Page 39

Chapter 38

Talwyn

T he sound of the door opening roused Talwyn from sleep, and she sat up. It took her a moment to remember where she was. In a soft bed, navy blue and gold curtains tied back on the bed. She pushed her hair back from her face, her hand shaking when her ?ngers snagged in tangles.

This was her childhood room at the Black Halls. The room Eliné had tucked her into at night. The room where she and Ashtine had played, pretending they were queens and princesses. The room where she’d dreamed of being queen. When she’d believed she would do something good.

A ?gure moved into the moonlight seeping in from the window. She didn’t need to look to know it was Tarek. He was the only one who visited her here. They’d removed the shirastone shackles, but a ring had been shoved onto her ?nger. She couldn’t get it off, no matter how hard she tried. They’d taken her Semiria ring though. She was sure she’d never see it again.

“You need to eat, Talwyn,” Tarek said into the dark of the room.

He’d stopped being formal and greeting her days ago. She was hauled from this room daily. She had been forced to watch Alaric slaughter another group of Fae that night, at sunset, just like he’d said. She’d started giving him more at that point. Anything to keep her people safe and Ashtine’s secret hidden. But Alaric knew that she knew how to get into the prison. She knew his patience wouldn’t last much longer, and when it came down to it, she was going to have to choose: let their innocent people be slaughtered to keep a secret or tell him how to get into the prison.

“I am not hungry,” she retorted, throwing back the blankets.

“You have not been hungry for three days.”

That wasn’t true. She was starving. But her power re?lled on sleep and food, just like mortal energy. She could only avoid sleep for so long, but food? She could hold off on that for days.

Her feet hit the ?oor, and she stumbled to the bathing room. The shirastone ring locked down her gifts anyway. She couldn’t feel them. She had no idea how much her power had re?lled.

She took a glass, ?lling it from the tap and swishing water in her mouth before spitting it into the basin. Then she lifted her gaze to the mirror.

Lifeless jade eyes stared back at her, hard and fractured. Her mahogany hair hung limp around her shoulders, and the hollowness of her face said she hadn’t eaten in days, just like Tarek had said. That explained the tremors in her hands and weak knees, she supposed.

She turned to the tub, twisting the knobs to start the water running. Unceremoniously, she removed her nightgown, letting it fall to the ?oor before she stepped into the tub. She knew Tarek was watching her every move from the doorway. If he was here, then she would be going to see Alaric soon. She wasn’t going to be doing that in a godsdamn nightgown.

She quickly washed, slipping under the water to rinse her hair. When she emerged, Tarek was standing there with a towel held out. She glared at him. “I do not need your help.”

“I am aware, Talwyn,” he replied, but she let him settle the towel around her shoulders anyway as she climbed back out of the bath.

“Where am I being taken today?” she asked, wringing water from her hair over the draining tub.

“Lord Tyndell will be here shortly to take us to Baylorin.”

It had been a while since she’d been there. The last few times she’d seen Alaric it had been in the throne room of these Halls. He had sat upon her aunt’s throne, now Scarlett’s throne, she supposed, and she could do nothing. The way he had looked at her told her he knew what it did to her to see him up there. It was another way to not-so-subtly show her he was in control.

She quickly dressed in her usual brown pants and white tunic, sliding on her boots and braiding back her hair. Tarek escorted her down to the entrance of the Halls, Lord Tyndell waiting for them.

The Lord looked tense, his features tight. He didn’t greet Talwyn like he usually did. He just gripped her elbow and took them all through the air straight into a council room at the Baylorin castle.

Nuri was seated at the table. There was a cut above her eye, already scabbing over, and a spot on her jaw was turning black and blue. Talwyn raised a brow in question, and Nuri smiled. “Sibling spat,” she said with a shrug.

Whatever the fuck that meant.

“He is not happy,” Mikale said soberly from where he sat across from Nuri.

“That makes two of us,” Lord Tyndell replied tightly, moving to his usual seat at Alaric’s right.

Tarek’s hand at the small of her back made her ?inch, and she quickly moved to her chair at the other end.

“Is it true?” Mikale asked. “Did she take down the magical wards?” Talwyn sat up straighter at that.

“She did,” Lord Tyndell said, his hand resting on the table before him. “But... how?” Mikale asked. “Those wards were linked to mortal kings.”

“The Avonleyans apparently had a Toreall heir hidden in their godsdamn kingdom.” Alaric’s cold voice ?lled the room as he stalked through the door, Mordecai behind him. His furious gaze landed on Lord Tyndell. “And someone insisted on keeping the Rydeon heir alive and fucked us over.”

