I woke up in total darkness. It was better this way; I didn’t need a visual reminder of what had happened or where I was. I was trapped, thick fabric coiled around my ankles and wrists, holding me tethered to the wall. I tugged, halfheartedly at first. A knife of pain shot through my side. Memories flooded back. I’d been injured. Boy, I missed being able to speed-heal. I winced in anticipation of the pain and then tugged harder, trying to do the impossible and pull myself free. It was no use. I inhaled the cold frigid air and refused to shed another tear over the man I’d come so far to find. The father I’d never had and obviously, never would.
It was freezing. I’m going to die here. Panic raced through me and I tugged against the fabric. With a grunt of despair I stopped and rested my head against the cold floor. I was inside, or at least it felt that way. A dungeon maybe, or a cell? They had all manner of storage for holding a person against their will.
“Lorelei?”
I heard my name whispered against the darkness and immediately felt a wave of relief. “Zanthiel?” I wasn’t alone. And he wasn’t dead. All in all, this was already better than expected. “Where are you?”
“Across from you. Are you hurt?” he asked.
I inhaled a shaky breath. “No, I’m fine,” I lied. “You?”
“The same.”
“Where do you think we are?” I asked. He didn’t answer, but a voice in my head whispered, We’re nowhere. Lost. Gone.
“Lorelei.” He interrupted my dismal thoughts. “We have to free ourselves from these bonds.”
No kidding. The question, of course, was how.
“Use magic,” he said, and I could feel his thoughts seeping into mine. You can break through these ties. They are merely fabric.
I closed my eyes and pictured the outcome I wanted. I saw us free, and safe, but then the vision morphed into something else. I saw his mother pleading us for her life. My father with his head under a guillotine’s blade. And Etienne’s broken body scattered over the lands of Mythlandria. Horrified, my eyes sprang open. I blinked rapidly to wipe it from my mind. Did I really want them all dead? No. Of course not. It had to be this place. The Shadow Court was filled with darkness. It feeds on one’s fears and delights in thoughts of violence.
“I don’t know if I can do this here,” I said. “The darkness is too close. I can feel it tainting my powers.”
“Lorelei, you can do this. Close your eyes and focus,” he said firmly, and then he paused. “Or we say our good-byes now.”
And there it was, the final push needed to unleash the forces lost within me that I had no road map to retrieve. A surge of power swelled and with a swift pull, the enchanted fabric gave way, bursting into a shower of sparks that fell to the cold ground as ash.
“Did it work?” he asked, sounding more skeptical than hopeful.
“It worked. Keep talking so I can find you.” I repeated the spell to free my legs, then crawled around the room in the darkness, following the sound of his voice. “How big is this place?” I muttered, when my knees began to ache.
“Keep coming. You are close now, I can feel it.”
I could feel it too. We had that connection and it drew me to him as naturally as breathing. The ground was littered with jagged rocks and frozen dirt, which bit into my hands and feet. But it was safer to stay on the ground. With the dizziness still throwing me off kilter, I knew that standing would only lead to falling. Or throwing up. Neither would be helpful in getting us out of here. I crawled over something cold. And damp. It was a body. Or the remains of one. And then another. My stomach heaved at the thought of what might be beneath me.
“Lorelei? I can’t hear you. Talk to me. Are you all right?” I could hear the concern in his voice, but I was afraid if I answered, I might lose it.
The stench of blood, my own and others’, filled my nostrils. I leaned against my elbows and rested my head on my forearms. “I can’t—” A wave of nausea swelled over me. Just as I was about to collapse, I stretched out my hand and met with his body. Firm. Cold. And very much alive.
Pulling myself upright, I clung to him, my hands running over the hard ripples of his chest.
“I knew you would find me.” His breath fanned against my hair as I felt around him to find the cloth binding him, incinerating it.
Freed from our bonds, a doorway materialized. It all felt like some sort of test. A sick game. The door was a passage to somewhere else, and neither of us knew where. But we had to get out before it was too late. My father would return, no doubt, and if not to kill us both, then to at least end Zanthiel’s life.
Tapping into my anger once more, I forced myself to conjure more magic, enough to cause the door to grind open. There was a large vacant room on the other side. It was round and void of furniture, as well as bodies. The walls were painted a blinding yellow. Such a happy, hopeful color. Ironic, considering. We stepped inside. I squinted and shielded my eyes against the glare with my hand. Zanthiel glanced back over his shoulder at the pitch darkness behind us, before he followed me through. The door ground shut behind us and then promptly vanished.
“Great. Out of the frying pan…” I wheeled around as a smoky apparition began to take form in front of us.
“And into the fire…” he finished. His hand reached for his sword on instinct before he remembered he no longer had it.
The shape of a man formed from the shadowy smoke and before it had fully formed, I knew exactly who he was.
My father.
I glared at him. “Any more surprises in store for us in your fun house of mirrors?”
He glided around us as we stood rooted in place in the center of the round yellow room. “Some things are real, some are but a dream. I’m glad you have awoken. I knew in time you would.”
I nodded, hating this man more by the second. “You drugged us.” It wasn’t a question, since I already knew the answer.
“A simple sleeping potion to diffuse the situation and pull forth the information I required. Sometimes it is necessary for a parent to take action against a child’s will.”
My body stiffened. “Do not ever refer to yourself as my parent or me as your child.”
