I’d never been all that good at keeping myself entertained in the absence of any outside help like books, television, or a working phone, so I was definitely struggling under my current circumstances. Chronic anxiety issues tended to do that for you, even when you weren’t trapped in a living tree-cell with no light and the prospect of execution hanging over your head.
Ha. ‘Hanging over your head.’ Decapitation. Sometimes I really slayed myself.
‘Slayed.’ Right. Double ha.
When I finally gave up and opened my eyes what felt like years later, the sky was dark above me. I quickly closed them again, not liking the fact that I could tell no difference in my surroundings whether my eyelids were open or shut.
It was night. Definitely time to sleep now. Are you listening, brain?
More time passed, and I was finally starting to drift when something skittered across the tops of my shoes. I shrieked and scrambled upright in the pitch blackness, leaning a shoulder against the wall to combat my disorientation as I dragged my arms back through my sleeves. Over the sound of my startled breathing, I thought I could hear tiny things rustling in the darkness around me.
But I wasn’t going to panic, just because there were mice or... or bugs or something in here with me. I wasn’t.
Albigard would have mentioned if the Fae executed people by decapitation or death by hundreds of fucking poisonous nocturnal spiders. Right? There was food in here with me. Whatever the tiny things were, they probably just wanted the bread.
Something else ran over the toe of my sneaker and I kicked out, unable to stop myself. The unseen activity continued until I was tired of standing, but no way was I going to sit down again while they were in here. I tried to distract myself by figuring out how the things could have gotten in. All I could come up with was the theory that there were tiny tunnels leading from the bottom of the shit-pit, weaving through the tree’s roots and leading to the outside world.
That theory made me even less thrilled about the idea of the creepy things touching me than I had been before, which was saying something. The hours crept by, and with unexpected suddenness, the small noises lessened before disappearing completely. When they didn’t return after a couple of minutes, I relaxed, and eventually sank back down to sit curled on the floor.
It occurred to me to wonder what had made them decide to leave all at once like that. I had just come to the conclusion that I didn’t really care about their motivation as long as they were gone, when the first raindrops splattered down from the opening at the top of the tree.
Oh. Brilliant.
The rain was chilly, and it continued to drip down inside the cell until it had grown into a steady shower. I made my way around the edges of the space—carefully avoiding the shit pit—in hopes of finding a drier area. There was no drier area, however. Rain was falling straight down the hollow trunk and no place was protected. In minutes, I was wet all the way through.
Huddling on the increasingly muddy floor, I shivered my way through the night until the shower eventually stopped. Sometime before morning, exhaustion overcame discomfort and I slid into a sort of fugue state—not quite dozing, but not really awake either.
That lasted until a portal opened without warning in the center of the cell and a glowing ball of light came through it, blinding me. The ball floated up to hover several feet above my head, throwing the damp cell into harsh relief.
When I blinked my eyes back into working order, Caspian was standing over me—staring down at my huddled form with an ugly sneer on his handsome face.
TWELVE
JUST AS ALBIGARD’S features had done upon our arrival in Dhuinne, Caspian’s features had reverted to their natural elfin appearance. His dark blond brows drew together as he scowled down at me from his towering advantage of height. Their shape might have been different than in his human guise, but the disdain they conveyed was unmistakable.
I scrambled to my feet, my cold, stiff muscles nearly sending me right back to the ground as they cramped. A grimace of pain pulled at my lips as I limped backward, putting as much space as possible between us. It wasn’t much.
This is it, I thought as a second Fae stepped out of the portal and closed it behind him. My worst nightmare had come to fruition. I was trapped with my nemesis, completely under his control.
The second Fae looked me over coldly. “It is rather a pitiful creature, is it not?” he asked casually. “I’d honestly expected something a little more impressive.”
“Bind it,” Caspian ordered, with a dismissive wave in my direction.
“She,” I hissed. “Not ‘it.’ I’m a person, just like the two of you.” I let some of my disgust at their nearness creep into my words. “Well... maybe not just like you.”
The second Fae raised a hand, and an invisible force flung me backward. I hit the damp wood of the wall, my body spread-eagled and the breath knocked out of me.
And I stuck there.
I was pinned to the tree as though someone had coated it with superglue, wheezing as I tried to get my lungs to work. Panic rose, overcoming my bravado in the space of an instant. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t seem to get a full breath, and I couldn’t get away from them.
“We will start with a physical examination,” Caspian said in a conversational tone, and my mind fled as it had done once before in Albigard’s basement.
“Stay away from me,” I grated roughly, as power exploded from my center, blasting outward in an invisible wave.
Caspian stumbled back a step, a violent mix of
