Page 7 of Wrath of the Fae Queen
Jasper returns me to my cage. My heart sinks the moment the gate closes and the lock clicks into place. That taste of freedom and support dissipates, leaving a bitterness in its wake. He walks away without looking back and I wonder if I imagined all of it.
The volume of overlapping voices flares as dozens of senators and guards pour out of Titania’s quarters, many moving away in groups still deep in conversation after a meeting.The High Chancellor strides straight for me with that eerie fire burning in her eyes. It is nothing like the pure flames that rage within my father’s gaze when he slips into his primal form. No, this is a parlor trick, enchanted with someone else’s magic, making her irises glow with a cheap veneer and swirl with orange light.
Every inch of the woman is fake, to make her look like she has power and a primal form. Lips tattooed black. Swirls of gold ink across her forehead and throat. That damned chain diadem with its large gems on her head, like she is playing at being royalty.And the caps of gold wire that make her ears appear sharply peaked like the other fae. Many others wear similar jewelry, but only hers and Torin’s hide the flesh completely, like there is shame in a more rounded edge. In being fae, but too closely related to humans.
I get to my feet and raise my chin, so I am looking down at her from the platform of my cage. I will not give this woman the satisfaction of seeing weakness from me.
She tilts her head as she eyes me up and down. “Tell me, little mouse, which of my people helped you clean yourself up?”
I scowl at her, crossing my arms over my chest. “A group of them came here to jeer at me. They told me I stank and unleashed a torrent of rain over my head. I near drowned in the sheer onslaught. The bastards didn’t even allow me to search for any edible fruit before they washed it all away.”
She laughs, placing a hand tipped in long black nails over her mouth. “Rainier, find out who did that and give them nice little bonuses.”
He stands a few paces back from her. His thick, dark eyebrows slant down sharply, his pure white hair pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. “This human woman—doyou intend to keep her in a cage the entire way back to the City of Vertical Gardens? Surely you’re not afraid the creature will escape a hundred of your finest guards.”
“You have no finesse, Rainier. It’s all about the symbolism!” Titania turns to him and places a hand on his large bicep. Gods, is she flirting with him? I think I’m going to be sick. Rainier doesn’t even react. “The people need to see Aldrin’s mate for the tamed, caged animal she is.” Titania’s tone is playful, almost joyful. “She needs to understand her place here. There will be no rebellions staged in her name when she is crushed under my boot from the beginning.”
Then she turns her gaze on me and all pretense of warmth floods from it.
“Dear child, don’t forget this. You will never be able to break out of the shackles I have put you in, nor will the Spring fae ever take you seriously. Not some magicless human. Especially not after I’m done with my humiliation of you.” Titania walks two of her fingers up Rainier’s arm. “Come. I have an aged bottle of wine we can break open, if you are interested?”
He gives her a long, level stare. “Unfortunately, I have other pressing matters I need to see to tonight.” His eyes flick to me.
“What? You would prefer to speak with the girl?” She titters.
“Among other things.”
“Surely that is less interesting than what I have to offer.” Titania winks at him.
Rainier’s expression remains stony, but his hands grip the bars until his knuckles turn white. “I would like to understand why both my parents abandoned me and the Spring Court for this…human.” He spits the word with such venom.
A slow smile grows on Titania’s lips as she glances between us. “I’ll leave her to you, then. Just make sure there is enough left of my little mouse by morning. I need something to parade through the streets.”
As the High Chancellor walks away, Rainier leans his head against the bars, angling it downward so I cannot see his expression. “By the Soul Ripper, I hate that woman,” he murmurs.
“You have been playing her?” My eyebrows shoot up. “She no longer has your allegiance?”
Rainier glances up at me. “I have been playing her. I think my parents would be proud of me now, especially my father. I might have been blinded by her lies when she first won the election, but my eyes have been open for a long time, and it is not Titania I support. It costs me a lot to protect my position in her inner circle, not to mention the shame of how I first got there, but I do it gladly to help my people. Now tell me, what is the exact wording of the bargain you made with her?”
My world tilts on its axis. Drake and Klara said that they had made amends with their son when we returned to the place with Aldrin, right before being chased out by the Assassins of Belladonna, but…Rainier’s role in Titania’s administration is so convincing. I don’t know which is the act and which is the truth, and any misstep here could destroy me.
“Why should I trust you?” I ask. “How do I know you’re not playingme? Telling me what I want to hear?”
He scratches his chin while he looks at me thoughtfully. “That is fair. What if I told you I have been speaking with a visiting crow?”
I suck in a sharp breath. “Speaking with crows” was the cover story I gave Drake for his ability to dip into other creatures’ consciousnesses when spying in my realm. He is able to hover in a human or simple low fae’s mind for moments at a time, hopping from vessel to vessel long enough to view an army and get intel on their size and location. High fae have a natural barrier to his ability, but his son? Rainier might have let Drake waltz into his mind as soon as he knocked on the door.
Rainier leans closer, his face pressing between the bars. “My parents are in this realm,” he whispers. “Cyprien too. They are coming for you and preparing the way for us, but none of this will work if you don’t trust me, even just a little. Tell me the exact wording of your bargain.”
I am out of options and there is nothing to lose in telling him something so many already know. I rub my hands across my eyes. “I pledged to travel to the Spring Court as Titania’s hostage, and that no one in the room at the time could stop it. That I would remain in this court without trying to escape until she releases me or is no longer in power. The bargain means she must treat me as an honored guest, with the same privileges of the nobles in her court. And I cannot harm her.”
Rainier shakes his head. “There is not enough protection at all in those words. You have no idea how she treats some of her noble guests. It is why she can parade you through the streets while they throw fruit at you. Refuse to feed you. Cage you.”
The words die on his lips as a few guards stroll past.
He glances back when we are alone again. “I have been informed of your abilities. Of your skill with glamour and your other form. Most fae don’t bother with glamour to change their appearance, because the weaves are so obvious. It is why everyone knows Titania’s modifications are not only fake, but created by another. But fae children born in the human realm? I have been told they become so instinctually skilled at hiding from a young age that not even a powerful fae would recognize their magic at work. It must be true, because all I see when I look at you is a human woman without power or glamour.”
My insides twist as he speaks my deepest secrets. If Titania knew this, her tactics would change. Magical wards would be wrapped around this cage. I would be drugged, my powers taken away. I would be hidden away in a dungeon, not paraded around where I may gain sympathy or support.
