I was going back to my cottage, and I was getting my dagger. Then I was coming back here to kill all of them. I didn’t care if I died trying.
They’d murdered my parents. They’d severed my only tie to the mortal world so they could steal me and bring me here to play these sick fucking games with me. To force off my mortal skin so they could harness my power somehow, just so the Carlin didn’t have to cede control to the other queen when the Mild Months came.
They’d destroyed my entire life for a bit more power. So I’d destroy theirs.
The huge front hall was silent and empty, but I stuck to the edge, making my way past the door that led to the dining room, where I’d been forced to sit through that awful dinner with the Carlin and her sons all those months ago.
My heart gave a mighty thud when I heard the low murmur of voices behind it. Male voices. I thought it sounded like two of the princes, but I didn’t know which ones.
I stared at those huge double doors that led outside. How was I going to get them open? And if I somehow could, how was I going to do it quick enough that the guards outside didn’t simply slice my head off with their swords before I’d taken a single step?
There had to be other doors leading outside in this place, but how was I going to find them? The palace was like a fortress, and I’d only ever been in the throne room and the dining room—and there were people in the dining room.
My gaze darted frantically over the empty hall. They stopped on the set of doors opposite me, leading to some unknown part of the palace. I took a hesitant step closer, knowing I couldn’t just stand here completely exposed until someone walked in.
“Someone’s in the hall.”
The voice was soft, but I still heard it painfully clearly through the dining room door. I’d never heard Cethlen speak, but I knew it was him. The son with the impeccable hearing, who listened for secrets and rumours among the Folk. The Carlin’s ears.
Fuck. I started running for the doors opposite, because they already knew I was out here now. As I fumbled with the handle, my heart spasmed when the dining room doors were flung open behind me.
“His skin is gone,” Bres snarled. “He’s escaped the chains. Get mother. Find Lonan!”
I flung open the door and ran, crashing into the corridor wall when it rushed up on me before I changed my course and sprinted down the long, dim hall. I could hear Bres behind me, still screaming furiously.
“Lonan! Lonan, get herenow!”
I didn’t know who he was calling for, but I didn’t have time to wonder. I crashed through another door and almost tumbled down a set of narrow steps, momentum carrying me forwards as my breaths heaved out of me.
I could hear Bres clattering down the steps behind me, so I shoved open the plain wooden door in front and burst into a kitchen teeming with Folk. It was steamy and hot in here, the clatter of pots and pans and the roar of the stove rushing over the sound of blood pumping in my head.
“Seelie!” someone screeched. “Get it! Get it out!”
I shoved fae out of my way, sprinting for the open door I could see at the other end of the room, feeling the rush of cold air from outside already.
“Stop him!” Bres shouted from behind me.
Cold fingers grasped at me, nails scratching my skin and almost ripping out my hair. I didn’t let them stop me. I ripped free from their grasping fingers and flew through the door, the icy air stealing my breath for a moment and making my chest hurt.
My feet were numb within seconds. I ran blindly, the bright snow hurting my sensitive eyes. The back of the palace descended into a sharp drop with no way down, so I sprinted along its mammoth perimeter as I heard the crunch of Bres’s boots in the snow behind me.
“You won’t get away, seelie,” he roared. “I’ll cut off your fucking feet to stop you running again.”
My heart was pounding, almost as hard as it had been in my final moments alone in the Carlin’s throne room. Before the burning heat had filled me and brought me back. Had I done it? Finally done it? Shed my mortal skin?
I’d snapped my chains, and my skin was golden now, and I was somehow keeping ahead of Bres even though he should have been far faster than me. That surely meant I was fae now. Full fae. It had happened.
The front edge of the palace came into view, the gleam of the icy steps that would let me escape. My legs ached from running through the snow, but I didn’t let myself slow down. I refused.
The guards yelled in shock when I appeared at the front of the palace, but I was already flying down the huge icy steps.
“Get him!” I heard Bres shout. “Stop him! Where thefuck is Lonan?”
Pounding feet sounded behind me, growing in volume until I knew there were more than just two guards and Bres chasing me. I slipped on the icy grass when I made it to the bottom of the steps, then took off in a dead sprint towards the cottage.
I almost tripped again when a dark shape loomed ahead of me from the darkness as I ran. Ankou and his great hound stood there. His face was still hidden beneath the brim of his wide hat, but I thought I could see the glow of white eyes shining from the shadows.
I didn’t stop running—didn’t wait to see if he was here to take me away to whatever afterlife there was out there. He somehow kept pace with me, reappearing in my periphery every few seconds even though it didn’t look like he was moving at all.