“The requirement was three mortal kings. If Toreall had been dealt with properly, it would not have mattered that Drake lives,” Lord Tyndell retorted sharply.

In a ?ash of rage, Alaric picked up a chair and ?ung it across the room. Talwyn had never seen him so unhinged. The others around the table didn’t even ?inch though. They had apparently seen this temper before.

Alaric moved to the head of the table, slowly lowering into his chair. “What was Juliette doing there?”

Nuri shrugged. “I was as surprised as you were.”

“Bullshit,” Alaric snarled.

“How would I have possibly known she was going to show up?” Nuri asked, head propped on her hand. She held up her other palm. “It is not as if I could lie to you.” Alaric’s gaze slid to the window, where the sun was beginning to rise. “You know who else showed up there though?” Nuri asked, that manic delight creeping into her tone. “Besides the queen who has once again fucked you over, of course.”

“Careful, Nuri,” Alaric gritted out.

“A dragon,” she said with glee, ignoring Alaric’s warning.

“Cassius is not a dragon,” he replied. “He is half-Avonleyan, if that.”

“Oh no, not him.”

“She speaks truth, Alaric,” Lord Tyndell sighed. “This one appeared to be able to fully shift if he wished, although he only summoned wings and scales tonight.”

“Let me get this straight,” Alaric said in barely suppressed rage. “In the last year, she has managed to ?gure out her lineage, ?nd her twin ?ame, master her magic, take a throne, tear down the wards containing the other beings, remove the magical wards around the mortal kingdoms, ?nd her way into Avonleya, and ?nd Sargon’s line? She is systematically undoing everything Deimas and I worked to put into place over centuries, and she is doing so in months.”

“She killed Veda too,” Nuri said. “Don’t forget that. Oh! And Sybil. Although that was Callan, so maybe that doesn’t count?”

“You need to leave. Now,” Alaric snarled.

“Of course, Father ,” she said, already on her feet and disappearing from the room.

For someone who wanted to play the game, getting kicked out of this meeting didn’t seem very conducive. How would she know what was said and planned?

“Did you learn anything before you had to come to the Necropolis?” Lord Tyndell asked.

“No,” Alaric replied, body coiled tight with tension. His black eyes settled on Talwyn. “Which is why you are here, your Majesty.”

She said nothing, staring back at him, her expression blank and impassive.

“I have some questions for Princess Ashtine.”

“I can hardly go ask them of her when I am not allowed to leave the Black Halls without an escort,” Talwyn replied.

“And if I let an escort go with you, would you ask them then?” Alaric asked. He seemed to have relaxed slightly, his elbow propped on the arm of his chair, temple leaning on his ?st.

“She has been unwell.”

“All the more reason to check on her, no?” When Talwyn did not reply, he said, “The thing is, when I went to the Wind Citadel today to do just that, I was informed she has not been seen nor heard from in weeks. Her Court did not appear too concerned. They told me she sometimes disappears for extended periods of time when the winds call her.”

“This is true,” Talwyn replied.

“Yet you seem to know she is unwell, and Tarek reports the winds no longer speak to her. Now, I will not pretend to know Princess Ashtine well, if it all, but she does not strike me as the type of ruler who would simply up and leave her Court. Unless she has ?ed and followed the other Fae Royals. In which case, if you are still in communication with her, we have other issues to discuss.”

“She has not abandoned her Courts,” Talwyn said sharply. “She entrusted them to me while she has been trying to recover, but I have been unable to properly run them. Again, because I am being kept in the Black Halls.”

“You look unwell yourself,” Mikale muttered.

“Likely because my power is being used to feed another,” she sneered.

“Or because you refuse to eat,” Tarek cut in.

Alaric’s brows rose. “Clever move. Trying to keep your power from refueling. That’s the beauty of the Fae though. Their power replenishes within days. You may have delayed it a bit, but they are already half-full, my dear.”

“Why don’t you ask me the questions you have for her? Perhaps I can answer them,” Talwyn said, forcing herself not to react.

“I have already asked them of you. You either do not know or refuse to share your knowledge,” Alaric replied. “But since you seem to know Princess Ashtine is simply—how did you put it?—trying to recover, you clearly know where she is. If you did not, I would think you would be more concerned about her whereabouts.”

Alaric was standing then, slowly striding around the table towards her. “We have ways of ?nding those who are missing. The most accurate involves the person closest to her.”

“That is not me,” Talwyn said.

“I know,” Alaric drawled. “He is across the sea with the other Fae Royalty you allowed to leave. But that leaves me in a conundrum then, does it not?”

“I suppose it does.”

“But one you can help with.”

