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“Keep her alive. No matter the cost,” the male said. There was no trace of emotion to accompany the order, only the stark reality of the task I’d been given.

“She is my mate. Of course, I will keep her alive.” I scoffed, my eye twitching as I considered the fact that maybe, just maybe, he meant someone other than Estrella. Could he mean Fallon?

The coincidences were too large to be ignored, with Estrella having been dragged before the ferryman in her slumber. Yet I still clung to the hope that whatever destiny the Moroi had woven, Estrella would exist just outside of them. That she’d be free to live a life not entangled in the fate of the world as we knew it, finding a path to happiness regardless of the impossibility of our depressing world.

“Your own arrogance will be your downfall,” the male retorted, tipping his head to the side. “I will never understand why the Fates chose you for her.”

“I’ve bound my life to hers. I’ve done everything I can to make sure she lives, because I cannot imagine my life without her. What more can I do?” I asked. Whatever the answer was, I would do it. Whatever the sacrifice, I would give it.

“You can stop behaving as if she is the weakling and you are the savior. You see the bond of your lives as a benefit to her, but that is because you assume that your life will be longer than hers. She is no longer human. The rules of Nothrek no longer apply to Estrella Barlowe. You would do well to remember that,” he said, his jaw clenching in frustration. It was the first sign of any kind of emotion he showed, his head tipping to the side with a subtle, disgusted shake.

He turned his back on me, walking in the opposite direction as the stars at the edges of my vision went fuzzy.

“What is she?” I called, demanding the answer that would cure me of my ignorance so that I could help her.

He paused, looking over his shoulder with a creased brow. “You think you can be trusted with that information? You, who are a slave to Mab herself?” he asked, the words landing the blow he’d intended. “How could I expect you to save her when you cannot even save yourself?”

The stars faded, the walls they created shaking as the Void around me appeared to melt into nothingness. All illusion, a trick of the mind.

It wasn’t the Void at all.

I turned my stare back to the male who had greeted me, the one who had spoken the harsh words. His form melted away as he watched me over his shoulder with gleaming golden eyes. He drifted into the night sky as it crumbled until his place was empty.

Only those golden eyes remained.

7

Estrella

I sat in the chair beside the fire, trying to warm my limbs. I couldn’t stand to look at the trail of blood leading away from the table. Two of Mab’s guards had come, grabbed Ophir’s body by the feet, and dragged it out of the room. They left Malachi to carry the head of what I’d learned had been his brother, his face carrying the first traces of softness I’d ever seen.

That faded the moment our eyes clashed, the ire in his expression unparalleled.

He would be a problem if Mab couldn’t control him; the wind of the vengeance he sought for his felled brother carrying my name on it. It didn’t matter that it had been Ophir who’d attacked me or the fact that he’d done so under Mab’s command.

I was the murderer. I was the one who needed to suffer.

I swallowed, turning my gaze back to the fire. The dress they’d put me in was stained with Ophir’s blood, the metallic scent reaching up to torment my senses. I wanted nothing more than to strip off the fabric and burn it, but I didn’t know if there was anything else I could wear in its place.

Mab lingered in her seat at the table, looking all too disgruntled that our conversation had been derailed by the show of violence. As if my rape wouldn’t have made reaching an agreement impossible at any rate. The guards left us alone at a wave of Mab’s slender hand, dismissing any threat I might have posed. The temptation to test her rose within me, buteven I knew that with my magic crippled by the iron around my wrists, there was zero chance my explorations would end favorably for me.

“You’ve made your first enemy here,” she said, sipping her wine dramatically as she stood. “That was not a wise decision.”

“You’re wrong. You were my first enemy here, and we were set to this rivalry before I’d ever set foot on the soil of Alfheimr. Your actions toward my mate for the entirety of his life have guaranteed that you will never find a friend in me,” I explained, holding my head high as she took a few steps toward me. She stopped just out of reach, staring at the cut on my cheek and glancing down at my shackles.

“I do have to wonder. If I removed those shackles, would you heal your injuries as suddenly as in the throne room?” she asked, reaching out a hand. The sharp tip of her nail pressed into the cut on my cheek, separating the flesh until a fresh stream of blood trickled out. I pursed my lips, refusing to flinch back as she drew her finger away and took the tip of her nail into her mouth.

“Why don’t you take them off, and we can find out together?” I proposed, raising an eyebrow in challenge.

Her lips tipped into a smile that surrounded her finger, and she finally withdrew it. Reaching forward to cup my cheeks in each of her hands, she tipped my head up to meet her gaze as she revealed teeth at the corners of her mouth that looked as if they’d been sharpened intentionally. “You taste like power, and I will know where it comes from by the time I am finished with you.”

“I sincerely doubt either of us will like the answer very much once we have it,” I said, wrenching my head away from her grip.

Her nails scraped along the skin of my cheeks, trying to hold on as I fought to get free. They tore through the skin, gathering beneath the tips of her talons.

“It doesn’t need to be this way. You and I do not need to be enemies, Little Mouse,” she said, and the term twisted into something akin to affection in her attempt to convince me that there was anything other than a rivalry with the most powerful Fae queen of all time in my future.

But the Fates had written my story already, and nothing I could do would change what was to come.