“Today’s lesson will be a slight bit different,” Finn announces when everyone has gathered around in a group. I stand at the side with Poppy, and I glance behind me where Ryker and Sebastian are standing, both looking at me. I turn back as Finn speaks. “I am personally testing your skills. Today you will battle against me and my shadow magic.”
“So, to be clear, you won’t use your other magic?” I ask. Finn’s gold eyes find mine, and for a moment, it’s like no one else is here at all.
“Yes, that is right, Miss Riverlite,” he replies. “Why don’t we go first and show the class?”
Bugger. I was hoping he would fight someone else first so I could study his technique and find a weakness. Ah well, there is nothing like getting your ass beaten by a demi-god. Finn walks through the group, who part out of the way, all of them looking nervous. Poppy looks near terrified as I squeeze her arm and leave her behind.
Seb steps in my way. “Good luck.”
“Thanks, Sebby,” I reply with a grin.
“Sebby?” Ryker asks and beats out a laugh. Sebastian doesn’t look impressed as I go around him and walk to Finn in the middle of the clearing. I just get to his side when an explosion goes off in the distance. The force of it blows us all over, and some of the trees crack, falling with a slam nearby. I glance up to see smoke above the trees where the castle is.
“Eira!” I hear Seb shout, and he makes a shadow portal, jumping into it. I climb to my feet, ignoring Finn calling for me, and I jump into the portal Seb made up. I crash into a pile of rubble, something sharp cutting into my arm. Climbing to my feet, I cough from the thick smoke around me, and suddenly alarms start ringing out. Ignoring the pain in my arm, I step over more fallen debris from the blast and get to a parting, taking a left. The doors are all pushed open in this corridor, and I quickly come to another one, which looks the same, but the end of the corridor is gone, nothing but broken brick and stone litter the floor. I’m taken back when one of the doors opens and two people step out, blue cloaks hiding their faces from me. They pause, and I remember I don’t have any weapons on me.
Fuck.
Calling shadows, I make sure I’m protected as we both stay very still. I lift my hand to defend myself when one of them pushes back the hood of his cloak and stares. His eyes are like mine, purple, but other than that, we are worlds apart. His hair is grey and short, and two scars like Xs are drawn onto his forehead. He is a beefy man who doesn’t look old per se, but his eyes make me think he is a lot older than he appears. The other hooded person lowers their hood, and it’s a woman with blonde hair and the same purple eyes.
“I knew a woman once, an Unseelie woman who lived in the Heartlocke clan house,” the man states, never moving. “She was a brilliant woman with red hair and a fiery soul, and to know her was to respect her, but she lied to everyone about who she was. Claiming to be nothing but a mortal.”
I don’t say anything, scared to even breathe. “One day, she told me she was pregnant and she feared for the child. She asked me to be its godparent, to protect the child if anything were to go wrong, and it did go so, so wrong.”
Explosions go off in the distance, rocking the floor we are standing on, but his story rocks me to my very core. “This woman disappeared before the child was born, and the child’s father, and his entire family, were killed by the queen. The queen of this very place we both stand in.”
I suck in a deep breath, cautious as he steps forward. “When a certain bartender told me there was an Unseelie fae in the academy test with bright purple eyes and black hair like the night, I knew in my soul it was you. I knew when I heard reports of an Unseelie healing dozens of my men. You are the child so many of us have searched for.”
“So what if I am?” I question. “I’m sure there are plenty of reaper and Unseelie children out there.”
“Yes, there are, but none with your blood. Not with what your mother must have given to you,” he tells me, a hint of desperation in his tone. “Do you have the cursed rune still?”
“What the hell is the cursed rune?” I demand. “Why do you think I have it?”
He gives me a confused look, and someone else’s voice joins our group that makes my blood go cold. “Unseelie fae are down here! Guards!”
I spin around just as Catherine punches me, and I don’t get out of the way quick enough to block the hit, and it catches the edge of my jaw. I groan in pain from the shock, and narrow my eyes. I grab her shirt, making her stumble to me.
“This is how you punch someone!” I scream at her and punch her dead bang in the middle of her face, hearing the satisfying noise of her nose breaking before she collapses.
“We must leave!” the Unseelie man shouts, but I don’t think it’s for me. “Someone grab Daesyn, we need her, or this is for nothing!”
Catherine is screaming on her knees as I look up and see dozens of reapers stepping out of the shadows, their silver scythes looking like the only light in the darkness. They run at us, passing me altogether, and I turn to see the group of Unseelie by a portal. The portal is made of shadows, meaning some reapers must be helping them. The Unseelie man who claims to know my mother is the last to step through, and his eyes meet mine.
I can tell he doesn’t want to leave me here, but there is no way I’m following him, not when he seems to want this cursed rune far more than he wants to help me. Why does everyone want this cursed rune?
The reapers all turn back to me, and I stand up straight, expecting to be given a chance to make up a reason why I was talking with the Unseelie when something hard hits me in the back of my head, and I drop like a rock into darkness.
Chapter 34
My arms are stinging as fingers dig into them, forcing my sore body to sit up onto my knees, which press into cold stone. I feel like someone has punched and kicked me at least a dozen times, and I bet it was Catherine. The bitch. I taste my own blood in my mouth as I open my eyes, recognizing the throne room steps right in front of me, reminding me of my time with Seb on them, but the room isn’t full of laughter and alcohol anymore.
The still and cold tension is so thick I can almost taste it too as I lift my head and meet the queen’s angry stare. She sits on her throne in a white dress that doesn’t make her look a tiny bit innocent, and her fake nails tap repeatedly in a rhythm on the arms of the throne. At her side is Sebastian, still as a plank of wood, and he doesn’t look at me.
That on its own tells me something is fucking wrong.
“You dare to come into my realm and pretend to be pure?” the queen sneers at me, her beautiful face turning uglier than I thought possible. “Your blood is a disgrace, and your lies have been found out. If it wasn’t for Catherine overhearing your conversation and making the smart move to knock you out, you might have gotten away with it.”
A cold feeling passes through me. “I acted alone.”
Her laugh makes me nervous. I don’t mind dying, I’ve accepted that death is a possibility a long time ago, but now I have people I care about. I don’t want Poppy or my guys to be dragged down with me, as strange as that thought is to me.
“You did no such thing,” the queen laughs and clicks her fingers. A body is dragged into the room, and I swallow down the scream when Poppy is dropped in front of me, looking dead and covered in blood and bruises. When I see her chest rise and fall, I let out the breath I was holding and anger burns through me.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!” I scream at the queen...and Seb. Seeing him standing there, doing nothing, cuts deeper than any knife could do.
“The Riverlite family have deceived me, and they will pay with a slow death for each of them,” she replies with a careless wave of her hand. “As for you two, the ones who betrayed my son and me, someone else has claimed the right to punish you.”
“Who?” I ask, my voice quiet.
“Mother, we agreed—” Seb tries to say something, and she turns her gaze on him.
“Remember your choice, Sebastian,” she coldly warns him. Seb’s eyes drift to me, and I see nothing but sorrow in them before he looks down.
“You’re a coward, prince,” I sneer, pushing down my feelings for him, and I look to the queen. “And you are a monster.”