Alaric had stopped beside her chair, standing between her and Tarek. He reached out, his ?nger gliding over the shirastone ring on her ?nger. “I bet you have tried to take this off, haven’t you?”

She didn’t bother answering. Obviously she had tried. Spent hours trying.

“It is spelled,” he said, hands bracing on the edge of the table as he leaned in closer to her. “By the being in the prison I want freed, which brings us back to Princess Ashtine.”

“What does Ashtine have to do with the Sorceress being freed?” Talwyn asked from between gritted teeth.

“There is a vast library beneath that Citadel of hers. One only she can enter. I am certain there is something in there that would help me enter that prison.” He straightened then, pushing off the table and stepping back. “The thing about that ring, though, is that it nulli?es all of one’s magic, including your ability to shield.”

“I am aware,” Talwyn replied stif?y, her ?ngers curling around the arms of her chair.

Alaric turned and began striding back to his chair. “Do you recall how I told you there are a vast array of powers in my home world?”

“I am well-acquainted with one of them,” she retorted.

A small, amused smile tugged at his lips as he lowered back into his seat. “Some can read minds, sift through memories. It is called telepathis. Would you like to guess what power Mordecai acquired?”

Talwyn felt herself pale.

Victory danced in Alaric’s dark eyes. “It is what makes him an excellent leader. As an opponent’s power begins to weaken, so do their mental shields. All he needs is some of their blood, which is easy enough to obtain in a battle. When he can read their mind and know their next move? Well, the battle is over quite quickly after that.”

Talwyn twisted, realizing Mordecai never took a seat at the table, but she was too late. The seraph was already behind her, a knife slicing across her forearm. She yanked her arm away, but her blood glistened on the blade. He swiped his ?nger across it, drawing a symbol of some sort on his forearm.

She felt him. Some sort of extra noise in her mind, clawing through various bits and pieces of her thoughts. She could do nothing. She had thought Alaric was referencing a physical shield, but he’d meant mental ones because she could not keep him out. And having him in there was an excruciating torture because he could see everything she was and wasn’t. All her fears and failures. All her secrets.

All Ashtine’s secrets.

Mordecai’s head tilted, his brown eyes watching her carefully, and Talwyn knew he had found what he was looking for.

“Well?” Alaric asked impatiently from the other end of the table.

“She is in the Southern Islands, hidden in the cliffs.”

“We ?gured as much,” Mikale said in annoyance.

“She is with child,” Mordecai said, and the Maraans all fell still around the table. “Twins.”

Alaric sat back in his seat, and Talwyn had never seen him look shocked, but that was what was on his face. His jaw was slightly slack as he stared at her. “Looks like we do not need that work-around after all, do we, your Majesty?”

“She will not help you,” Talwyn said, unable to keep the panic from creeping into her voice. “Even if you manage to ?nd her and get past Abrax, she will not aid you.”

“Oh, you will ?nd minds can be easily changed when children are involved,” Alaric said, a cruel smile twisting on his lips. “As for you, your Majesty, we are clearly no longer allies, which makes you a traitor. It also means I no longer need to pretend you are here for any other reason than to feed my power.” He stood, the others standing with him this time. “Tarek, escort her to the cells. We will deal with her when we return.”

Tarek gripped her elbow, leading her from the room, down stairs and halls. He led her into a cell, and when the door clanged shut behind her, he said, “This is not what I wanted in the end, Talwyn.”

“You made your choices; I made mine,” she replied, not turning to look at him.

There was silence for a long moment until she heard the echo of his boots when he ?nally left.

She thought of begging the gods for death, but they’d stopped listening to her long ago.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

“Stop that,” Talwyn snapped from where she sat on a cold stone ?oor. Her knees were bent, arms resting atop them, head tipped back against the wall behind her. It was rocky and uneven and dug into her back.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

“For the love of the gods!”

Nuri laughed, and Talwyn opened her eyes to watch Death’s Shadow on the other side of the bars of her cell. She held a dagger in her hand that she had been dragging back and forth across the bars causing the incessant clinking sound. She’d been doing it for at least two hours, and Talwyn was going mad.

“I was told to watch you,” Nuri said, twirling the dagger in her hand.

“Clearly. Were you told to annoy the ever-loving shit out of me too?”

Nuri made a show of considering this before answering. “No, just watch you. But that is rather vague, wouldn’t you say?”

Talwyn blinked back at her because she was certi?ably insane.

“This is why I got myself kicked out of that meeting you know,” she continued. “Alaric’s order came second-hand. Alaric would have been much more speci?c, but all he told Tarek was ‘ Tell Nuri to watch her.’ Careless really. He only gets that way when it comes to Scarlett.” She tapped the dagger against her chin. “His beloved protégé ruining everything.”

