What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(5)

I knew it from the story Caldris had told me all those weeks ago in the sanctuary of our cave, huddled beside the fire.

The Cursed Gem. Delivered to the Seelie Court by the dwarves of Elesfast. Created by Edrus himself.

Mab said something to the male at her side as she walked, and he hurried down the steps until he stood on the edge of the floor before me. Grabbing hold of the rope where it was tied to a pole on the wall, he let out slack until I dropped by a margin. Then another and another, until I approached the mouth of the pit. He stopped lowering me then, not allowing me to drop into the pit itself but hanging at eye level with those standing on the edge.

I tried to keep my face blank, knowing most would be consumed by fear of the snakes in the pit below. While I wasn’t certain what to think of them, it probably wasn’t even close to the reaction Mab would expect. I had to wonder who the snakes would favor in the end. Would my affinity for them be enough to outweigh Mab herself?

I swallowed, wincing when another male stepped up and hooked me around the waist with a shepherd’s crook, pulling me toward the ledge. He held me there as the other male untied me, and then they let me fall to the stone on the ledge.

My bare feet hit the ground suddenly, the cold of the stone radiating up my ankles and calves. Like a shock to my system, it overrode the torment and the warmth of numbness within me.

My knees gave out beneath me, and I collapsed. The side of my face smacked against the stone when I couldn’t move my arms to catch myself. No matter how hard I tried, they wouldn’t move.

How long had I been unconscious and hanging there?

I slowly managed to move my right arm, dragging it closer until I got it beneath my body. My other followed with painstaking slowness as I glared at Mab’s feet and her blood-colored shoes where they peeked out from beneath the hem of her dress. She came closer, the sharp, pointed heel gleaming with a polish that made it look wet when it caught the light.

My shoulder cracked as I drew my arm down and got my hands beneath me. Pushing, straining, on those hands, I lifted my upper body from the floor as Mab came to a stop in front of me.

I turned my stare upward, dragging it over the gleaming black of her gown and to the pale skin of her chest. Up her slender neck, and to the harsh, beautiful features set as if encased in stone. Rigid and unmoving, she looked down at me as if I were a worm beneath her feet. Her eyes were angular, her nose pointed and dainty. Her raven hair fell to her waist, as straight and smooth as silk, with the tips of her ears protruding slightly through the sides. The angle of her eyes made a perfect line with the tips of her ears, her face somehow proportioned in ways I hadn’t known possible.

She was a great beauty, despite the coldness that radiated off from her.

She took a step forward, pressing her toes onto my starry-night painted fingertips. Sinking her weight into that foot, she ground my finger bones into the stone beneath my hand. I gritted my teeth, grimacing through the pain as she smirked—cold and calculating—as she watched the hints of pain on my face.

“What are you, Little Mouse?”

“I don’t know,” I ground out, clenching my teeth as she crushed my fingers.

She chuckled, a deep throaty laugh that lacked any sort of humor. It was vicious, tinted with evil itself, as if the lack of answers only pleased her. She bent forward, putting more pressure on my crushed hand, then wrapped her bony fingers around my chin and gripped my face with black talons in the same way she had Fallon.

“Well then, we’ll have fun trying to figure it out, won’t we?” she asked, stepping back and turning away to dismiss me.

My fingers twitched with the sudden freedom of not being crushed. They’d only been a moment away from cracking beneath the pressure. I pushed to my feet slowly, stumbling as they fought to remember what it was to have the ground beneath them.

“I am no mouse,” I said, forcing my back to straighten despite the pain in my shoulders.

Mab spun to face me slowly, quirking a brow in something that almost resembled surprise. “That’s odd, because I am the snake, and you look like dinner to me,” she said, dropping her gaze to my bare feet and sliding it up my body.

Whatever she saw, she found me wanting.

“Have you ever encountered a Matagot, Mab?” I asked, tilting my head to the side as a hush filled the cavernous throne room.

Mab’s eyes hardened into a glare at my faux pas, at the lack of respect I showed her in using her given name when I had no right to.

“Be very careful, girl,” she said, lifting a hand when one of her men took a step toward me.

“They’re small. Like barn cats, and most villagers think of them as unassuming pests. But the farmers and harvesters know better than to chase them off,” I explained, pausing as I glanced to the side as if she wasn’t worth my time. I glanced toward the cages, to the people hanging within them who still breathed.

Yet I could not stop myself from pushing the Queen of Air and Darkness, from voicing the first thought in my brain.

“And why is that?” she asked, steepling her hands in front of her.

“Because they eat the snakes when they grow too large and crush the plants beneath them.” My fingers twitched at my side to prove my point, and her eyes fell to the bruising skin in acknowledgement.

She laughed, showing her teeth in something that felt far more terrifying than her boredom. She took a step toward me, staring down at me from her much taller height. “I am very much going to enjoy breaking you, Little Mouse,” she said, turning her attention to the male who had cut me down from the snake pit.