I paced from one end of my tower cell to the next. I’d never felt this trapped before. I didn’t like it. I couldn’t see the sky. I couldn’t feel fresh air on my skin. I felt like I was suffocating and in the dark no less since I’d been given no light. There wasn’t even a damn window. Tyr—Orion’s rotten bastard of a brother—was the cause.
As if my thoughts had summoned the creature straight from Death’s realm, the door to my prison rattled and opened and he stepped into the entrance, framed by the firelight behind him. Oh, how I wanted to run him through with one of the Princes’ swords. I wanted to claw his eyes out. Punch him in the throat. Kick him in the balls.
I took several steps towards him, intending to do just that when he held up a hand and invisible manacles encircled my arms and legs, stopping me from moving any further.
“I can understand your reasonable anger, Cress,” Tyr said as he stepped into the room. He lifted a hand, the movement a shadow across the floor at my feet. Within seconds, fires erupted around the room—clinging to lanterns that had been hung there previously but had gone unlit. “But you won’t harm me—or rather, I won’t allow you to.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “What?” I snapped in challenge. “Are you scared of a little girl?”
He chuckled as the door behind him closed. “Of course not. Give me just a moment,” he replied calmly.
Fuck his calm! I wasn’t calm. I was angry. Angrier than I’d ever been. I listened to the sound of keys jingling in the lock as the door was relocked. Only then did Tyr lower his arm and the invisible bindings disappeared. I didn’t even hesitate. I continued my forward momentum, brought my foot back, and nailed him right between the legs.
“Fuck!” He went down on his knees, throwing a hand out at me. A wave of power hit me and propelled me backwards. My spine hit the stone wall, and I winced as I slid down. That was going to bruise. I didn’t care. It’d been worth it to kick him right where the sun didn’t shine. So fucking worth it.
“You are a feisty one, I’ll give you that,” he wheezed. “Seems my brother chose well for his mate … and his friends’ mate.”
I clenched my teeth against the pain in my back as I got on my knees and leveraged myself up. I stood and held my ground, my hands balling into fists at my side. Already I could feel the soreness in my back. It was going to make sleeping really painful, I knew. “Why would you do this?” I demanded, ignoring his comment. “Why would you take me? What could I possibly have to help you gain anything? It’s clear you’re in this for power. Right?”
“Right.” He nodded and I took some pleasure in the fact that he still looked pale. When he stood, he did so slightly hunched as he moved further from me and back towards the door to lean against the wall alongside it.
It didn’t matter. I’d done what I wanted. I knew there was no way I’d get much more than one hit in. I was effectively trapped here. And even if I did manage to escape, I knew nothing about the King’s castle. Sure, I’d grown up in Amnestia, but I hadn’t ever left the small abbey I’d been raised in until I’d met the Princes.
“It’s more than that, little Changeling,” he said gruffly.
I narrowed my gaze on him and waited. Slowly, ever so slowly, Tyr straightened his back and looked at me. "I admit," he said, "originally, I was bored."
My mouth dropped open. That couldn't be right. He couldn't possibly be telling me that he did all of this—betrayed his race and his brother because he was bored. As if sensing my thoughts, he grinned ruefully.
"I'm sure my little brother has told you very little, if anything, about his home Court. The Court of Midnight is as secretive as it is powerful," he said. "We are taught from birth to play the game and play it well."
"What game?" I demanded. "Life and death? That's no game."
Tyr tilted his head and slowly lowered his eyes until they had passed over the rest of me. "There is a reason we keep to ourselves, a reason why ours is the Court called upon for action and war, little Changeling." I snarled, hating