What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(56)
Everything inside me hardened, tensed, at the sight of that whip—the familiar crack of it through the air making my spine go rigid.
I shoved it down, that beast within me trying to rise to the surface. She met the collar around my neck, snarling and acting as if she could claw her way through it from the inside out as she paced. I dropped the brush beside me, moving to the center of my friends, where they struggled to keep down the bile that rose in their throats.
Reaching into the cage, I slid an arm beneath Adelphia’s waist. Something wet and sticky coated my hand as I did, seeping into the fabric of my blouse as I bent over and slipped into the cage. Just far enough to slide my hand around the back of her neck, cradling her head as I pulled her toward the front. Imelda and Fallon grabbed her ankles once again, pulling smoothly to help as I stabilized her upper body and kept the rot from tearing her in two.
When her waist and below were out of the cage, I stepped over her carefully to get out. Using my grip on her, I took her with me as the scent of her death penetrated my lungs. It settled inside of me, making everything inside of me recoil as I got to my feet. Taking her weight with me, bearing it in my arms, I cradled her with her knees draped over my elbow and her head tipped back over the other.
I walked slowly, passing by Fae as I took her to the side of the throne room. There was already a line of bodies piled up there, discarded with as much tenderness as one could give to the rotting corpses that were missing entire chunks. Imelda and Fallon’s eyes felt heavy on my back, the two women knowing that while I hadn’t known Adelphia well, she’d been the beginning of this journey for me.
She’d been the one to welcome me to something other than the way I’d been raised. She’d been the first to show me that something existed outside the firm control of the High Priest, and that it was okay to question everything I’d been taught.
I lowered myself to the floor as I set her down gently, removing my gore-covered arms from beneath her body. My hands raised of their own accord in the same way I’d seen Caldris do for Melian, gently touching her eyelid and closing it so that those unseeing, fogged-over eyes no longer stared at the ceiling.
I hung my head forward, closing my own eyes as I watched her for a moment. Waiting for breath to fill her lungs, for one of the miracles of Faerie to occur.
No movement met my gaze, not even the slightest hitch of breath. I hadn’t expected anything less, knew she was too far gone for even the magic that ran through these lands to touch her.
I stood, spinning slowly as my skirts swept against the surface of the stone. My arms were covered in gore, the blood having soaked my sleeves as I raised my head slowly.
The stare of countless Fae met me. I stumbled to a stop, looking from one side of the throne room to the other as my nerves peaked. I didn’t know the name of most of the creatures staring back at me, and the ones I did…
They’d been the legends of stories that had driven me to my parents’ bed as a girl, the nightmares that made me afraid of the dark until I found comfort in the night.
Eyes of red. Teeth so large, they were closer to tusks. Wrinkled and taut skin.
I heaved a sigh, raising my chin as I took the first step toward Imelda and Fallon. Imelda met my eyes, hers communicating something silently. I held that gaze as I strode forward, keeping my face impassive.
Inside, the swirling in my gut was a mess. The creature within me rose, filling my lungs with her breath. Something in my back cracked, as if she wanted to escape the confines of my body, pushing my spine straighter. Pulling my shoulders back tighter as whispers sounded from the other end of the throne room.
My heart pounded in my chest, as I held that multicolored gaze from Imelda. A bead of sweat dripped down the back of my neck, the precipice of the moment making that creature turn my blood into icy fire.
I took the first step forward, ignoring the pulsing dread coursing through me. That distinct feeling that things had shifted in the moments I’d seen to Adelphia’s body. The Fae closest to me shimmered in the shadows in my peripheral vision.
Her face was just two eyes and the slit of a nose, her mouth hidden entirely as her hair fell like feathers to the floor. The red stare of a predator landed on my face, studying me intently as I strode forward. When I moved to pass her, she shifted her weight, slipping one of her feet behind the other and lowering ever-so-slightly as she bowed her head forward.
My lungs seized.
Still, I held Imelda’s gaze as I strode forward, the Fae lining up beside me to form a hallway of sorts.
They bowed their heads, leaving me to stride toward Imelda. Even the gnomes dropped their eyes to the floor and kneeled. Imelda smiled lightly, turning her gaze away from me finally to look over at Fallon. My friend, my sister without blood, nodded lightly, her lips twisting into a bittersweet smile as she lowered her head into the subtlest of bows.
The remaining air rushed out of my lungs, leaving me gaping as my lips spread into a shocked expression. Imelda bowed her head forward. The last remaining elder of the Lunar Coven and Mab’s heir bowing before me stole every thought from my head.
I didn’t know what had caused it. I didn’t know what I’d done.
Only that part of me wished I could undo it—wished to make them all stop looking at me as if I was something they’d waited for.
Where was my mate?
I pushed down the thread of our bond, only a surge of pride welling in response to my terror. He was no help, no reassurance that they’d forget this moment by morning.