Treachery Queen (The Callistra Chronicles #1)

SEVEN

PART TWO — SPY

All the world held its breath the day Pasiphae of Eo went into enemy territory.

Chapter Seven

The carriage hummed to life and floated away quickly, leaving the gates in the dust. As they sped deeper into the metropolis, it became clear that the glittering, spacious exterior from the outside looking in was very much a façade. As they glided along the shiny streets, covered in a sheen of fine rain, Pasiphae couldn't quite see the gauzy night sky anymore. Sections of buildings jutted out their main body at random, with one skyscraper they passed resembling a semi-circle. 

There was no open space on the busy road they travelled down. What wasn't occupied by buildings both run-down and state-of-art at the same time was taken up by homeless fae, who slumped at street corners and took shelter under over-arching door ways. While those of the peasant class lounged on the ground and shuffled in and out of open stores, their wings covered with soot and dirt, other fae were zipping around above, dressed much more finely. They moved along electrical wires and jumped from building to building.

There wasn't much sense in the architecture here. Pasiphae squinted at the strange apartment chunks. Where soaring apartments ended, they gave way to a roof, and then beyond, simply more building blocks floating above, unconnected. It was hard to confirm if she wasn't imagining things. Khotadi was shrouded with a thick darkness that fought hard against the bright lights blinking from every surface.

"You're not going to pass out, are you?"

Pasiphae directed her attention at the faery who spoke to her, Psyche. She kept her face schooled blank as she cycled through what to answer. While Seth and Charlize were nothing like what Pasiphae had been taught about the fae, Psyche could have been the poster child.

She and Bel-Arh, the other third faery in Seth's entourage, hadn't peeped more than a few words throughout the ride. But while Bel-Arh remained stoic and staring ahead, Psyche didn't hide her open examination of Pasiphae.

Psyche wasn't trying to be sly about it either; Pasiphae had noticed the faery's hand placement, both crooked at her waist, where a weapon was at the ready.

Psyche's eyes never left her. It was weird and uncomfortable, but to her own surprise, Pasiphae couldn't find the energy to be resentful. In another world they could have been the same person. Their similar names were peculiar enough.

"We're nearly there anyway," Seth said.

Pasiphae kept her mouth shut. Fae flitted around them non-stop: different sizes and shapes and colours. She felt like speaking too loud would attract their attention, that even a stray movement would reveal her true identity. Khotadi was a whole other world altogether, as if she had stepped through into a place void of organic substance.

The strangest feeling of all was that the constant hum of magic had disappeared. Witches were constantly giving off murmurs and pulsations of energy, a constant push and pull with Callistra itself. Here, there was only an absence.

It didn't feel real.

"She's going to pass out," Psyche said.

"I'm not going to pass out."

"She's turning green."

Pasiphae didn't have to bite back something scathing, because Charlize hushed her faery companion. Psyche reacted to the sound by sitting back, nothing out of the mundane, but Pasiphae felt the hush at her core. A heavy layer of sourness settled in her every cell, twisting her tendons from bone and slashing sinew apart.