“What was that doorway?” I asked.
Erin licked her lips and panted. “They planted a sigil on my right hoof and said it would open into the Summer Court. All I needed to activate it was a drop of your blood.”
“Do you know about this?” I asked Drayce.
He shook his head. “Your secretary might be able to explain how Queen Pressyne moved around the four courts.”
I turned back to the doe. “What are they planning?”
She dipped her head. “I try to stay away from the Fear Dorcha, Your Majesty. He doesn’t bother me so much when I’m with his dogs, so I spend my time in the kennels.”
Erin continued her story, telling me how she had first met the Fear Dorcha. She had been away from the Summer Court to see a healer about her pregnancy and returned to find the forests still, the guards’ bodies picked over by crows, and her mate and the Summer Court asleep.
“The Fear Dorcha startled me in the hallway.” Tears ran freely down her fur. “He trapped me in his shadows, and I turned into a doe.”
I glanced over my shoulder to the empty spot where the ooze lay. “That was a shadow?”
“It’s a corrupted form of death magic,” said Drayce.
“Please, let me go,” she said. “I promise not to come after you again.”
Frustration simmered in my gut. There was a time for compassion—I understood the gut-wrenching pain of losing a loved one, but I felt in my bones that Erin would help the Fear Dorcha again if given another chance.
“Do you know what they would have done if that thing had captured me?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I just want to go home.”
“And what about the Summer Court?” I asked, feeling like I was repeating myself. “What about the faeries in the other Courts of the Living suffering under curses? Queen Melusina would either use my blood to free the Fomorians or wear my body like a gown.”
Erin didn’t reply but something in her steady gaze told me that she had given up on ever seeing her mate again and had come to see the Fear Dorcha as her master.
Drayce squeezed my shoulder. “I’ll tether her to my shadows so she won’t escape again.”
“Your Majesty?” she asked.
“Don’t.” The words ached as I said them because I wasn’t sure how far I would have gone to rescue Drayce. “I won’t release you.”
I opened a window to the other chamber, where the Fear Dorcha’s shadow covered the walls, presumably looking for a way out. It looked like the frozen piece had also melted and rejoined the rest of the disgusting mass. Willing the chamber to close in around the shadow to form an airtight enclosure, I threaded my fingers through Drayce’s and created an opening into the mess hall.
Afterward, I thanked the soldiers for their help, who bowed and returned to their colleagues, and followed them out with Drayce toward the exit.
“If you’re keeping me here, then I expect you’ll carry out your threat to cook me.” The doe’s voice shook.
Pausing at the doorway, my skin bristled at her assumption. I shot her a parting glower. “You’re staying because I don’t trust you.”
Erin threw her head back and wailed. “Please, Your Majesty!”
I opened a ventilation hole and let the moonlight stream into what would be her new prison. Drayce and I walked through the dining hall, past the glass windows that now depicted me with flowing red hair, holding hands with a faceless male.
“Have you seen that?” I asked Drayce.
He glanced from the window and down to the ring I had placed on his finger. “The palace hasn’t fully recognized me as your mate.”
We continued across the mess hall in silence. I opened a doorway into the queen’s writing room, where Destry waited at a candle-lit table with two dishes covered in metal domes.
She dipped into a curtsey, her transparent wings fluttering.
“Thank you,” I said with a smile. “I’m going to have a bath before eating.”
Destry rose and headed toward the bathroom, but Drayce raised a hand. “I’ll run Queen Neara’s bath.”
The silent faerie inclined her head and disappeared behind a doorway.
I turned to Drayce with a smile on my lips. “You know your way around a queen’s bathroom?”
He grinned. “I used to run my own baths.”’
I raised my brows and smirked. “Fine words coming from a male who had seven-year bargains with servants.”
He reached behind my back, unbuckled my sword belt, and placed it, swords and all, on a nearby table. “They were mostly around for pleasant company.”
All my amusement drained away, leaving my heart aching with sympathy. In the time I spent with Drayce while Queen Melusina had ruled the faeries, I had been shocked that the soldiers didn’t give him the respect due for his rank and power. When Father escaped with me, it must have left Drayce desperately lonely.
I pressed my palms on Drayce’s broad chest. “I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t all gloom.” He ran his fingers down the sides of my bodice, frowned, and moved his hands around the back. “She allowed me tutors and a limited amount of freedom to explore the Free Folk territory. With all that time in the palace, I also got to know a lot of the lower faeries who worked in the Royal Court.”
Picturing the little inn with the white berries growing on its roof, I rested my head on his shoulder and inhaled his leathery scent. “Did you spend all your time in that tavern?”
“Many of the servants who fled the palace after Queen Pressyne died congregated there.” He unhooked the tiny clasps at the back of my bodice and stroked my spine with his fingertips.
Pleasure rippled across my skin, erasing the question on my lips. “Drayce?”
“Part of running the queen’s bath is getting her ready.”
My gaze darted to the door. “But Destry—”
“Has retired for the night.” His hands wandered down to the fastenings of my leather skirt. With a few deft movements, he unhooked the garment, letting it fall to the floor with
