Chapter Twenty-Eight

I could barely will myself to open my eyes when the door burst open. Bres and several soldiers marched in dragging my handmaidens by their hair. I blinked, the girls coming into focus, a hard lump leaping in my throat as Una caught my gaze, her eyes wide. I snapped awake as Bres grabbed the collar of my dress and drew my face close to his. “Did you kill Lorcan?”

I swallowed hard. “Yes.”

“Did you warn the Tuatha Dé Danann of our attack?”

“Yes.”

Bres barked an order in Fomorian to one of the soldiers, and he dragged over one of the trembling girls, Mary. She had only spoken two words to me, but she smiled softly sometimes when she thought no one was looking. Now she trembled, a sharp, gasping sound emitting from her lungs. I lurched forward, clenching my fists, ice water racing through my veins.

“Leave her alone!” I cried, raising my hands.

Bres unsheathed a dagger from his boot and, before I could think, he slit her throat. Blood splattered over my face and against the bed. I screamed, the blood thick and metallic on my lips. The young girl’s eyes went from surprise to horror as the life bled out of her. Her mouth opened in a silent scream. She was dead in seconds, and Bres threw her to the floor. Mary, the sweet girl who passed through my rooms like a little house elf, who never had a mean word to say to anyone. Now she stared blankly at the ceiling, her body so still.

My throat constricted, my chest tight, and I stared at the bright flash of blood on my nightshirt, the small red beads splattered across my forearm. I tried to form the word, to ask why, why? But it just came out a garble of consonants and gasping breaths. She was dead because of me. Because of what I had done. The guilt crashed over me, and I grasped at my scalp as if I could erase her hollow stare from my mind.

A soldier dragged her body away, her eyes still wide open, unseeing. The handmaidens wept and leaned against one another, all save Una, whose lips thinned in a grim line as her downcast eyes traced the trail of blood across the floor.

Bres flipped the knife in his hand and pounded it in the bedpost, inches from my face. “You use that power again on me or my men and another girl dies. Do you understand?”

I couldn’t even move to nod my head, but lay there wiping the blood from my mouth. Hot tears welled up in my eyes, and I clenched my fists tight until my fingernails cut into my palms.

Bres stared down at me with a satisfied smirk on his face. A burning sensation rose from the cuffs and spread through my body. I screamed as the pain contorted my limbs, and I tumbled from the bed, writhing on the floor and sobbing.

“Lorcan told me how those cuffs work. Remarkable bit of magic.” He grabbed my face and squeezed it between his hands so I stared directly into his black eyes. “You do what I tell you to do or I’ll make Lorcan look like a kitten compared to how I can make you suffer. Maybe I’ll set one of your little handmaidens on fire next time so you can watch her burn along with you.”

“N-n-no,” I whimpered. “I’ll do what you say.”

“Are you sure, wife?”

“I-I—”

Bres turned toward the handmaidens. “Una! Come to me!”

I grabbed Bres’s forearm. “No! Don’t!”

He looked down and sneered at my hand. “Una!” He called again.

Una raised her chin and took firm steps toward Bres. Her jaw was set, but her hands trembled, and she buried them beneath her apron. “Milord?”

Bres grabbed her shoulders and twisted her body against his chest, raising the bloodied knife to her throat.

“I want you to be sure, wife!”

Una gasped, wincing in pain as a bead of blood dripped down her neck.

I rose to my knees. “I swear! I’ll do what you say! Please!”

Bres smiled and pushed Una’s braid away from her cheek as he leaned down and kissed her ear before bringing the knife up to her neck.

“Maybe before I set her on fire, I’ll pluck out these big brown eyes and serve them to you.”

“No! Please don’t! Please!”

Bres traced the knife along Una’s eyelid, and her pupils dilated.

He withdrew his knife and threw her with a savage push. I grasped Una’s shoulders, pulling her to me with a choked sob.

“Prepare yourself for travel. We leave for Teamhair immediately.” Bres and the soldiers marched out of the room. As soon as the door slammed, the handmaidens collapsed with a chorus of keening.

I clasped Una’s hands. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Una shook her head and smoothed the hair from my face, extricating herself from my arms. “Molly, Fiona!” she called to the handmaidens, pointing to the pool of blood on the floor. “Clean this up. Deirdre, Jane! Pack our ladyship’s trunk.”

Una lifted me up, my knees shaking.

