Page 95 of What did you do?

If my training had taught me anything, it was that you never struck out of impulse or outrage.

“Your head should be so full of planning and calculating, you don’t have space in there for emotions.”Commander Von’s shrill voice crawled through my head.

I would do anything to never see that fae ever again. I had been ten when he arrived in the human realm to begin my training. I was also ten the first time he broke my nose and fed me the fae we had killed for dinner.

“Don’t look at me like that. You would have done the same to get back at your enemy. I guarantee you would have. How else was I to get my revenge on Tenebris?” She clucked at me.

Sounds muffled. Colors blurred. I backed farther away from the woman.

What could I do now? Even if I abandoned everything, I would be wanted and recognized all across Seelie. The tie to Eli wouldn’t matter now; he had doomed himself from the start.

“You’re worse than I even thought!” I shouted, barely recognizing my voice as everything I’d planned unraveled before my very eyes.

“Says you,” she laughed. “How many kills did you make without a purpose or for training, and guess what?” she whispered with a smile. “You loved doing every one. Your darkness exceeded my every expectation. Except when it came to Mendax, of course. I should have known. You were the perfect little me in every possible way. It’s only fitting that you want Thanes’s son,” she laughed. “Truly, this is my fault for training you so well. You now think you can betray me and join the Unseelie?”

“That’s not what happened!” I screamed.

“You are lucky that you are tied to my son and he may be needed, or you would be dead right now, Artemi or not.”

I looked around for anything I could use for a weapon, but all logic vibrated out of my head with rage.

“You will never get the other half of your heart. It will be destroyed the moment you step foot in Malvar,” she said. “Or maybe I’ll keep it as a reminder on my bookshelves—a conversation piece, if you will. You foolish child, had you not betrayed me, everything in this land could have been yours. You never should have crossed me.”

Standing up, I caught the glint of a letter opener in a cup sitting on her desk.

Her dress swished against itself as she walked over to the corner of her mahogany desk, where a beautiful clear- and frosted-glass chess board sat.

“Let me see Eli,” I said. I needed to tell him everything. He needed to know.

Suddenly the door burst open and the guards poured back in, all circling me this time.

“Goodbye, Calypso. Too bad you didn’t get to tell everyone goodbye.” She tsked, moving her frosted queen on the chessboard. “I’ve taken matters into my own hands. The Unseelie castle is crumbling to dust as we speak. You see, while the future Unseelie king was galivanting around my castle trying to breed with you, I was placing my pawns.” She nodded to the open doors. “Do you know what happens when the opponent leaves their queen unprotected?”

One of the guards stalked toward her carrying a burlap sack, stopping just in front of her. Another small nod from the queen and the armored guard opened the bag, pulling out a large, hairy stump. Pale-green moths scattered, escaping from the burlap.

“They get overtaken, leaving their would-be king an easy target.”

The guard readjusted his grip on the thing, collecting more of the black hair to reveal a beautiful, pale face with icy-blue eyes and red lips.

Queen Tenebris.

The guard held Queen Tenebris’s severed head out at me.

My stomach cramped, and its contents spilled out of my mouth, dribbling down my chin as the taste of acid coated my tongue.

“It wasn’t the Fallen fae that attacked the Unseelie castle, it was you,” I whispered, gripping the wall behind me to steady myself.

“Do you know the best part of being queen?” she asked. “My people believe anything I tell them. The Fallen have long been trying to gain a hold on either of our castles. It was hardly a stretch for everyone to believe it was them. When they find us at Unseelie, we will yet again be saving the day and claiming it as Seelie to keep the evil Fallen fae from gaining control.”

Queen Saracen smiled wide as she grabbed ahold of Tenebris’s bloody head.

I brushed off a tickle on my face and realized the luna moths had flocked to me, all landing on my body as if I were their owner.

“We intercepted the dark prince just prior to departure. There wasn’t much left of his head, but we grabbed this.” The guard shuffled to dig through the burlap sack.

His meaty hands landed on their prize and he lifted out a chain.

A chain with my tooth attached to it.

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