Heart of the Fae (The Otherworld #1)(69)

“You would give them nightmares for the rest of their lives.”

“Will your dreams be troubled?”

“Without a doubt,” Sorcha shivered. “I will never sleep again for fear you will hover above my bed.”

“You flatter me.”

That was not her intention, although she was relieved her words had complimented the Queen. Sorcha merely told the truth.

A scrying pool on a large altar stood in the center of the room they entered. Shards of black glass made up the floor. Sorcha stared at it and swore she saw dark fire reflected beneath. Wind brushed across her ears bringing with it the screams of tortured souls.

The Queen skittered towards it, hunching over the bowl, and rocking back and forth. Sorcha wasn’t certain she had ever seen a spider move like that. Was the queen even part spider? Was she merely wearing the skin of one?

The Ballad of Tam Lin burst into her mind. The Queen in that story had turned his lover into a spider. He held onto her great abdomen, her legs, her great eyes. For days, he hung on as she changed into dozens of creatures.

Sorcha couldn’t help but wonder if this chosen form was symbolic.

“Come,” the Queen said. “Gaze into my pool and I will show you all you desire.”

“I desire very little.”

“Humans lie every day. You desire so many things that you cannot even breathe for the wanting.”

“I want health and happiness for my family. That is all.”

“Oh, little human. You desire so much more than that. It is healthy to want.”

“I care for others.”

“You care for yourself. The want to heal others builds your confidence, solidifies your reason for being. You have yet to discover who you are. Come.”

Sorcha stared at the Queen’s strong hands gripping the edge of the stone bowl. “I’m afraid to know what I want.”

“Everyone is.”

She stood on the precipice of something great, but she didn’t know what she would find. The Queen offered something without cost.

“What do I have to do?” Sorcha asked.

“Listen and learn.”

Small, black dots appeared on the Queen’s forehead from her eyebrows to her temples. At the same time, every dot blinked.

A whimper escaped her mouth as she realized the dots were eyes. The Queen, like many spiders, had multiple eyes that all stared with expectation at the human on the stairs.

What did she have to lose? Thoroughly uncomfortable, Sorcha stepped towards the scrying pool.

“What would you have me learn?”

“Everything.”

The Queen leaned forward and dunked a finger into the clear water. It swirled, dark magic dropping like ink and spreading rapidly. Black swallowed the bowl of water and wisps of white smoke rose into the air.

“You are entangled in the most important plot of this millennia, and there is so much you need to see.”

“Why?”

“The Fae are a tricky lot. Our legends speak of so many beautiful stories. Of heroes who swing blades that cleave giants in two. Of heroines who seduce a man with one glance and drag them to the bottom of the ocean. But we are not a group of people who enjoy death and destruction. There are as many species of Fae as there are stars in the sky.”

Whispers echoed her words, three voices overlaying the Queen’s.

“Who are they?” Sorcha asked.

“My children.”

“Where?”

The Queen glanced over her shoulder and nodded. Three women stepped forward, lashed to the ceiling by thin threads of web. They had rings pierced down their arms where the threads looped through. Pale as snow, their eyes were blind. No color lived on their bodies at all. White hair, white eyes, white skin so pale it was blue.

“Three daughters,” Sorcha nodded. “You are blessed.”

A smile spread across the Queen’s face. “Blessed? You don’t have children, do you?”

“No, your highness.”

“Children suck the lives out of their mothers. They drain them until they are little more than husks. But they are good for the soul.”

One of the wraith-like women stepped forward. The Queen petted her head and pushed her towards the scrying bowl. “What secrets do you have to share with the little human?”

The pale woman cocked her head to the side, unseeing eyes blinking slowly. “I share the state of the Seelie Fae.”

“Why?” the Queen asked.

“It is important she know the situation in Tír na nóg. She must know what the people do and how they suffer.”

The daughter stepped forward and reached out her arm. The Queen looked at her with no emotion, wrapped her strong around the limb, and snapped it in half.

Sorcha cried out as blood poured into the scrying pool. White bones poked through torn flesh and fragments of hanging muscle dipped into the water. Through it all, the daughter did not flinch nor cry out.

“What are you doing?” Sorcha screamed. “Stop!”

“You do not understand our ways. Watch and learn. That was what you promised me.” The Queen patted her daughter on the head again. “Thank you. Go back to your sisters for healing.”

She stepped back into the fold. The other two reached for the thick threads of webbing and pulled hard. They lifted the injured woman into the air by the rings on her arms. She dangled for a moment, suspended above the ceiling before a long spider leg reached out and pulled her through the webbed ceiling.