I rolled onto my side with a groan. My body felt stiff, and I had a killer headache. The last time I’d ached this much was after I’d been stupid enough to spar with Parisa.
Wincing, I cracked open my eyes. It took a moment for the room to come into focus and another few seconds for me to register I wasn’t in the cell anymore.
I jolted upright and groaned again at the sharp pain in my skull as it all came back to me. Two of Queen Anwyn’s guards had knocked me out and brought me here to this unfamiliar room. That could mean only one thing. I was in Seelie.
The room spun a little when I stood, and I had to steady myself before I could take in my surroundings. I was in a circular room with a wooden floor, white walls, and no furnishings except for the thin pallet I’d been lying on. The room was lit by the natural light from four narrow windows.
I went to one of the windows, which had no glass, and looked down at a wide river far below. On the other side of the river was a forest that went on for miles. Through the opposite window I saw spires, turrets, and the white stone walls of what had to be the Seelie palace. The position of the sun told me it was late morning, which meant I’d been here at least half a day.
The door opened behind me, and I spun to see Aibel enter with the other guard who had helped abduct me. Behind them came Queen Anwyn in a pale green dress and a jeweled diadem. She stopped a foot inside the door and smiled at me, but it wasn’t enough to melt the ice in her eyes.
“You are awake at last,” she said with a note of irritation, as if my lack of consciousness had been my fault. “Welcome to Seelie.”
I crossed my arms. “Why am I here?”
She smoothed an invisible wrinkle in her sleeve. “I have heard so much about you, Jesse James, and I thought it was time you and I talked face-to-face.”
Her guards had broken into a secured part of the Unseelie court and kidnapped me. What could be so urgent that she would have them take such a risk?
My stomach plummeted. She’d found out that my parents had their memories back.
No, that wasn’t possible. They’d been in hiding since before I came to Faerie, and Lukas had assured me no one knew about his island. Even if she suspected the truth, she couldn’t get to them.
I lifted my chin defiantly. “Prince Vaerik will know you took me, and he’ll come for me.”
Queen Anwyn laughed. “No one is coming for you. By now, the entire Unseelie court thinks you escaped and fled to the human realm.”
“Vaerik won’t believe that.” Lukas knew I’d never leave him that way, especially not when he’d gone to speak to his father on my behalf.
“Aibel and Conard are very good at what they do.” She cast a fond look at her two guards. “And they had a little inside help from someone. She was more than happy to have you out of the way.”
“Rashari.” I curled my hands into fists. I knew she was desperate to become consort, but to help Seelie kidnap me? She’d be lucky if Lukas didn’t kill her himself when he found out what she’d done.
Aibel nodded. “She was quite helpful. She even provided a witness who saw you create the portal.”
“I do hope you like your accommodations.” Queen Anwyn waved a hand at the room. “The view from up here is lovely, and you have the whole tower to yourself for the duration of your stay.”
I refrained from asking how long that stay would be. My gut churned at the thought of how this was going to end for me, and I hoped my face didn’t give away how scared I was.
“What will Rhys think of you kidnapping me and keeping me prisoner?” If the time I’d spent with him had told me anything, it was that he was a good person despite having been raised by her. He considered me a friend, and he’d be angry about what she’d done to me.
Her mouth tightened for a second. “Prince Rhys has gone to one of my retreats for an extended stay. I see no need to include him in this unpleasant business, and you will be long gone before he comes home. He will never know you were here.”
I shivered and hugged myself tighter at the words long gone. “Why exactly am I here?”
“Right to the point. I like that. Although, from everything I’ve heard about you, I thought you would have already guessed the reason for your visit.” Her disdainful gaze swept over the length of me. “I want to know why you were in the temple yesterday and what magic you used to cloak yourself.”
Something flickered in her eyes, an urgency not reflected in her voice. She hadn’t accused me of trying to steal the ke’tain. She was more interested in the why and when details of my visit to the temple.
Suddenly, it all made sense, and I understood Bauchan’s reaction when they caught me and the rush to kidnap me. He knew one of his men had been at the temple, which meant he also knew I had to have seen and overheard the plot to use drakkan hide to get past the temple wards. They couldn’t risk me sharing that information with Unseelie, so they’d taken me before I could talk.
