We’d been strung up like fresh kills, hanging from our hands in shackles with my feet barely touching the ground. A collar was cinched around my throat which then had a metal leash attached and bolted to the stone ceiling to keep us from shifting forms. My arms ached, my wrists burned and I’d never been more livid in my entire life. We’d been put up on display right in the large private dining room of the castle. We’d never even been taken to the dungeon.
Ansel was sitting at the head of the table with his wife, eating a decadent meal while Axil and I starved.
He was taking psychological warfare to the extreme. His wife was from Ivanna’s pack, a ruthless dominant who’d won her Queen Trials famously by choking the other girl with her bare hands. But they’d been married four years now, and no child? It meant the rumors of her being barren might be true.
“Let her go,” Axil growled to his brother. “Let Zara go, she has nothing to do with this.”
Ansel put down his fork and stood, walking over to where Axil hung on the far wall next to me. “Oh, she has everything to do with this, brother.” He looked back at his wife. “Something’s wrong with Jade. She can’t give me children. So, I’ll divorce her and take Zara as my wife. The moment she’s pregnant with my heir, I’ll kill you.”
My gut clenched at his words and fear seized me. His wife hung her head in shame and that’s when Axil went absolutely berserk.
He bucked against his chains and screamed and growled. The bolt in the ceiling that held the chains creaked and strained and fur popped out onto Axil’s arms. It broke my heart to see him so helpless.
Ansel tipped his head back and laughed, walking back to the table as Axil went insane trying to free himself.
“Axil,” I whispered and he stilled, panting. He looked over at me with eyes that were blue threaded through with yellow. I was speaking to man and beast. “Whatever happens, I will be okay,” I told him and tried to keep the emotions off my face. I knew he would feel responsible for this. Giving Ansel control of the pack again and all the power that comes with being a king might seem stupid now, but we couldn’t have known his brother would do this. He gave his word in front of every wolven present, including the advisors. A king was nothing if not a man of his word. Ansel was a coward in every way. Not strong enough to defeat Axil in a challenge fight, so he used the king’s power to control him and get what he wanted.
Axil’s jaw clenched, the veins in his neck bulging. “You will not be touched by him. I. Will. Kill. Him if he marries or beds you.”
He didn’t whisper. And Ansel heard. And he erupted into another laugh.
He’s insane. That was clear to me now. And his wife, our queen, was acting like the most submissive dominant female I’d ever met. She just sat there and said nothing, like a stuffed toy.
He’s controlling her too. The horror of that realization hit me like a punch to the stomach.
No.
He could cause a person to lose their self-control and he was doing that to her now. This was an insane abuse of power, yet, I was unable to stop it.
The dinner dragged on and I’d long lost feeling in my hands, my shoulders were numb as well. Any time my legs gave out, the collar choked me and forced me to stand right back up. I prayed we wouldn’t be made to sleep like this. Was this what Ansel did to Axil when he was younger? No. A person couldn’t live like this for two years. This was for show. This was for Ansel to prove he had all the power.
Just as King Ansel was wiping his mouth and had eaten his last bite, the doors to the dining hall opened.
I looked up, bleary-eyed and in pain.
A guard stepped in and cleared his throat. “My lord, you have three visitors outside who claim to be the queens of Thorngate, Archmere and Embergate.”
My heart beat wildly in my chest and I exchanged a shocked glance with Axil.
Ansel picked up his mead and took a long swig, letting the silence stretch in the room. “Send them in,” he stated at last.
Why would the queens of other realms come here, to Fallenmoore? If they had a message, they would send it with a courier. To come in person meant something was gravely wrong. Maybe something to do with that war meeting Axil had had. I’d never even asked about it, I’d been so consumed with winning the trials.
A moment later, three beautiful women entered the room, one of them carrying a small tin box in her hands. They were bright-eyed and smiling until their gazes landed on us. All three of their smiles were wiped from their faces at the sight. In that moment the brown-haired human-looking one slipped the tin box into her cloak and bowed deeply to Ansel.
“King Axil Moon?” she asked Ansel. “We are so pleased to meet y—”
“I’m King Ansel. My brother Axil is no longer king.” He jerked his head in our direction.
The women remained tight lipped, with forced smiles, betraying only slight signs of anxiety.
The red-headed fae stepped forward, not bowing, and held the king’s gaze. “I am the Fae Queen Madelynn of Thorngate: we have come bearing grave news and seek your help, King Ansel.”
Grave news.
Axil stiffened beside me as we watched the scene unfold. I noticed the blonde one, I was guessing dragon-folk, stood there poised as if ready to attack and did not take her gaze off Ansel.
“What grave news?” Ansel asked as he stood back from the table. His wife still had her head bowed and it killed me to think he was doing that to her. How powerful was he? Could he control all of us if we were to attack him at once?
The redhead, Queen Madelynn, cleared her throat. “The Nightfall queen has been stealing your wolves and using a magical device to siphon their power and give it to her people to drink as an elixir. She then uses this power to attack us at our borders.”
Holy Hades! What?
