“You forget,son,” she spat, as if the word were a curse, “that I have owned you since the day I tore the heart from your chest.” She turned toward Aveen’s pale face. “Thisis what youlove.” She slapped me so hard my teeth rattled. “An empty husk spelled to do my bidding whenever I choose to take control. If I wished him dead, he would cease to draw breath.”
My hand spasmed, and the dagger clattered to the floor. My chest refused to expand or contract, frozen like I’d been encased in a steel shroud.
“Why?” Aveen sobbed, shaking her head, spilling golden curls over her shoulders.
Black spots swelled at the edge of my vision. The Queen’s words turned muffled, as if I’d been buried in a shallow grave.
But I heard her final words clear as day.
Return to your world tonight, human, for my mercy will not extend to daylight.
The doors burst open. The Queen was gone, and yet her influence remained, gripping me in a chokehold.
“Rían?” Aveen spoke my name with such hope.
Hope was like love, for fools and simpletons.
She’s made me weak.
End her.
No one could stop me.
Tadhg was feckin’ useless. His pooka would be dead with one careful swipe of my blade.
She’s done nothing wrong.
That wasn’t entirely true, was it?
She’d fallen for my selfish lies.Believed I was some sort of white knight instead of a monster born of darkness and hate.
Don’t make me hurt her. Not her. Anyone but her.
Tadhg grabbed me by the shoulders. “Look at me.Look at me. You have to fight her.”
The pooka blocked my view of the girl.
Aveen.
Her name became my desperation. My prayer. My salvation.
Like swimming toward a lighthouse in a stormy sea, my head broke free of the surface long enough to rasp, “I release you from our bargain,” before dragging me back to the depths where I belonged. Shadows swelled, filling my throat and lungs and veins until all that remained of me was a tiny voice, whispering not to hurt her.
I sent Tadhg and Ruairi flying.
“Rían . . . No . . . Please,” the human begged. The weak ones always begged. The ones who still clung to the futility of hope.
Her throat bobbed as tears streamed.
I told the human to run, wanting the thrill of the chase. To catch her and paint that pretty blue dress red.
I felt the cold kiss of steel against my throat.
The last thing I saw before death took me was a pair of terrified blue eyes.
* * *
My gullet burned like the fires of hell. I was barely able to swallow back the bile threatening to rise. I couldn’t move my feckin’ arms.My eyes opened, but everything around me remained dark, and it took far too long for the world to come into focus. When it did, I searched for the one face I longed to see.