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That hand relaxed, dropping to her side as she rolled her eyes. “And what did he do to our dear Estrella?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

I’d meant it when I told Haakon that his first mistake was thinking that he, a common Sidhe, meant anything to Mab. She only cared about those who could be useful to her, and his use was severely limited. He had no connections that assisted her—barely any magic to his name.

I got my legs underneath me more fully, my heart pounding as if it could make up for those moments when it hadn’t been able to so much as twitch.

“He spit on her,” I said, leveling her with a glare.

“Well, that is certainly distasteful,” she said, stepping farther into my room. She ran her talons over my favorite chair, claws digging into the leather of the cushion.

Distasteful.

As if she hadn’t ordered my mate to be skinned alive.

“Is this really how you want to spend your time? Hunting down any male who so much as looks at Estrella the wrong way?” Mab asked, approaching where I stood.

She ran a finger over the dark circle on the back of my hand, and shadows rose from within it as if she’d summoned them. They shrouded my hand, making it disappear into the darkness as if they themselves wanted to retreat from Mab’s attention.

Disgust rippled through me, my hatred for her hands on my skin making me shudder. “Yes. Yes, it is,” I said simply, pulling my hand away the moment her eyes met mine.

She pursed her lips, considering me and whatever punishment she might have for my insolence. For murdering a member of her court, regardless of if she cared if he lived or not.

Whatever she came up with, it would be worth the pain.

“If you’re not going to behave, perhaps you should join Davorin. He leaves at first light to meet our guests and help them navigate the plains safely,” she said, latching onto the only punishment that would deter me from doing something again soon. To send me away, even for a day or two, and leave Estrella behind.

“I’ll pass,” I muttered, holding her gaze. I’d take the torture. I’d take a public lashing.

But Mab only grinned. “I don’t remember asking.”

20

Estrella

My robe swished against the stone floor, the blue jarring against the sheer white of it as Malachi forcibly guided me through the halls. We passed countless numbers of those statues, the faces I couldn’t unsee staring back at me now that I knew what they were.

Victims of Mab’s conquest and thirst for power.

Countless eyes peered down at me, gazing at my only half-hidden skin. The sear of Malachi’s palm against the space between my neck and shoulder felt like a brand, a stain upon my soul. Caldris’s rage thrummed down the thread between us; the reaction delayed.

I’d felt him go away, felt his end of our thread of fate get farther and farther from me with the passage of time the day before. My only comfort came when I’d finally risen from a night of tossing and turning, my sense of him growing closer once again.

“I can walk on my own,” I snapped, attempting to shrug off his hold.

Nila trailed behind us, summoned to join the impromptu journey. I’d barely risen out of bed at the crack of dawn, tossing my robe over my thin, silken nightgown, when Malachi barged through the door and demanded I come immediately.

“Then hurry it up, or I will carry you. I think I’ll enjoy your ass in my face far more than you will,” he returned.

I turned to glare at him, a brutal growl rumbling through my throat.

“Such a feral little mouse,” he said, a grin lighting his face as he shoved me forward once more.

That hand would make a beautiful trophy, and I almost wished he hadn’t smelled the blood of the other male’s tongue and heart tucked under my bed days prior.

I could have had a nice collection by the time Caldris and I killed everyone on our list. I’d already decided that he needed to die, but I debated which parts of him I would keep and which parts I would feed to the cwn annwn when given the chance.

The doors he stopped me in front of were different. The light shone through the carved metal without any wood to ground it. Snakes wound themselves through them, inky tendrils of darkness blending alongside them. Malachi reached over my head and pushed them open.

We stepped into an anteroom. Light poured in through the sole window that occupied most of a wall. It glinted off the muted red and gold tones spread throughout. Malachi stepped around me and grasped the knocker for the inner door.