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The Liralen landed on a drawbridge studded with blazing torches. The windows of the castle gleamed in the night. From the spill of light, the castle walls seemed to be black, glittering like mica. But from there it merged into the night and I couldn’t make out any more detail than that.
“You will have many days to study my castle.” Rogue sounded tired. I’d forgotten how recently he’d been so depleted he couldn’t zap the flying monkeys. And now he’d been carrying me for hours. He always seemed so powerful and in control, I’d been inconsiderate of him.
“I can walk,” I insisted. Though I wasn’t sure I could. Weakness pulled at me, at my core strength. I felt drained in an ominous way, as if I could feel my life force ebbing.
“Not a chance,” Rogue said, answering either my words or my thoughts, leaping down from the Liralen, carrying both me and Darling Hercules Goliath, who still lay across me, paws dangling. I couldn’t feel my hands at all.
I told him to jump down—less weight for Rogue to bear—but he stubbornly refused.
“This won’t take long.” Rogue turned to face the Liralen, indescribably lovely with the graceful curve of her white neck and her eyes clear as the moon. His magic gathered, shaped into a bubble, gloss black spiked with deep blue lightning. It floated clear of him, and Darling Hercules tracked it with bright, interested eyes.
His arms holding me weakened as it detached with a sub-audible pop and I made a strangled cry of protest as the Liralen snatched it from the air, like a sweetmeat. Her glow intensified and she nodded her sleek head in acknowledgment. Then took off for the night sky, wings trailing like pennants.
A tremor ran through Rogue.
“What did you give her?” I demanded.
“Exactly what you thought.”’
“I didn’t want you to—”
“It wasn’t your choice. I asked her for the favor, I paid the price. Believe me, it was worth it to me.” Rogue strode with enviable long-legged speed across the drawbridge, which was manned at even intervals with more of the cyborg soldiers. It spanned a moat the size of a major river, judging by the length of time it took us to cross. The inky lines on the left side of Rogue’s face seemed to coil like a living thing—a sign of his deep distress.
“My,” I said, to lighten the moment, “what a large moat you have.”
Clearly my insinuation came through. It was sometimes difficult to joke when we mainly understood each other through the telepathic translation. A killer on wordplay. But in this case, his eyes glittered and his mouth curved in a sensual smile. “All the better to please my lady.”
We passed through some sort of archway, lined with a circular toothy sort of portcullis. More of the soldiers waited there, inhumanly still and malevolent. The inner courtyard loomed empty and full of shadows. Though something seemed to stir in the corners, something both animal and magical. The sense of sandpaper grated over my skin, the fever putting me more on edge.
Weakness seemed to pull at me, a lethal undertow.
People swirled around us, Rogue giving orders and various fae scurrying to comply. We climbed a winding staircase, one I hadn’t been on during my previous visit. Windows studded the wall periodically, showing only dense night beyond. It seemed the moon should have been up by now. Even if it rose an hour later each night as it had in my world. Come to think of it, it seemed the moon had been full or nearly so for weeks. I should stop trying to make sense of it.
“Indeed,” Rogue commented. “One would think dire illness would be enough to slow your restless mind for a while.”
I wanted to retort but couldn’t think of anything. Instead I rubbed my cheek against his chest, inhaling his scent, like Stargazer lilies and mace mixed.
We reached the top of the tower and stepped outside into the night sky. No, into a glass dome, so transparent it was nearly invisible. Above, the dense star fields of Faerie spun in silent splendor. The familiar constellations I’d seen all my life, arranged in their usual patterns, shone with the startling clarity and brilliant carousel colors of everything here.
Rogue carried me to a bed I recognized from the dreams he’d plagued me with early on in his relentless seduction. Massive with carved wood, the four-poster was draped in deeply colored velvets and mounded with pillows in shades of dark ruby and midnight emerald. He laid me on the downy mattress, and through the frame of the slats connecting the four posts, I looked up into the depths of the universe.
“This is your bedroom, I take it?” I asked, feeling dreamy. Darling Hercules Goliath licked my forearm and it occurred to me that he’d been feeding me more magical anesthesia, in anticipation of my upcoming surgery, no doubt.
“Ourbedroom.” Rogue brushed my hair back from my forehead. “Do you like it? I’d thought to bring you here for the first time under better circumstances.”
“I do. I always wanted a room like this. I even drew a picture of it when I was a little girl.”
“I know. I saw it in your mind once. That’s why I built it.”
Impossibly moved, I stared up into his intent midnight gaze. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Would it have made a difference?”
Probably not. I would have viewed it as another attempt to manipulate me, by making the prison as delightful as possible. “It makes a difference now.” I only hoped I’d live long enough to enjoy it.
He smiled, wistful and concerned. “Lady Healer is on her way. You’ll be fine.”
“Just don’t let her lay claim to the baby in payment.” I tried to make it a joke—not funny—but he cupped my face in his hands, fierce and determined.
