“No.” Tarrah stopped suddenly, twisting to face Reyna.
“No?” Reyna stared at the shadow fae, confusion rippling through her. “Then, why…but that is why your king wants me to fight for him, isn’t it?”
“My visions as of late have become like those I had before. Those with blurred faces.” Tarrah shook her head, furrowing her raven brows. “It makes it more difficult to understand what Unseelie is trying to tell me. I don’t understand what I have done for him to dim my power, but alas. In my visions, I seesomeonefighting for the king.”
Reyna’s heart thumped faster. Fear clutched her veins.
“That someone is without a doubt a princess of the Ice Court. She has long, flowing silver hair. She wears a circlet on her head with the Ice Court’s sigil carved from ice glass. She is strong and powerful, and a snow owl perches on her shoulder.” Tarrah’s eyes glittered. “It sounds like you, does it not? But I cannot see your face. And if it is not you because you refuse to fight for us, then it must be your sister, Eislyn.”
All the blood drained from Reyna’s face. At last, she had found Tarrah’s true purpose. Another threat against her sister’s life. Rage simmered in Reyna’s gut. “Eislyn does not have a familiar.”
“No, that is true. Not yet, at least.” That strange smile slithered across Tarrah’s lips again. “But perhaps when she becomes our warrior, she will acquire one then.”
Her rage boiled, poisonous and churning with hate. “If your visions are even real, you know as well as I do that you saw me and not my sister. Eislyn is a great many a thing, but she is no warrior. She wouldn’t last more than a moment on the battlefield. She’s never even held a sword.”
“Be that as it may, one of youwillfight for us. I would rather it be you.”
With a roar, Reyna launched herself at Tarrah, fists curled. She fell on top of the shadow fae easily, knocking her onto the hard-packed ground. Tarrah’s eyes went wide, but she did not scream in fear, even when Reyna’s hand closed tight around her neck.
Reyna glared down at her, chest heaving as she dug her fingernails into Tarrah’s skin. Her entire body was alive with a pulsing hatred so deep that her body trembled from the force of it. “You have made a terrible mistake. Swear you will release my sister or I will kill you before the guards can reach us. You know I am not lying. I can’t. I mean every word I say, shadow fae. I will not let you harm my sister!”
Tarrah merely stared up at Reyna, her face impassive. “I had a vision that you would do this.”
“You’re lying,” Reyna spat.
“I wish I were,” Tarrah replied, smiling faintly. “You are hurting my throat.”
“Then why didn’t you have the guards stay closer?” Reyna demanded, leaning down to hiss into her face. “If you’re so all-knowing, why did you let it happen?”
“Because you won’t kill me. You know what will happen if you do. The High King loves me. Kill me, and your sister is dead, regardless of whether or not you agree to become his Shieldmaiden.”
Reyna felt like she’d been punched. She released her hand from Tarrah’s throat and stumbled to her feet just as the guards closed in around them. One of them caught Reyna in an instant. She did nothing to fight back, heart hammering a drumbeat in her ears.
She still wasn’t convinced the Shadow Court even had her sister, but it didn’t matter. Theycouldhave her. Which meant they could kill her, too. And as long as that was a possibility, there was nothing Reyna could do but go along with whatever they demanded. If Eislyn was executed…if she was forced to fight a battle she could never win...
Reyna could not bear the thought. She would tear apart the very fabric of the world to stop it from happening.
“Dungeon time for this one, eh, Champion?” the guard asked in a dangerous growl.
“No, no,” Tarrah said, frowning at the guard. “There will be no need for that.”
“She attacked you. Our Majesty will not—”
“The High King has placed every decision about the princess with me. She will not be going into the dungeons. In fact, I daresay she has business in the throne room.”
Reyna ground her teeth together, hating Tarrah with every fiber of her being. The vengeance was welcome. For so much of her life, her entire focus had been the Air Court. Battling against them, destroying them. Somewhere along the way, her hatred had dimmed. She’d begun to see them as friends and as allies. But now her lust for blood had come alive again.
Tarrah had forced her hand. Reyna Darragh could kneel to her bloody king, but she would never see him as anything but her greatest enemy. And, one day, when they least suspected it, she would slaughter every single fae who had threatened her sister.
And she would relish in it.
5
Tarrah
Her triumph had come at a cost. It always did. Nothing in life was free, least of all victory. Tarrah Glas had convinced Reyna to swear fealty to the High King of the Shadow Court, but she had been forced to tear the ice princess’s soul apart. And she had been forced to lie.
It was the first time in her life she had lied.
