Prisoner of Darkness (Whims of Fae Book 2)(27)

Raith took a deep breath, devouring one last bit of magic from the forest around him. He put on a glamour to disguise his appearance. The last thing he needed was to be recognized as someone who was supposed to be dead. He hoped he had enough power in him to keep up the charade.

He used Cade’s entrance as a distraction to get closer. After Cade, Poppy, and Jaser were through and out of sight, Raith approached the two guards.

He couldn’t fight them. Not only was he injured, but they would be the strongest of the Winter Guard.

“I’m with the Summer King,” Raith said. “I was running behind and he told me to catch up as soon as I could.”

Neither guard spoke. The gate remained closed.

Raith stepped closer to one of the guards. “He’ll be angry if I’m not there soon.”

Nothing.

Using his body to block the other guard’s view, Raith quickly reached his hand to the hand of the guard in front of him. He found the memory of Cade walking by and altered it. Now the guard remembered Cade saying to let his other guard in once he arrived. Magic dripped from Raith. With his mind magic, memories turned to power, but altering them drained it.

The gate swung open.

Raith wondered if the other guard would stop him, but he didn’t.

Had it been any other time of the year, the plan wouldn’t have worked. But guests from all over Faerie and the Seelie and Unseelie courts would be coming for the solstice. Raith was lucky. If he’d had to change the other guard’s memory, he might not have had enough magic left to hold his glamour.

Another group of Winter fae entered just behind him. He waited until they walked toward the castle to hide amongst them. Once inside, he slipped into an empty room to come up with a plan.

His magic ran low. At this rate, he only had a few more minutes of glamour.

Someone entered the room. “Are you lost?” It was a young man, dressed in a white uniform and holding a tray.

A perfect disguise and a source of more energy.

Raith approached the man and grabbed his wrist. The face of a woman filled his short-term memory. As he got ready to come there, he couldn’t wait to finish the stupid dinner and get back to her. He didn’t see why the queen made such a big deal about the Soltice.

Raith chuckled. If the Winter Queen knew of the server’s annoyance, well, it might be a while before he could see the woman he thought of.

He absorbed the magic from the memory.

“I’m meeting someone per request of the Queen,” Raith said. He hoped it sounded formal enough, yet not too formal. He wasn’t sure how Winter fae who worked for the queen spoke.

Raith could wipe his memory just to be safe. But that would take half the energy he’d just consumed. Viewing memories filled him. Erasing them, not so much.

“Very well.” The man left.

Raith drew from his magic reserve and glamoured his outfit to look the like the server’s. He changed the glamour of his face, too, so he wouldn’t recognize him, then hurried behind him.

Another servant held a tray like the man’s, filled with hors d’oeuvres.

“I’ve been instructed to take this in. You’re needed back in the kitchen.” Raith reached his hand out.

The servant held a look of confusion, but passed the tray to Raith.

Raith continued, hurrying to catch the previous young man. He reached him as he opened a door and entered a huge dining room. A long marble table ran down in the middle, with at least thirty people seated on each side. A silver runner was rolled across it, accentuating its silver swirl pattern.

The Ice Queen sat at the head of the table, a cold expression on her face. Her white wrought-iron chair had a higher back than the rest.

Scarlett was near. Raith could feel it. He searched the far side of the table, and, when he found her, his chest tightened.

As if she could feel his stare, she turned her head and looked right at him. She sat in between Kaelem and Cade. What was she doing so close to him? He’d left her for dead; he’d left them both for dead.

Cade spoke to a Winter fae next to him, oblivious of Raith’s presence.

It wasn’t as if Raith had expected their brotherly connection to mean much, but he thought Cade might notice something was different about Raith’s disguise as a server. But Cade remained ignorant of his presence which, honestly, was for the best.

There was no time to be sentimental. Raith had found Scarlett. She wasn’t hurt or in any danger. There was no need for him to stay any longer, and definitely no time for a reunion with his little brother.

Raith passed out the food on his tray, hoping no one there had the gift of seeing through glamours. He needed to blend in until he could leave the room without notice, then bolt.

Scarlett’s gaze followed him across the room.

She appeared even more fae than the last time he’d seen her. Her ears came to a full point now, and her skin had smoothed. The biggest change was in her eyes, which had always been a bright blue, but now, when the light hit them, held a tint of violet.

He shouldn’t have told Kaelem where she was. Raith should have left the Unseelie Court and went straight to Scarlett, offering to help her in any way he could. He’d been the one to choose her to be his second. If he’d just left her out of it, Cade could have kept her safe.

But would he have? If his mother had told him to end Scarlett, would Cade have listened?

Raith could have taken Scarlett back to the mortal realm himself before the battle, but he’d been too set on his plan to outsmart his brother. And what did he have to show for it? He’d fled the only court he’d ever known and now followed a wild goose chase for information on a mother who was long gone. There was no saving her, yet he couldn’t resist the desire to learn more about her.