Page 10 of Crown of Briars
Seething, I marched down the steps, finding the gates already wide open with lines of soldiers on each side. My hands formed shaking fists at my sides as I replayed that moment with Gerard over and over.
He had tried to haul me away against my will.
He was no better than theWraith King.
We had a plan! How had he forgotten?
I remembered the derision with which he’d spoken about the tale of the enchanted rose. My heart sank.
He didn’t have faith in me. He thought I would fail.
A knot formed in my throat, and I swallowed hard, shoving away all thoughts of Gerard. He didn’t matter. Not right now.
All that mattered was my plan.
For three days,I lay curled up on the cavern floor, quivering in agony as the change ripped through my body. By now, both wings had split through my flesh, carving new scars along my body. Barbs coated my tail, the tender skin still festering from where the sharpened points had pierced it when they had emerged.
Clermont was right. It had never been this severe before.
The curse was growing stronger, and I couldn’t stop it.
I should have sent for the human girl sooner,I lamented. Perhaps if I had, I could have done more. Now, I feared I wouldn’t even survive her arrival. The pain was so excruciating that I often blacked out, only to awaken several hours later, trembling in cold sweat, with fresh blood dripping down my body from my new wounds.
A loud caw jolted me from my anguished haze, and I blinked incoherently toward the sound. A flutter of wings, and then a large raven appeared, cocking her head at me in curiosity.
“What,” I bit out, my voice hoarse from screaming.
Tislora spread her wings wider. Her feathered form stretched and morphed, the wings growing until they eclipsed her entire small body. When she withdrew them, she had shifted into her full unseelie form: a tall, shadowed figure with long, black claws, charcoal skin, and eerie silver eyes. Her ravenwings were massive. They fluttered behind her, leaving several black feathers in their wake.
“I thought you’d like to know that Clermont has just left to fetch your human pet,” she said, inspecting her lethal claws and flicking a feather off them.
My eyes closed with relief.Good.She would be here soon. Perhaps her presence alone would help alleviate the fury of my curse. Though I doubted it would be that easy.
When Tislora only continued to stand there watching me, I snapped, “Anything else?”
She hesitated before replying. “Do you wish for me to extract her blood upon her arrival?”
I growled, the sound low and menacing in my throat. Behind me, my wings flared with my anger, despite the festering cuts along my back that throbbed from the movement. “No,” I said through gritted teeth. “You should know better than to ask.”
“What I know is that you are a step away from death,” Tislora countered. “Your temper doesn’t frighten me, Varius. I will do what it takes to keep our sovereign alive, even if your own stupidity gets in the way.”
“I… can manage,” I rasped, “without her blood.”
“I don’t believe you.”
My strength was failing. Darkness crept into the corners of my eyes. I was in danger of blacking out again. I didn’t have the energy to argue with her. As a fae, I couldn’t lie, but Tislora knew that if Ibelievedthe statement, then I could still utter the words.
I believed I could survive without human blood. But Tislora did not.
Tislora knelt to the ground, her black cloak spreading around her like an ink stain. Her silver eyes flashed like orbs. “If you do not emerge from this cave by tomorrow, I will extract her blood. Better to risk her ire than to lose you.”
I looked up at her, trying to glare, but my head was spinning,and all I could do was rest my head on the rocky ground with a ragged exhale.
“That’s what I thought.” Tislora stood, her wings quivering as if preparing to take flight.
“Lor,” I called out.
She turned to face me, a single eyebrow raised.