Aibel stepped forward, and I noticed for the first time that he had something in his hands. I thought it was another dannakin until he held it up and revealed a circlet made of the same metal and embedded with bits of drakkan bone.
A fresh wave of fear shot through me, and I backed away. Conard caught me and dragged me backward. Cold metal clamped around my wrists, and he yanked my arms high above my head to fasten the shackles to a hook bolted into the stone wall. He gripped my head and forced me to be still while Aibel fitted the circlet snugly on me.
“A traditional dannakin did not work on you, so we must use a different technique.” Queen Anwyn walked over to stand two feet from me. “My people have experimented with creating a more effective version that I am told makes the old dannakin feel almost pleasant. One taste of it and you will beg to tell me what I want to know. Feel free to scream. No one will hear you up here.”
The two guards stepped away from me. “It is ready,” Aibel said to her.
She tapped her chin with one slender finger. “Bauchan is still in Unseelie, so I will pick up where he left off. Let us begin with the last question he asked you. How did you survive your conversion?”
I pressed my lips together and gripped the chain between my shackles. It’s only pain, I chanted over and over in my head as the metal band around my head grew warmer. You’re strong, Jesse. You can get through –
A scream tore from me when flames engulfed my head. I thrashed in agony as my skin blistered and my hair shriveled. The smell of burnt flesh and hair filled my nose and throat until I could no longer breathe.
Aedhna, please, I silently screamed because my charred lips were no longer capable of forming words.
Her cool hand touched my forehead, and the fire lessened like it had the last time. The pain was still there but bearable, and I could draw air into my lungs.
As suddenly as it had started, the fire was gone. I hung from the shackles with my chin resting on my chest and tears pouring down my cheeks. My arms hurt from the strain, but I couldn’t summon the strength to stand tall and take the weight off them.
A hand cupped my chin and lifted my head. I opened my eyes and met the queen’s icy gaze. She looked equal parts angry and curious as she studied my face before she let my head fall forward.
“Fascinating. That is quite impressive.” She tapped a foot on the floor. “I should tell you it only gets worse with each treatment. You may as well answer my questions now and save yourself the pain. Eventually, you will break, and I will get what I want. I always do.”
I knew in that moment I was not leaving here alive. Even if I gave her what she wanted, she couldn’t let me go after kidnapping and torturing me. Worse, she might figure out a way to use me and my goddess stone against the people I loved. I didn’t know what her endgame was, but I’d die before I gave her that kind of power.
It took a superhuman effort to lift my head and several tries before I was able to utter, “You can’t break me.”
I had the brief satisfaction of watching Queen Anwyn’s composure slip before she smiled and said, “Let’s try this again.”
Then I knew nothing but pain.
My shivering woke me. I opened my dry swollen eyes and stared into the darkness as I carefully unfurled my stiff body from its fetal position on the cold floor. Everything hurt, even my eyelashes, and my throat was so raw and parched I could barely swallow.
I groaned when I finally managed to roll onto my back. Panting, I rested while I took stock of my body. My clothes were soaked with sweat that made them stick to me, and the pungent odor of urine surrounded me. I grimaced at the realization that I had wet myself, and I was still wearing my soiled pants.
My teeth chattered. The room was so cold I was sure I’d see my own breath if there’d been any light to see by. I forced myself to my hands and knees and crawled around searching for the pallet I’d woken up on before. My fingers brushed against rough fabric, and I fell on top of the meager pallet. It didn’t protect me from the cold breezes coming through the windows, but at least it was a barrier between me and the icy floor.
I curled into a ball and distracted myself with thoughts of Lukas. I knew he was out there searching for me, but did he know where to look? Would he fall for the lies and believe I had fled on my own, or would he know Seelie was behind my disappearance? And even if he did suspect Seelie, what could he do about it without proof of their involvement? Hadn’t they gotten away with the ke’tain theft for that same reason?
My mind shifted to much less pleasant thoughts, and I let out an involuntary whimper at the memories that assailed me. I had no idea how long Queen Anwyn and her men had used the dannakin on me, only that it was Aedhna’s cool hand that had kept me from going insane from the pain. What I didn’t understand was why Aedhna had allowed this to happen to me when one appearance from her would have stopped it. Was it some kind of test to see if they would break me?
