City of Fae

I rested my head against the cool bars. This wasn’t going to end with the queen. If the impossible happened, and she was stopped, there would be others like her. Reign was one of the good guys, at least I’d thought he was, but he was just as terrifying and I’d only glimpsed a fraction of what he could do. “I saw Reign, really saw him …”

Shay took so long to reply I wondered if she’d heard me, and when she did speak, it was in a whisper. “He despises it, hates the hound in him. He tries to do good, to make right his crimes. I’m not sure he will ever make peace with the hound.”

“What is it? Where does it come from?”

“A spirit inhabits him, it is a blessing and also a curse. His kin are proud, strong. In Faerie, they are feared and revered for their bloodlust in battle. They have the strength of the hound, Cu Sith, in their bloodline, but the price is high. Cu Sith takes one of their sons for every generation, as it has Reign. He can no more control it than he can the wind or the rain.”

“But the queen can?”

“She has the same ancient draíocht in her veins. They are linked, the spirits of the hound and the spider—Arachne—tied together, by draíocht.”

I shivered and hugged myself. “He killed Warren.”

A sharp hiss; an indrawn breath through her teeth. “The old Keepers are all dead. The FA are the new Keepers now. Faerie help us.”

“Shay, how did the FA get so powerful?”

“She got to them. Just a few to begin with. But once she had her fangs in the general, he turned the others, corrupted them. They were honorable, once. General Kael was the finest warrior. Proud, admirable. But now he is nothing more than her tool.”

The queen had to die. But behind bars, I was useless. Outside the bars I’d been pretty damn useless too. “Do you know what I am?”

“We suspected you were a human pet. I believed you were Reign’s bespelled victim. Warren hated you on sight. The way he talked to you … But, when you were here, and after you left, there was something about you I didn’t understand. I saw in you the same stillness I see in Reign, a hint of something hungry and devastating, not of this world. You’re hers, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“How are you even coherent? Constructs are usually simple things. They fulfill their purpose and then die. How did you come to be here? Isn’t she controlling you?”

I swatted the temptation to latch onto the word die. “She doesn’t seem to be able to control me all of the time, just when we’re close. She gives me commands, and for a while, I lose myself, but her control slips and I’m me again. Maybe I’m broken. I don’t think I have long left.”

“You need to find Reign, help him. If you’re like her, you might be able to control his hound, maybe even cure him of it.”

“Shay, besides the fact I’m locked up, I don’t understand what I am.”

“Please …”

“I don’t know how.”

“Try,” she whispered. “You must try.”

I must try to get out of this cell. Climbing to my feet, I walked its edges, kicked at the stones, and toed through the debris. Maybe I could help Reign, maybe I could somehow tame the hound, but none of it mattered unless I could escape.

“Reign wanted to kill her,” Shay said. “He tried, but as fae, he’s weaker than she is. As the hound … He can’t control the hound at all, but the queen can weave draíocht, manipulate it, she draws the hound out of him. I don’t think she likes to do it though; the hound frightens even her.”

“Yeah, we sorta figured that summoning part out.” Shay didn’t need to know how our kiss had brought his beast to the surface. I kicked at the bricks. There was no getting through them. The bars at one end of my cell were the weak link, but that wasn’t saying much. I gave each bar an experimental tug. None budged.

“You’re wearing his coat …” She waited for an explanation and when it became clear I had no intention of answering, she said, “We were in love.” She paused. “Once. Did he tell you how the hound came to him?” A thread of regret teased through her words.