Lorelei
“We’re going to have to take this slower than I intended,” Queen Liliana said as she stood, looking down her nose at me with an expression that was both haughty and annoyed.
I lifted my chin in defiance. It didn’t matter that her hair was perfectly coiffed, and she was dressed in an elegant red silk gown, while my dress was soiled and in tatters, and my hair dull and knotted from spending days in her dungeon. I was still the Spring princess, and I wouldn’t let her make me feel less than.
We were back in the room with the mirror portal, and no matter how hard I searched the ground beneath me for magic, for a single shred of life, there was none. It was just a cold, hard floor, and that filled me a little with terror.
“Where are we?” I asked, knowing she wouldn’t give me a straight answer but hoping she might accidentally reveal something.
She grinned at me, and it made my stomach churn. “Can’t feel any flowers nearby?” she asked mockingly, then rolled her eyes.“How stupid do you think I am? I know better than to do this in the middle of a garden.”
I clenched my fists, promising myself I would fight back, even though my instincts had never been to harm another.
She noticed my balled hands and barked out a laugh. “Oh, Lorelei. Try it, honey. Try to overtake me by force.”
I did. With a battle cry, I burst from where I stood, my hand raised in front of me, ready to strike. But when I got within range, Queen Liliana lashed out with her fist and punched me square in the nose.
Pain exploded between my eyes as I reeled back, a wail ripping from my throat. Something wet and warm gushed from my nostrils, dripping onto my lips as I sank to my knees in shock.
The coppery tang of blood hit my tongue, and I peered up at the Summer queen in disbelief.
She’d hit me. Hard.
“Do you think I enjoy this?” she asked, frustration etched across her face. “I assure you, I don’t.”
Reaching into her shirt, she pulled out the locket that held the heart of an Ethereum lord, letting it dangle in the air. “I’m not doing this for myself. I’m doing this for all of us. All of Faerie depends on this magic to stop the curse. Already, three of our courts have been overtaken. Would you sit by as the Spring Court is eaten alive? Every tree, every flower, every blade of grass will turn black,” she seethed. “And every fae still alive will die of starvation or illness. All because the princesses of Faerie were too stupid and too weak to do what needed to be done to protect their people and their land.”
I whimpered as tears spilled down my cheeks. I wanted totell her that Dawn had a plan—that she was alive and had sent Zane to help me—but I knew better than to divulge anything. Anything I told the queen would only be used against me. She was single-minded in her purpose, and I knew no amount of begging or reasoning would change her mind.
She cocked her head to the side, studying me as if reading my thoughts. “You think the Ethereum lord they are sending will save us all? You think my Dawn will save us?”
Gathering my strength, I rose to my feet and faced the queen, even as blood continued to drip from my nose. “She might. And then you’ll be ashamed of how you’re acting.”
She rolled her eyes. “Dawn is weak. She fell in love and left her people to die. She’s running her wheels so she doesn’t have to live with the guilt of the genocide she’s contributed to. So at the end of this, she’ll be able to say she tried.”
“You’re wrong,” I gritted out.
She stalked toward me then, brandishing the faestone dagger— my dagger.
With the dagger in her left fist, she grabbed my throat with her right hand and squeezed. It wasn’t hard enough to completely cut off my oxygen, but enough to send a clear and dangerous message.
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to restore Faerie. They will write about me in history books, and you can say you played your part,” she sneered.
A ripping sensation started behind my navel and worked its way up to my chest, sharp and agonizing. I gasped, whimpering as the dagger flared to life, glowing with a rosy-pink magic.
“You … can’t … go through the portal … until it opens,”I managed to huff between stabs of pain. “By then … it might be too late.”
The Spring Court had never sent a champion and never would. By the time the portal opened, the curse might have already overtaken my court.
“I have a plan for that, too,” she said with a chilling smile.
That sadistic look on her face was the last thing I saw before blackness claimed me.
I became aware again in my void—my dreamscape. Without thinking, I rushed to find Zane’s door first, bypassing my mother, father, and sisters because they couldn’t help me right now.
I knew in my gut that only Zane could stop this.
When I stepped into his dream, I expected to find myself in his study again. Some people had a recurring dream space, but today, he was in a crowded tavern. There was a little girl, about eleven or twelve years old, standing next to him. The men around them were leering at her. One of them reached for her, clamping his hand around her wrist, and Zane exploded with rage. He punched and kicked at them, fighting like an animal, as the little girl screamed for him.