They hadn’t. I would never forget the look of rage on the queen’s face when she realized no amount of pain would make me give up my secrets. She had screamed at me and spittle had flown from her mouth as she ranted and threatened to destroy everything I cared about. Even her two guards had stared at her like she’d gone insane.
Despite my discomfort, I slept again. The next time I opened my eyes, the faint outline of the sky was visible through the windows. I stayed where I was, miserable and cold, while the day broke and the morning light slowly filled the room.
It wasn’t until I heard the scrape of the door that I rolled over to see who had entered my prison. I expected the queen and her guards, but it was a dark-haired female in a plain dress like the ones the female elves wore in Unseelie. She came up short when she saw me watching her, causing the guard that accompanied her to run into her back.
“I have brought fresh clothes for you.” She held up the bundle in her hands.
“Thanks,” I rasped and followed it with a burning cough. My throat felt like I’d gargled with broken glass.
She set the bundle on the floor and fled without another word. The guard followed her, and the door closed with a loud click.
I let out a breath, grateful they’d left me to change without an audience. Standing, I went to pick up the clothes. My body still hurt, but I was able to undress without much difficulty. I made a face as I tossed my damp pants away from me, and I sighed when I donned the clean, dry clothes. The air in the room was warmer, and it was a small relief to finally stop shivering.
The door opened again, and I couldn’t stop my body from recoiling when Bauchan entered carrying a pair of shackles. Queen Anwyn had taken delight in telling me how good her head of security was at making people talk, and what a pity it was that he’d needed to stay in Unseelie to keep up appearances.
“Hold out your arms, and do not try anything,” he ordered. What did he think I was going to do? I had no weapon and barely enough strength to keep from swaying on my feet.
I did as he said, and he shackled my hands in front of me. Taking my arm in his bruising grip, he marched me out of the room and down the tower’s winding stairs. We left the tower and navigated a maze of hallways that all looked the same to me. Every one of them had a white floor that resembled marble, white walls, and wooden doors. Occasionally, we passed a small table holding a vase of white flowers. The only color came from the glimpses of sky and trees through the windows we passed.
We stopped at a set of double doors with a guard on either side. Bauchan didn’t spare the guards a look as he opened one of the doors and shoved me inside. It was a large living area done mainly in white with some splashes of color in the tapestries on the walls and in the rugs on the floors. Large windows gave a panoramic view of the river and beyond.
The room had a feminine feel to it, and I didn’t have to wait long to see its owner. A door opened, and Queen Anwyn entered wearing a long blue gown that trailed the floor and a small jeweled diadem that caught the light as she moved. Unlike me, she looked well rested and fresh, and her face practically glowed with health and beauty.
She saw me and smiled as if she’d hadn’t spent hours torturing me yesterday. “Jesse, you are a marvel. Anyone else would be a mindless lump after that interrogation, and yet here you are.”
I didn’t respond. If that bothered her, she did not show it. She reclined on a chaise and motioned to Bauchan, who pushed me forward and forced me down onto a chair across from her. He stayed behind me, out of my sight but close enough for me to feel his threatening presence.
“Bauchan brought me the news that King Oseron believes you are hiding somewhere in the human realm. Prince Vaerik and his guard are going there today to search for you.” Queen Anwyn paused to let that news sink in. “No one is coming to save you. The sooner you accept that, the sooner we can move on to more important things.”
I folded my trembling hands in my lap. “Like you stealing the ke’tain again?”
She had said enough during my torture session to make it clear why I was here. If I was going to be subjected to more of that, I was determined to get answers to the questions that had plagued me for months. Everyone in Faerie had to know or suspect by now that she was behind the theft, but no one had evidence to bring against her.
Queen Anwyn didn’t bother to deny it. “Yes.”
“Why?” I implored. “You saw what happened when the ke’tain was taken from Faerie. Why would you want to do that to your own world?”
Her mouth twisted. “It was never my intention to harm my world. I took the ke’tain to save Faerie.”
I shook my head. “That makes no sense. You had to know that removing something so powerful from Faerie would upset the balance of magic between the two worlds.”