Clink. Clink. Clink. Clink. Clink. Clink.

“It’s so open-ended when you think about it. What am I supposed to watch you do exactly? Eat? Drink? Piss?”

She could do all three. It wasn’t as if Talwyn had privacy in a godsdamn cell.

Nuri suddenly grabbed the bars, pressing her face to them. “Or... I could watch you walk out of this cell.”

“You cannot let me out,” Talwyn said dryly. “I am not that stupid.”

“The stupidity part is debatable at this point, but you are correct. I cannot let you out.” She moved back again.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

“But I could watch that ring slide off your ?nger. I bet your magic could free you from these bars.”

Clink. Clink. Clink.

“You cannot take this ring off.”

Nuri grinned at her. “You really need to reevaluate that whole not-stupid thing. We have already established you know nothing. The question is, are you ?nally ready to play the godsdamn game?” She was gripping the bars again, and Talwyn could swear she was going to start climbing them. “I won’t take that ring off unless you are going to play.”

“I will never make it to Ashtine before they do,” Talwyn said. “My magic reserves are not full enough to Travel to the South Islands.”

Nuri rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway. But a Water Prince might.”

“You want me to contact Briar?” Talwyn asked, getting to her feet. “He would de?nitely play the game.”

Clink. Clink. Clink.

“How can you take the ring off?”

“Anyone can take the ring off,” Nuri said with a ?ippant ?ick of her wrist. “Only the wearer cannot remove it.”

“That is... oddly simple.”

“Some of the best magic is just that. Simple.”

Clink. Clink. Clink.

“There is one problem though.” Of course there was.

“What is that?”

“Once Alaric learns of your escape, I will be ordered to hunt you down and probably kill you.”

Talwyn snorted. “I would welcome death at this point.”

Nuri threw the dagger at the bars. It clanged loudly before falling to the stone ?oor. The ringing sound echoed in the dungeon halls. Talwyn lurched back. The Night Child was back to gripping the bars, face pressing to them once more.

“That is not playing the game, foolish queen,” she snarled, her fangs snapping out. “If you are dead, you are more worthless than you already are.” She shoved off the bars in disgust. “I’m not letting you out if you don’t even want to play. You are more useful in there if you wish for death.”

“You said yourself Scarlett is going to kill me.”

“And she is,” Nuri said in exasperation. Talwyn did not understand how she was the one not making sense here. “But by the gods, don’t you want to at least try to ?x your shit before she does? I know you are a sel?sh bitch, but leaving your mess for everyone else to clean up takes it up a few notches, don’t you think?”

She bent down, retrieving the dagger she’d thrown.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

Talwyn curled her ?ngers at her sides. Ashtine had said the same thing, albeit in a much nicer way. Ashtine had spoken about the legacy she would leave, about what future she would leave for the generations to come. So did Nuri. Ashtine didn’t ?lter herself, but was unintentionally infuriating with the way she spoke. Nuri was a blunt bitch and clearly didn’t give two shits.

Talwyn had actually come to appreciate that about her. She always knew where she stood with the Contessa, even if she made it obvious she stood beneath her boots.

“Do you have a solution to this problem then?” Talwyn asked, inching closer to the bars once more.

“I do. Two of them, in fact.”

“Are you going to share them or make me guess? We have all the time in the world after all,” she drawled.

Nuri’s lips tipped up, and Talwyn could swear a ?icker of approval ?itted through her eyes. “That temper thing you do has much less of a bite when you’re on your leash.”

“I am looking forward to being rid of it.”

“You will need to hide somewhere,” Nuri said, resuming dragging that fucking dagger along the bars.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

“Obviously don’t tell me where.”

“Obviously,” Talwyn deadpanned.

Nuri smirked. “I’ve questioned your intelligence more than once, foolish queen.”

Talwyn bristled, but kept her snide remark to herself. Death’s Shadow may be utterly insane, but she was the one on the other side of the bars. She undeniably knew how to work within the con?nes of her position, and Talwyn... did not.

Because she’d never had to navigate such a low position. Nuri had been right about that too. She’d been handed power and position and fear. It’d been given to her freely. She’d never once questioned that others would bow to her. She was born a Fae Princess and became a Fae Queen.

“I saw your plant prince again,” she said suddenly, dancing backwards and tapping the tip of the dagger on her chin again. “He somehow ?ts in with her Court quite well. Which really makes me question... Can I still call you a queen?”

