He was always planning ahead, maneuvering for every possibility as if his life depended on it. I guessed when it came to the possibility of finding Mab’s daughter, it very well might. Holt emerged from the cave, connecting eyes with Caldris and nodding in reassurance. A few of the riders stayed behind to tend to the horses, seeing to their needs and positioning them in the canopy of the trees for the night. The rest of the members of the Wild Hunt strode into the entrance to the caves, Adelphia and her group following behind them. They moved slowly, studying the cave entrance and taking in the exterior.
Perhaps if they didn’t make it to Alfheimr, they would return here.
“Everything’s clear?” Caldris asked, looking over my shoulder to speak to the other man. I turned in place, maneuvering so that I could watch the interaction fully.
Some part of me hoped the books hadn’t been endangered. That they were safe, despite the battle that must have raged. I turned my eyes to the forest floor, noticing the disturbed snow where fresh packed dirt had been laid upon the ground.
“How many?” I asked, turning my blistering stare to Holt.
He held my gaze, lifting his chin in a way that told me he knew exactly what I meant. Still he played the fool, pretending as if he didn’t. “How many what?”
I stepped away from Caldris, making my way to the upturned dirt and crouching low. I touched a hand to the burial place, lifting the loose grains into my hand as my shackles clanked. The ground should have been frozen, should have been more difficult to bury people within it.
But that didn’t seem to stop the Wild Hunt from hiding the casualties of their cause.
“How many did you bury?” I asked, and a hush swept over the forest.
“Only what was necessary to gain access to the Fae Marked within the tunnels, and to gain enough advantage to be able to rest here for the night, your highness,” Holt said with a sneer. “We do not kill without purpose. We are to bring the Marked and Mab’s daughter back to Alfheimr. That is all.”
“And what if Mab’s daughter is within one of these graves?” I asked, turning to look at Caldris. “How can you kill in the very community where you are searching for a person you have never seen?”
“They did what was necessary,” Holt said, defending the choices his riders had made in his absence.
“They did what was easy,” I corrected, standing from my crouch. I moved closer to Holt, stopping directly in front of him and staring up into his ethereal face as he glared down at me. “If you want the humans to stop hating the Fae, this is not the way. This has to stop.”
“Unfortunately for you, I only take orders from one female,” Holt said, his lips peeling back from his teeth to form a cruel, twisted smile. “And you are not the Queen of the Shadow Court.”
I tilted my head to the side, that hollow inside of me filling with ire. It roiled near to the surface, waiting to be called upon as the cold of stone filled my fingertips. They trembled, tingling with the nearness of death. “If Mab is defeated, who inherits the throne?” I asked him, keeping my voice measured. As if I was genuinely curious. In my reading of the tomes the Resistance had gathered, I knew enough to know the Faerie Courts were to be passed down from ruler to first heir if the Kings and Queens who ruled over them were to pass.
“There are technically two heirs to the Shadow Court,” Holt said, evading the statement as best he could. He knew the trap he’d walked into.
“Yes, the daughter who could very well lie buried in these graves thanks to your riders’ foolishness, and my mate. Tell me, if he is to be King of the Shadow Court, what would that make me, Hunstman?” He stared down at me, animosity in his features.
I didn’t know what had happened after the moments in Black Water when I’d summoned the darkness to my fingers, but something in Holt had shifted, turning away from the slightly friendly and amusing male he’d been previously and embracing the fact that we seemed destined to be enemies.
Whatever he suspected I was, I swore he saw it dancing in my eyes as he swallowed and clenched his teeth. “The Queen of the Shadow Court,” he said begrudgingly, looking over my shoulder to where Caldris watched the exchange. He didn’t move to intervene, allowing me my moment.
I couldn’t be certain what had come over me; not when I still resented the idea of being royalty. But sometimes, in the quiet moments when nobody was watching, part of me craved the moment when the world would see what I could be. Something insidious, lurking inside of me and waiting for the right moment to strike.
Holt glared at Caldris, turning on his heel and making his way back to the caves. “Holt?” I asked, making him pause in his steps. He turned to look over his shoulder, his glare cast on the ground rather than meeting my pointed stare. “Do try to remember that only one death separates you from taking orders from me.”
He spoke not a word, turning to face forward and walking into the caves. “Easy, min asteren,” Caldris said with a chuckle. His touch settled on my shoulder, calming the inferno senselessly raging inside of me.
“Did your glamour protect me from the more unpredictable aspects of what it is to be Fae?” I asked, spinning to pin him with a glare. My emotions were too intense, leaving me with the unsettling feeling that I wasn’t in command of them anymore. They would break me and consume me, tearing me apart from the inside and leaving me only a piece of who I’d been before.
“Somewhat, but not to the level that would cause strong surges like you’re having. The Fae are volatile, but not in this way. I suspect this has more to do with what our bond has awakened that already lived inside of you,” he said, and the bond pinched, as if he was keeping that label from me. I had the distinct impression that I could find it if I really pushed, but given the way I’d been behaving…I didn’t think I wanted to know just yet.
That felt strange. Like there was something wrong with me for willingly living in ignorance when it came to my own heritage and the monster that lurked beneath my skin.
“I don’t suppose you’re ready to tell me your thoughts on that matter?” I asked, my gaze softening as I studied him.
The adoration he showed as he raised a single palm to cup my face, capturing my cheek in its strong embrace, nearly took my breath away. “Are you ready to hear them, Little One?” he asked, his brow hitching up ever-so-slightly. He knew the answer, knew the hesitance that rattled around inside my head as I tried to process my own willful ignorance.
“I can’t exactly make that decision without knowing what it is you would tell me,” I said, causing a sharp bark of laughter to escape Caldris as he released my cheek and placed his hand on the small of my back. He guided me forward, inching me toward the cave entrance as my breath came in deep, shuddering gasps.
I could feel the warding, feel the magic Imelda had used to protect the tunnels from prying Fae eyes. It felt like a snap, a rope splitting in two as we stepped across it finally and moved into the protected bubble it had created inside. The noise of the woods outside faded away, leaving me with the distinct impression that we were in another world entirely.
“Is there any information I could provide that you would find acceptable?” he asked as we stepped inside the cave tunnel. The corridor opened up ahead of us, helping us to navigate our way toward the passage with the hole in the floor.