If they found out I was the heir to Solana’s throne, I was dead. The sound of footsteps drew my attention to the doorway where a dark-haired female had entered the room. She worethe same black military-style uniform as the men, but hers had a golden snake pendant over the bust, signifying some type of authority.
She grinned when she laid eyes on me, and bile rose in my throat at the sight of her sharp, pointed teeth. This fae was bad news. I could feel it in my bones.
“A live one?” she crooned, nostrils flaring.
Although their bodies looked solid, they flickered every so often in some kind of soul glitch. I knew from fighting the Grim that if I reached out and touched her face it would feel real, even though it wasn’t. It was one of the million things I couldn’t explain about this place.
Somehow, she could tell that my body had joined the journey down here.
“Some kinda screwup,” the snake-tatted fae said. “The Grim seemed protective over him. He must be important.”
Crap.
I stiffened, and the woman’s smile grew larger. “Well, let’s identify him so we can get him booked, shall we?”
Identify him?
She strode across the room like an animal stalking prey, and I tilted my chin up to meet her gaze. I didn’t care if I was powerless. I wouldn’t back down from an attack.
I flinched as she reached up to my face and stroked my cheek.
My head immediately pinched with a sharp pain, and then I felt her presence slithering in my mind like a serpent. I tried to reel back, but she held me by some invisible force at her mercy. Her eyes widened in shock, and then that sadistic smile was back.
“Oh my, you’ve brought me a jewel beyond value,” she crooned. It was like my mind was a file folder and she had sifted through it, looking at whatever she wanted.
Finally, she released me and gave my cheek a little slap.
“Welcome to the Realm of Rebirth, Prince Ariyon Madden of The Gilded City.” Her voice had a musical quality to it, but her words made me sick.
The two male fae gasped.
“He’s not one of us! He shouldn’t be here,” Hawk snarled.
She raised her fist, and the man stopped, freezing where he stood.
This woman looked familiar in a way. I couldn’t place her, but something about her nagged at my mind.
“He has switched powers with Fallon Bane and therefore must be treated like a Nightling, as he carries our magic. He is now governed by our legal process and will be granted Nightling rebirth if he wins the tribunal,” she declared.
I choked on my spit—she knew everything but also things I had no idea about.
Was this what happened when a member of the House of Ash and Shadow died? They were hauled off to a different place and put through a trial, then reanimated into smoke and shadow, feeding on blood and essentially living forever unless killed?
I wanted nothing to do with that. Being a Nightling was literally myworstnightmare.
“Legal process?” I wondered how long it would take Fallon to figure out how to get me out of here. She was smart but new to our world, our magic. I didn’t even know half the stuff they were talking about, so I knew Fallon would have to dig for information.
I thought of Master Hart and a few books in the library that could help her get back down here, but to pull my body back up to The Gilded City? I wasn’t sure that was possible. She broke so many rules when she dragged my mortal form down here.
The woman grinned, saliva glinting off her sharpened teeth. “Yes, Prince Madden. You are hereby entered into the RebirthTribunal. Winner gets to go back to their origin of birth. In your case, The Gilded City.”
“He doesn’t deserve that!” the snake-tatted fae growled.
The woman’s smile wasn’t dropping, and it was really starting to creep me out.
“And if I lose?” I swallowed hard, my mind going over a hundred scenarios. What was the tribunal? How would I fare in them without my magic? And worst, did I really have Fallon’s magic? Fire magic and mental telepathy? These were things I’d envied in Ayden, and now I just wanted the familiar symbols on my hands.
The woman stepped uncomfortably close to me, and the smell of rotting flesh hit my mortal nose. “Well then, my dear, you will either get to stay here and work for me…for eternity…or I will decide to toss you into the Bottomless Pit, and you will cease to exist.” She ran her pink-tinged tongue over her sharp teeth, and I shivered.
