Page 99 of What did you do?

Gorgeous crystal chandeliers swayed slightly with the breeze that swept in from the open room. The cells were three sided. As soon as you entered a cell through the barred door of the hallway, you faced open sky. There was about twenty feet of polished marble flooring between the back wall and the edge of the room. It was completely open to the elements, and at various times of the day the sun beat down and cooked the room. At night the sun shifted to the other side of the mountain, leaving it bright but cold, but that wasn’t the worst thing that happened here.

I heard the tapping of boots on marble and tried to listen harder. It was the slower guards.

A beautiful feast of meats than I’d ever seen before, and refused to touch, would be brought in and set on the table next to a spread of fruits and cheeses. They did this every evening and left it until you couldn’t eat anymore.

When I had first arrived at Malvar, I thought there had been a mistake. How could this place be terrifying and bad? It was beautiful and almost cozy looking—if you didn’t look at the three walls of iron bars.

But like everything else in life, sometimes the most beautiful things are the most hideous.

The Seelie prison was set up in levels along the mountain. The worst and most dangerous of the inmates were placed in three-sided cells atop the mountain, where I was, while the rest were held in cells inside the bottom half of the mountain.

I didn’t understand why they put me up here. I didn’t feel dangerous anymore. I felt weak and stupid. How could I have let everything slip through my fingers when I was so close?

A breeze flowed through the open chamber, bringing with it the scent of rotting corpses.

“Hey, puddle,” whispered the familiar voice of my neighbor.

Just as every other time, I ignored him.

Since being here, the occupants of the neighboring cells had changed several times. With no real privacy, you could sit and watch the other person through the bars all day if you wanted to.

It irritated me when they tried to speak to me. It was a waste of breath to talk to anyone ever again.

I should have stayed in Unseelie. If I was going to Tartarus anyway, I would have preferred it to be at the hands of Mendax. I wished I’d stopped pretending and let the darkness consume me with him by my side. I should have trusted my gut and told him everything. He would have helped me—I knew he would have. I wished I could have told Eli the truth about everything also, let him know how much I loved him. I hoped Mendax had died knowing how much I truly did love him.

“Puddle, I have an idea.”

I had an idea too.

I rose from the floor where I sat, steadying myself against the bars at my back. The wind tickled hair across my face as I took a step toward the open edge of my cell. Another step and I could see what looked like a whole world below me. We were so high up.

“She moves!” came the high-pitched voice of my other neighbor.

Everything I had ever loved had hurt me in some way. Every time I was strong when I wanted to crumble, every time I fought when I wanted to cower… It was for nothing. I had been put here.

I had missed so many perfect opportunities to kill Saracen. I should have just taken one of them. I had planned on killing her at the ceremony, after she empowered me as an official Seelie and restored my heart. I was going to kill them all. I could have a million times over. Everyone but Eli. When I was thirteen, I swore I’d never hurt him. I loved him so much back then, it hurt.He was the only one who wouldn’t die. I should have done it without my heart—it’s not like I planned to be alive for long.

My tired eyes stared at the red-and-gold sky. Tears wouldn’t come anymore.

I missed Walter so much. Had he managed to escape the castle? He never even got to say goodbye to Mendax.

I took another step. Soft fur grazed against the sole of my foot; I numbly stepped over the large heap.

I was nothing.

Even science, the only thing that had kept me sane for years, now felt wrong. In fae realms, nothing acted with any predictability. Much like its inhabitants.

I had been holding on to the thought that Mendax was somehow still alive. I could only imagine how broken he must’ve been for them to have been capable of taking him down. He must have lost it seeing his mother’s dead body and knowing he hadn’t been there in time to stop it.

He’d been with me.

My throat tightened at the emptiness I felt from our bond.

I never should have fought myself about him—he was never my villain.

“Edin, I don’t like the way Puddle looks,” the male voice called to my other neighbor.

“Okay, ass,” the girl grumbled back.

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