Page 74 of Filthy Fae

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Scarlet

All I knew was pain. Pain seared into my wrists and wound around my body. The burning scent of my own sizzling flesh stung my nose, and my stomach churned. I’d felt this agony before. Silver.

My head swam, and acid surged up my throat. I bit down on the material stuffed into my mouth, and a panicked thought flitted through my mind.

What if I drowned in my own vomit?

I didn’t know if that was truly a risk, but the thought was enough to convince me to swallow the vomit. My heavy eyelids fought for control, feeling as if they were weighed down with lead. I forced them open, millimeter by millimeter, looking down at well-trodden dirt and grass and a pair of fine boots. Roots snaked through the underbrush, barely visible in the moonlight. My red hair streamed down around my head, brushing along the higher blades of grass. I swung back and forth, and a moment of nausea hit again. Once more, I fought it back.

Someone was carrying me upside down like a werewolf suitcase as they walked through the forest. Had fae attacked me at the club? Had I been with Mack when it happened?

No.

That wasn’t right.

I tried to think through my pain but only found murky half-memories. Dressing room tables. I had been crying, and then Darrel...

My forehead seared with a memory.

The Incubus.

Fuck.

Why hadn’t I demanded Darrel say the password the moment he came into the room? We’d treated it as a joke, saying it before sex, and now I was about to die for my stupidity. When I craned my neck to look down, I found my body curled into a fetal position and wrapped in what looked like a dressing robe. Around the silk gown was a web of silver chains, meaning the agony I was feeling was the silver pressing through the thin material.

“This way, Your Highness,” a familiar voice murmured from beside me.

My head shot up, and I glared over at Oxonos.

“You fucking traitor.”

It was what I wanted to say, but the thick gag in my mouth prevented my jaw from even moving.

The strip club owner stumbled along beside us, his face gaunt and shoulders slumped forward. He looked as if he’d aged a thousand years—more than that, actually, as fae didn’t really age.

“And the queen will grant me forgiveness now?” he asked, his voice quavering. “You’ll tell her what I did, that I helped you plan this? You’ll tell her that I showed you where the portal was and destroyed a valuable piece of magic so we could escape? My punishment will be over?”

His voice was little more than a croak as he stumbled through the underbrush. He was clearly limping from the shoes, and there was a glimmer of terror in his eyes as he talked about his punishment.

I didn’t feel sorry for him.

Not one fucking bit.

I’d met Oxonos after he’d forced an exotic dancer to wear those shoes, making her dance until she injured herself. He’d been dismissive of the punishment, acting like he was the wronged party when the queen stripped him of his shoes. Now that he’d had a taste of his own medicine, he was willing to betray Mack and me in the hopes that the queen wouldn’t put the shoes back on him. This time around, he was wrongfully punished, but it was the punishment the queen should have given him in the first place. He deserved what he got.

Oxonos was careful not to look down at me. The lines of his jaw were rigid and his eyes feverish.

“The queen will know who was responsible for catching the alpha,” the man carrying me said.

I attempted to crane my neck enough to see the massive fae, but all I could see was a broad chest and the ends of silky black hair.

Oxonos started blubbering. “Thank you, Prince Summer. Thank you for believing me. Everyone else believed that liar. But you believe me. There’s no such thing as demons, just evil people, and Zeezee Riley is the worst of them. I hoped that you would catch her, but of course she sent her sister in her stead. It’s just the type of thing she would do. It doesn’t matter, though. They both planned the attack on the queen, and Titania will forgive me. She’ll pardon me... Right?”

“I think the queen will be even more grateful for the capture of this one,” the incubus pretending to be Prince Summer said. At least, I was almost certain that was who held me.

The pain searing through every inch of my body was clouding my thoughts, but Mack’s brother from the Summer Court had seemed like the kindest fae prince. I didn’t know the man, but my instincts said that Prince Summer wouldn’t work with the incubus that had attacked the fae court or wrap a werewolf in silver chains. If the incubus had disguised himself as Darrel to lure me in, he would have had to change forms to gain Oxonos’s trust. And what better way to gain access to the queen than taking the form of her obsession?