Page 47 of Hellish Fae
It gives me confidence as well as strength, and my pace quickens over the cold stone. I’m racing over the stairs with blurring speed, but the moment booming voices cut through the silence, my entire body halts.
“I don’t care what your father wants!” A voice like fire grumbles so loudly that it quivers the stones beneath my feet.
Inch by inch, I trail up to the archway that opens onto the highest room of the Kingdom of Roses’ castle. Open windows span around the circular space with moonlight illuminating the two figures inside. Only smooth brick surrounds them, and I don’t dare take a single step inside that room.
Because the central tower, it was made for dangerous but honest meetings.
No magic can exist within these enchanted stones. The sheath of shadows that covers my skin would be ripped away the moment I stepped foot into that room. Fae cannot trick their guests within this room. No contracts, no conniving words, nothing but honest talk can be conducted there.
And that must be why my brother is within, speaking with the Hell Lord himself.
I linger at the doorway and watch with big eyes as the wind blows my brother’s fiery red hair across his pale brooding face.
He looks tiny standing before the enormous hell creature with horns that add at least an extra foot to his already towering height.
“Your kind’s days of enslaving my spawn are over, boy,” Hell Lord growls. The clattering of his hooves against the floor echoes around the room. He glares down on my brother, his scarred chest three times the size of Nathiale’s delicate frame.
The ruler of all of hell or his four princes are not people you should ever mess with.
My brother is stupid enough to do just that though.
Nathiale doesn’t look intimidated at all. He simply nods as if the devil and he are one and the same.
“I agree. I want you to take them back. Take all of them and your curse back, and never let them step foot on fae soil again unless they are summoned. We have enough of them coming in with dark summoning magic, we don’t need yours as well,” Nathiale says with too much arrogance for a man speaking with the king of the demon land.
“I cannot break the handler bonds that have been made. I can’t break fae magic. Your people must release them,” Hell Lord says.
“If the token of your realm resided in hell, the demons would no longer be a problem for us,” says Nathiale.
“A PROBLEM!” the demon king roars. “The only problem is you. Release your bonds, and free the demons of my empire. They’re not slaves.”
Nathiale’s ridiculous face is too ignorant to show fear. Even I flinched back from the force of Hell Lord’s voice.
“Yes, but you’re asking for thousands of fae to release their demons. Some of them are dead and have gifted their demons to their heirs, making it impossible for those bonds to be broken. However, if you took back your realm token, then the demons would not have a link connecting them to this realm or to their fae handlers. They would be transported to the Torch if you restored the token to its proper place,” Nathiale explains.
My brows lift. I knew he wanted the remains I’d stolen for this reason, but I never realized there was so much to it.
What is Catherine’s proper place?
My grave, you idiot,she says sourly at the back of my mind.
Makes sense.
Why were you ever chosen as the token to begin with? Why were your remains brought here, Catherine?
I wait, peering into thin air as if I might spot her.
But, like the cunt that she is, she doesn’t answer.
I shake my head and focus on the shit show at hand.
“I agree,” Hell Lord says slowly, still suspicious of the boy in front of him. He’s right to be hesitant to agree with anything a fae says. Even in this ancient, enchanted tower. “Bring me the token now, and I’ll restore the precious piece and remove the curse on your lands.”
My heartbeat kicks up so loudly that it pounds in my ears.
“I will,” Nathiale says with certainty. “I just have to take care of one thing first.”
I swallow hard. Of all the times I’ve imagined slicing a blade through Nathiale’s heart, I never once pictured him doing the same to me.
