The Forsaken Rune - G. Bailey

Chapter 1

I might not be able to die, but being stabbed sure hurts like a bitch.

“Why was I kidnapped? I have nothing to do with you or your dirty Unseelie blood!” Poppy’s sister, the woman I wish I could kill, asks for the millionth time. My bare foot pushes against a tiny rock, and it bounces across the rocky floor towards Poppy, who stares dully at it. The rock has been our only source of fun for a few days. I woke up here, bleeding out, with Poppy trying to save me and Laelia crying in the corner. My tank top and leggings are torn and dirty, much like Poppy’s dress, and the only one that has some defence against the cold is Laelia with her thick cloak.

Figures she isn’t interested in sharing it.

I might not be bleeding out anymore, thankfully, but Laelia is still crying like a tiny infant human. I’m surprised she has any tears left due to the little amount of water we have been given by the guards. The stale bread was not much better, and I really miss coffee more than ever.

Slowly, my eyes drift to where Laelia is cuddled up with Poppy on the floor, her head resting on Poppy’s shoulder. Poppy shakes her head of black hair, and I try to bite my tongue...try.

If we are trapped in this room for another night, I’m fairly certain one of us is not going to be leaving.

And that someone is Poppy’s sister.

“I mean, you two are the ones who lied! I just went along with it, and I certainly have nothing to do with her being half Unseelie fae!” Laelia whines, shaking her hands with the same brown cuffs holding them together that we all have on. They are no doubt the things stopping our magic as well. There isn’t much to them, just brown metal that has been clawed at more than once, judging by the long scratch marks in them. My own cuffs cut into my wrists, pressing against my skin, and none of my powers work at all since we woke, so I’m guessing this is because of them. “If I had known—”

“If I had a knife, I would literally cut you right now to stop your constant yapping,” I growl, climbing to my feet, holding my palm against my stomach wound when it hurts from the movement. Turns out the cursed rune I apparently have in my body, which can keep me from dying from anything, doesn’t help much with healing. A big part of me loves the idea I can’t die, but the cost seems to be a lot. And I never signed up for this. All I know is the necklace I lost had the same rune on it, and it was purple, but it didn’t glow and my mother never took it off. Nor did I ever hear her talk about the cursed rune or any of this.

If that wasn’t enough to worry about, being trapped here with the insane Seelie king as my captor is enough to make me freak out altogether. A jolt of pain slams into me as I straighten up, and I wonder how long this wound is going to take to heal. My reaper and Unseelie blood can only do so much, and I can’t even sleep well enough to heal this. A part of me knows the dagger the king used must have been blessed with magic, fae magic, to give me a wound like this that is taking so long to heal up. At least I know I won’t die from infection down in this shitty dungeon. Laelia is still going on and on, repeating the same thing about Unseelie blood, and I can’t drown her out anymore. “I’m literally bleeding from a hole in my stomach, and I still don’t complain as much as you have done! Shut the hell up!”

Laelia turns away with red cheeks, looking at the brick wall, and I walk to the gate, sliding down onto my ass next to the bars, groaning from the pain it causes. I can’t see anything outside of the cell, and only the moonlight trickling down through a tiny gap in the ceiling gives me a view of Poppy and Laelia.

Poppy looks as terrified as she always has since we both woke up in here, as she meets my gaze.

“I always wanted to come to the Otherworld. To see what it is like,” Poppy replies with an almost amused lilt to