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Chapter Twenty-Five

ARABELLA

A rabella’s palms slapped cool stone as she rolled to a stop.

Glancing up, she was surprised to find herself in a dungeon cell. There were three walls of stone, while the fourth wall was a gate of iron bars. There were no windows, but there were a few lanterns with magic-infused light in the hallway beyond the cell.

Jessamine groaned where she’d landed beside Arabella.

Then Hadeon appeared through the gateway at the center of the dungeon cell, his face the manifestation of fury itself. Not bothering to look at them, he spun back toward the slash in the air and raised his arm toward it.

A sudden realization struck her.

“No!” she shouted.

But it was too late.

He never intended to let the shadow fae leave the Abyss. Not when he planned to close the gateway from the outside.

Even as she lashed out with her shadows, enveloping him in vines of night—letting the thorns sink into his arms, body, and wings—it was too late.

The slash in the air disappeared a moment before her shadows threw him to the ground, encircling him so he could no longer raise his arms. She let them enfold his legs, strangling him like a snake with its prey.

“Release me,” he said, a deep weariness filling his tone, his eyes fixed on the back wall.

“Be careful, Prince,” she hissed as she rose. Daring him to try. “You no longer have a bargain to leverage over me.”

His eyes locked with hers, and he nodded to where Jessamine lay unconscious as he said, “You forget we aren’t alone, Enchantress. There are still those you want to protect.”

Anger and fear swelled in her chest in tandem. “Controlling me by threatening those I love makes you no better than Magnus.”

Hadeon’s power bloomed, pressing against her shadows. For a moment, she almost lost her grip on them. But she held firm, keeping the prince pinned on the floor. Her abilities surpassed his in sheer power, but she had a long way to go to learn to control her new magic.

“I’m nothing like him.”

She laughed humorlessly before releasing him with a flick of her wrist.

What was the point? The gateway was sealed shut.

There was nothing she could do for the shadow fae and no way to open it again.

He’d killed them without ending their lives, himself.

Her shadows retreated into the ground. “All fae are the same—selfish liars. If only there was a way to force you to tell the truth for once in your life.”

For the first time, she wondered whether this meant the Everdark and other greater demons were also trapped in the Abyss.

Blood plopped onto the floor from where her dark thorns had sunk into Hadeon’s skin and wings. But he didn’t flinch or make any indication that he felt anything as he stood.

“I’m not your enemy, Enchantress,” he said as he moved to her side, towering over her.

“But now, you’re mine,” came a voice from behind her.

Arabella blinked, her mind not fully registering the words as the prince went from looming above her to falling to the ground.

She watched in stunned surprise as Jessamine swept a foot beneath him before landing an elbow on his chest. His wings splayed as he crashed backward onto the stone.

He reached for where his sword had fallen beside him, but Jessamine was already there, her arm coming down on his.

The blade skittered out of reach. He lashed out, trying to strike Jessamine, but she was a moment ahead of each of his strikes, blocking one and then the next.

“You shouldn’t touch me,” he hissed as Jessamine straddled him. “You won’t like what happens next.”

Rage filled Jessamine’s gaze as she held a dagger to his throat. “Lucky for me, I won’t have to learn. Not when you’re going to be dead. This is what will happen to all fae who are so obscenely selfish. You locked away innocent people in an underrealm forever. Fuck you, and fuck your court.”

He tried to block her, to force her back. But again, she merely swatted his hands out of the way each time with the side of her arm, garbed in leathers.

“How did you do that?” he grunted. “It’s like you knew what I was going to do before I did.”

Jessamine’s lips pursed before she schooled her features into neutrality. “It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with, fae prick.”

As Jessamine plunged the blade toward Hadeon’s chest, a sudden power bloomed outside of their cell. It was at that moment Arabella wondered just where they were—and why the exit from the Abyss was in this place.

Starlight lashed out from the hall beyond the bars. Jessamine’s blade flew backward, coming to a stop in the hand of Genoveva, Queen of the Twilight Court.

“I wasn’t expecting visitors.” The queen studied the dagger with obvious distaste. Behind her, there were two dozen fae guards, all heavily armed. “But you can imagine my surprise when I felt the gateway open—one that hasn’t been used in an age.”

Arabella nearly groaned.

The gateway leading out of the Abyss wasn’t in just any dungeon. It was within the castle of the Twilight Court.

