Beyond the Mountain (Fae's Captive #4) - Lily Archer Page 0,21

in Delantis’s voice. The obsidian blade does the same. But whatever she wants to tell me, I don’t care to hear. I have everything I need. My army is prepared to march, and I’m ready to lead. Cenet plots behind my back, telling my father I’m not battle-tested, that I’m not ready. I close my hand into a fist. When the time comes and his head is on a pike, we’ll see who was ready.

Cecile walks in, my laundered clothes in her arms. She doesn’t look at me, and for the first time since I’ve known her, her confidence is drained away. Shoulders slumped, eyes down—she’s beaten.

“I like you like this.” I spin away from my dresser to face her.

She hangs my clothes without a word.

I smile. “How’s your little human?”

Her motion stops for only a moment before she continues.

“I thought perhaps I’d killed her.” I call the darkness into my palm and play with it, tickling the tendrils of death with my fingertips. “But I hear she lives.”

When she doesn’t respond, I send a wisp of black to curl around her throat. “I’m speaking to you, Sister.”

“We’re not sisters.” She turns to me, the fire back in her silver eyes. “We will never be sisters.”

“Blood is blood.” I pull the darkness back inside myself, as if sucking it through a straw.

“You’ll never take the summer realm.” She hugs herself. “Queen Aurentia will—”

“Fall just like all the rest.” I rise and walk to her, reveling in the dark circles beneath her eyes and her lackluster hair. A week in the caves has robbed her of all the beauty she used to wield on earth. “I never realized it when you were in the human world, but here, surrounded by your own kind, you’re nothing special.”

“And you are?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” I let my wings expand, the dark feathers iridescent in the low light. “I think I’m a bit more remarkable than you ever gave me credit for.”

“You think any of this changes who you are?” She smirks. “You’re still the same nerdy loner with daddy issues you always were. Now you have wings and a bad attitude. Congratulations. You’ve finally peaked.”

I grip her throat and squeeze. “I took your shit for too long. You were nasty then, and you’re nasty now.”

“At least I’m consistent.” She grits her teeth.

“No, you’re just a bitch.” I throw her backwards, and she slides across the floor on her ass. “A stupid one at that.”

She climbs to her feet, her eyes flashing. “If you’re finished insulting me, I have some more laundry to do.”

“Not so fast, Sis.” I advance on her, though she doesn’t hold my gaze for long. It’s as if she can’t bear to look into my eyes. Good. “I have a little job for you.”

10

Leander

Stone scatters under my feet as I climb to the nearest ledge, the valley floor falling away beneath me. Thorn wheels into the coming night, his shape transforming from eagle to owl.

“Ravella won’t forgive you for this.” Gray grabs the handhold I just vacated and hauls himself up next to me.

“Someone has to stay with the horses. We need them for our escape, and if they aren’t there, we’re as good as dead. Taylor can’t make it through the Barren Lands on foot. She’s too fragile.”

“Still, she’ll be mad for years.”

“I’ll deal with it.” I launch myself up the unforgiving stone and grab another hold, my fingers aching.

“Shathinor.” Gray spits a few choice curses in the ancient fae language. “How did he survive? I saw you ram your blade through his heart. Saw you twist it. He was dead. No doubt in my mind.”

“Necromancers have tricks. So many fun tricks.” Selene skitters across the rock above us, her legs spiderlike as she makes easy work of the cliffs and sharp cracks in the rock.

“That’s creepy.” Gray stares up at her.

“Selene can hear you,” she singsongs.

I pull myself up until there’s a break in the cliff face, a ledge just wide enough to sit on. I help Gray up, and he collapses next to me, his large frame taking up half the ledge as he starts rummaging in his pack.

Valen’s hand appears, and we both pull him up. He throws himself down and lies there staring up at the sky, breathing hard. “Climbing is not my thing.”

“Where’d you send Brannon?” Gray hands me a piece of dried meat and what’s left of our bread.

“He thinks he can do some more infiltrating in the camp, report back on planned troop