Page 46 of Heart of Night
“What do you mean, here?” Astorian beats me to it. “What is the Queen of Crows doing down in the dungeon? Did they lock her up, too?”
Whatever hope came to life a moment ago leeches from my chest where fear is spreading like a plague.
“Shut up, Astorian,” I snap at the fairy general. “Let him speak.” Before I lose my mind.
“While you all were mercifully napping in your own filth, Erina brought Ayna down here to see you if I understood correctly.” He purses his lips for a heart-stilling moment before continuing. “And fuck me, she shattered when she knelt in front of my cell and realized I wasn’t you.”
Every cell in my body revolts at the thought of Ayna in pain—any sort of pain.
“Did you talk to her? What did she say?” My pulse is pounding in my throat, my entire system on alert as if that would bring her back so I could hear her voice rather than Silas’s retelling of it.
“Not much. Mainly, she was searching for you. She begged you to wake up.” He shrugs awkwardly.
And I failed her again. I didn’t sense her, didn’t react to her the way I used to with my full fae senses at my disposal.
“Was she all right? Any injuries? Was she in shackles?” Because it doesn’t matter that I am in this dungeon as long as she is all right.
“She looked better than the last time I saw her. All dressed in finery. No injuries that I’m aware of.”
Thank Shaelak. I sit down against the wall with the window and stare at the bars in front of me, forcing one calming breath after the other through my nose until I can think clearly, then turn to face Astorian, who’s still toying with the piece of bread in his fingers.
The male inclines his head with recognition as if to say that we found her. That if Ayna is here, his mate should be, too.
“Was Ephegos with them?” he asks, pouring the cup of water on his tray into the drain at the edge of his cell. He’s made his choice. No more drugged water.
“No sign of the traitor Crow. But Herinor was with her.”
“Herinor?” Royad joins the conversation as he wakes from his drug-induced rest. He seems more alert than any of us after waking up, but the bruise covering his eye where it’s swelling shut tells me he was in for a treat as well.
“Apparently, he is loyal to Ephegos now,” is Astorian’s conclusion. “Not that I know who this Herinor is.” He places the cup back on the tray, plopping a piece of bread into it like it was a game.
“One of the oldest Crows who crossed the ocean with us,” Silas responds, unaware of how little I want Astorian to know everything about my people.
“You mean one of the murdering, raping, looting monsters who were the cause of the curse?” Royad adds as he sits against the wall in a mirror of my own position. “Exactly that.”
Astorian’s brow rises as his gaze bounces between the three of us. “Do I need to understand what that means?”
I shake my head. “The only thing you need to understand is that I thought he was on my side. He helped guard Ayna at the palace in the Seeing Forest.” He betrayed me like Ephegos and half of my people is what I don’t say. Astorian is a smart fairy; he can read between the lines.
Before we can deepen the topic, the door flies open, and in marches General Katrijanov, his blue and black uniform perfectly pressed and his boots as polished as his shaved head. His gaze finds us in the half-light like a shark scenting blood, and he stops a few paces away from my cell.
“Your presence is requested.”
Before I can ask where and for what, the two guards who usually handle us when pulling us from the cells step up and unlock my door. The clicking of the lock comes with the same ambivalence of fear and relief as every time.
“Where are you taking him?” Royad demands as they grab my arms and lift me to my feet while I let myself slip as much as possible to make it harder for them, to mislead them a little so they don’t realize I’m relatively stable and strong today.
“There’s something His Majesty needs his help with,” Katrijanov says with that sneer and a glint of anticipation in his cold blue eyes I’ve become familiar with. It’s the same expression he has before landing an especially brutal blow whenever we’re strapped to the table in the chamber at the back of the dungeon. The shouts of agony of Silas and Astorian when it’s their turn will haunt my dreams for all eternity, but it’s Royad’s screams that break me. If I could trade places with him when they pick him up for questioning as they call it, I’d happily trade places every single time just to spare the one person who has never stopped believing in me.
“It will be all right,” I call at him over my shoulder as they drag me away.
Even if I can’t technically lie, this lie I can tell, as long as I don’t amend that by all right I mean anything but us.
I can tell by the look on Royad’s face that he sees right through it.
Twenty-Three
Ayna