What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(25)

His figure hovered on the edge of my vision, waiting for me to take him to the ferryman so that he could pass into the afterlife. I wouldn’t be there to help him, wouldn’t place coins on his eyes even if I could. His spectral form carried his head in his hands, his face confused as it stared down at me from where he clutched it tightly.

What a shitty way to wander the world for eternity. He deserved nothing less.

I smiled when I felt her victory consume her, my lips tipping up in a sleepy grin with the satisfied beast that rose up within her.

My delirium rose as the place between life and death called my name, summoning me to the other side. “Ophir is dead. Long live the Queen,” I mumbled, fading into the delirium of sleep

***

My head throbbed, a tandem beat echoing in my ears. As if living underwater, I existed between the planes of all I’d known.

I’d been to the edges of this place so many times that I recognized the feel of it, the emptiness that surrounded me calling to the part of me that had too long existed outside of the realm that waited to welcome me home.

Snow drifted through the air, the white of it stark against the night sky. A murky river lingered below me, the water supporting my weight as I pushed myself up onto my knees. My body felt fresh, like none of the hazards of my life nor the injuries I’d sustained could touch me here in this place of peace.

I lifted a hand to look at it. The fresh, unmottled skin stared back at me. My Fae Mark glimmered in the dim light of the stars shining above, the only thing to surround me as I pushed to my feet and stared around.

Had the guards injected me with too much iron? Was that why I couldn’t feel Estrella through our bond?

I touched a hand to my chest, soothing the ache that accompanied the thought. To be severed from her was a fate worse than death itself, but we’d bound our lives together.

Without me…

She should have followed.

“Estrella?” I called, looking through the Void surrounding me. There was no one to be found, no mate to return my call as she drifted into the afterlife.

“She cannot hear you,” a male voice said, forcing me to spin on my heel. He stood behind me, his body perfectly still as he watched me. Shock overcame me; it wasn’t often that anyone snuck up on me with the Fae senses I’d honed over years of practice.

“Who are you? Why have you brought me here?” I asked, because the confirmation that Estrella was not with me meant I was not dead after all. No living being had any place being in the Void between realms. My presence here was a horrific abomination in itself.

“Keep her alive. No matter the cost,” the male said. There was no trace of emotion to accompany the order, only the stark reality of the task I’d been given.

“She is my mate. Of course, I will keep her alive.” I scoffed, my eye twitching as I considered the fact that maybe, just maybe, he meant someone other than Estrella. Could he mean Fallon?

The coincidences were too large to be ignored, with Estrella having been dragged before the ferryman in her slumber. Yet I still clung to the hope that whatever destiny the Moroi had woven, Estrella would exist just outside of them. That she’d be free to live a life not entangled in the fate of the world as we knew it, finding a path to happiness regardless of the impossibility of our depressing world.

“Your own arrogance will be your downfall,” the male retorted, tipping his head to the side. “I will never understand why the Fates chose you for her.”

“I’ve bound my life to hers. I’ve done everything I can to make sure she lives, because I cannot imagine my life without her. What more can I do?” I asked. Whatever the answer was, I would do it. Whatever the sacrifice, I would give it.

“You can stop behaving as if she is the weakling and you are the savior. You see the bond of your lives as a benefit to her, but that is because you assume that your life will be longer than hers. She is no longer human. The rules of Nothrek no longer apply to Estrella Barlowe. You would do well to remember that,” he said, his jaw clenching in frustration. It was the first sign of any kind of emotion he showed, his head tipping to the side with a subtle, disgusted shake.

He turned his back on me, walking in the opposite direction as the stars at the edges of my vision went fuzzy.

“What is she?” I called, demanding the answer that would cure me of my ignorance so that I could help her.

He paused, looking over his shoulder with a creased brow. “You think you can be trusted with that information? You, who are a slave to Mab herself?” he asked, the words landing the blow he’d intended. “How could I expect you to save her when you cannot even save yourself?”

The stars faded, the walls they created shaking as the Void around me appeared to melt into nothingness. All illusion, a trick of the mind.

It wasn’t the Void at all.

I turned my stare back to the male who had greeted me, the one who had spoken the harsh words. His form melted away as he watched me over his shoulder with gleaming golden eyes. He drifted into the night sky as it crumbled until his place was empty.

Only those golden eyes remained.





7


Estrella


I sat in the chair beside the fire, trying to warm my limbs. I couldn’t stand to look at the trail of blood leading away from the table. Two of Mab’s guards had come, grabbed Ophir’s body by the feet, and dragged it out of the room. They left Malachi to carry the head of what I’d learned had been his brother, his face carrying the first traces of softness I’d ever seen.