What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(32)
“What happens tomorrow?” I asked, swallowing nervously as Caldris tightened his grip around my waist. He shifted us so that he could look at Mab, tucking me into his embrace as if he could protect me from the Queen of Air and Darkness.
As if either of us could protect ourselves from Mab right now.
Mab rolled her eyes in response, stepping farther into the room. She moved to the window, pulling the curtains open until the dim light from outside drifted in. I hadn’t dared to open them, not knowing what I might find outside. I knew nothing of the Court of Shadows, having only awoken when I was already trapped within it, but the light hinted at a filtered sort of sunlight.
“Don’t be disgusting,” she muttered, shaking her head. “You’ve already disappointed me with your foolish attachment to one another. Don’t make it worse by acting as if you cannot bear to be separated. Nobody enjoys codependency.”
“Says the woman who slaughtered her own mate in his sleep after she bore her heir,” Caldris said, offering the first hint of what had happened to Fallon’s father. My heart constricted in my chest, knowing that she would have wanted to bridge that gap while she was stuck in Mab’s clutches. For Mab to have killed him, he must have been even the slightest bit more decent than she was.
“That explains a lot,” I muttered, thinking of how Caldris claimed that he was halfway into the madness that consumed a Fae when he couldn’t reach his mate. Mab’s other half of her soul wasn’t just missing but dead, and by her own hand.
How much of her evil and the chaos she caused could be attributed to that?
“Mind your tongue,” Mab hissed, and Caldris gritted his teeth as she turned a glare upon him. “Or I will remove it.” The anger over her violence seemed out of character, whereas she would normally be proud of the death and carnage she caused. She hadn’t felt even a modicum of guilt over Ophir’s death or the fact that she’d been the cause of it, but the mention of her mate struck a chord.
She’d felt the bond, perhaps had even known love for a brief time.
And she’d chosen to rid herself of it anyway.
“You loved him,” I said, the breath rushing out of my lungs with the realization.
Caldris stilled at my side, his stare turning to me. His disbelief coursed through our bond, communicating the fact that he didn’t believe it to be possible. But I was more certain than I’d ever been of anything in my life, that the Queen of Air and Darkness had, in fact, felt for her mate before she killed him.
“Of course I did,” Mab scoffed, shaking her head as she furrowed her brow. “But love is a weakness, and I would not allow anyone to use my bond with him against me. You would be far better off if you followed in my footsteps and killed your mate in his sleep, Little Mouse. I would not fault you for it. In fact, it would only strengthen my opinion of you. Killing that which you love the most is no easy task. It is perhaps the most difficult choice you will ever make.”
Snuggling deeper into Caldris’s chest, I let the feeling of him surrounding me comfort me. I couldn’t imagine my life without him in it now that I’d accepted him, and the night I’d even considered stabbing him in the heart haunted me more than I cared to admit. To do so now would have been unimaginable, and I would have rather plunged that dagger into my own heart than his.
“It is the coward’s choice,” I said, looking up at my mate briefly. He held my gaze, his icy stare capturing mine as he leaned forward and touched his mouth to my forehead. I turned my attention back to Mab before I spoke. “You can hurt me. You can try to break me. But I will never give him up. I know what awaits is worth all the suffering you’ll cause.”
Mab’s eyes drifted closed, and she nodded as she ran her tongue over her teeth. “I would be lying if I said I was not disappointed in your decision, but I will allow you to see your mate daily.”
Caldris stilled at her words, confirming my suspicion. I drew my bottom lip between my teeth, considering a response.
“And what is it you expect in return?” Caldris asked, not bothering to dance around her Faerie games. She wanted something, and she was willing to compromise to get it. I was glad for the fact that we were on the same page, that my instincts where Mab was concerned seemed to be trustworthy.
“You will earn those visits. I wish to know what you are, and I believe you are just as lost as I am when it comes to that answer. We will uncover the truth together. All she needs to do is cooperate with my tests, and I will allow you to be waiting in her chambers when we finish at night,” she explained, steepling her hands as she moved back toward the door.
“Tests?” I asked, the blood draining from my face as I tried not to imagine what that would entail. If the woman would whip me for merely saying her name, what would she resort to in order to uncover the truth she thought she could use to her advantage?
“No,” Caldris growled, his grip on my waist tightening. His fingers dug into the fabric of my dress, bruising the flesh beneath it as he struggled to contain his need to protect me.
“No?” Mab asked, her tone turning playful as she took a few steps closer. She paused just in front of us, reaching out a hand. It was not me that her taloned finger reached out to touch, but the bare skin of my mate’s forearm. A shudder rippled through his body at the contact, a dark tendril spreading over his golden skin like a web. “You could make it easier on all of us and just tell me what I want to know.”