crushing me under it like a stone. And what the fae did Marissa want with my girlfriend?
I hadn’t technically asked Fallon to be my girlfriend, but I was pretty sure if I did, she would say yes, so I was giving her the title anyway.
I’d never wanted to kill someone as much as I wanted to take Marissa’s life right now. She was lost to darkness and murder,bent on revenge. And for what? The innocent citizens of The Gilded City hadn’t done anything to her. My family hadn’t done anything to her.
I slumped into the pathetic excuse for a mattress, feeling a sickening depression swallow me up. I wasn’t sure I wanted to fight anymore. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go on living in this cruel world. Marissa killed my aunt. She’d go after Ayden next and then me. And, of course, Fallon. Did I want to live in a world where all my loved ones were gone? I had prepared my entire life to die young, to be the first to go. I couldn’t conceive of a world where I had to bury Aunt Solana or even Ayden. The very thought tore my heart in two. If I had my paints and a canvas, I would draw this feeling inside me right now. I’d paint the entire thing black and edge the painting with teeth and blood. That’s what this felt like, like I’d been eaten alive, and now I was in the belly of a beast with no way out.
ELEVEN
FALLON
The queen lay semiconscious before the Grim on a bed of grass.
“You would dare let me die?” she asked him, clutching her stomach. “My people need me.”
The Grim shrugged beneath his cloak. “Death doesn’t care about royal lineage.”
“By the power I carry as a temporary Maven healer, youwill nottake her!” I screamed, and stalked in front of the queen, making myself a shield.
I peered back to see that Solana’s head craned in my direction and her eyes grew wide. I had a few regrets in life, but my biggest one right now was not asking my dad more about what it was like when Ariyon saved him. I had zero clue what I was doing.
Focusing back on the Grim, I watched as he cocked his head toward me. “Hello, Nightling.”
“I’m not a Nightling!” I snapped. “Not yet. And I asked you to keep Ariyon safe, and instead he got arrested.”
The Grim walked over to a large boulder and reached his hand inside. The boulder wavered, going translucent, and he pulled out two swords.
What the…?
“Ididkeep him safe. He’s still alive, isn’t he?” he commented.
“Ariyon?” Solana perked up at that, and hope unfurled in my chest at the mention of his name.
Why was he grabbing weapons? I peered around for anything I could use to defend myself. There was a small rock, but it would do nothing against two swords. I was suddenly reminded of Ariyon’s body being bruised and cut as he fought the Grim for my father.
No matter what happens, if I pass out, wake me.He’d said that. Why? If I died down here, would I die for good?
The Grim walked toward me and tossed one of the swords up into the air. I reached up instinctively and grabbed it.
“It is true that you currently carry the power of a Maven, so I am permitted to honor your request to return this soul back to her body.” He pointed to Solana.
“Oh, thank the Light,” Solana said weakly from behind me.
The Grim then pulled off his hood, dropping it to the floor and showcasing his entire face and bare chest. Once again, I was struck by his handsomeness. Dark-brown skin, ice-blue eyes, chest riddled with hundreds of puckered scars; his looks were spellbinding. He clenched his chiseled jaw, dipped his chin, and grinned sadistically at me. “If you can fight me for her, that is,” he added.
Panic seized me. Sword fighting was not exactly my strong suit. The one thing I had going for myself was that I was kind of a badass with the Undying Fire. Hefting heavy swords was something I had yet to master.
“But…you healed Ariyon without fighting me for it.”
He nodded. “A leniency I will never again allow another soul.”