“Of course, I knew that,” she snapped. “The ke’tain was only supposed to be in the human realm long enough to cause minor instability. Then my men would recover it and return it to its rightful place. Our mistake was including humans in our plan. We will not do that again.”
“I don’t understand,” I said more confused than ever.
“My men took the ke’tain to a human known for selling valuable Fae objects. His job was to keep it safe until another human named Davian arranged to buy it from him. In turn, Davian would return it to me.” She huffed in irritation. “It would have worked out well had the first human not lost the ke’tain.”
“I know all of that. What I don’t understand is why you wanted to make the barrier unstable.”
She scowled at my interruption, and for a moment, I thought she wasn’t going to answer me. Her actions had caused so much harm, and people had died. I’d nearly died, and I deserved to know why.
“I have never understood the fascination faeries have for your world.” Her lip curled. “It’s dirty and contaminated, and humans are so frail and prone to diseases. After my son was born, I knew the only way to protect him and his future was to cut off all contact with your world. I warned Oseron that this filth might one day spread to our world, but he dismissed my concerns. I cannot seal the barrier alone, and Unseelie has refused to do it.
“When Rhys came to me and said he wanted to explore the human world, I knew I had to take matters into my own hands. I had the ke’tain taken from Faerie to show how fragile the balance of magic is and to prove Faerie is not safe as long as the barrier is open. I will do anything to protect my son and my world.”
You mean my brother. I bit my lip to keep myself from saying those words to her. Anyone else might believe her act as the doting mother and selfless monarch, but I knew what she was. And as the missing pieces began to fall into place, I realized her true motive for taking the ke’tain. She did want to coerce Unseelie into closing the barrier, but not for the good of Faerie.
Twenty years ago, she’d taken a human child, secretly made him Fae, and passed him off as her son and heir. When he announced he was going to the human world, she knew there was a risk, however small, of someone discovering his real identity, and she would do whatever she could to keep her secret safe.
What I still didn’t know was why she had stolen my brother. She didn’t hide her revulsion of humans. Why would she convert one and raise him as her own child? What was I missing?
“That brings us to our current dilemma. After all that has happened, Unseelie is still unconvinced we must close the barrier. And now they insist it is healing faster than expected.” Queen Anwyn sat up and fixed me with an accusing stare as if she somehow knew I was behind that. “The only way to change their minds is to take the ke’tain and force their hand.”
“You can’t do that.” I tried to stand, but Bauchan’s hand clamped on my shoulder, roughly pushing me down into the chair.
“Don’t you see what will happen if you take it out of Faerie again?” I asked her. I thought about everything I’d done to restore the ke’tain’s power. It had pulled energy from the other ke’tains, and I didn’t know if they had enough power in them to do that again so soon without weakening them too much.
She looked at me like I was a simpleton. “The ke’tain will stay in our world. I don’t need to change the balance of magic this time because people already know what could happen. Their fear will drive them to do what needs to be done.”
“They won’t close the barrier if they think the ke’tain was taken from Faerie,” I said.
She nodded, looking pleased with herself. “That is why it will be found along with the thief. We were going to pick a random person from Unseelie and make it look like they were the culprit. That was until your timely capture in the temple. Your mysterious ability to get past the temple wards and your unwillingness to explain it make you the perfect suspect. Add to that your escape from the cells, and no one will believe you are innocent. I could not have planned it better myself.”
A sour taste filled my mouth because she was right. It didn’t matter if Lukas believed in me or if he told his father about my goddess stone. The evidence against me was damning. Not that it would matter to me because I’d be dead. There was no way Queen Anwyn would let me leave Seelie alive knowing what I did.
I lifted my chin, refusing to show her my fear. “Is that why you had me brought to your quarters? You wanted to tell me about your plans and gloat?”
“I do not gloat.” Piqued, she stood so she could look down at me. “I told you all of this so you would know you have nothing to gain by not cooperating with me. Whether it happens today or in a week, I will have the ke’tain in my possession. How you spend your last days does depend on your cooperation.”
She smiled at her head of security behind me. “Bauchan has creative ways of extracting information. If you wish to die with all of your body parts intact, you will tell me what I want to know.”
