Page 23 of Wrath of the Fae Queen
Both sets of eyes turn to me, but I am struggling to focus on anything. I usually hold my alcohol very well.
I don’t think that is the effect of alcohol,Keira says from somewhere very far away.
“I almost feel bad now,” Ada says.
Nico shrugs. “He needed to get his dose somehow.”
I slide sideways and fall off my chair, too high to feel the impact as I collide with the ground. Laughter rises up within me, tears forming at the corners of my eyes, my entire chest shaking with it until it hurts and I can hardly drag in a breath. Until I can no longer remember what was so funny.
Two demons peer down at me with consternation. I am supposed to be afraid of them, suspicious that they might harm me, but I can’t remember why. They seem nice enough despite the talons.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have shared our concentrated dose of belladonna with him. Let him start with a mild concoction,” Nico grumbles.
“Weakling,” Ada spits. “It’s more entertaining this way.”
“Well, I hope you’re entertained while we scrape him off the floor and get him back to his chambers. Dante wants him alive for his trial tomorrow. The Mistress is very interested in him.”
A string of curses leaves Ada’s lips, then the world spins around me and I am suddenly on my feet, hunched over and being dragged between the two of them. I blink and blink again, but my vision remains blurry and my eyelids become heavier each time they close.
“By the gods, Aldrin, why do you have to be so bloody heavy?” Ada gripes. “If you fall asleep and become a dead weight, I’m leaving you in a puddle of your own drool here in the corridor.”
Keira’s fury rises up like a frozen wave breaking over my intoxicated state.Maybe if they hadn’t poisoned you in the games room, you wouldn’t be crashing on them right now.
She has a point. I’m sure she does.
I repeat her exact words to them and get twin scowls in return. My feet have a will of their own and I stumble and almost go down multiple times, but they don’t let me fall.
Nico puts an arm under my shoulder to better support me and I turn to him, completely forgetting his Nightmare form. “Hey, man, I’m sorry I hit your dog…but I have to know…why in the darkest pit did you name it Fluffy? It’s carved from obsidian.”
“I did not take it to the darkest pit to name it,” Nico says with confusion, missing the curse in those words. “And the many strands of twisting obsidian look like the fluff of those soft creatures in your court.”
Well…fuck. He has me there.
At the edge of my senses, Keira shudders at the memory of the hound.Oh, come now, Keira, you’d be the first to kill it and add it to your collection of dead Cú Sídhe,I mock, and she bristles.
I turn to the other side, my vision tunneling in and out so badly that the woman there is just a halo. “Ada, I’m sorry I disemboweled you and all that.” I wave a hand at her abdomen. “You’ve just gotta stop trying to kill me.”
“Don’t get soft on me, Aldrin,” she growls. “This is business as usual for us. We are Nightmares of the Darkest Realm, after all. Weneedthe blood and fight and chase like you need the sun on your skin. Carnage is in our veins. And it keeps our natural bloodlust quiet and our skills honed. But that bloody sword of yours with its infernal light…” She glances at Nico. “Maybe we can steal it while he is incapacitated. Destroy or hide it. I never want to feel like that again.”
A laugh booms through me. “The indestructible relic is made from my raw magic and my blood. It sings to me. I’d find it at the bottom of the ocean or in the deepest abyss.”
Nico looks at Ada. “It was a nice dream, even for a fleeting moment.”
They manage to dump me on the small pallet that has become my bed in my tiny chamber, then stand over me in the darkness. Sweat breaks out across my skin. My mouth is so incredibly dry. I try to speak, but my words are too slurred to be comprehensible. Keira is saying something with urgency at the back of my mind, but I can’t quite make it out.
“Should we give him an antidote?” The woman’s words dance across my mind and disappear before I can grasp them.
“Defeats the purpose of poisoning him. He needs to build resistance,” a masculine voice replies.
“We can’t just leave him here. What if he dies in his bed? It’s a waste to kill him outside of a trial. He has so much potential.”
“Then I suggest you get a couple of chairs. We are spending the night here.”
My entire body quakes with shivers so intense my teeth clack together. A woman with large, leathery black wings tosses a blanket over me, then leans in close. “Don’t think this means I won’t try to kill you in the next trial.”
“Are you ready for more poison after last night?” Dante’s eyes flash with amusement as he twirls a long vial between his fingers. My stomach churns at the sight of the shimmering orange liquid. I reach out to grab it and he quickly pulls his hand away. “Not so fast. Do you know what this is?”
I run a hand through my hair. Pain still explodes behind my eyes each time I glimpse an orb glowing with muted starlight. Apparently their magic can create lights without the burning intensity that hurts their low fae.
