Page 49 of A Dance with the Fae (Mistress of Magic #1)

When Faye opened her eyes, she was standing behind a pillar in the great hall and the faerie ball was in full swing. She was alone.

She slumped behind the stone and wept, her tears sudden and bitter.

To have her mother back so suddenly, after all this time, and have her taken away again so cruelly was like a nightmare, a stab into a heart that had managed to order its grief so that it no longer consumed her.

She sobbed like a child, hugging her knees, wanting Moddie back.

She had so many questions for her. She whispered her mother’s name between her tears, hoping to summon her, but the cacophony of dancers continued behind her, and Moddie did not come.

Faye peered out from behind the pillar at the whirling dancers.

Around and around they went, faster and faster, while the pipers and fiddlers played their jig.

Faye was reminded of the fairy tale of the red shoes; of the mysterious dancer who would give her shoes to innocent girls but, once the shoes were on, they could never be taken off and would dance the wearer to death.

This dance was underpinned with a similar strange kind of desperation.

Faye saw more clearly now that many of the dancers were human, but emaciated, being pulled around unconscious like dolls, danced to the point of exhaustion.

She hadn’t noticed before, when she was in the dance.

Because she had been with Finn, and Finn’s glamour masked the things he didn’t want her to see.

She closed her eyes as a vision of Moddie’s face covered in vines struck her like a sword.

Was Moddie alive? Was she stuck there in the labyrinth forever, as part of Finn’s punishment for helping her daughter?

She was in spirit already, and yet the hedge had held her fast. But nothing was as it seemed in Murias.

It was a place of illusion, woven with terror and desire in equal measure.

A knot of dancers reeled dangerously close to the pillar; the faeries among them screeched with the wild joy of the dance. Faye closed her eyes and held her breath. If she was seen, she knew she would either be cast out of Murias, or punished in another way.

The dance was slowing. Faye watched Finn Beatha enter the ballroom with Rav in front of him on a leash: Rav was being made to crawl on all fours. He had been stripped naked. Faye gasped in terror as she saw livid weals across Rav’s wide, muscular back. He had been beaten.

Rav cried out with pain; his hands and knees were bloody. Finn merely snarled and shoved him forward.

Horror filled her as she watched Rav being treated like an animal at Finn’s hands.

The faerie dance slowed to stare at Rav. Faye could feel the rage reverberating from his vast, bloody muscled back; his corded neck was tensed, as if he was ready to spring up and rip Finn’s throat out at any minute.

She wanted to go to him, help him, but she knew she couldn’t.

Finn strode into the centre of the dance, pulling Rav behind him on the leash.

The music stopped; the dancers halted. There was an expectant hush.

Now that the dancers had stopped moving, some emaciated human bodies fell to the floor and no one made any move to pick them up.

Faye felt bile rise in her throat. Disgust overcame her.

‘Be blessed, faeries of the dance, for you have a new dancer!’ Finn cried, and the crowd cheered, though Faye could hear forced jollity in the throng. ‘This foolish human sought to take my property from me. Perhaps you will all deign to teach him some manners!’

There was a loud cry of approval from the crowd. Faye shivered.

‘Use him to slake your deepest desires, my sweet ones,’ Finn went on, a terrible fire in his eyes.

The ballroom was darker and more shadowed than Faye remembered, the walls of the castle more soot-blackened.

The gold and silver lamps that had glowed so merrily were dirty, the glass smokily opaque; now they cast only a dim, dull orange light.

The hammered gold bowls of candlelit water were dark; no light reflected off their surfaces.

Finn pulled Rav onto his feet and pushed him roughly into the centre of the dance. He motioned to the band to start playing.

‘Dance, dance!’ he cried out as the crowd started its mad whirling once again.

‘For you will never stop; the faerie reel is the power of the Kingdom of Murias! Were it to stop, our lights would go out. Our power would dim. So, dance! Faeries and mortals, dance and be merry. For the love of your king!’ Finn clapped and danced through the crowd.

Faye’s heart beat fast in her panic. She had to get away, and take Rav with her. But how?

The music grew louder. Faye put her hand in her pocket distractedly, feeling the leathery kelpie’s scale.

