CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
ORYN
Esmerelda was intense. She dragged me to her house so she could pick up a few things, and then made me sit in the forest for what felt like forever, looking for the shimmer to reappear. I asked her a hundred times how she knew it would, but her only replies were that she just knew, or – my personal favorite – Shut up, human, before I eat your muscle and pick my teeth with your bones.
She made me watch the air while she sewed, stitching a hat I was pretty sure was comprised of someone’s skin. It was one of the most disturbing things I’d ever seen; Esmerelda rocking back and forth, working the needle, humming a sweet tune as she made a hat out of something’s flesh. If she caught me looking at her, she’d grunt and jut her chin toward the spot where I told her the shimmer had first appeared.
I was starving, but afraid to ask her if she had anything to eat. She probably had plenty of things to eat. I just didn’t want to find out what things. Like the origin of that hat…
We were sitting outside in the dark when she finally stopped humming and looked up. “All finished.”
I nodded to her work. “That’s really nice.”
“Liar,” she said with a snort.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Not what, but who?” she corrected. “Fitting, considering your profession.”
I swallowed and had just turned back around to keep watch, when the ground shook and the shimmer appeared, a slit glowing in the middle of the air. Esmerelda wasted no time jumping through it. I ran after her and dove through, hoping like hell I didn’t break anything again. She might be long gone by the time I landed.
Instead of hitting the ground, something caught me in the air. Not something. Someone. Esmerelda. She was strong for a little thing. I grinned at her and she rolled her red eyes. “Don’t get fresh with me, human, or my heartmate will—”
“Eat my muscle and pick his teeth with my bones?” I laughed.
She sat my feet on the ground. “I was going to say, tear you into tiny strips one at a time, but I guess it’s good that you learned something during your stay.” She held out the fleshy hat. “This is for you.”
I accepted her gift, my mouth gaping open. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t really want the thing, but she’d taken so much time and care in making it.
“Wear it so that my heartmate knows you are a friend.”
“So he doesn’t tear me into tiny strips, one by one?”
She smiled. “Exactly. Now, let’s go find him.”
Cautiously, I asked, “Who is your heartmate?”
“Prince Rule,” she answered with a pleased smile. “The one you saw behead the two guards in the forest.”
“Of course, it would be him,” I muttered, cramming the hat onto my head.
“I believe he terrified you.” Esmerelda smiled, grabbed my free wrist, and in a flash, we were gone.
My stomach churned and I hit my knees when we landed in a labyrinthian garden, but a scream—my sister’s scream—came from farther inside the maze. I opened my mouth to yell her name, but Esmerelda put her finger over her mouth. “She isn’t injured,” she whispered. “We need to find Rule. The Queen is in the garden ahead.”
“Where is Rule?”
“With your sister,” she growled.
“Wait, why are you mad at Bells?”
“Because she is also tethered to Rule,” she answered with a deadly glint in her eye.
“Oh, shit,” I cursed, pushing myself up to stand. “Look, Esmerelda. Don’t hurt her. Just give her to me, and I’ll take her away from here.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“The Queen?” I guessed.
She nodded once.
I exhaled. “Okay, well let’s find your heartmate, and maybe he’ll know how to deal with her.”
Esmerelda grabbed my hand, and in a flash, we reappeared on the other side of the garden. My head spun so fast, I almost puked. She clucked her tongue in dismay. “Humans are so weak.”
“I’m the strongest one you know, though,” I boasted weakly.
She tilted her head, her white hair stretching to her waist. “You are.”
“Where’s my sister?” I asked, managing to stand up straight and look over at Esmerelda. But Esmerelda wasn’t looking at me anymore. She was looking at her prince.
“How?” Rule asked, bewildered.
“You were sloppy,” she chastised, crossing her arms over her chest.
I could see the argument written on his face, but as Esmerelda began to move toward him, she suddenly stopped and stared at something lying on the ground a few feet away from him. A man lay, dead from the looks of it, and my sister, covered in his blood, was holding onto him and rocking back and forth.
“Bells?” I yelled, running to her.
I crouched down, but she just shook her head. “He’s gone. He’s really gone.”
“Bells, who is he?”
“My heartmate,” she cried, her sobs strengthening.
Heartmate? I thought only the fae believed in that.