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The shadow fae’s long raven hair hung around his shoulders, split only by his snowy-pale pointed ears, shrouding the overlapping symbols that cascaded down the fae’s forehead and mouth until the skin of his neck and chest were nearly solid black. He shifted forward, his elaborately embroidered deep purple robe lay loosely on his tall frame.
“Where is she?” Aldor asked, not demanding but pathetic.
Xel grasped his hands together beneath his robes, the muscles up his neck tightening as he smiled. The expression made Aldor’s stomach turn over.
“It’s been some years since I’ve seen a vampire,” Xel noted with casual amusement. “They’ve evolved from the blood-soaked dogs I knew in my time. Adapted to the world in a most interesting way. It was quite something to see it hand in hand with your prize.”
Aldor said nothing. The shame was too suffocating to allow him air to speak.
“Gwendolyn Moore,” Xel purred, undeterred by his visitor’s discomfort. “What a curious creature. And those eyes.” The words were like those of a tiger speaking of a delicious treat. They nearly dripped with saliva. It made Aldor’s spine shudder. “I would not have suspected?—”
“Where is she?” The request was raspy, but he could not hear him speak of her any longer.
Xel’s smile fell slowly away, until it was only a slight smirk. “I believe you still owe me a blade.”
Aldor reached behind him, pulling the Dökk blade from where he’d tucked it into the back of his trousers. The closer he came to the mirror, the more his resolve began to fracture. His hands shook, and there was no way Xel did not notice.
“Wait,” the vile creature ordered just before Aldor pushed the knife into the inky black. “Keep it—for now.”
Aldor backed away from the mirror, happy to put distance between them. Even if he was confused as to why Xel did not want it now.
Xel’voth held up his hand; with a flick of his wrist, the small, red-and-gold-bound book Aldor had stolen from the king’s library appeared within it.
“You’ve been such a good little puppet,” Xel observed, looking over the book. “Obeying your mistress’s whims. Eating from her hand like a dog. You’ve been reluctant to seek my help but eager to grovel at her skirts.” He tutted his displeasure. “All I’ve done for you, and you still don’t trust me.”
Aldor’s blood began to burn in his ears. Only an utter fool would ever trust Xel’voth, but, to Aldor’s disgust, the dark creature was not wrong. It was Xel’s guidance that had led Aldor to find the woman in the first place. It was only by his direction that he’d managed to get this far at all. Without it, he’d probably already be dead, his corpse buried beneath one of his mistress’s vile plants to feed from, his soul lost forever.
Xel opened the book and motioned his finger over it so that the pages flipped with magick. “This lesson I offer for free, Aldor,” he said, his tone more serious. “The desperate may seek a way to survive, but only the most cunning see opportunity at the apex of destruction.”
Riddles. Lessons. Aldor turned to leave in frustration. “If you won’t help me, I have no business here,” he snarled.
“I know where she is.”
Aldor stopped in his tracks but didn’t turn back. A cold chill fell over him. He was afraid to ask what followed but knew he must. “What do you want?”
“Nothing,” Xel replied.
Aldor turned to face the mirror again. “Nothing?” he repeated in disbelief.
“The dagger, when I am ready for it, but nothing else. To prove I am not as vile as you think me to be.”
Aldor sensed a trap but couldn’t pinpoint how it would be possible for the dark thing to trap him, exactly. Maybe Xel’voth was merely bored and had nothing else to do but toy with him.
Xel closed his hand, and the book disappeared into the shadowy abyss. “The mirror led to his home.”
Aldor scowled. He knew many of the mirrors but not all of them. “It was the vampire’s mirror?” he seethed, furious that he’d not thought of it before.
“If you want her, you will likely find her wherever he lays his head.”
Aldor hesitated. No. It couldn’t be. “The vampire is dead,” he declared. “Why would she be there still?”
The dark creature merely smirked. Aldor narrowed his eyes. Xel’s guidance had been spot on thus far, but he felt a sharp unease. “How do I know you aren’t lying?”
Xel rose a haughty brow. “Have I led you astray before?”
No, but Aldor could tell the vile creature was hiding something. Or at least, he assumed he was. The truth was, Xel’voth always seemed to be hiding something. His silver eyes brimmed constantly with secrets.
“When you go to your mistress,” Xel’voth went on, “you will confess that you were unable to retrieve her Star because the vampire has the woman locked away in his castle. You will then beg like a groveling dog for her mercy.”