She watched as Finn made his way through the crowd, kissing faeries, picking them up, spinning them around and putting them down again with a smile.

Faye watched in disgust as the pretty young fae blushed and giggled at whatever he said, and how they watched him as he danced away from them, to the edge of the circle.

Finn’s power still drew her to him. But she gripped Moddie’s charm around her neck, and it protected her.

Then Faye’s mouth gaped open when she realised what Finn had meant, and what the fae denizens were doing to him.

Rav had been picked up by a group of troll-like fae and held aloft, like a prize. He bucked and kicked, roaring in displeasure and anger, but they were too strong and too many for him. Naked, his blood-soaked broad back flexed and his tree-trunk biceps flailed as he fought back.

The trolls took him to one of the golden pillars that stretched from the ballroom to the high, vaulted ceiling and, in a cruel reference to Faye’s dream of Grainne Morgan, they lashed him to it, both hands above his head and his ankles tied tight.

Then, they began taunting him. Stroking his skin.

Kissing him. Taking his large, thick cock in their mouths and sucking and licking it, laughing when he, despite the terror that he must have felt, started to become aroused.

Then they would repeat the process, humiliating him, though he never cowered, never looked ashamed, only fierce and angry.

Faye watched in horror as two tall, beautiful, black-haired fae women approached Rav, holding long whips.

‘ No ,’ she whispered, knowing what they were going to do, but unable to stop it.

Taking turns, they began to rain blows onto Rav’s chest, thighs and abdomen.

He bellowed in pain; Faye winced and looked away, but not before she saw another fae approach Rav.

She was coldly beautiful, in a white ballgown, with hair like ice, and black, soulless eyes.

At her touch, he groaned and became suddenly hard and erect; leaning forward to murmur something to him, the fae wrapped the tentacles that she possessed instead of legs around him – appearing from under her ballgown like the slow reveal of a nightmare – and took him into her, as her black-haired fae sisters whooped and laughed.

She had to get him away from here.

Faye waited for a swell of dancers at the edge of the circle to reach where she was hiding, and stepped into the dance just as Finn stepped out of it. The pace had quickened already; the pipers were playing at full speed, and Faye felt out of breath almost immediately.

The shapes and beings passing her were so fast at times that they were only a blur, but sometimes the crowd slowed, seeming to take a temporary breath before it swung around again.

In those moments, skeletal faces leered at her and strange faeries with cavernous bodies and upside-down heads and feet that were laced with bulbous veins, or, worse, covered in blood, pressed against her.

The dance swung her around and around, closer to where Finn stood, surveying the dancers with a critical eye.

Faye craned her neck to catch sight of Rav; she could see flashes of his black hair through the faeries who spun like dervishes, and she could hear his voice calling out for help.

Just stay there , she willed him. Don’t do anything. I’m coming to get you.

But she was being pushed closer and closer to Finn, and Faye couldn’t fight against the tide.

Don’t look this way , she silently begged. A few more moments and Finn would see her; he’d know that she had broken through the labyrinth, despite his best efforts to keep her out.

Carefully, she reached into her pocket and took out one of the rose petals.

Faye caught another glimpse of Rav and shouted his name, but the music was too loud.

Please see me , she willed him, but she feared that Rav was too far lost. She could see that a nixie was laughing, pulling at Rav’s hair; on his other side, a bare-breasted faerie with beautiful blue wings and violet hair floated in front of him, laughing when Rav pulled away as she tried to kiss him.

He was covered in blood, and his eyes were wild with fear and anger.

She could no longer see Finn at all.

Now , Faye said to herself. She thrust her hand up into the air and launched the petal as hard as she could, expecting it to float down to the floor.

And as she let the petal go, she shouted the words Moddie had, just moments before in the labyrinth, hoping for the best. ‘ Tar a thighearna…Tar a thi! ’

The rose petal floated upwards, growing in size.

The music continued and the dance spun Faye around, but the petal spread wider and wider above them until it covered the whole dance, hanging above their heads like a silk barrage balloon.

Some of the faeries stopped and looked up, but most were too lost in the dance, and the ones who had stopped were in danger of being trampled.

‘ Tar a thighearna…Tar a thi! ’ Faye shouted again, and the petal split into a million pieces, falling onto the dancers like rain.