He regarded me with expressionless eyes the exact same color as mine. “Why would I not? It is the truth,” he said.
I wanted to lash out. To tell him he had no idea what it actually meant to be a parent. But they were words. Empty and meaningless because they’d fall on deaf ears.
“Should I assume you’re going to let us go now? Since you’re being so paternal now?” I was doing a poor job of keeping the acidic tone from my voice.
“I am not certain that would be best. You seem to possess a death wish of sorts, rushing headlong into danger and peril at all turns. Your presence here is confirmation of that.”
“I’m here to save the people I love. Not that you’d know anything about love.”
“There are other ways to get what you want without getting the people around you killed. You are a menace. And no one is safe around you. This task you are on has become an obsession, and I want to know why.”
“This quest has fallen in my lap. I’m only doing what has to be done.”
He shook his head and frowned. “You do not see it, do you, child? It must stop. You are falling too far.”
Guilt flooded back to me and I remembered all of the people who’d been hurt indirectly because of me. “I didn’t mean for anything to happen to anyone,” I stammered. “I was trying to help them… you included. Huge mistake, I see that now.”
“Perhaps that is the problem. You are trying to save the world when you should be trying to save yourself. Instead, you have agreed to the madness, indulging in the dark magic and magical beings alike.” Glinting with contempt, my father’s eyes shifted briefly to Zanthiel. “I will not relinquish my crown nor my throne again. Not to any being, least of all to him.” He pointed his sword at Zanthiel’s head. “I will never support this pairing. Leave now. Return to your world. Or I shall be forced to end both your lives.”
My stomach clenched, but I pushed myself to take a step toward him. “You believe the rumors, right? That I’m filled with dark magic and will destroy the realms I’m prophesied to rule? Is that it?”
“You must have surmised that the gifts and magic your mother has been trying so futilely to suppress in herself flow through you as well. Her magic. Your grandmother’s darkness. And mine as well. They were right to have forbidden your birth. I was wrong to have taken a bride from human, a witch no less. A momentary weakness that I cannot allow to bring down kingdoms.”
I pushed back a wave of pain. “I cannot believe you are saying this to me right now,” I whispered. There had to be some reason the man who’d given me life no longer had any concern for it. But try as I might, I couldn’t find it.
“You are a fool to have assumed this could go any other way. You do not belong here, child. Go home.”
Anger welled up inside me. This was what I’d crossed realms to find? A father who’d never wanted me?
“I’ve met goblins less despicable than you,” I spat. “I can’t believe my mother could love anyone like you.”
“She did once. She may still. You are mine. Whether we wish otherwise or not.”
“I hate you.”
“Perhaps you do now. And maybe you will for always. But that matters little. I made a deal. Your life must be spared at all costs. His, however, is expendable.” The black metal blade of his sword glowed red hot with heat.
“No,” I shouted. “You can’t kill him. We’re going to be married.”
Zanthiel’s head lowered and a silence fell over the court.
“What did you say?” My father’s voice sliced through the quiet, rattling the rafters.
I sucked back my tears and tried to steady my breath. I can get us out of this. I have the power to get us out of this.
“You heard me,” I said, reigning in my emotions.
My father moved to my side, his full height towering over me. “No child of mine will ever love anyone from this realm. You will return to your home. Now.”
Two guards appeared from the ethers and grabbed my arms and tried to drag me from the room. A surge of panic swelled in me and I shook them off. They both went flying across the room, their bodies slamming into the wall.
Everyone froze. Stunned, my mouth gaped open, but I returned my attention to my father.
My hands trembled as I took a step toward Oberon. “Please. Don’t make me use force. I can’t leave here. Not before…”
“Before what?” He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “What is it you are intending, child?”
I squeezed mine shut.
“Speak!” he hollered.
“There’s someone I have to help.”
He lowered his sword. “Who is this someone?”
Again I fell silent. If he was willing to kill Zanthiel for being with me, what would he do if he knew I was trying to save Adrius, the elven prince whose father was partly responsible for his banishment from Winter Court? I bit down on my lower lip.
“If you will not tell me, then I’ve no doubt your dark faerie betrothed will.”
Oberon grabbed my arm, yanking me to his chest, and pressed the edge of his sword to my throat.
“Tell me who she is planning to save. Or I will bleed her dry of magic and order the necromancers to revive her.”
I remained completely still as the cold of his blade spread down my neck.
For the first time ever, I saw Zanthiel flinch. Without pause, his steely gaze lifted to my father’s. “It is the elf prince she intends to save. We believe he is with Venus, held by Octãhvia’s binding curse.”
I glared at Zanthiel, shaking my head incredulously. “Why did you tell him, Zanthiel? He wouldn't have hurt me.”
“Yes, Lorelei,” he said, his voice coated in darkness. “He would have.”
My father lowered his sword slowly in a veiled attempt to control his rage. His face flamed red and the veins on his neck and forehead pulsed against his pale skin.
“Ilyandra. You are a fool. Quite clearly, you are your mother’s daughter. Have you no concern for the consequences of your actions?”
I tensed. Seriously? “My actions? What about yours?”
Oberon’s attention shifted to the feathered Shadow fey. “I will listen to no more of this. Leave them. And let in the demons. If they survive their escape, she will no doubt be ready to return to her home.”
He glanced back at us, shaking his head slowly. “However, should she refuse to take leave of this realm…” His eyes met mine briefly, cold and impassive.
“Kill them.”