Page 9 of Black Hearted (Cursed Fae #4)

Lorelei

“We’re going to have to take this slower than I intended,” Queen Liliana said as she stood, looking down her nose at me with an expression that was both haughty and annoyed.

I lifted my chin in defiance. It didn’t matter that her hair was perfectly coiffed, and she was dressed in an elegant red silk gown, while my dress was soiled and in tatters, and my hair dull and knotted from spending days in her dungeon.

I was still the Spring princess, and I wouldn’t let her make me feel less than.

We were back in the room with the mirror portal, and no matter how hard I searched the ground beneath me for magic, for a single shred of life, there was none. It was just a cold, hard floor, and that filled me a little with terror.

“Where are we?” I asked, knowing she wouldn’t give me a straight answer but hoping she might accidentally reveal something.

She grinned at me, and it made my stomach churn. “Can’t feel any flowers nearby?” she asked mockingly, then rolled her eyes. “How stupid do you think I am? I know better than to do this in the middle of a garden.”

I clenched my fists, promising myself I would fight back, even though my instincts had never been to harm another.

She noticed my balled hands and barked out a laugh. “Oh, Lorelei. Try it, honey. Try to overtake me by force.”

I did. With a battle cry, I burst from where I stood, my hand raised in front of me, ready to strike. But when I got within range, Queen Liliana lashed out with her fist and punched me square in the nose.

Pain exploded between my eyes as I reeled back, a wail ripping from my throat. Something wet and warm gushed from my nostrils, dripping onto my lips as I sank to my knees in shock.

The coppery tang of blood hit my tongue, and I peered up at the Summer queen in disbelief.

She’d hit me. Hard.

“Do you think I enjoy this?” she asked, frustration etched across her face. “I assure you, I don’t.”

Reaching into her shirt, she pulled out the locket that held the heart of an Ethereum lord, letting it dangle in the air.

“I’m not doing this for myself. I’m doing this for all of us.

All of Faerie depends on this magic to stop the curse.

Already, three of our courts have been overtaken.

Would you sit by as the Spring Court is eaten alive?

Every tree, every flower, every blade of grass will turn black,” she seethed.

“And every fae still alive will die of starvation or illness. All because the princesses of Faerie were too stupid and too weak to do what needed to be done to protect their people and their land.”

I whimpered as tears spilled down my cheeks.

I wanted to tell her that Dawn had a plan—that she was alive and had sent Zane to help me—but I knew better than to divulge anything.

Anything I told the queen would only be used against me.

She was single-minded in her purpose, and I knew no amount of begging or reasoning would change her mind.

She cocked her head to the side, studying me as if reading my thoughts. “You think the Ethereum lord they are sending will save us all? You think my Dawn will save us?”

Gathering my strength, I rose to my feet and faced the queen, even as blood continued to drip from my nose. “She might. And then you’ll be ashamed of how you’re acting.”

She rolled her eyes. “Dawn is weak. She fell in love and left her people to die. She’s running her wheels so she doesn’t have to live with the guilt of the genocide she’s contributed to. So at the end of this, she’ll be able to say she tried.”

“You’re wrong,” I gritted out.

She stalked toward me then, brandishing the faestone dagger— my dagger.

With the dagger in her left fist, she grabbed my throat with her right hand and squeezed. It wasn’t hard enough to completely cut off my oxygen, but enough to send a clear and dangerous message.

“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to restore Faerie. They will write about me in history books, and you can say you played your part,” she sneered.

A ripping sensation started behind my navel and worked its way up to my chest, sharp and agonizing. I gasped, whimpering as the dagger flared to life, glowing with a rosy-pink magic.

“You … can’t … go through the portal … until it opens,” I managed to huff between stabs of pain. “By then … it might be too late.”

The Spring Court had never sent a champion and never would. By the time the portal opened, the curse might have already overtaken my court.

“I have a plan for that, too,” she said with a chilling smile.

That sadistic look on her face was the last thing I saw before blackness claimed me.

I became aware again in my void—my dreamscape. Without thinking, I rushed to find Zane’s door first, bypassing my mother, father, and sisters because they couldn’t help me right now.

I knew in my gut that only Zane could stop this.

When I stepped into his dream, I expected to find myself in his study again.

Some people had a recurring dream space, but today, he was in a crowded tavern.

There was a little girl, about eleven or twelve years old, standing next to him.

The men around them were leering at her.

One of them reached for her, clamping his hand around her wrist, and Zane exploded with rage.

He punched and kicked at them, fighting like an animal, as the little girl screamed for him.

Oh no.

I realized I was in a nightmare.

This had happened before, and I hated it because it made it so much harder to reach the person.

Zane wouldn’t see reason while he was stuck in a nightmare, and I needed him to.

The only way to gain his trust in this situation was to join him.

Even though we were not enemies in real life, in a nightmare, he might attack me, and I’d get nowhere.

I ran forward, pulling the girl into my arms and twisting her out of the way just as one of the men lunged for her. I moved in front of her and kicked the man between the legs. He went down, moaning.