“We must prepare for travel, ma’am.”

I squeezed Una’s hand, biting back tears. “Una…I’m sorry. I—”

She patted my hand and turned away. “We must hurry now.”

Fomorians swarmed the surrounding fields like oversized beetles in their black armor. As I entered the courtyard, a wave of sound hit me on all sides: the clash of clanking armor, battle horses whinnying in anticipation, the grunts and growls of cu síth, the crackling shrieks of gray men. Dark, diminutive, elfish-looking creatures with sharp teeth and large pointed ears wandered through the ranks, shouting a strange raspy language, and giants, taller than any of the Fomorians, shouted and shoved one another. A whole company of Cyclops stood subdued and patient, their single eyes darting back and forth, their wide arms leaning on their spears, waiting for orders.

Bres walked the lines, a giant helm with the horns of a bull resting atop his head. The soldiers parted when they saw me, and even the giants stopped their shoving to look. The cold wind blew my hair away from my face, and my dark blue cloak billowed across the ground. Bres nodded at my presence and flashed a threatening glance toward Una and the handmaidens trailing behind me.

A loud hiss behind me made my skin prickle. A figure approached in oversized armor. Two serpents with razor-sharp talons at the end of their small feet slithered by his side while a group of gray men hopped and hooted in his wake. Thornton.

He bowed. “I am at your service, Lord Bres,” he said beneath his snakelike helmet. “But where’s Lorcan?”

Bres’s eyes narrowed. “Lorcan had an unfortunate accident.”

“Then who controls the princess?”

As if on cue, Bres sent the burning pain coursing through my body, and I grabbed onto my stomach, to shield myself from the invisible flames consuming me.

“I control her now, as it should be!” Bres snarled.

“But Lorcan knew how to—”

Bres raised himself to his full seven feet, his horned helmet making him appear taller, monstrous. “Do you dare doubt me, wizard?”

Thornton paused and then bowed in submission. “Not at all, my lord. I do not question that you will bring your army to victory with the power of the aisling.”

“I will bring my army to victory by the power of my sword, which I will use to cut out Bodb Dearg’s black heart and eat it in front of him.”

Thornton bowed deeper. “As you will, my lord.” He glanced at me with a smirk, but I noted a doubtful glint in his eye. Bres returned to his soldiers, barking orders across the field, but my gaze never left Thornton’s.

“I might bring you to Teamhair, break down the wards that protect it, but…” I clenched my hands, energy pouring into my fingertips. “A lot can happen on the battlefield, Thornton.”

He threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, yes, indeed.” He grabbed my wrist, fingering the embossed writing across the leathery material. “When Teamhair falls, who knows who might be in control of these pretty bracelets?”

I gritted my teeth, wrenching my hand away. “I’d throw myself into the sea first.”

Thornton smiled. “But not before serving my will.”

An icy chill swept through my veins. “And what is your will?”

“It’s a lot greater than that heap of marble they call Teamhair.” Thornton’s eyes stared hard into the distance. “And it’s a lot more than Bres’s small mind could ever imagine.”

“The Tree of Life,” I whispered.

Thornton smiled. “It will be mine soon enough.”

Thornton gave me a slight bow and turned away.

“We’re not done here!” I called after him, his bastes hissing at me before slithering after him.

Una walked up beside me. “Who is that?”

“A dead man,” I said beneath my breath.

A deep rumbling horn bellowed across the field, its bass tones resonating in my chest. The wind howled through the lines of creatures barely contained by the commanding Fomorians, and with slow, measured steps, Bres walked to the front of the formations, his deep voice echoing across the lines, calling them to action. They responded with a shattering guttural cry, and I shuddered against the weight of the horrible sound.

Bres stalked up behind me. “Are you ready, wife?”

I stared at the massive army surrounding us. I had never traveled with so many before.

As if reading my thoughts, Bres turned to me. “You will take all of us to Teamhair, or the girls will die.” He nodded at Una standing beside me.

“You don’t have to do this,” she whispered to me when Bres turned his back.

I shook my head, gritting my teeth.

Marching to the front of the line, I stood before the ranks of Dark Fae, their cruel eyes scrutinizing me with each breath I took. No one spoke, and the silence stretched on forever as I closed my eyes and forced myself to concentrate. I expanded my mind, throwing a net across the formations, binding them to me. When I felt the weave was secure, I broke my mind and sent the other half across the mountains, the fields, the rolling hills of Tír na nÓg until I found Teamhair.

