“Don’t stop. Keep. Moving,” Arion snaps.
I stumble forward. Tears begin to fall down my cheeks, soaking through the material on the mask. I want Vann to come back and find me.
The air smells of burnt wood and blood. Somewhere in the distance, another explosion shakes the palace. The chandeliers sway, scattering light across the walls and floor.
“What is going on?” I demand. “Those women—what do they want?”
He glances down at me, eyes bright with the same impossible calm he wore in the hall. “Want? They always want the same thing. To undo what was built. Ungrateful rats.”
“Are they with Mrath, then?” The words ring in my ears.
He freezes, turning back to me. “What do you know of Mrath?”
“O-Only that they helped Teo,” I stutter. It’s a strange reaction as he knows that she has worked with the trolls several times.
“Fucking bitch,” he spits, half under his breath, leading me past the bodies of guards still smoking from his magic. “I want to help them find a new future, and they want to live in a sad past where we all die because of those damned women who abandoned us and refuse to do their job to repopulate our lands.”
I flinch. Images from my distant past, of breeding pens and whips and disgusting slop for food, return. As if it was a woman’s job to fix everything. As if it was always right to blame women and women alone for the problems of a kingdom.
Daniel, my first partner, had spoken of womenlike that from time to time. Suddenly, a new cold sweat slicks over my skin—my body knows what could happen next if I’m not careful.
It’s been so long since I’ve been restrained and bound up. When Vann did it, it was out of trust.
This would be a nightmare.
Can’t let it happen before Mrath strikes again.
I need to be smart if Vann is near. He could come for me at any time.
And you would go with him so easily? I have seen your thoughts—you say he betrayed you.
That makes my brain stop churning. She’s right—I left Vann because he lied to me. I came to save the Enduares, though now I know that threat was a calculated manipulation. Arion has already taken my Fuegorra. Can I even return to the caves without it?
My mind spins with the last weeks. The humiliation and fear coursing through me. Am I really ready to be a consort? To fuck Arion and give him a baby? Or would I risk my life with a man I don’t know if I can trust and run away?
“If elven women have given up on helping their own people, then we must turn to the only alternative,” Arion continues, oblivious to my thoughts. “I hope their families weep over their rotting bodies. Thick-skulled, milk-lapping idiots.”
I stop walking. “You intend to kill all of them? I think they sent you a clear enough message with the bodies. Is it war you hunger after?”
He turns, very slowly, the chain of tension between us taut. “Would you rather I let them kill you? Would that please you, to see me humiliated without yet another bride?”
I am almost positive that Mrath wouldn’t kill me.
“Like it or fucking not, I need you to give me a child soon. Perhaps it would please you, with your liberated sensibilities, to know that I need you alive. How does it feel to have that kind of power over the leader of the largest empire on the continent?”
My throat tightens. Power? The thought is laughable. It’s in that moment I see the monster even more clearly.
I cannot be with a power-hungry, cruel tyrant, especially nowthat I know the truth. If Vann comes—I will go. Especially since Mrath will kill him anyway and take his place and I will never have to think about this awful place ever again.
And what if Mrath doesn’t kill him? Would he turn his wrath back on your precious cave trolls?
Attempting to swallow, I consider her question. More tears slide down my cheeks, soaking my mask.
What if Vann has already been killed by one of the attackers? Or discovered by one of Arion’s men and slaughtered?
Everything is such a mess, and I don’t know. All I know is that I’m afraid, lonely, and for the first time, I wonder if I can leave this place.
I don’t know. I just don’t.