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“I’ve had one, thanks.” I turn my head away from him. “I’m good.”

He yanks my chain from the ring as easily as plucking fruit from a tree, hauling me upright.

“It isn’t your choice, human,” he snarls, turning his back and stomping through the door, dragging me with him.

Clearly this sort of work is beneath him as I’m pulled roughly down a stone passage of glittering dark granite, lit by flickering Faerie light. I manage to match his pace enough so the chain around my wrist isn’t slicing into my flesh.

The passage turns into a set of stairs winding down in a tight spiral. I make sure I keep close behind the Faerie as he descends, grumbling about humans being pathetic, because the last thing I want is to fall.

The stairs open out into a larger room, still granite. This one has a scent of many bodies and is some sort of guard room, with a number of other ridiculously good looking, leather clad Faerie males lounging around.

“See you got human duty, Yarain.” One of them laughs.

“Fuck you,” my guard grumbles.

“If you’re lucky, you might get to fuck her, although she doesn’t look worth a fuck,” another sneers.

“This one is already with child. She’s been fucking with the Wyrm.” Yarain pulls on my chain until my body slams into his. “She’s tainted goods.” His handsome face twists into something resembling a demon, like the queen did before him.

The Faerie are not pleasant creatures, and it makes me wonder exactly what Fenrother was battling in the Night Lands.

He shoves me back from him, and I stumble, causing the others to snort with laughter.

“Still good for a fuck though,” one of them says. “Which is all humans are good for.”

To my surprise, Yarain slams his body into the speaker who tumbles to the floor before scrambling back to his feet.

“She’s under the protection of the queen and not to be touched,” he snarls. “Not by any of you.”

“I wouldn’t touch anything which has been anywhere near that Wyrm,” one of the others grumbles.

“Good.” Yarain squares his shoulders and tugs on my chain. “Don’t forget it.”

The Faerie metal catches my flesh, and I hiss in pain. If Yarain hears me, he ignores it, and I’m dragged behind him again as he exits the room out into a large courtyard.

It reminds me of Lord Guyzance’s palace, filled with plants, set out in a formal way with a haze of magic hovering over it. The scent is artificial, the glimmering butterflies unnatural.

I’m trailed through the box hedges, gravel crunching underfoot as we approach a tall tower, the smooth darkened granite gleaming in the light. Ahead a wooden door, covered in gold, swings open, and I find myself in the queen’s palace, a long gallery entrance filled with light and opulence, lined with huge columns which terminate in a vast vaulted ceiling, all designed to show her power and wealth.

Our footsteps echo as Yarain walks quickly through the gallery which terminates in a set of outlandishly lavish crystal and gold doors which have to be twenty feet tall.

Yarian halts, pulls on his uniform, and flicks back his hair. A great set of translucent wings slowly appears from his back, and he gives them an exploratory shake.

The doors open in front of us, and without a glance at me, he strides through into the Faerie queen’s court.

FENROTHER

It is as if I’ve been hollowed out, left a mere shell of a Wyrm. I do not matter. Only Alice matters. She was the only thing which ever mattered to me. She brought a light into my life which I hadn’t seen until it was put out.

“Alice!” I roar at the ceiling of the great hall as I enter, as if it will help anything.

The name echoes, but there is no response. I change into my Wyrm form, and I rage around the hall, shredding the tapestries, snapping the furniture until there is nothing left but rags and matchsticks.

And the rage hasn’t done anything at all. I’m still filled with it, with remorse, with the loss of Alice.

I curl up in the midst of the destruction, unable to close my eyes, unable to keep them open because without her, I am nothing.

Before Alice, I didn’t know what I was. After her, I know exactly what I need to be, and I failed completely.