Ansel looked unfazed. “How unfortunate for you.”
The blonde queen’s eyes narrowed and the brunette tightened her fists.
A slight breeze picked up in the room, which I found odd, and Queen Madelynn took one step closer to the king. “If we cannot defeat the Nightfall queen, she will ride north, to Fallenmoore, and take you all out,” she declared. “We plead for assistance in this war.”
King Ansel grinned and chills raced across my skin. “Let her try. I will bring her to her knees and make her cut her own throat. Just as I can do with you.”
I barely had time to register the shock of his threat when a window broke on the far wall and a roaring wind blew into the room creating a funnel. The blonde dragon-folk queen raised her hands as if to attack King Ansel but just as soon as the wind had come and these three women had attempted their attack, they all grabbed their heads in unison, screaming as they bowed on their knees.
He’s controlling them too. This shook me to my core. I looked at Axil, unbelieving that he had had this kind of power the entire time.
No one should be this formidable. It was terrifying.
Ansel looked back at his brother with a grin. “Should I kill them?”
No! I wanted to scream but suddenly my throat felt paralyzed. He was keeping me from speaking.
“If you do, the kings of Avalier will come for you and you’ll have a war on your hands with multiple foes,” Axil said calmly.
Ansel nodded. “Maybe they can stay the night and I’ll decide if I should kill them or send them on their way tomorrow.” He tapped his chin as if thinking.
He looked at his guards posted around the room. “Ready the dungeon.”
Those three words were terrifying and yet if I was about to be released from this torture device, I didn’t care where I went.
The three queens hissed and groaned, on their knees as Ansel continued whatever torment he was doing to them and my heart broke for the women. They’d come all this way to plead for help and now this. It was awful and Ansel was playing with fire by attacking them, though I was pretty sure the fae queen had attacked first with that wind. I’d heard about the fae being able to control certain elements, and I’d just seen it firsthand. She’d broken that window somehow and pulled the wind inside. It made me wonder what the other women could do. I was sheltered in the sense that I’d never left Fallenmoore but I’d heard many stories about the powers of the other races.
“Let’s take a walk and put all of our guests up for the night, shall we, darling?” Ansel called to his wife who stood, head bowed as she turned stiffly, without much animation.
Two of the guards left, but the other two walked over to Axil and me. When one of them reached up to unhook the chain from the ceiling bolt, I cried out in pain at the sudden movement as relief then spread throughout my limbs. Then my neck collar chain was released too and I whimpered at being free of the hanging position. My arms fell limply to my sides and then all of my weight was suddenly on my feet. My legs could no longer hold me up after hours of fatigue and I felt myself falling. But I never did. As if driven by an unseen force, I pulled my leg out from under me to stabilize myself and then I was walking. The chain from the collar at my neck dragged behind me as I followed King Ansel, his wife, and the three queens. We all marched in a perfect line, with flawlessly spaced steps. All against our will.
I wanted to look behind me and see if Axil was following but I couldn’t move my head. Ansel was controlling every muscle in my body and it terrified me. Had I known he was capable of this, I never would have allowed Axil to step down and give Ansel such power. I didn’t think Axil would have done it either. It seemed that his brother had snapped and had never before used his power over people to this degree.
We walked down the hall and to a wide stone staircase that led to a damp dungeon with gray stone walls and no light. Every once in a while the wind would brush past me lightly only to die out and Ansel would laugh. I assumed the fae queen was trying to use her power. He’d taken my voice: I was completely helpless and it made me feel sick.
When we turned the corner, I saw one wrought-iron door standing open. My heart picked up speed as one by one we marched into the cell against every effort to stay out. When Ansel used his power to turn me around, I watched in relief as Axil walked in after me.
Ansel’s wife stood still at his side, head down, hair limply covering her face. I found myself wondering why she hadn’t killed him over the last two years, when he was without this power and Axil was king? Maybe he’d never done this to her before and it was new behavior. I surely could never let a man live after this kind of treatment.
We all stood in a large cell, spread out in a line as Ansel walked slowly inside and right up to Queen Madelynn. He grinned as he looked her up and down, and again a light gust of wind blew past us and then died out.
“I find your rebellion extremely attractive,” he told her, and I forced a growl into my throat, working past his power. How dare he flirt with a married queen! This level of disrespect looked bad on all wolven. He was shaming our entire culture with this treatment of these monarchs.
Ansel’s head snapped in my direction and my stomach dropped. He walked calmly over to me and then leaned in, letting his nose rest against my neck. Pulling in a deep lungful of air, he inhaled. “My brother’s whore,” he whispered, and Axil growled next to me but the noise was cut off with a whimper as he fell to the floor, grasping at his head and screaming in pain.
Tears leaked out of the corners of my eyes as the realization that we were all puppets to a sick man hit me.
“Come on, let’s go make an heir,” Ansel said to me and fear seized me in its grip.
The wind picked up again, stronger this time and Axil went mad with his screaming. The blonde queen next to me started blowing a stream of smoke out of her nostrils and all Ansel did was laugh as he stepped out of the cell and made me follow him.
