What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(66)

“Few people tell me anything here,” I said, honesty ringing in the words.

Nila informed me of what she dared, giving me bits and pieces of information that she didn’t think would get her in trouble. We were never sure if there were prying ears, if Malachi or any of the guards who relieved him at night would attempt to listen to every conversation we had in the supposed privacy of my room.

“Once, the Solstice was a way to celebrate the return of the sun,” she said, her eyes going distant as she looked toward one of the windows lining the room. As if she could see the very court that should have been the happiest to see the solstice occur, and what it meant for the slow, subtle shift of power toward the Summer Court.

Her brother’s court. The court where she’d been born and raised.

“What is it now?” I asked, fidgeting slightly at having to draw her attention back to me.

I didn’t want the force of that gaze on me, but I didn’t want to waste my time standing in her rooms as she bathed. Better she get through whatever she needed to say, setting me free so I could go about my day of idle lounging and waiting for my mate to return.

“The Shadow Court mourns the darkness. Other courts may celebrate with dancing and revelry. We grieve with blood and death,” she explained, her lips curving with pure malice.

I swallowed, biting back the sharp retort that it didn’t sound any different from daily life within Tar Mesa.

If Mab thought the events of the solstice were special, then I didn’t want to consider what that meant for the people living here. For those coming to visit, forced to join in the grieving by the queen they didn’t want.

“It sounds absolutely lovely. Am I to assume I’ll be tucked away in my rooms and miss out on the joy of those celebrations?” I asked.

It was pathetic when someone who used to sneak out looked forward to being locked in her rooms in the way I’d once hated more than anything.

Malachi stood at Mab’s slow nod, stepping up behind me and removing the collar from my throat. I drew in a steady breath, letting the power of Alfheimr flow into me and through me once again as he moved to the table and set the collar upon the surface.

Mab walked toward me, ascending the shallow staircase within her bath until water sluiced off her skin. Rose petals glided against the fairness of her flesh, dropping back into the bath as her body was revealed. Mab was unbothered by her nudity, moving slowly as she approached me. I kept my eyes on her face, refusing to so much as glance at the unblemished body I wanted to maim.

“You will wear what you are told, be where you are told, and behave as I dictate.”

I swallowed. That sounded like I wouldn’t be allowed to remain in the confines of my room. Sounded as if I would need to be an active participant in something I wanted nothing to do with.

I opened my mouth, my smart reply dying in my throat when she raised a hand to silence me. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from cursing her out.

“For every moment you disobey me, I will pick a random Fae Marked from my keep, and I will make you choose between their life and your mate’s. We both know what choice you will make, and all the courts will watch as I slaughter them. Most Fae Marked, I imagine, will have their Fae using the solstice as an opportunity to get within the walls of Tar Mesa to plead for their mate to return home with them. You will be responsible for the severing of souls, and for the fact that they will watch it happen helplessly.”

My jaw clenched as the threat struck me in the chest, sinking inside that hollow part of me that rose in fury. To sever a mate bond was unforgivable, whether the Fae Marked desired the bond or not. There’d been a time when I would have wanted to be freed; where I would have welcomed that death rather than be taken.

I’d been a fool, refusing to recognize the completion that waited for me if I only let it consume me.

“You’ll lose your leverage over the Fae if you kill their mates,” I argued, swallowing down my anger.

I couldn’t fight, not with Nila so close and so vulnerable. Malachi, as if he could sense the coming tension, had moved closer to her. He took up position at her side as I watched, his shoulder bumping against hers as she gulped.

Her eyes connected with mine, a plea in them that I couldn’t ignore. My poor behavior wouldn’t lead to my own suffering, but hers.

“I warned you that your heart is your greatest weakness,” Mab said, a cunning smile transforming her face. She touched a single nail to the Fae Mark where it swirled over my heart. The ink retracted and writhed away from her touch as if it hated her as much as I did.

“No matter how I hurt you physically, you’ve not broken,” she said, turning and striding back into the bath. She resumed her position, staring at me as I gaped down at her. “Let’s see what guilt does to that goodness in your heart, Little Mouse. Perhaps that is the path to breaking you.”

“What do you want from me?” I asked, my control snapping as I glared down at her. “I don’t know what I am. I cannot give you what I don’t have.”

She studied me, her lips spreading to reveal gleaming white teeth as she leaned forward in the water. She radiated calmness, grasping a flower petal in her hand. She crushed it within her grip.

“I want you bound,” she said, the words striking me in the chest.

I pursed my lips, having considered and wondered why she hadn’t just bound me in the way she had Caldris.