I swallowed convulsively as cold spread through me. It was one thing to endure the dannakin, which didn’t cause any real physical damage. I could not hold out against the kind of torture she was talking about.
A door opened on the right side of the room, and I started as Queen Anwyn turned that way. I followed her gaze and gasped when Prince Rhys strode into the room.
“Mother, I know you asked me to stay at the mountain house, but I –”
The prince stopped walking so fast he nearly tripped. His stunned eyes met mine before they went to Bauchan and then the queen. “Mother, what is going on? Why is Jesse here?”
Before anyone could speak, he took a few more steps into the room and caught sight of my shackled hands. His nostrils flared, and he started toward me. “What is the meaning of this?”
Queen Anwyn moved with surprising speed to intercept him. “Rhys, what are you doing home?”
“I think my question is more important, don’t you?” He pointed at me and demanded, “Why do you have Jesse in shackles?”
She let out a pained sigh. “I didn’t want you to see this. I know you are fond of Jesse, and I wanted to spare you.”
He shifted his gaze back to her. “Spare me from what?”
“Come sit down.” She took his hand and led him over to sit beside her on the chaise. “Bauchan and the Unseelie head of security were summoned to the temple two days ago. They caught Jesse in the act of trying to steal the ke’tain.”
“That’s not true!” I cried and winced at Bauchan’s bruising grip on my shoulder.
Queen Anwyn went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “She was taken to Unseelie and questioned, but she refused to talk. I learned she was going to be released because she is Prince Vaerik’s lover, and I could not let such an injustice stand.”
Rhys gave me a confused look, and I shook my head. His expression said he didn’t want to believe what she was saying.
“You abducted her?” His tone was incredulous when he faced the queen. “Mother, what are you thinking? You have to send her back.”
A tiny spark of hope flared to life in my chest. She had sent him away so he wouldn’t know what she was up to. Now that he was here, could he actually intervene and help me?
“I did what is best for Seelie and Faerie,” she said as if she was speaking to a child. “When you are king, you will understand the difficult decisions we have to make for the good of our people.”
I don’t know who was more surprised when he retorted, “I hardly think starting a war with Unseelie is good for our people.”
It was clear from her expression that she was not used to him challenging her. It took her several seconds to recover. She let out an indulgent laugh. “War? It’s not like we stole the consort. And she will be returned to them after we interrogate her.”
Rhys did not look convinced. “You could have done that in Unseelie. You did not have to bring her here.”
“I tried to question her, but Korrigan allowed his son to stop the interrogation before she could answer me,” Bauchan said. “The safety of the ke’tain is too important to risk her going free before we know what she was planning to do with it.”
“It was Jesse who returned the ke’tain to us,” Rhys reminded him. “Why would she want to steal it?”
Bauchan’s fingers dug into my shoulders. “That is what we want to know.”
The look Rhys gave me was pleading. “Jesse?”
“I didn’t. I…”
“You see?” Queen Anwyn laid a hand on Rhys’s arm. “She will not even tell you the truth, and you are friends.” Her lip curled slightly on the last word. “A few days in the tower with no food or water will make her more willing to talk.”
“The tower? With no food or water?” Rhys stared at her aghast, and I realized how naïve and sheltered he was if he thought that was so awful. He had no idea what happened in an interrogation or how cruel and ruthless the queen and her guards could be.
She patted his arm. “I’m sorry you have to be here for this, but it must be done.”
“But –”
“You know I would do anything for Seelie, don’t you?” She stroked his hair as a mother would, and a ball of anger formed in my chest. She had no right to touch him like that. It was one of a million things she had stolen from my mother – our mother.
Rhys nodded, but his eyes were still troubled when he looked at me.
“Then you have to trust me on this.” Queen Anwyn stood, and he did the same. Taking his arm, she walked him to the door. “Do not worry about Jesse. I promise when all of this is over, she will go home to Unseelie.”
She lowered her voice and said something to him I couldn’t hear. Then she ushered him out of the room and shut the door before he could say another word. Her mouth was pressed into a thin line when she turned back to us.
“Bayard was supposed to keep him away until I summoned him home,” she said tightly.
Bauchan eased his hold on my shoulder. “Rhys’s guards are as loyal to him as yours are to you. They will not go against him when he wishes to do something unless it puts his life in danger.”
