Glass of Revenge

~18~

Lorcan was pissed as hell. He didn't know how the hell he had gotten lumped with this job of spying on the spy, but he hated it. He supposed that this was to be his punishment for betraying Aelin to Maeve during the war. Hell, Lorcan didn't even know why everyone was still so pissed about it. They knew that the only reason he had summoned Maeve to that spot was to protect his Elide. How the hell was he supposed to know that it was all a set up so that Maeve could kidnap Aelin out from under their noses?

Hence this latest task of his, to remind him that he was no longer the top dog, a reminder that he was now among the lowest of the low, as far as court rankings went. And as he had expected, he was hating every inch of the dungeon cell he was now currently occupying. Despised it, actually. He couldn't wait to get out of it as a matter of fact. Even one more hour down here would be too much for him. He just hoped that Elide would be able to get him out of here sooner rather than later, as Aelin trusted her far more than him.

At least the Cortland child had appeared somewhat surprised to see him be thrown into the cell next to his. Perhaps wringing as much information as possible out of him would be easier than everyone had thought it would be.

That was what he thought, at least, until the boy in the next cell started talking to him. "I'm not surprised that they put a monster like you down here with me," the boy said in an uncooperative and stubborn tone of voice. "What's your crime, existing?"

"Why on earth would existing be a crime?" Lorcan inquired, flummoxed. Why on earth didn't Elide or one of the guards come to spring him free? Hell, he'd even be glad to see gods-damned Aedion Ashryver right now, and the man hated his guts almost as much as his dearest cousin Queen Aelin did. And that was saying something.

"Because you're Fae," Cortland replied simply, as though that explained everything. "The crime of the Fae is simply to exist. If the Fae didn't exist, then the famine, draught and sickness wouldn't have swept through Erilea twelve years ago. Magic wouldn't have vanished then either. The Valg Wars wouldn't have happened. If the Fae didn't exist, my Aelin would still have been with me for the last four years. Aelin would still be my Celaena if not for you. She would never have willingly abandoned me for one of the Fae, she hates them as much as I do. I would never have lost her in the first place if not for the Fae. In my opinion all Fae should be killed on sight. Even the children."

A jolt of unexpected anger coursed through Lorcan. Clearly, the unintelligent little brat knew nothing about, well, anything. It was no wonder that Lyria had found it so easy to corrupt him. How on earth had he managed to survive by himself before that? But the boy had never truly been by himself, Lorcan reasoned, he'd bene raised by a monster that had faked his death for his own ends and had been held prisoner for years. The boy had probably only killed his way free of imprisonment just a few days before Lyria had gotten a hold of him.

"Child," Lorcan sighed tiredly. "You're wrong on just about every count there. Have you been incarcerated for so long that you no longer know the first thing about how the world works? Do you not know just how ridiculously stupid you just sounded? The way you were raving and ranting about Sam, Sam, Sam, made it clear that the only person you care about is yourself. I doubt you even care about Aelin at this point. It's all just an obsession with you, isn't it? She jilted you, and you can't have that, can you? Everything has to be your way or no way at all."

"Of course I care about Aelin, or Celaena or whatever the hell she wants to call herself," Sam said, clearly offended. "It doesn't matter to me what she calls herself. It doesn't matter to me whether she's royalty. It never did. But she's still my Celaena and belongs with me, not some foreign born Fae bastard."

Lorcan sighed heavily. Nothing he said seemed to get through to the boy, but he decided to give it one last shot before he gave up for the moment. "You do realise that you're a foreigner here too? You're in Terrasen now, not Adarlan."