Its pearly towers gleamed in the sun, banners flapping against the rushing wind. Before I could lose my hold on Bres’s army and the vision of Teamhair, I used my mind to graft Bres’s army onto the plane of space before the castle. I broke a hole through the distance, the weave that creates the illusion of here and there, and brought the two things together in my mind.

When I opened my eyes again, I stood on a far hill overlooking the Fae castle. The army behind me bellowed with a roar of triumph, and I fell to my knees onto the cool green grass surrounding the marble towers. Exhaustion overtook my limbs, a cold sweat dripping down my face.

You did it, E.

But at what price?

Bres swaggered over to me, gloating beneath his helmet. “You have done well, wife.” He placed an arm on my shoulder, and I flinched away, hiding my face in my hands. He shouted orders to his lieutenants, and the army erupted into orchestrated chaos as tents flew up and catapults moved into position. An armored hand seized my shoulder, and a group of soldiers escorted my handmaidens and me to a large tent, leaving two guards outside to watch us. Una took my hand and brought me to a small cot in the corner.

“Una,” I whispered, peering into her small face. “What are we going to do?”

She looked at her hands, tracing a small lacy scar on her palm. “I do not know.”

“We have to stop him! We have to—” The words caught in my throat as a wave of dizziness clouded my vision.

Una pushed me against the pillow and stroked my brow. “You need to rest, ma’am,” she said. “You won’t be doing anything for a while now, no matter what Bres says.”

My eyes drifted closed, and I relaxed into Una’s warm hand for a moment. I perched on my elbow, but the dizziness was too much. Collapsing into the mattress, I fell into oblivion.

…

“Elizabeth.”

At the sound of my mother’s voice, my eyes popped open, and I found myself lying on a beach stretching miles in each direction. A slate gray sky arced overhead and waves thundered against the sand, the breath of the tide cold and salty against my cheek.

“Hello, my darling.”

I jumped to my feet and backed away as she approached me. “Is this a trick?”

She raised her hands in defense. “You need to be strong now, Elizabeth,” she said, taking a tentative step forward.

I shook my head, looking down at my feet curling in the sand. “I don’t know how. Not anymore…”

“Yes, you do.” She placed a hand on my shoulder and stared into my eyes. “Bres will stop at nothing to destroy the worlds of both men and Fae. You must save Tír na nÓg.”

“And how the hell am I supposed to do that? What’s the point of you even coming here? Why didn’t you come before—?” I broke off, not wanting to finish the sentence. I was ashamed for yelling at my mom, a woman I didn’t even know, but the anger boiled inside me, spawned from some deep resentment that had been brewing my whole life. After a pause, I raised my eyes to meet her gaze. “Why weren’t you there for me when I needed you?”

My mother’s face fell, and she bowed her head. “Elizabeth, if I could have come, if I could have saved you from all this…I tried, but…” She blinked, and tears streaked down her face. “I failed.”

“Are you dead?” I half choked on the question.

She looked up at the sky, at some unseen force deep in the dark clouds. “I might as well be.”

“What does that mean?” I demanded. “Where are you? What are you?”

My mother ignored my question, her green eyes piercing me. “You must defeat Bres. Only you can do it, Elizabeth.”

Tears stung my eyes. “I can’t! I’m handfasted to him! And these cuffs—” I held up my wrists to show her the black leather cuffs that Bres had bound to me, but they weren’t there. Not even the tattoos swirled around my wrist. My skin was clean, clear, like nothing had happened.

My mother smiled and tucked a curl behind my ear.

“Handfasting and binding are the arrogant magic of small men. You can break through these spells.”

“But how?”

Niamh stared into the sea. “It is not something I can teach you. No one can.”

My hands curled into fists at my sides. “Then what?”

Niamh furrowed her brow and stared back at me. “You must go now. They cannot find you here.”

“They? They who?” I demanded.

“Just remember, you can break the spells. You have that power.”

“Please! Tell me how!”

I clutched at her fingers, and she collected me into an embrace one last time and whispered in my ear. “It was not I who came to your dream this time.”

I leaned away from her, staring at my mother with wide eyes. “You mean…this is your dream?”

She nodded, a sad ghost of a smile twisting her lips as she raised her hand to my cheek. “You have the power, Elizabeth. You always have.”

I startled awake, crying out for her.