Then I began to giggle again, and I leaned over the edge of the bed and reached as far as I could for the decanter I had left on the floor. I was almost there. Almost. With my legs still tangled in the blankets, I fell, flopping like a fish. And then I remembered that I was as drunk as a fish and that was hilarious because fish don’t even drink. So I just sprawled on the floor twisted in the blankets and laughed until I couldn’t breathe.
I heard a sniggering coming from the corner, but I couldn’t decide if I had made it up, if it was actually my own laugh, or if I was really just losing my mind.
“Welcome to prison, Freta,” I told my new imaginary friend as I lifted a glass. “Try not to break all Prince Pissy’s things.”
Laughing again, I kicked the blankets off my legs and stood, wobbled, grabbed the edge of the nightstand, and heaved the blankets back up onto the bed, crawling back in. I tossed back the rest of whatever was in that liquor bottle and laid my head on the doughy pillow.
The drunken stupor faded, and I found myself deep within the same nightmare I had the previous night. The grass turned to knives, then snakes, the wind that shoved me off the cliff, the drowning that morphed into burning until I was screaming and screaming inside and outside of my dream.
“Open your eyes, child,” I heard a voice say. “Leave that place before you cannot return.”
Heart racing, I gently opened my eyes, peeking into my ornate prison. I’d fallen to the cold hard floor, again, but a familiar face stood above me, looking down and shaking her tempered head as I lay racked from the nightmare.
“I leave you alone for such a short time and look at all the trouble you’ve caused.”
“Aibell?” My voice cracked.
“Embers,” she said, looking up to the bed and back to me on the floor.
“Embers?” I looked back to the bed and realized she was right.
“Setting the castle to flame is one of many ways, Ara.”
“Oh my gods, you have to help me.” I peeled myself from the floor. “Water, Aibell. We need water.” I looked back to the bedding and watched it burn until the glowing flecks turned into flames. I ran across the room and grabbed a pitcher of some kind of liquid and tossed it onto the fire. Instead of dousing it, the flames roared to life, until nearly the entire bed was aflame. “Aibell!” I screamed. “Do something.”
“Such demands warrant no response.”
I jerked my hand toward the fire. “Does burning down the fucking castle warrant a response?”
She simply turned away and sat on the scarlet chair sitting in front of the fireplace.
I ran and grabbed another pitcher as the room filled with smoke before turning back to Aibell as she picked loose threads from the seam on the arm of the chair.
“Aibell, please,” I urged her. “Would you please help?” I coughed as burning smoke filled my lungs.
“Oh, finally. Manners.”
I rolled my eyes and turned my nose into the bend in my arm, trying not to inhale any more smoke. Aibell only looked at the bed, and the flames were gone, taking the smoke with it. Coughing, I doubled over, my throat already sore from screaming through my nightmare.
“Where the fuck did you come from?” I choked.
Chapter 6
TEMIR
I’d only been down the tunnels a handful of times since joining the rebellion. Being a member of the king’s inner circle,I knew I had to be more careful than most. I also knew a lot of the rebels didn’t trust me yet. I didn’t blame them. I’d kept my head down and my ears open most of the time. I wanted this. More so, I needed this. But they had to want me too, and I’d bide my time until they did.
I walked next to Roe, who had summoned me for the rebel leader. Like the rest of the rebels, Rook was a lesser fae–a satyr. We entered the open cavern hidden within the maze of tunnels below the castle and beyond the battlements. It still shocked me that the rebellion was hidden directly under the king’s nose. In many ways, it made sense, because it was easy enough for the castle fae to slip in and out as needed. The entrance was not within the castle itself, and I didn’t think many even remembered the tunnels existed.
I had never seen the cave empty before. When I looked to Roe with a hiked brow, he only shrugged and continued on until we met Rook. He stood at the front of the room looking over a few giant maps laid out on the table, scratching the base of the curved goat horn atop his head.
“I brought Tem, like you asked, Rook.” Roe slipped the hat from his head and squeezed it between his stubby fingers. “You want me to stay?”
“Not this time, Roe. You can wait for him in the tunnels. This should only take a few moments.”
I watched him walk away until he turned the corner, then looked back to Rook to see he had done the same. He folded his arms behind his back and paced before me, his hooves echoing off the floor and throughout the large empty space.
“Sir?”