Something in his voice told me this was a discussion he and the queen had had before, and her answering pout said she was not happy about it. At least, it answered a question I’d had about whether or not Rhys’s guards were in on her plot.
She went to a side table and poured herself a glass of juice. “It complicates things, but we will proceed as planned. Take her back to the tower for now.”
I said nothing as I stood, and Bauchan took hold of the chain between my wrists. He pulled me to the door like I was a dog on a leash. I should be glad the chain was on my hands and not around my neck. He’d most likely take perverse pleasure in leading me through the palace that way.
“Jesse,” Queen Anwyn called as we reached the door.
I looked back and met her brittle eyes.
Her smile was more of a sneer. “You have earned a brief reprieve while I deal with this. You should use that time to rethink whether you want to cooperate or have Bauchan extract what we want from you. The choice should be an easy one.”
When I didn’t respond, her mouth tightened, and she looked at Bauchan. “Have Aibel give her another taste of the dannakin. We would not want our guest to get too comfortable.”
I shivered and curled myself into a tight ball on the pallet that stunk of old sweat and urine. The sun had gone down less than an hour ago, and already it was freezing in the room. It was going to be a long, miserable night.
My teeth chattered so hard they hurt. Desperately, I reached up and plucked the goddess stone from my hair. It had helped me create powerful glamours. I should be able to use it to keep myself from freezing to death.
Holding it in my fist, I imagined a warm bubble around me, as I did for the glamour. The stone grew warm in my hand and then…nothing. I tried again with the same result. Then I attempted a glamour to see if I could do that, at least. Nothing.
I sank down onto the pallet, defeated. Either the stone didn’t work here for some reason, or I was too weak from the two hours of the dannakin I’d endured earlier. I should be thankful that my clothes were dry because I had avoided the humiliation of wetting myself this time.
My stomach rumbled painfully, adding to my discomfort. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten, and I couldn’t tell if my weakness was from hunger or cold. I smacked my cracked lips together and tried to swallow, but my mouth and throat were too dry. I didn’t know what was worse: the bitter cold or the extreme thirst.
I was so wrapped up in my misery that I didn’t hear the door open or notice I was no longer alone until my visitor spoke.
“Jesse.” Rhys’s voice was harsher than I’d ever heard from him.
I lifted my head sluggishly to peer at his outline in the doorway. I saw movement, and then a laevik crystal filled the room with light. I put a hand up to shield my eyes after being in almost complete darkness. It took a moment to realize he wasn’t alone. Bayard must have entered ahead of him and another of his guards stood behind him.
“Rhys,” I croaked and dissolved in a fit of coughing that caused my parched throat to burn.
“Water,” he ordered briskly.
A few seconds later, a flask touched my lips, and I drank like someone who had been lost in the desert. The water hit my empty stomach, and I immediately retched it back up onto the floor. It soaked into Rhys’s pant legs as he knelt beside me, but he didn’t seem to notice it as he lifted my hair out of my face. His hand grazed my cheek, and he swore.
“Kaelen, get some blankets and a clean pallet,” he said, laying the back of his warm hand against my icy cheek.
“The queen will not be pleased if we interfere with her prisoner,” his guard replied.
Rhys looked over his shoulder. “I will handle my mother.” Anger laced his voice when he looked at me again. “They put her up here without heat or a blanket. Even the tarrans are covered with a blanket on cold nights.”
Bayard came to stand behind the prince. He wore his normal hard expression, but for the first time, I didn’t think it was directed at me. I was probably hallucinating from hunger and cold.
“Oh, Jesse, how did you come to this?” Rhys asked softly.
It felt like forever since I’d heard a kind voice in this horrible place, and a tear leaked out to drip onto his hand. He wiped it away tenderly and whispered, “It will be okay.”
Kaelen wasn’t gone long before he returned with a new pallet and several soft wooly blankets. Rhys picked me up and sat me on the new pallet, and Kaelen wrapped the blankets around me.
“T-thanks,” I said through chattering teeth, already feeling my body getting warmer under the thick blankets.
Rhys held the water flask out to me, and I took it with shaking hands. This time I sipped it, letting the water soothe my throat and quench my thirst.