“Nellie!” Zane bellowed, several men now between us.

Clutching the girl tightly, I crossed the room to get to him, twisting out of the men’s grasps as I went. Zane fought to reach us, and when he did, I passed the girl off to him. He picked her up, and she clung to his neck, nuzzling her face into his chest. My heart melted.

Who was this girl?

Zane held her close, his protective instincts palpable, and stared at me wide-eyed. “You’re here again.”

I nodded. “Zane, you’re dreaming. You can stop all of this. You can think them away.” I gestured to the angry men, who were now trying to stand up and go for a second round.

Zane’s brows bunched together, and even in a dream, I couldn’t help but be struck by his handsomeness.

“Zane,” I urged him. “I need you. Please, will them to be gone.”

At my words, he closed his eyes. One by one, the angry men faded from the tavern.

The girl, Nellie, was still tucked tightly in his arms, now sound asleep.

The speed with which he’d done all of that amazed me.

Most fae would not be able to control their dreams or nightmares with such clarity, and it made me feel even more attracted to him.

So capable as well as handsome. And then I shook myself. We had other things to discuss.

When he opened his eyes and noticed the men were gone, he staggered backward in shock.

“Zane, I don’t have much time,” I told him, and his gaze snapped back to me.

“Dream drifter,” he whispered.

“Dream walker,” I corrected him.

He rubbed his forehead, clearly trying to recall our last dream.

“Yes. This is real,” I assured him. “I’m really contacting you, and I need your help.”

He nodded and walked over to one of the couches at the back of the tavern. Gently, he laid the sleeping Nellie down and covered her with his coat.

When he strode back over to me, I couldn’t help it—I had to ask.

“Who is she?”

He glanced back at the girl, his expression softening into something like adoration. “A kid I met in the Harvest Mountains. She’s had some rough luck. I’m traveling with her to the Spring Court to reunite her with her aunt—and to see you.”

Hearing that he’d found this girl in the Harvest Mountains and was helping her made my heart flutter. But I couldn’t focus on that right now.

“Listen to me. I’m not in the Spring Court. Or at least I don’t think I am. Queen Liliana has kidnapped me—”

“What?” he bellowed, and then suddenly, he was inches from me, scanning my body as if searching for injuries. “Are you hurt?” he asked.

Oh, stars. I lost all train of thought then and had to take a half-step away from him to regain my wits.

“Not right this second,” I hedged. “But the queen is draining my power. She has some sick plan to go through the Spring Court mirror portal and …” I hesitated. His brothers were the Ethereum lords, so I couldn’t say the next words lightly. “Carve out the heart of one of your brothers.”

Grim determination settled over his features. “How long do I have?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know … Every time she siphons my power, I black out—”

“Does it hurt you?”

His concern was sweet. “Not really,” I lied.

“Where are you? I’m coming to get you right now.”

I shook my head. “I’m not sure. But I’m afraid if you come to me, then she’ll kill you. That’s what she really wants. Going through the portal is just her backup plan.”

“Lorelei,” Zane growled. “There’s no way I’m just going to leave you with that monster. If she’s draining—”

I lifted my fingers to his mouth to stop him. As touched as I was by his concern, we were running out of time. At any moment, one of us could wake.

The instant my fingertips brushed his lips, Zane fell silent, and his pupils dilated. I meant to speak, but as I stared into his blue-and-brown gaze, my heart skipped a beat, and my throat suddenly went dry.

Zane slowly reached up and took my hand. I licked my lips, and his gaze dropped to my mouth, heating with emotion.

Finding my words, I forced myself to slip my hand from his.

“You need to get to the Spring Palace and rally with my mother. They think I’m just training with Queen Liliana.

They don’t even know I’ve been kidnapped.

My mother will bring in the royal guard, and once I’m free, we can destroy the curse. ”

He nodded and ran a hand through his hair, clearly agitated. “Okay. I will. I’m coming for you, Lorelei.”

The way he said it, with such confident conviction, made me believe him. I relaxed a little, freeing up my mind for other things. “So, what’s the plan?”

He cocked his head in confusion.

“You know, the big plan to destroy the curse. The reason you’re in Faerie. There’s something we’re supposed to do together, right?”

“Oh, well, that’s … we’re not really sure,” he began, looking around the room as if searching for something.

I placed my hand on his arm, forcing him to meet my gaze. “I’m sorry, what? You aren’t sure? So there’s no plan?”

The shock of it made me feel sick. I’d hung everything on the belief that there was a way to destroy this curse.

“There is a plan. I have a note for you. It’s just not here.”

A note. From Dawn? Isolde? Of course, it wasn’t here. This wasn’t real. We were in a dream.

The tavern around us started to go hazy, alerting me that Zane was waking up.

“I have to go,” I said, beginning to back out of the room. But this time, Zane ran after me.

“No, not yet,” he begged as I stepped out of the door.

Trying to follow me, he slammed against an invisible barrier, wincing in pain. Only a dream walker could cross through there.

I wanted to stay and study the lines of his concerned face, but even as I watched, the dream around him started to dissolve until Zane disappeared as well.