Bad Fae | romantasy | Bad Fae #1

Chapter Thirty-Seven

More creatures of shadow joined that first one over the coming days. They surrounded me and cradled me until they were like my own shield against the iron attacking the fae in my blood. It was by no means a perfect solution, but it made me interminably more comfortable than I would have been otherwise.

With their company, I actually started to hate imprisonment less. Weirdly, I appreciated the lack of shit that I'd had to experience between Feyrith and the other clans since our arrival in Henmar. In my dank and depressing hole, and the dank and depressing mood I now lived in, it started to feel like a holiday, where I could sit by myself with no one to ridicule me or berate me or judge me or insult me or demand I tell them when I was going to turn on them. A holiday where I realised that I would never be truly alone again.

Something about that bolstered me.

Because these shadow creatures, those loyal to Dain as their master, were here for me. He had the Shaden, but I had our creatures. They came for me, and they stayed with me for no other reason than I needed them. Those who lived and stalked in shadow, their presence remaining unknown unless they wanted it known.

With them, I had two weeks of quiet meals and peaceful sleep. I was dirty and grimy and didn't wash, but I could believe it when I told myself that I'd faced worse on my way to Febren. It was two weeks where I could practice my glamour with no one around to make me feel self-conscious, and I excelled. So long as they surrounded me.

The creatures helped me. They let me lean on them. They gave me their strength. Strength which more than filled me up and replenished me until I didn't even notice the iron anymore. It was the most solitude I'd enjoyed since my time in the Darkrealm.

The guards checked on me. When they brought my meals and came to take the empty plates away again. Whether they thought anything about the shadows, the didn't say. They just did their jobs as quickly as they could and got back out again like they thought I could kill them all with one look. What had Feyrith been saying about me while I was locked up?

I could have escaped. In fact, I did, just to see if I could. My creatures helped me slip out of the manacles with ease. Then, together, we put me back and they kept me company. Because we were proving a point by me staying there. A petulant point that was spiting me as much as Feyrith, but it was a point that had to be made; I am no threat. The shadow creatures helped me to weave more glamour, showed me how to use them and their shadow even more expertly, brought me books and snuggled with me much like they had the night I'd died.

I knew when the Shaden returned, I felt it. The creatures felt it. It was like the power we were connected to, as though the Darkrealm itself, had swept into Henmar, looking for me. But it didn't come for me.

He didn't come for me.

No one came for me.

And I, in my continued petulance, didn't really feel like going to him. I didn't want to seem to be begging any of them to save me. Feyrith would release me when he wanted, or he wouldn't. I was looking at this like another test I had to pass. One that would keep me alive long enough to kill Dain.

Then they could do what they liked to me.

They could kill me, burn me, and spread my ash across the globe if it made them happy. I wouldn't care. My revenge would be complete, and they would be guaranteed no retaliation for my demise. It would be a win-win all around.

It was late one morning, based on the placement of the sunshine the creatures and I allowed to fall into the cell, when a commotion started down the hallway from my cell. There were raised voices and the kind of thuds that suggested someone was getting a beating.