“Here.” Bayard took the flask from me and pressed something else into my shackled hands. It was warm and wrapped in cloth, and when I opened it, I wanted to cry at the sight of the meat pastry.
“Eat it slowly,” he ordered when I started to take a large bite. I remembered throwing up when I drank too fast, and I took a tiny bite, chewing it well before I swallowed. My empty stomach growled so loudly at the first food I’d had in days that it sounded like a wild animal was hiding under the blankets with me.
“Is that better?” Rhys asked when my stomach finally stopped making noises.
I nodded and continued to eat, half expecting Bauchan to burst through the door at any second and snatch the food from my hands. I needed all the nourishment I could get to help me stay strong for whatever Queen Anwyn had in store for me.
Rhys sat beside me. The expressions on his guards’ faces said they weren’t happy about their prince sitting on the floor, but they said nothing.
“Jesse,” he began kindly. “How did this happen? No matter what my mother says, I cannot believe you would ever steal the ke’tain.”
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “I wouldn’t.”
“Why are they saying you were caught trying to take it?” he asked. When I didn’t answer, he said, “I want to help you, but you need to trust me.”
I glanced up at Bayard and Kaelen and whispered, “Just you.”
“No.” Bayard crossed his arms. “I am not leaving you alone in here, Rhys.”
Rhys arched his eyebrows at his guard. “She is shackled, weaponless, and as weak as a newborn hama. If I am not able to defend myself against her then you, my friend, are a very bad trainer.”
Bayard’s scowl slipped for a second, but it was back in place when he looked at me. “We will be right outside the door.”
I waited until after the door closed to speak. I didn’t agree to talk to Rhys because I thought he could save me from the queen. He might try, but he was not strong enough to go against her and her guards. I did it because I knew I would probably die here, and there were things I needed to say to him before it was too late.
“I was caught at the temple, but not trying to steal the ke’tain. I can’t tell you why I was there, only that I was trying to help Faerie. I understand if that’s not enough to convince you I’m telling the truth, but it’s all I can say about it.” I paused to take a sip of water. “It’s true that Bauchan questioned me in Unseelie, and he was angry when I wouldn’t answer all his questions. But that’s not why he arranged to have me kidnapped and brought here.”
Rhys was hanging on every word. “Why then?”
I hesitated for a moment and plunged forward. “He did it because when I was in the temple, I overheard one of the queen’s guards talking to someone about how to get past the wards to steal the ke’tain. He had to get me out of Unseelie before I told someone what I knew, so two of the queen’s guards snuck into my cell and took me. They made it look like I escaped and used a portal to go to my world.”
Rhys inhaled sharply. “Bauchan wants to steal the ke’tain? I have to tell Mother.”
He started to rise, but I snagged his sleeve to stop him. “The queen knows. Bauchan is acting on her behalf.”
“No. You are mistaken.” Rhys shook his head.
“I’m not,” I said firmly. “She told me so herself. Just like she admitted she had the ke’tain stolen the first time.”
He shot to his feet before I could stop him. “That is impossible. My mother would never do anything to harm Faerie.”
At his outburst, the door opened, and Bayard leaned in. “Is everything okay?”
I looked up at Rhys’s agitated face and waited for him to say no. He surprised me when he said, “Yes.”
He paced to the other side of the room and back. “Tell me this. What possible reason could the Seelie queen have for stealing our most sacred relic and endangering our world?”
I heard the challenge in his voice, but in his eyes, I caught a flicker of uncertainty. It was enough for me to keep going. He either believed me, or he didn’t. What did I have to lose?
“I don’t think she ever intended to harm Faerie,” I said. “But it was her actions that led us to where we are now. I’ve known that since long before I came to Seelie.”
He stopped pacing and spun to stare at me. “How?”
I wasn’t sure if he was asking how the queen had stolen the ke’tain or how I’d known all this time. I also didn’t know if he was ready to hear all of this, but I was running out of time.
I patted the pallet beside me, and he sat. Then I moved so I was facing him. “It all started when I went on a job at a black-market dealer’s house the Agency had raided.”
