Baccio slung an arm around a fae female with a heart-shaped face. His gaze remained on his new date even as he spoke to Lucus. “I feel better than I ever have, brother. Embrace our new haven as we have, and you’ll suffer no more.”
“Sadly, I don’t think you’ll remain healthy forever. Your feeding is merely offsetting the first of the foul effects of how we have twisted our way around the curse.”
“What makes you the expert?” Aurelio said with surprising vehemence. I was pretty sure panic skulked under that attitude.
“I scented deer blood on Kaippa when he arrived at the mages’ camp. He fed and felt well for a while, but then he too experienced the effects. I wish it weren’t true, but we must leave.”
Arleigh ran a finger around the edge of her goblet. Her stone rings twinkled in the light of the gibbous moon. “I do hope you’ll reconsider your desire to return to that horrible place.”
My mouth opened to spew out things like This place is just as shitty, lady! There are trees MADE OF BLOOD. But I held it in, practically frothing with the effort, and managed to take another fake sip of my wine. I also nabbed the fae blade they’d given Lucus for his meal, then tucked it into my other boot while Arleigh’s head was turned. Lucus had his own blade, and now I had two. We were good to go.
The feast continued for what felt like hours with such entertainments as a group of fae contortionists who did very strange things with tree branches and ivy, some dancing to creepy-ass classical music played on instruments that—I shit you not—were made of beetles and bones.
Reacting to some cue I’d missed, Arleigh and Corliss stood and took a spot at the front of the dais.
Finally, a line of black-robed fae with veiled wings led in the guest of honor, Nora, the next to die.
Chapter 26
They’d decked her out hard core. She was in head to toe blood red. These unseelie were sick fuckers. The emotion we had pulled out of the closed-off, shell-shocked Nora during our brief time talking and training appeared to have left the building. The poor gal didn’t blink once, and her mouth hung half open like she was barely alive. Flanked by the dark-garbed fae, she looked like the bride of death.
As she walked the moonlit path of moss between the tables, everyone rose and bowed to her, bringing that whole bride metaphor right on home.
I was about to puke. This was seriously the most messed-up thing I’d ever witnessed.
Nora made eye contact, and I tried to convey We’re with you, girl with my gaze. I’m not sure it came across. The crowd like a veil dragging behind her, she climbed the dais steps and stood beside Arleigh and Corliss.
The beetles and bones orchestra started up, and the fae began dancing, whirling and tossing back more of that spicy wine. They were getting sloppy, letting the dark drink spill over their beautiful mouths and sloshing it as they raised toasts to Nora and the Binder. The Binder remained seated even though it looked like Arleigh was attempting to order him up there with a glaring look from her glowing red eyes. He watched the revelry and the numb Nora with a look of disgust.
The dancers were making me dizzy, and I wasn’t even drinking. I turned to find Lucus gone. He was with Aurelio, his eyes flashing with anger and his wings partially shielding their conversation. Aurelio seemed to be listening—well, at least he’d sent away the woman and the man, and he wasn’t shouting back. I wondered where they’d taken the humans, presumably back to the real world, memories altered by the lure. Lucus needed to get away, but maybe he was setting that up. Maybe he’d pretend he was super furious and then leave to get some space from his brother.
Baccio glanced over a shoulder at them, grinning in a way that made me feel very throat-punchy. If we did make it back to the castle and the curse still demanded a sacrifice at the end of the month, I knew exactly who I was shoving out the door. Lucus loved him, sure, but he would be so much better off without that toxic ass in his life, and if they were forced to choose, murdering Baccio was the lesser evil.
With all of them busy and the queen and her daughter taking Nora around to what I guessed were the higher-up fae nobles, now was the perfect time to see why Arleigh’s guards hadn’t brought Kaippa here yet.
I jerked my chin at Hekla, who was picking at a piece of pie and doing her best to ignore a fae with a braided mohawk. Was he ignoring the whole fae manners thing and luring her?
“Hekla!”
She didn’t budge. Crap.
“Hey, handsome!” I shouted. About nine heads turned, and I rolled my eyes, rushing over. I jerked mohawk guy away. “Leave her alone. Queen Arleigh promised you would not lure my human servant, asshole.”
He smiled and slithered away, disappearing into the crowd like the eel he was. I shook Hekla, who whirled and stood so quickly she nearly headbutted me in the chin. She hugged me, practically cracking a rib.
“Thank you, Coren. I didn’t know how long I could hold off. I wanted to take him right here on the ground.”
“I know the feeling. Now, let’s get out of here before the party gets quiet.” I tugged her through the manic dancers toward the dressing area, hoping any guards watching might just think we were going to freshen up. Hopefully, Lucus would untangle himself pronto and join us on the circuitous route toward the drop cells.
“This
