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All I wanted was to love her for eternity.

That meant loving all of her. The powerful parts of her that possessed magic so strong it coated my tongue. The sweet parts that were so unaccustomed to unconditional love that she looked at it suspiciously. The innocent flower that had been scorched by a hard life, and the female who rose from the ashes of it, ready to right the wrongs done to her.

Thatwas love. Not whatever Mab thought love was.

“You think that girl is enough to challenge me?” she asked, huffing out a bark of laughter. She wanted to use Estrella, no doubt; but for Mab to truly fear Estrella, it would have required her to admit that there were beings out there stronger than her.

The Primordials had disappeared, leaving the Gods in charge of this place, and Mab had positioned herself at the forefront of them all. What could possibly challenge that?

Mab’s smile broadened, her cruel sense of humor overtaking her features.

“It’s been so long since we had any fun, Caldris. You stopped being entertaining centuries ago, butthis?”she said, gesturing at my body where I lay prone. Where they’d had to inject me with iron in order to keep me from breaking down the walls of my iron cage to get to my mate. It had been centuries since I’d cared about anything long enough to provide Mab with a single emotion to use against me. “This side of you I could play with.”

Mab’s final words rattled in my head as I tried again to stand, but she’d already turned on her heel. Leaving me to my cage.

Leaving to do Gods know what with my mate.

Fuck.

9

Estrella

I sat with my knees curled into my chest, my back to the wall in the corner of the room. The stone grated against me even through the fabric of my dress. A bed waited for me to claim it as my own, but I couldn’t force myself to lie upon it, couldn’t bring myself to relax in a way that I knew would lead to falling asleep. Even after sitting propped in the corner for hours, my eyelids felt far too heavy for comfort. The vulnerability of sleep was a luxury I didn’t have in this place, not with my wrists bound by shackles and my magic crippled.

My only defense came in the ability to physically protect myself. I might have been as strong as the Fae around me now, but that didn’t mean I would be capable of overcoming an attack I didn’t see coming. My only chance came in having my eyes open and senses alert for any who meant me harm.

I’d lost track of how many hours passed, never really knowing how many minutes or hours I’d lost to the faint vestiges of sleep that claimed me as I sat there waiting. It was only a matter of time before Mab returned with a new strategy to gain my cooperation. Threats hadn’t worked. Being my friend hadn’t worked.

Offering me the freedom I’d sought for so long hadn’t worked to her advantage, either. No matter how much I might long for the freedom she promised, I wouldn’t become a tyrant to achieve it. My freedom would not come at the cost of the freedom and lives of other innocent people.

I drifted again; my eyes fluttering shut for a few moments. Caldris’s anger woke me. It pulsed down the bond like a ripple in the water. The threads between us pulled taut, forcing me to sit up straight and grab a candlestick off the bedside table. I wrapped my fingers around it, shucking the candle itself to the side and testing the weight of the silver.

I stood slowly, moving toward the door that I already knew was locked. I’d checked before retreating to my corner, hoping that the noise of the key being inserted would be enough to wake me if I stopped pacing long enough to drift between the realms of sleep and waking. My sense of my mate shifted along with him, his physical form moving through the dungeon. It seemed to strengthen as he grew nearer, and I pressed my ear to the door to listen for any sounds on the other side.

I couldn’t know for sure if he moved because he’d escaped, or if Mab had other plans for the male that she’d proven she had no qualms about hurting time and time again.

I tested the knob on the door once more, twisting it from side to side and growling in frustration when it refused to turn. Banging the base of the candlestick against the solid door, I winced at the way the silver clanged against the filigree detailing lining the stone and wooden structure.

“Quiet,Pet,” Malachi shouted from the other side, the menace in his voice forcing me back a step. “You do not want me to have to come in there to quiet you down myself without Mab around to protect you.”

“Eager to lose your head, too?” I snapped, biting the tip of my tongue to refrain from allowing the insult to the memory of his brother to go any farther.

“You’re either the bravest human I’ve ever met, or the fucking stupidest,” he called.

I could almost hear the laughter in his voice. It wasn’t the friendly sort; rather a mockery of everything light and humorous. I considered myself fortunate in that moment that he chose to be amused rather than to attack me, because I wasn’t sure I was up to another physical fight for my life.

“I’m not a human at all,” I reminded him, stepping away from the door and pacing back and forth in my room.

My mate was out there somewhere, and my only assurance of his wellbeing was the lack of pain I felt from his bond. It had faded in the hours since he awoke, as his body slowly managed to heal whatever damage had been done to him. It meant they must have removed his iron shackles at some point so that his body could function normally once more.

It was a privilege I wasn’t likely to receive unless Mab put a snake around my heart as well.

His presence grew closer yet, until the commotion outside confirmed that, for whatever reason, they were bringing him to me. I braced myself for whatever pain and agony would be sure to follow our reunion, knowing without a doubt that it was not allowed out of the kindness of Mab’s heart.

The key slid into the lock, the scraping of metal upon metal forcing my heart to accelerate. I watched the door in rapt fixation. The knob turned, forcing me to toss my candle stick to the side when the first face that appeared on the other side washis.

Caldris stared back at me, his hands at his sides as he stepped into the room slowly and took in his surroundings. Checking for traps, observing the different corners of the room before he finally allowed the full force of his gaze to fall upon mine once more.