I told him about Lewis Tate, the dealer whom the Agency suspected had the ke’tain, and how I’d connected Tate to Davian Woods. That led to the party at Davian’s where I’d seen one of the queen’s guards create a portal and speak to her about the ke’tain. Rhys tried to interrupt me at that point, but I put up a hand to stop him. He could ask all the questions he wanted when I was done telling my story.
Rhys fell silent as I talked about Faris and what he had suffered after he’d discovered who had taken the ke’tain. Rhys’s eyes widened in horror when I described Faris wrapped in iron in that basement and Faris’s own account of it.
Rhys hadn’t been in the human world long, but like every faerie, he knew how deadly iron was and what long-term contact like that would do to a Fae body. The queen’s men could have killed Faris, but they chose instead to torture him for months. Kind-hearted Rhys struggled to process that level of brutality from people he knew.
I continued my story, telling him about Gus and how he’d had the ke’tain inside him all that time. I recounted how Davian’s men had kidnapped Conlan and me, and Davian had told me about his deal with Queen Anwyn. How I’d been shot by one of Davian’s men during our escape and would have died if Lukas and his men hadn’t attempted the conversion.
“What I could never figure out was why the queen would take the ke’tain from Faerie,” I said half to myself. “Today, I got my answer. She told me she did it to upset the balance of magic just enough to show everyone how dangerous it is to keep the barrier open. She wanted to use it to convince Unseelie to seal the barrier for good. But then the ke’tain was lost, and things got out of control.”
Rhys looked like I’d punched him in the gut. “My whole life, Mother has talked about sealing the barrier. At times, I felt like she wanted to do something about it, but I did not think she would take it this far.”
“She’s going to try again. This time, she’s not taking the ke’tain out of Faerie, but she’s going to use it to force Unseelie’s hand.” I paused. “And she’s planning to make it look like I was the one who stole it.”
“How could she? She has to know you will tell them the truth about her and…” He stared at me for several seconds, and then he vigorously shook his head. “No. She may be guilty of those other things, but my mother would not resort to killing an innocent. I cannot believe that of her.”
My stomach twisted as it did every time he called Queen Anwyn his mother. His real mother – our mother – was a good, strong, loving, fiercely protective woman who had been robbed of her son by that monster.
I looked into his blue eyes, identical to our father’s, and I was suddenly overcome with longing and grief. I was never going to hear my dad’s laugh again or feel the warm security of his hugs. And my mom would never recover from losing another child. My death was going to destroy our family, and Queen Anwyn’s victory over us would be complete. And there was nothing I could do to stop it.
I reached for Rhys’s hand and clasped it between mine. I might not be able to change my fate, but I could give something back to my parents before I died.
My father and I had been wrong. We’d thought the only way to protect our family from the queen was to keep the truth about Caleb a secret. What we should have done was tell our story to anyone who would listen. Most would not have believed us, but enough people would have. If we had exposed her and something had happened to us, then people would know who did it. More importantly, Rhys would know.
“There is something else I have to tell you. I believe it’s the real reason Queen Anwyn is trying so hard to seal off Faerie from the human world.”
He frowned. “I know her reason. She has talked about keeping our world free from the impurities of the other realm.”
“That’s what she tells you and everyone else, but it’s a lie,” I bit out the last word as the anger and pain I had been carrying for months threatened to spill from me. “She wants to close the barrier to protect her secret, to keep people from finding out about the horrible thing she did.”
“Jesse, I fear the stress of imprisonment is affecting your mind. I think I should summon a healer.” He tried to pull his hand from mine, but I refused to let him go.
“I don’t need a healer. I need you to listen to what I have to say.”
He sighed and assumed a placating expression. “Okay. What is this awful thing my mother did, and how do you know about it?”
I took a deep breath. “I know about it because she did it to my family.”
I didn’t know what he saw in my eyes, but he paled and spoke in a hushed voice. “What did she do?”
“Twenty years ago, Queen Anwyn stole something precious from my parents, and it nearly destroyed them. They’ve never gotten over it.”
Rhys’s hand flexed in mine. “Twenty years ago? That’s the year I was born.”
“I know,” I said softly.
He swallowed convulsively and covered my hand with his other one. “What did she take from them?” he whispered urgently.
“My brother.”