Kayden scoffed. “Immortality is overrated. If she is your mate, if she really loves you, she should choose to have a life with you, to grow old and die with you.”
For some reason, I didn’t tell her that I wasn’t sure if Farrah knew she was my mate. We hadn’t talked about that before she left me and married the evil fae prince.
“I’m not going to force her to choose between me and her immortality.”
Kayden dropped her mug in the low coffee table in between us. “I understand. Perhaps I just talk about immortality as if it wasn’t a big deal, because my people and I have been living in the human realm for a long time. Soon, we’ll lose our powers, and our immortality too. I’ve already come to terms with it.”
That picked my interest. Besides, it was an interesting subject to take my mind off Farrah for a few minutes. “How did the blaze fae end up here?”
“Alos, my father, used to be king of the fae,” she said, her tone bitter. “He was a good king, but he trusted easily. One of his advisors set him up, a web so intricate, no one saw it until it was too late. He almost killed my father, but I was able to steal him away from the castle before that happened. The shadow king killed most blaze fae, so we ended up fleeing the fae realm all together.” She paused. “I felt like a coward running like that, but I couldn’t just stand there and watch my people get killed.”
“You planned on attacking back.”
I wasn’t asking, but she nodded all the same. “At first, I thought we would regroup, get stronger, and fight back. But our numbers were small, and our fae became afraid of the power of the shadow king. So we ended up just settling here, hidden in that canyon.” She lifted her amber eyes to me. “Until you came to ask for help.”
I nodded. “Still, it’s just that three of us against a fortress full of shadow fae.”
“If we plan it right, we can do it.” The conviction in her gaze, in her voice, stirred something in me. I wanted to believe in her more than I believed in my own wishes.
“After Alos, you would be the fae queen.” Again, I didn’t ask, but Kayden confirmed with a bob of her chin. “I’ll do everything I can to help you restore your throne.”
It was a promise and I hoped to keep this one.
13
Farrah
Not long after that failed dinner party Lark threw to his diplomats, the poison was ready. In the middle of the night, I carefully poured some of the poison into a glass vial and put it inside my pocket.
It was late, but I knew that tonight, Lark was busy with a new diplomat who had come to speak with him from the fae realm. He would be late to his chambers. I could easily lie I wanted to see her, to wait for him at his chambers, and slip the poison into his wine, the one he drank day and night, proclaiming it was energizing.
In the morning, he would wake up, drink a sip, and fall dead.
I snuck out of my chambers, relieved Lark thought the fortress was already well guarded and hadn’t ordered guards to stay outside my doors. I walked down the hallways, avoiding the patrols and areas where I knew guards were positioned.
Though, as I rounded a corner just before the stairs that led to the fortress's highest floor, where Lark’s chambers, were located, voices reached my ears.
I stilled, afraid of being discovered.
“… soldier came back a few hours ago,” a voice said. I recognized it. It was General Auron. “The camp is secure, and the frost fae are all submissive as planned.”
My stomach dropped. What?
“Good,” someone else said. It was one of Lark’s advisors. “I knew they wouldn’t rebel for long. They can’t. They have nowhere to go. How about Daleigh?”
“He was beaten up into submission. I don’t think he’ll be a problem, at least for a while.”
I pressed a hand over my mouth as shock and rage mixed within me.
“With him down, the other frost fae won’t do anything,” the advisor continued. “They will be quiet, little prisoners, as they should be.”
My hands curled into fists. I wanted to storm out of my hiding place, lunge on these two fae, and kill them on the spot.
So Lark had lied to me. He had said Daleigh and the other frost fae had returned home and were free. Well, they had returned home, but now they were all imprisoned in a prison camp.
My rage took the best of me and I advanced, intent on torturing them both, and ripping every one of their muscles while they screamed and begged me to stop, and—
Footsteps sounded from behind me. I quickly ducked under an archway and quietly opened a door, which I knew led to an empty guest bedroom. I closed the door and waited, listening for the steps and the voices to fade away.
My heart racing, my vision swimming in red fury, I leaned my back against the wall beside the door and tried to calm down.
But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t calm down, not entirely. I clutched the vial with poison inside my pocket. Now more than ever, I wanted to kill the damn fae prince. It wasn’t just because I couldn’t stand staying by his side for eternity anymore. It was for his lies, for my people, for everything!
He was just as evil as his father.
And he would die tonight.
I waited a while longer inside the bedroom, until I was sure the guards and the others had moved on. Then I continued my trek to Lark’s chambers. Thankfully, when I arrived there, no one was standing outside his door, which meant he was still somewhere else in the fortress.
I reached for the knob and twisted it. I gasped in surprise when the door opened. I was actually expecting it would be locked and I would have to use my powers to unlock it.
Counting my blessings, I tiptoed in his bedroom and found the bottle of wine waiting for him on the side table of a large, leather armchair on a corner of the room. Holding my breath, I opened the vial and poured the poison in the wine. I sniffed it, making sure the scent wasn’t detectable. It wasn’t.
With a small smile, I left his chambers and sneaked back into my own.
Now all I had to do was wait.
By tomorrow morning, the fae prince would be dead.
14
Wyatt
The sun was rising when Ariella, Kayden, and I donned glamour of servants, waited for the change of guards, and sneaked into the fortress.
That had been easier than I thought it would be, but it hadn’t been the first time we had done something similar. When Farrah, Luana, and I had come to find the Dagger of All Hunting three years ago, we had entered the fortress much in the same way.
The problem wasn’t really getting in the fortress. The problem was getting the fuck out.
But I wouldn’t worry about that now. Now, all I cared about was finding Farrah.
As soon as we arrived in the servants’ wing inside the fortress, Ariella and Kayden went to one side, and I went to another.
“Good luck,” I whispered to them, before parting ways.
Ariella didn’t even glance my way. I couldn’t blame her. I wasn’t mad that she was mad at me. I was just upset. In the time we had spent together, I had come to consider her a friend. And now I had lost her.
Hopefully, she would come around once all of this fucking mess was done.