Page 62 of Fae Unleashed
Killing Faust would also achieve that. If Faust were removed from the equation, then there would be no cursed clause in Rhoan’s contract. We’d had the man cornered once before. Now that Beryl had contained her rabid dog of an assassin, killing him would be harder than ever. He was out of reach for now.
Besides, wouldn’t it be better to watch Faust’s face fall in shocked disappointment after he realized that I’d cut the bonds holding Rhoan to this contract? A smile curled along my lips as I ate.
Did the other Cerridwen feel a similar rush of power? She’d had reign over untamed magic. The world had been at her fingertips. What had come of her? Why was she not with us, still?
A sudden nervousness trickled down my spine. I stood and put the tray off to the side so I could turn back to my work. The implications of what I’d done, of what I could do now, descended upon me and tried to weigh me down.
The original Cerridwen had been akin to a god. The fae had worshipped her and the other originals as such. If that was the case, then something bad had to have happened for her to not be here anymore. The thought turned my stomach uneasy.
Did it have anything to do with this wild power? I caught a glimpse of my reflection in a nearby window. An opalescent shimmer graced my pale hair. Color had returned to my cheeks. This magic suited me, but I couldn’t help fearing what it meant.
Addie had tampered with fate and, in turn, harmed those close to her. Could I potentially do the same? The thought brought bile up to the back of my throat. Everything I’d eaten threatened to come back up when I needed it to stay put.
“I’m not sure I can approve of what you’re doing,” Delphine said, suddenly beside me.
I was going to put a bell around her neck. Turning a glare of warning in the elven assassin’s direction, I asked her how long she’d been here.
Del gave a half shrug. I hadn’t seen much of her in the past few days. She only ever appeared when I needed protection. Otherwise, Del stayed out of sight. That’d somehow kept her out of mind, too. It was like she had a glamour over herself to make people forget her existence.
It wouldn’t have surprised me.
“You’re putting your trust in a lot of untrustworthy people,” she warned as she picked up an empty potion bottle and peered into the glass. “You’re going to get burned if you allow people like that to stay near your inner circle.”
I snorted. Of all people, I knew how easily everyone around me could betray me. Ostara and Foxglove were open about their feelings. I trusted Ostara’s laziness over her actual faith in me. Foxglove wanted a court to control, but there would be no court until I vanquished Beryl once and for all.
Vanquished was such an odd term to use. If I was being honest with myself, I had to kill Beryl. Saying that I had to vanquish her made it sound like a fantasy quest and not…murder.
“I need as much help as I can get right now.” The admission would have felt shameful to almost anyone else. “I can’t afford to turn away anyone that might be useful to me in the long run. I feel like you would understand.”
Del turned her back to the counter, crossed her arms over her chest, and leaned back. Sour gaze on the floor, she remained silent for a long while. I wanted to know what was going on inside her head.
She’d come up here to tell me something, and yet it seemed like she couldn’t quite bring herself to say it. I waited and waited, but Del sucked her teeth and remained silent. Her presence grounded me in an odd way. I continued to work, but I never lost sight of what we needed to do.
The untamed magic couldn’t go to my head yet. Once this was all said and done, once Beryl was gone from this world, then I would go mad with power.
25
CERRI
We stayed in the castle for what felt like weeks. While it wasn’t entirely safe with a traitor in our midst, my presence in the castle made this feel more and more like an actual fae court. As the days passed, the red faded from the flowers and leaves. They turned the same opalescent white as my hair.
Staring at a blossom, I wondered if those petals would turn red again the moment that my blood was spilt. I touched the scar at my throat. Everyone looked at it. I’d grown tired of wearing high collar shirts and wide chokers to cover it up. I just had to deal with the passing curiosity.
“Princess?” Rhoan asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.
My head jerked upright. Being calledprincessby Rhoan felt akin to a lover calling their partner by their first name after years ofbabe. He’d distanced himself from me, and I couldn’t bear it.
A yearning clutched my heart. I suddenly became aware of the careful game that I’d been playing here in the castle walls. While everyone stared at my scars and whispered about me, I pretended to ignore them. I promised to keep them all safe while they wondered about my credibility.
I grew tired of being here. I wanted to go home and eat tubs of ice-cream with my friends while we watched awful movies and threw popcorn at the screen. I missed the teasing shake of Ryder’s head when he chastised us for making amess. I missed Morgan’s grumpy groans when Vi pushed his buttons.
“This sucks,” I said.
Rhoan stifled his burst of laughter, but only barely. A smile twisted my lips, too. We stood there, in the corner, each trying not to laugh. It made me wonder if Rhoan could get along with my friends’ mates. Would he enjoy a boys’ night while I had a girls’ night with my friends? Would Rhoan grow bored and eventually seek me out because he couldn’t get enough of my presence?
These were questions I doubted I would ever get an answer to.
Beryl would have me dead and in the ground long before that happened.
