What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(30)

Mab could not wrap a snake around her heart unless Estrella owed her a debt or agreed to it in some other way, and she would need to remove the iron shackles in order to do so. Her only option to bind my mate to her will was out of reach for the moment.

Except for going through me.

“You tainted my soul with your will long ago, and I’ve lost hope of anything but Helhaim waiting for me in the afterlife. But the soul of my mate is the most valuable thing in the world to me, and I will not aid you in condemning her to the same fate. Even your magic has boundaries, and I think it is high time for you to meet your match,” I grumbled, tossing an arm up over my head. I managed to maneuver it beneath my skull, offering myself a pillow as I turned my head to meet Mab’s annoyed stare.

“You think I would ever allow you to complete your mate bond with her so that you might become a challenge to me?” she asked.

A laugh erupted from her. It was all things cold and hollow, lacking all the warmth it should have possessed. It was so easy to forget that long ago, Mab had been the Princess of the Summer Court until the cursed gem had twisted her into this dark, cruel creature without a soul.

“I wasn’t talking about me,” I said, correcting her assumption. If I’d learned one thing about Mab in my centuries at her side, it was that she thought all men wanted power. They all wanted to use. They all wanted to be stronger than their female mate, because that was the way of males in the world.

I didn’t care if Estrella was more powerful. I didn’t care if she ruled over me, and I was the figurehead at her side. All I wanted was to stand beside her in all her glory.

All I wanted was to love her for eternity.

That meant loving all of her. The powerful parts of her that possessed magic so strong it coated my tongue. The sweet parts that were so unaccustomed to unconditional love that she looked at it suspiciously. The innocent flower that had been scorched by a hard life, and the female who rose from the ashes of it, ready to right the wrongs done to her.

That was love. Not whatever Mab thought love was.

“You think that girl is enough to challenge me?” she asked, huffing out a bark of laughter. She wanted to use Estrella, no doubt; but for Mab to truly fear Estrella, it would have required her to admit that there were beings out there stronger than her.

The Primordials had disappeared, leaving the Gods in charge of this place, and Mab had positioned herself at the forefront of them all. What could possibly challenge that?

Mab’s smile broadened, her cruel sense of humor overtaking her features.

“It’s been so long since we had any fun, Caldris. You stopped being entertaining centuries ago, but this?” she said, gesturing at my body where I lay prone. Where they’d had to inject me with iron in order to keep me from breaking down the walls of my iron cage to get to my mate. It had been centuries since I’d cared about anything long enough to provide Mab with a single emotion to use against me. “This side of you I could play with.”

Mab’s final words rattled in my head as I tried again to stand, but she’d already turned on her heel. Leaving me to my cage.

Leaving to do Gods know what with my mate.

Fuck.





9


Estrella


I sat with my knees curled into my chest, my back to the wall in the corner of the room. The stone grated against me even through the fabric of my dress. A bed waited for me to claim it as my own, but I couldn’t force myself to lie upon it, couldn’t bring myself to relax in a way that I knew would lead to falling asleep. Even after sitting propped in the corner for hours, my eyelids felt far too heavy for comfort. The vulnerability of sleep was a luxury I didn’t have in this place, not with my wrists bound by shackles and my magic crippled.

My only defense came in the ability to physically protect myself. I might have been as strong as the Fae around me now, but that didn’t mean I would be capable of overcoming an attack I didn’t see coming. My only chance came in having my eyes open and senses alert for any who meant me harm.

I’d lost track of how many hours passed, never really knowing how many minutes or hours I’d lost to the faint vestiges of sleep that claimed me as I sat there waiting. It was only a matter of time before Mab returned with a new strategy to gain my cooperation. Threats hadn’t worked. Being my friend hadn’t worked.

Offering me the freedom I’d sought for so long hadn’t worked to her advantage, either. No matter how much I might long for the freedom she promised, I wouldn’t become a tyrant to achieve it. My freedom would not come at the cost of the freedom and lives of other innocent people.

I drifted again; my eyes fluttering shut for a few moments. Caldris’s anger woke me. It pulsed down the bond like a ripple in the water. The threads between us pulled taut, forcing me to sit up straight and grab a candlestick off the bedside table. I wrapped my fingers around it, shucking the candle itself to the side and testing the weight of the silver.

I stood slowly, moving toward the door that I already knew was locked. I’d checked before retreating to my corner, hoping that the noise of the key being inserted would be enough to wake me if I stopped pacing long enough to drift between the realms of sleep and waking. My sense of my mate shifted along with him, his physical form moving through the dungeon. It seemed to strengthen as he grew nearer, and I pressed my ear to the door to listen for any sounds on the other side.