Talwyn had gone still again at the mention of Azrael. She didn’t let herself think about him very often. Certainly not when she’d been letting Tarek have her body, but he hadn’t attempted that since she had made it clear she knew what she was to him. A means to an end. A way back to a throne he thought was his.

She couldn’t exactly blame Azrael for working with Scarlett and her Courts. He had ?ed with them after all. He had to cooperate, aid them, but he said he would do as much. He had walked away from her as a queen, but had made it clear he was not walking away from her .

And that was what she didn’t let herself think about. How if she would have asked, he would have helped her ?nd a way out of all this shit.

How if she would have let him, he would have not saved her— no, he would never rescue her— but he would have stood by her. But she couldn’t see past the heritage he’d kept hidden. She couldn’t see past her need for revenge to see it for what it was: a need to prove herself and show she was good enough, that she didn’t need those who had abandoned her.

Azrael had never needed her to prove anything to him. That was what she avoided thinking about the most.

She was her own worst enemy.

If only she’d realized that before, so many things could be different.

But they could be different now. If Nuri was truly going to let her out of here, she could do exactly what the Night Child suggested. Change what she could in the time she had left. She couldn’t bring Sorin back. Scarlett would still kill her for that. But she could get word to Briar. She could start there. It wasn’t only about Ashtine anymore. If Alaric got to her and released the Sorceress, the tides would shift in this war, undoing all the progress Scarlett had made.

“What do I need to do?” Talwyn asked, stepping right up to the bars, her ?ngers wrapping around the cool steel.

Nuri’s smile grew wider, almost in approval at whatever she saw on Talwyn’s face. “You let me drink.”

Before Talwyn could process those words, Nuri’s gloved ?ngers were wrapped around her wrist, wrenching her arm through the bars. Her fangs sank deep into Talwyn’s arm, and Talwyn cursed under her breath.

But insane or not, Nuri was godsdamn brilliant. With Talwyn’s blood in her system, she wouldn’t be able to harm her, even if Alaric ordered Death’s Shadow to kill her.

Nuri drank far more than was necessary, and Talwyn’s other hand tightened around the bar as she held perfectly still for her. When she ?nally stepped back, dragging her arm across her mouth, she sighed. “Gods, I haven’t drunk straight from a Fae since the Fire Prick.”

Talwyn recoiled at the mention of Sorin.

Nuri just smirked at her and held out her hand. When Talwyn lifted her own to her, it trembled slightly, but Nuri gripped the shirastone ring between thumb and fore?nger and slid it off her hand.

Talwyn audibly sighed in relief at feeling her magic ?are to life in her veins. A part of her had worried that it hadn’t been true, that Scarlett hadn’t managed to remove the magical wards, but here she was, wind and earth at her ?ngertips and no Semiria ring on her hand.

“Move,” she said darkly to Nuri, and Death’s Shadow slowly backed away.

Winds coiled and swirled in her palm, and when the force behind them was stronger than a tempest, she blasted the steel door to her cell clear across the dungeon.

Nuri tsked. “So dramatic.”

Talwyn stepped from the cell, jade eyes meeting honey-colored ones. She didn’t know what they were now. They weren’t friends, but they weren’t enemies. They were something in between.

“Until we meet again, foolish queen,” Nuri said, taking a step backward.

Talwyn nodded, preparing to Travel, but she paused for the briefest of moments. “Thank you.”

Nuri disappeared at the same moment Talwyn stepped into the air. She emerged in the Water Court at Anahita’s Springs. If the Wind Court’s sacred place was the top of the Shira Cliffs, then this was the Water Court’s. The water was said to be blessed by Anahita herself, and it was where the Water Fae imbued weapons with magic. Not only water magic. Any weapon could be imbued here. The element of the Fae dipping the weapon into the waters determined what magic would imbue the weapon.

It was also connected to Briar and Sawyer, two Water Gazers. She just needed to catch them near some water. But ?rst she needed to eat. Because now that she was free, she needed her magic back at full strength. The sound of rustling foliage had her spinning, a wooden stake forming in her hand, but what stepped from the trees surrounding the springs made her drop it to the ground.

It was a spirit animal. Not hers.

But his.

Rinji stopped several feet away from her, observing her.

We are not done, you and I, and I will come for you as soon as you let me do so.

Some of his last words clanged through her thoughts, and she felt two tears slip free. The ?rst she had cried in... She didn’t know the last time she’d cried. But when Rinji closed the distance between them, she tentatively reached towards him. The red stag huffed softly. Warm breath caressed her palm. She slid her hand down his broad neck, ?ngers sinking into his coarse fur.

They stood there like that for several minutes until Talwyn whispered, “We have work to do, Prince.”