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I grimaced, shucking off my robe and letting it drop to the stone floor. My silken nightgown followed, pooling on top of my robe as I stepped out of the fabric. My breasts tightened in the cold, and I attempted to ignore the way Mab’s gaze dragged over my body.

I stepped into the water, slowly descending the steps until I sat upon the edge of the seat on a side perpendicular to Mab.

She raised her gaze to my face. “We have our work cut out for us,” she said, the brutal words leaving no doubt that she found me lacking. “Do have a seat, Nila. We’ll be here a while.”

Four women stepped in from the anteroom as if they’d been waiting, baskets of soaps, lotions, and all manner of devices clutched in their hands. One moved to Mab, tending to her upkeep as the others all studied me and sighed.

I snarled, feeling more animal than Fae.

They got to work anyway.

21

Caldris

Azra whinnied as we led the group in the direction of Tar Mesa. He’d been unsettled since we’d left the morning before, not liking the distance between Estrella and me any more than I did. The gathering of Fae accompanying us from the other courts was far larger than it had been in previous years, and it had horrified me to discover how many of them came solely for the reason that Mab had refused to release their mates prior to the Solstice.

They had to hope they’d be permitted to leave with them, take them back to their home courts. Not for the first time, I wondered where Mab had tucked them. I’d searched in all her typical hiding places, not finding them in any of the dungeons or holding cells that were typically used. She took no chances with her possession of them, not daring to risk the fact that I might have tried to smuggle them out and scatter them to the wind.

Davorin was on the other side of the group, leaving the royals to lead the procession of their people on horseback behind us. By some horrific misfortune, the Summer and Autumn Courts had lined up next to one another, leaving their kings to a quiet standoff for the entirety of our return journey.

Aderyn had inserted herself between them, flanking her husband, Kahlo, as if she could be enough of a barrier between him and Rheaghan. For all the centuries I’d known them, they’d been at one another’s throats. I’d never daredto ask where their hatred for one another had begun, and I suspected they didn’t even remember.

“We’ll arrive before nightfall,” I said.

Rheaghan nodded in agreement. I didn’t dislike the male, despite the role he’d played in Mab’s rise to power—his tolerance for her antics allowing her to become too powerful to stop. He’d wanted to see the best in her, remember the sister who hadn’t been pure evil.

I couldn’t fault him for that, but I did place some of the responsibility for the carnage that followed upon his head. Even still, as much as I blamed him, I knew he blamed himself far more. He’d never step out of the shadow of his inaction—or forgive himself for what his love had brought upon Alfheimr.

So we rode on, seeking out the mate who I knew waited eagerly for my return. It thrummed down our bond, a steady, comforting beat to remind me that she was alive, at the very least.

There’d been no pain in the time since I’d left—only worry and rage. Both were emotions I could handle, neither indicating that she’d been harmed in my absence.

“I heard rumor you found your mate,” Rheaghan said, the words cautious as he rode at my side.

I nodded my confirmation, turning to look at him in warning. “Your sister has developed an unhealthy obsession with her,” I said.

He swallowed and hung his head in shame. “That is unfortunate,” he said, keeping his voice soft. “Yet even still, I feel I must congratulate you on the mating. To find one’s completion is worth celebrating.” He nodded, his gaze going distant as the rolling hills of Tar Mesa came into view ahead of us.

“Your mate will come someday, Rheaghan,” I said, feeling that within my very being.

His own Fae Mark scrawled up his neck, the red twining flames upon his skin and shifting with shades of orange and yellow mixed in. I understood the impossible wait he must have endured, knowing that while mine had been miserable, his was even longer.

As one of the original gods, he’d been waiting an eternity.

“Or perhaps the primordials decided he did not deserve a mate for his crimes against all of us,” Kahlo said, his reluctant, tenuous alliance with Mab keeping him from outright hostility. The God of Beasts would not have been my first choice for an enemy.

Rheaghan didn’t so much as flinch at the harsh words. “At least I’ve had the decency not to string an innocent woman along in a sham of a marriage for the sake of politics. I do not see your mate anywhere either, Kahlo; so perhaps you’ve been shunned the same as I.”

“Enough,” I warned with a roll of my eyes.

For immortal beings, sometimes the feuds between us felt no better than the tantrums of children. We approached Tar Mesa too slowly for my liking; then the horses would require stabling and care when we finally arrived.

It would be hours yet before I could see for myself that my mate was indeed safe.

When we escaped, I’d keep her locked in the bedroom with me for weeks to make up for the agony of our separation. I’d run my mouth over every injury she’d suffered, until only the pleasure of my touch remained in her mind.

One day.