Of-fucking-course.

Jessamine didn’t move from where she straddled Hadeon. Instead, her hand was already reaching for another blade inside her jacket.

“I wouldn’t,” the queen said, not looking at her. “I won’t spare you a second time, human .”

“Mother,” Hadeon said as he leaned up on an elbow. “This is a mere… misunderstanding. Allow me to introduce my comrades.”

Arabella’s eyes narrowed.

Was he trying to protect them?

The queen, likely thinking the same thing, raised a brow.

“This is Enchantress Jessamine,” Hadeon said, nodding to Jessamine—who still didn’t move to get up. With a pause, he gestured to Arabella. “You’ve met Enchantress Arabella as well. But much has come to light since.”

“To think a shadow fae entered my court under my very nose.” The queen spoke as though she’d sniffed a rotten corpse, nodding to the twisting shadows at Arabella’s feet.

Genoveva’s gaze traveled up and down the length of Arabella in her leathers —filthy from days traveling through a desert.

It was quite unlike the queen’s midnight-blue gown, which had an outer sheer fabric with interwoven silver thread that looked like shooting stars.

“I was only recently made aware of my heritage,” Arabella said.

“And what heritage is that?” the queen asked.

Arabella’s eyes narrowed as she wondered whether the queen was implying she knew about Arabella’s demon heritage or if she was wondering who her shadow fae parent was. Did she suspect Arabella’s ties to the royal family?

Crossing her arms, Arabella nodded toward the locked cell door. “Perhaps you’d like to invite us to a more comfortable place to discuss such matters?”

While Arabella could step through the shadows and get out of the cell easily, she was too far away from Jessamine to be able to escape with her friend before the queen or Hadeon could attack.

It was either escape alone or risk losing Jessamine by trying to get to where she straddled Hadeon on the ground behind her.

And she wasn’t about to risk Jessamine’s life.

Genoveva turned to Hadeon as though Arabella had never spoken. “What’s at the other end of the gateway? Where did it lead?”

Hadeon frowned. “You don’t know?”

There was a gateway in the Twilight Court, and the queen didn’t know where it came from? Why not seal it herself, then? Why risk leaving it open if she didn’t know where it came from?

The queen’s power—which exceeded her son’s—bloomed in Arabella’s mind’s eye. A single strand flicked out from Genoveva’s extended hand.

The door to the cell swung open.

Behind Arabella, there was a shuffling sound, and she hoped Jessamine had dismounted from Hadeon.

She loved her friend for her fierce loyalty, but now wasn’t the time to deal with Hadeon’s betrayal.

Not if they were in the Twilight Court. They were at a severe disadvantage and could be imprisoned at any moment.

As such, it was too risky to do anything but play along for now.

It was clear the queen didn’t have eyes for Jessamine or Hadeon as they strode into the hallway. Instead, her gaze fixed on Arabella as she left the cell.

Again, her nostrils flared, one lifting higher than the other. “Why do you smell like a demon?”

“The gateway comes from the Abyss. We encountered a number of demons on our journey,” Hadeon said, moving to Arabella’s side. “You’ll have to excuse our appearance and… scents.”

Arabella bit the inside of her cheek in an attempt to keep her facial expressions from revealing more than they should.

What was Hadeon’s angle? Why try to protect her and Jessamine? He’d shown that he was no friend of theirs by forcing them through the gateway and sealing it behind them. And then threatening Jessamine.

She allowed her senses to stretch back toward the cell—where the gateway had been.

And was no more.

Somehow, the prince had found a way to close the gateway permanently.

Not for the first time, she was overcome by frustration at her lack of knowledge. She had no idea how gateways were created or destroyed. The only thing she could tell with certainty was its existence.

Turning, the queen strode down a long stone hallway illuminated on either side by a series of torches on the wall. It wasn’t unlike the dungeons beneath the Quarter in Shadowbank —cells in a place of stone, which neutralized many different types of magic.

As Genoveva walked, her dress trailed on the ground behind her.

Arabella glanced at Jessamine, who looked at her at the same moment. It was clear her friend had the same thought as her.

Just what was in store for them?

Then the queen spoke. “I expect a full explanation soon. But for now, I have another visitor.”

The gateway let out in the dungeons beneath the castle in the Twilight Court—the very same castle she’d fucked Elias at not too long ago.

Longing filled her alongside a deep ache.