Caldris grabbed my hand, pulling me behind him and raising his sword to face the creature. Shaking him off, I stepped around him and felt the way my chest vibrated in response to it. It wasn’t quite words, yet wasn’t quite the way a snake would sound either, but the blind thing heard it anyway.
Turning its head to where I walked over to the warm body of the man I’d sent to the Void, I crouched down beside him. “Are you hungry?” I asked, reaching out to touch the snake’s nose. It leaned into the touch, almost nuzzling into my skin before it dropped against the ground once more.
It opened its jaw.
And the basilisk ate.
40
CALDRIS
I hated snakes, so of course by the force of her nature my mate had to treat them like pets. Her gentle care as she watched the basilisk swallow her enemies whole both delighted me and horrified me.
Why did it have to be snakes? She couldn’t have had an affinity for puppies?
She stood as the basilisk finished its meal, swallowing heavily as it devoured the last of the bodies she’d left behind. Without another acknowledgement for the woman who had summoned it, the basilisk disappeared into the woods once more.
“Help me cut her down.” She moved toward the woman whose head hung forward. She was limp when my mate wrapped her arms around her waist, the woman’s head resting against her shoulder. I swung my sword at the ropes tying her to the tree branch, letting her fall against Estrella’s braced form.
The prisoner was far too thin, life on the run from the Mist Guard hunting her had not been kind. My mate lowered her to the ground, pressing the burning wounds on her back into the snow as the woman jerked in her grasp.
“You’re safe now,” Estrella murmured, cupping the woman’s face as her lashes fluttered against her cheek. She didn’t open them, her body far too drained of all energy from the ordeal she’d suffered.
The riders of the Wild Hunt stepped out from the tree line, their gazes meeting mine in silent question. They’d seen too much of what Estrella had done to deny what she most likely was, but I would remain foolhardy in my willful ignorance.
My mate was not the daughter of Mab.
She couldn’t be; not when she only woke the monster that slept within her to protect rather than harm.
One of the riders stepped over, standing over Estrella as she looked up at him. “Let me get her back to the carts. Imelda can tend to her wounds,” he said, his voice soft as he studied her. Respectful.
Reverent.
I wasn’t the only one who saw what lived inside her, and the potential of what was waiting to be let out. Mab’s daughter or not, my mate was no Sidhe.
She was no Fae Marked female who could only draw power from me. She was something almost unheard of in a bonded pair. A match for me. Something in perfect harmony for my soul. She would have helped my ability to fight Mab when I’d thought she was a human. Now, I couldn’t even think of what might happen when we completed the bond.
There had only been two pairs who’d both been Gods in the past: my parents and the King and Queen of the Spring Court. Their daughter and I were the only second-generation Gods in existence to my knowledge. Our bond being fulfilled would be nearly unprecedented, and there was no telling what our heritage would do to such a thing. I still couldn’t wait to find out.
Estrella nodded, allowing the rider to take the woman into his arms and lift her up to the other rider who sat upon his horse, waiting.
“We’ll join you when we’re ready. I need to have a discussion with my mate,” I said, and the male nodded before mounting his skeletal steed. They disappeared into the woods, and I looked around the clearing. It had been wiped clean of any sign of what’d happened here, the bodies devoured by my mate’s pet.
“You were supposed to stay with the Wild Hunt. Not ride off into the danger,” I said, gesturing toward where Fenrir watched. He sat on his haunches, licking his paws clean as if he cared very little for the conversation that was coming.
The fucker was a terrible influence. Unruly bastard was too bloodthirsty for his own good.
“Fuck that,” Estrella said, crossing her arms. She scoffed at me, looking around as if to say that she’d handled herself well enough.
She had. It was harder to justify wanting to protect her when she so clearly didn’t need my protection; she could fight her own battles. But that didn’t mean there wouldn’t come a day when she wasn’t able to handle whatever she foolishly walked into.
The memory of a man standing over her, her neck shackled in iron chains and a sword pressed against her heart, was never far away.
“That could have been you!” I swept a hand out to the tree where the rope still dangled from the branch, a haunting reminder of the games the Mist Guard liked to play once they made the Fae Marked vulnerable, guaranteeing they couldn’t fight back.
In the days before the Veil, it had become a game to fuck the Fae Marked. The Mist Guard loved to rape them, knowing their mates felt their anguish and using that to lure them into traps.
I would die before I allowed that to happen to my star.
I sighed, hanging my head forward as her glare met mine. She was too trapped by the magic coursing through her veins and the price it demanded of her for such untrained use. Her humanity was at risk, and only the blood flowing from her arm would serve as a payment for the death she’d caused.
Her sacrifice.
“I cannot protect you if you’re reckless,” I said, trying to keep my voice soft.
She raised her chin, ever the bright-burning star as she glared up at me. “I never asked you to protect me,” she said.
I chuckled, unable to stop myself as amusement filled me. She was a nightmare to control, impossibly defiant until the end. “Be very careful, Little One,” I warned, reaching out to cup her cheek as I slid my sword back into its sheath with the other one. “You just might need a reminder that you are not the all-powerful creature you seem to think you are.”
She scoffed, her eyes lighting with the challenge. The darkness in her faded slightly, amused by the way Estrella’s human vessel enjoyed the games we could play. “And who will show me that?” she asked, lifting her chin with a taunt that reeked of false bravado. “You?”
I swept her legs out from under her in a single motion, watching as she fell. Her back thudded against the ground, the breath knocked from her lungs as the snow seemed to thicken. It wrapped around her wrists, grabbing her arms and yanking them up above her head. She struggled to sit, but the snow hardened to ice, pinching her tightly and holding her firm.
I watched her eyes darken as she tried to grasp the threads she claimed to see and twist her fingers around them. Her face fell when she realized she couldn’t; the ice holding her was mine to command.
She may be able to visualize it differently than I could, but she was not the heir to the Winter Court. That title and responsibility rested with me alone.
“Winter is mine. I think you’ve forgotten that,” I said, standing over her and staring down at the way her legs grappled for purchase.
“I could bring back the snakes,” she said, a cruel smile lighting her face. The little monster knew just how much I despised them.
“That would take away my chance to play with you,” I said, dropping to my knees beside her. She stilled, staring up at me with interest. “And I think we both know just how much you want that.”