Ghostly fingers lingered at my nape, so faint they might’ve been the wind. Just a prickle against my skin, yet it stayed there, hovering, as though weighing a choice.
Reagan exhaled through his nose before standing. The shift was abrupt, the scrape of his chair echoing through the room. When he leaned over the table, his hands pressed to the wood, the mask of indifference finally cracked.
“Let me explain how this will work,” he said, voice like ice. “You will accept the sentence you were given. You will havequarters here and remain for one year. You will not cause trouble. You will tell Finnegan where your family is so we can ensure they don’t come for you. You will obey everyone in this room. And above all, you will obey me, because you are bound to me for the next year.”
I no longer thought about my words, carried by a rush of anger and disbelief and recklessness. It didn’t escape my notice that the others watched warily but still didn’t intervene. Neither of them, as if following the chain of command.
“Let me be clear, too. I don’t accept this absurd sentence. I have no intention of staying long enough to need quarters. I’d sooner die than tell you where my family is. I don’t care what you are, but I won’tbehaveorobeyyour orders.”
His expression darkened, the veneer of control gone.
“Humans are such fools,” he muttered. “You will obey, Jane Darling. You’ve already learned you’re outmatched, so I suggest you rethink your words carefully.”
My pulse hammered, but I held my ground. “Or what?”
Deep down, I knew it wasn’t reasonable to challenge him. He was a lord in this land, a status that should have given him the power to make my life far worse than simply forbidding me to leave. Yet my nerves carried me away, and I had managed to get under his skin as well.
His fingers curled into tight fists against the table, knuckles paling. A flicker of satisfaction and fear coiled through me.
Cerridwen’s voice was alert. “Maybe we should continue this later.”
Reagan snarled. “Are you truly so foolish as to challenge someone you can’t defeat? Do you have no sense, human?”
Because he can so effortlessly end me.
The thought struck cold in my mind, halting me. Still, the whisper slipped free.
“Monster.”
The man shuddered, and the next thing I knew, a chair crashed against the wall.
Reagan moved, the space between us vanishing in an instant. He stopped inches away, his pupils blown wide, the dark swallowing the blue of his irises. An unseen current rippled across my skin.
I swallowed hard, but didn’t step back.
The candle flames flickered violently, some sputtering out entirely. Gwinifer had risen, her expression grave as she fixed eyes on Reagan.
I could feel the excess tension in the room.
“What are you going to do?” I asked, lifting my chin, though my mind swirled with fearful thoughts. They could still find my family. It wouldn’t be that difficult. The thought that they might go to such lengths...“Are you about to prove me right? Show me just how monstrous you truly are? Do it then. End me.”
Too far. I went too far. Would he really—
A gust of wind howled through the chamber, the windows bursting open all at once. The flames died, plunging the room into shadow. Glass shattered somewhere behind me.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Reagan gritted out, his entire frame rigid.
The air turned gelid, the temperature dropping so fast it made my breath mist in front of me. Outside, rain hammered against the glass, sheets of water slamming down in a sudden, furious storm.
Then I saw his hands trembling. He leaned over a chair, lowering his head with a strained expression. I heard a distinct cracking noise and backed away until I felt the wall against my back.
Finnegan cursed, and all of them sprang from their chairs.
The same noise came again, like the sickening sound of bone breaking. There was a guttural groan, and Reagan pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes, falling to his knees.
Bone broke. Elongated. Reshaped itself.
My stomach churned in complete horror.
