Page 38 of Cursed Shadows 5

Glazed brown leathers, like that of a light warrior, but decorated with the marks of officials. The fae are adorned with gold braces shielding their forearms, scabbards crossed at their backs, golden chain-link armours draped over their shoulders. What really gives their official ranks away are the gold emblem badges on their sleeves, the crest of the queen.

I count four all up.

And then the fifth enters.

My face tightens.

Ronan’s hair is braided to his scalp, adorned with speckles of gold clips, and in his gloved grip is a scroll of beige parchment.

His gaze finds me, fast. All of their gazes find me.

I set my shoulders against the urge to sink into my chair and slide down to the floor to hide under the table.

Without a word from them, I know they are here for me.

How they found me is a question that flitters through my startled brain, and it takes only a heartbeat before I suspect I have been trailed.

Ronan offers no gesture of greeting, no hint of familiarity as he marches the few steps between us.

Eamon and I watch his approach, until he’s towering over us at the edge of the table, and the other four officials hang back at the entrance.

“Narcissa Elmfield of the Queen’s Court, daughter of Brok Emfield,” Ronan starts and, with a tug of the string woundaround the parchment, unravels the scroll, “You are hereby summoned to the High Court by order of your Queen.”

Your queen.

Not how I would address her these days…phases.

If the queen has a name, it isn’t known to the likes of me, not even Ronan. It will be a name kept like a secret by her children; not a name to be spoken by a common tongue.

Eamon is quick to answer for me. “Narcissa will not be going anywhere with you.”

As though he didn’t speak at all, Ronan shifts his gaze down the scroll. “Your immediate presence is required for questioning regarding the Sacrament and Mother.”

A bob thickens my throat.

I flicker my attention back to the other officials. Familiar faces in two of them from around the High Court. The others I do not recognise.

“Why must I be questioned?” There is no challenge in me, mere confusion in the frown that furrows my face. “You all saw it for yourselves. I committed no crimes.”

All that I did was legal within the space of the passage.

I have nothing to answer for.

“It is believed you were chosen by Mother,” Ronan says, stiff, and he lowers the scroll from his gaze. He looks at me. “It is believed, Narcissa, Mother spoke to you. This must be investigated.”

Eamon’s hand hits the table. “Licht’s loss is not Narcissa’s to answer for.”

Ronan’s fierce gaze swerves to him. “Were you not one of us, for a time? It appears that loyalty has shifted,” he says, his upper lip curling in blatant disgust. “How quickly a hybrid isswayed.” He turns his gaze back on me. Softer, he adds, “You heard Mother. She spoke to you. You spoke to her. You made a wish and offered a sacrifice. You understand that you must be questioned.”

“Must I?” I arch a brow and lean back in my seat. “What has Licht done for me but put a bounty on my head? Most of what will haunt me from the passage is you—all of you,” and I jerk my chin to the officials huddled near the door, “hunting me to get to Daxeel. I was collateral then, but now I am important?”

Shame floods his cheeks.

Ronan lowers his head for a moment, his jaw tense, then draws in a long inhale. It swells his chest before he finds the courage to look at me again. “The risks, Narcissa,” he says, a rushed breath. “You must understand, the risks of your survival were too great, and Licht has paid the price in our loss.”

My shoulders jerk with a scoff. “You need me now. But you were all too eager to turn against me. My own folk. Not one of you came to my aid before the second passage. No one offered me a way out—beyond killing Daxeel. No one offered me any protection on the mountain. No one offered to train me, to teach me basic survival skills. It was a dark one that did that.” Well, Dare is hybrid, but it doesn’t serve me well in the moment to call him such. “Licht did not only fail me, it sacrificed me.” I rise from my chair, my stare unflinching. “It is you who must understand… I am not of Licht anymore.”

His tone is as dark as his eyes. “You are leaving us?”

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