Page 98 of Wrath of the Fae

‘I can’t go. I told you that already.’

I punch her. Hard. She goes down and stays down. I turn to Lucca, whose eyebrows are so high I can hardly see them.

‘She’s not choosing to leave. We’re kidnapping her. Rhea lives,’ I tell him plainly, falling to my knees and undressing her. ‘Find a cup or something for my blood.’

He kicks aside some of the mess and scoops up a flask. I cut my palm and pour blood into it. I then strip my clothes, and he helps me dress her in them.

‘What if they find out it’s you?’ he asks. ‘What if you need to escape? What if you get hurt?’

‘I’ll figure it out. Ink. I need ink.’

He rushes into the main bedroom and returns with a pot of ink and a quill. We compare my hand to hers and copy her marriage markings onto my skin.

Dressed in her gown, I look at her unconscious. I pull aside the thin silk of the dress she now wears and examines that vow etched over her heart.

‘Vows like this are supposed to be forbidden,’ he tells me. ‘Well. They were under your mother’s rule. I didn’t even know they knew how to make them.’

‘It’s strange,’ I tell Lucca, running the tips of my fingers over its pattern. ‘I can understand it completely.’

‘Understand it?’

‘Yes. It’s almost like it’s talking to me. Telling me what it means but just by looking at it. Just like the runes. It’s like…’ My voice trails off, and I rest my palm flat over it. ‘Like I can communicate with it,’ I finish.

It’s a low whisper. Not soft like it was when I heard my mother’s wings or the stone archways. This is old and raw. Angry and hungry.

Powerful.

I close my eyes and listen to those dark whispers.

When I pull my hand away, Lucca gasps.

‘Where did it go?’ he asks, looking at her clear skin.

‘I communicated back to it,’ I tell him, lifting my head to meet his gaze. Proudly and slightly stunned, I tell him, ‘And told it to die. Maybe this dark crown thing isn’t so bad after all. I’ll get rid of their vows and take them to the tunnels. Easy.’

His eyes drift to my ear, and he frowns, sweeping aside my hair.

‘Raven…’ he warns. ‘There’s a rune marking on your skin.’

‘There is?’ I look in the mirror. It’s just like the ones the monster king had on his body. I run my hands over it. It’s powerful and oozes ancient strength.

‘Didn’t he say the more you used your power, the more you would change?’

I sweep my hair over it and face him. ‘He may have said something like that.’

He looks pleadingly into my eyes.

‘You have to go,’ I say before he can argue anything else. ‘Take her. Get Wolf and the others through the tunnels. I’ll get Reid, Cyrus and El and follow you through.’

‘I’ll drop her at the tunnels and come back.’

‘Get Wolf and the army ready to attack. We have a way in and a way out. Go and show it to them.’

‘We don’t even know if Reid and Cyrus are here! You just saw Cyrus in the Seventh!’

‘Then I’ll wait for them to come back. Take her and get the army here, Lucca. That’s what matters.’

Lucca lifts Rhea from the floor and holds her limp body in his arms. I swallow the doubt.

---