What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(21)

Mab tipped her head to the side, studying me curiously before her frown shifted into a scoff. “What is it they tell you about the Fae in the human realm?”

“That you’re tricksters who will stop at nothing to get what you want,” I answered, shrugging my shoulders as if it were inconsequential.

I’d already learned that I could trust nothing the Priestesses had taught us of the Fae. Some of what they’d said might have been rooted in truth, but the bias toward the Fae was undeniable and colored everything with their hatred.

“And you still believe this to be true when you are so clearly in love with your mate? I assure you, he is not immune to the ways of the Fae,” she said, making Malachi laugh. I had no doubt he wasn’t, not when he’d lied and manipulated me into falling in love with him in the first place.

“Just because I love him does not mean I do not see his wrongdoings. Caldris is far from perfect. I can, however, trust him with my life,” I said, glancing toward the guard, who never seemed far. Malachi wouldn’t leave Mab and me alone, as if our power imbalance wasn’t enough on a good day, let alone with me shackled in irons.

“I’ve no intention of killing you. If I wanted you dead, I would choose a far more brutal method than poison. Poison is the way of cowards,” she said, reaching over to the glass goblet at my side. She lifted it, taking a sip of the wine before placing it beside me again.

At least we agreed on one thing: poison was the way of those who wanted their killings to remain a secret.

Mab and I both wanted ours to be known to the world, wanted to wear our crimes like badges of honor.

“It is not poison I worry about, but what you might have done to it that could trap me within Alfheimr for the rest of my life,” I admitted, taking the goblet in hand.

I glanced down at the wine, waiting for the response I knew she would have. She raised her head into something akin to respect, and then let out a sharp bark of laughter that hinted at the evil within her.

“Faerie food can trap a human on Faerie soil for a lifetime, but I think you are forgetting one very important thing in your considerations of what may harm you,” she said, leaning forward slightly. She rested her elbow on her knee, placing her chin in her hand as the leg crossed over the other one bounced. The delicate, cruel heel of her shoe glittered in the light, looking more like a weapon than footwear. “But you, Little Mouse, are not human.”

The words struck me in the chest, rendering me unable to hide the flinch that made my wine slosh against the edges of the cup. I’d acknowledged it. I’d had to make my peace with the fact that no matter what I had become in my cycles of life, I hadn’t originally been born into this world as a human.

None of that prepared me for the stark realization, for staring down my enemy and having her point out that my entire life as I remembered it had been a lie. I was not what I’d been born to believe, and all the things I’d learned about myself over the years were now irrelevant.

That meant I didn’t know what was a weakness and what was a strength. It meant I had to fear things I didn’t understand but not the things I’d always been taught to fear.

It meant I didn’t know who I was any longer.

“Oh no, Sweetling. Had you not realized that already?” Mab asked, her tone mocking.

Clenching my jaw, I tried to fight the response bubbling up within me. I tried to combat the fury of being humiliated in a moment when I wanted to grieve for what I’d lost of myself.

“I realized I was not human weeks ago, but would you like to know what really solidified that knowledge?” I asked, lifting the goblet to my mouth. I took a sip of the wine, letting the bold flavors of it dance over my tongue as I swallowed and resisted the urge to go back for more in my thirst. “It was the moment I cut you. Listening to your people whisper about you, knowing some mortal girl could not bleed the Queen of Air and Darkness.”

She dropped a hand to the edge of the table, her nails drumming a steady beat against the surface as she ground her teeth together. Her nostrils flared, and Malachi moved toward me until she held up her other hand to stay his attack.

“You did cut me. I’ll give you that,” she said, rolling her neck. As if the tension in her body was a physical sign of having to deal with me and my disrespect. “You would be a fool to think you can do it again now that I know not to underestimate you. You played your hand far too early in this game, and now you’ve only given me more power over you.”

“I guess we’ll find out whether or not that’s true in time,” I admitted, nodding thoughtfully. It very well may be, because despite my bravado, I wouldn’t know if I was capable of defeating Mab until the moment I did it. The odds were not in my favor.

“I’ve offered you the chance to bathe, given you some of my best wine, and offered you a dinner the likes of which you’ve never seen, I suspect. Still, you sit there and openly mock me, plotting my demise. What am I to do with that?” she asked.

I set my wine down on the table, staring at the feast she’d offered me. It was, in fact, greater than any meal I’d ever known, but that wouldn’t stop me from turning it down. Not when it came with a cost to my soul. Not when I didn’t know what it was she expected as payment for such a kindness.

“You could tell me what it is you want and end the monotony of this game,” I said, pursing my lips as I studied her. “Pretending you are doing this out of the kindness of your heart is futile when I’ve heard of your cruelty from the other half of my soul. When I’ve seen it when you ordered me to be chained and whipped for displeasing you. So, what is it that you want from me, Mab?”