Page 6 of Vicious Kings
The door swings wider, and the Shepherd enters, his white robes pristine even in this putrid hellhole. My father steps back, deferring to the old man's authority like the good soldier he's always been.
"Wilhelmina." The Shepherd's voice fills the small space, that same commanding tone that forced my silence during the Unmasking. His resonance is supposedly proof the Saints meant him to lead us. Sometimes I wonder. "I trust your time here has given you opportunity for reflection."
Reflection. That's what he calls leaving me to rot in the dark while they figure out what to do with their defective weapon.
"I've come to a decision about your fate," he continues.
This is it. They're going to kill me. The thought should terrify me, but all I feel is rage. Not because I'm afraid to die. Death holds no terror for someone raised to deal it. I'm afraid because I'll never get my chance. Prince Corvinus will continue breathing while I rot in an unmarked grave.
"You're not going to be executed."
The words don't compute. I stare at him, waiting for the catch.
"In fact," he continues, a smile playing at his thin lips, "your resonance may prove to be the most useful we have seen yet."
Is he mocking me? The girl who was supposed to be their greatest hunter, reduced to... what? What possible use could an omega be to people who've spent centuries killing supernaturals?
"What are you going to do with me?"
His smile turns bitter, cruel. "What nature intended, my dear. I'm going to give you to the Fae."
The world tilts. My knees buckle, and I barely catch myself against the wall. No. No, that's the one fate worse than death. The one indignity I cannot—willnot—endure. I would rather bite out my own tongue.
"Please." The word claws from my throat, raw and desperate. "Not that. Please, just kill me."
"Silence, child." My father's voice cracks like a whip. "Show some respect for the Shepherd."
But I catch the tremor in his words, see the way his hands clench at his sides. He's afraid for me. My father, who hasn't shown an ounce of emotion since my mother died, is actually afraid for what they're planning to do to me.
Surely he understands. He lost his wife to the Fae. He knows what those monsters are. What they're capable of. How can he stand there and agree to hand his own daughter over to them like a sacrificial lamb?
"Tell me, Wilhelmina," the Shepherd says, studying me with those sharp eyes, "do you know why omegas are so prized by the Fae?"
I force myself to answer, though every word tastes like poison. "They can bear children for the Fae. Most Fae women are infertile."
"That's part of it, yes. But not all." He steps closer, and I resist the urge to shrink back as he wraps a pale, leathery hand around one of the bars of my cell. "Omegas are the only creatures in existence with the power to bewitch the Fae as they bewitch all others."
I don't understand. The confusion must show on my face because he continues, patient as a teacher with a hopeless pupil.
"An omega could get past a Fae prince's guard. Perhaps," his eyes glitter with dark amusement, "right into his chambers."
The words churn my stomach. Bile rises, hot and bitter, up the back of my throat.
They want me to... Oh, fuck. They want me to whore myself out to Prince Corvinus. To use this cursed biology to get close enough to?—
"You agreed to this?" I turn to my father, unable to keep the accusation from my voice. "Whoring out your own daughter to the Fae? To the very prince who killed your wife?"
His face contorts with something that might be grief. More likely, rage. "It's the only way for you to redeem yourself. To redeem our bloodline." He takes a shuddering breath. "Your mother always did what was required of her. If you truly want to honor her memory, you'll do the same."
The words are a knife between my ribs. Using my mother's memory to manipulate me into this nightmare. But underneath the rage, the coldness of resignation seeps in. They're serious. They're actually going to send me to him.
"How? I'm just one omega." The words stick in my throat, vile and bitter on my tongue. "Rare or not, surely the Prince of the Fae has access to all the omegas he could want."
The Shepherd's smile widens. "It would seem the fates have conspired to create quite a convenient confluence of events. Prince Corvinus has returned from the battlefield to continue his education, now that the war against the Unseelie Court is dying down. He'll be attending Valemyre University."
Valemyre?
The supernatural university where they train their elite and pamper their precious omegas like prized cattle?
