Swallowing, I stood and backed up. “Apologies. Just checking this out. I’ve never seen a unicorn.”
“Yes, well, move along.”
Aella tried to look at my hands, but I held them at my sides, palms turned inward to hide the blood. Shaking her head, she threw the liquid from the bowl onto the unicorn blood, and a hissing erupted from the red glow. A cloud of thick fog hovered. Aella then handed the bowl back to her trainer before whispering a few words over the cloud, hands outstretched and sparkling a bright grassy hue. The cloud twisted into a column of white then shot into the earth.
Aella didn’t seem concerned with me anymore, so I hurried to where Hekla and Lucus stood at the side of the clearing, the crowd passing in air and on foot.
The blood on my palms began to pulse like I held two hearts in my hands. I stopped, staring at my blood-blackened skin. The red glow intensified, then went dark like a candle blown out. I touched my palm with a finger, shocked.
The unicorn blood was gone.
Rushing to join my crew, I grabbed Hekla, and we hugged hard. “You are such a badass,” I whispered.
“I’m trying to be!” She kind of laugh-sobbed, and I rubbed her back before we began walking on with Lucus.
“Why were you staring at the dying unicorn?” Hekla whispered.
I checked for any fae that might be listening, but they were talking so loudly themselves that they didn’t seem to care one bit what we were up to.
Lucus inclined his head to listen as we slowed, hanging at the back of the moving crowd.
I told Hekla everything, but when I got to the part about putting my hands in the blood, she frowned.
“You did? I didn’t notice you doing that.”
“I didn’t either, now that you mention it,” Lucus said, a puzzled look on his handsome face.
I shrugged. “It’s a wild day when someone dipping their hands in the blood of dark unicorns isn’t the most interesting sight. Now, Lucus, are you feeling all right for this duel with the queen?”
“Please tell me you’re going to shame Arleigh for even bringing this whole duel thing up,” Hekla said to Lucus.
His eyebrows lifted, and he nearly smiled. “I wish I could, but I don’t know what she has planned for this competition of ours.”
“At least she’s going to unbind you.” Anxiety filled my stomach with fiery nails. I focused on my pulsing hands instead. I had power here, and I needed to figure out how to use it to help Lucus survive this.
“True,” he said. “I wonder how long she’ll allow me such a freedom.”
“Until she starts losing?” Hekla said, rolling her eyes.
We were getting a bit reckless, talking like this among her court. Fatigue did that to a person. I was just too damn tired to be careful.
“Seriously though,” I said. “What happens if you gain the upper hand? What is a fae duel exactly? When does someone win? Please say it’s not a to the death thing.”
“Seelie fae don’t play to the death. We play until either the challenged or the challenger is well blooded or disabled. The loser must serve the victor for one cycle of the moon.”
I wanted to say a million things about Lucus and Arleigh and the ramifications if he lost. Lucus and Hekla probably did too, but we walked in silence, the coming event pressing in on us like storm clouds.
Chapter 21
We walked out of the thick expanse of oaks and into a clearing where a hill mounded right in the center. The rich pink and purple hues of twilight poured over the rise, and around the mound’s base, shadows gathered like black puddles.
The Binder and Nora approached us, Nora’s gaze darting between the faces of the fae. The Binder leaned close to my ear.
“Why did you gather the unicorn’s blood? Did you know when you did that, you had a glamour on you? I’ve never seen a glamour on a mage. I could see through it, and Nora too. But I’m positive the fae couldn’t truly see what you were doing. A copy of you stood over the blood while the real you set your hands in it. If the fae had noticed the glamour, they would’ve questioned you. Did you cast a glamour?”
“I had no idea it even happened. I heard what I’m pretty sure was the living unicorn telling me to put my hands in the blood. He said…” I lowered my voice to the quietest whisper. “Arleigh was his foe.”
The Binder drew back, his eyes wide. He grabbed my hand and flipped it over. “But it’s gone.”
I explained how the unicorn blood had soaked into my skin.
A fae with spiked blond hair approached us. “Lord Lucus, I am Ruis. Please come with me. It is time for you to prepare for your duel with Queen Arleigh.”
Lucus took my hand and kissed my wrist like he had the first day we’d met. His warm breath sent shivers down my arm. When he looked up at me through his fae eyelashes, the outer ends thick with miniature leaves, he whispered, “I fight for you, my lady.”
A smile tugged at my lips. He sounded like a knight from a fairytale. Oh, fairytale. I was in one. Wow. I blinked. I’d forgotten for a moment how insane this all was. “You’re going to own this duel,” I said to him.
He winked, then turned to go.
I wished he looked stronger. Hopefully, they would give him access to a strong tree and let him fuel up. How long would it be until the curse did more than simply weaken Lucus, Kaippa, and his brothers? Kaippa had to be miserable in that cell. And who knew what was going on with Aurelio and Baccio? What if they’d gone too close to the barrier and been injured? With the curse and possible injuries from the Yew Bow boundary, death might have already found them.
