Imillion's gold-white wing brushed against her left shoulder, Requeza standing on her right. Before her, her council had gathered.
The Asp triplets, who were not really siblings, crowded the far end of the table. Amaron, Amerilda, and Asryun bickered and fought, their matching wolf-yellow eyes only just barely drifting to hers at random moments. Next to them, Jace, Yven, and Patrasche sat stoically and silent, merely watching her and waiting. The last of her ten trusted daemati was Wenry and Kilow, but both merely occupied a lone chair across from everyone else, eyes dark and brooding. Wenry was one of the only that Eblis had not raised, and in fact had been delivered to her because everyone feared him-his skin was subsequently cut and scarred as if he were glass about to shatter, for he'd been hurt so many times within the first century of his life simply for his abilities. Kilow, perhaps the only one he conversed with, was mute, and mostly favored glowering at everyone to explain her moods instead of talking mind to mind.
The meeting room was a small, stone affair that valued protection and secrecy more than grand and opulent designs. It was stuffy, with only one window at Eblis's back that displayed the shifting sunset, and one exit. The door was never guarded so no one would know whether they were meeting or not, and their minds were always protecting the room-cast like wide nets to search for other presences. She checked for the third time, feeling the others' minds doing the same, then stood.
The room silenced. She took a deep breath. "I'm going to be straightforward; I'm betraying the Queen to put Madalyn on the throne." Eblis stopped herself, preventing too much information from spilling. Requeza and Imillion, already informed, did not react as a stupefied quiet drifted forth. Even Kilow and Wenry's brooding stopped as they considered her announcement.
Why?
Kilow's silent, prodding question.
"Both I and you have been whipped and beaten more than once in the name of her loyalty. Is that not enough?" Eblis remained standing, shoulders straight. Her wounds ached in reaction. Kilow's eyes narrowed however, and she leaned back in her chair. Her yellow-white hair was shorn close to her skull, her nose flat and flaring as she thought. Even her pointed ears twitched.
"You have served her and the King for centuries. What changed?" Yven asked. She was relieved to hear a merely curious tone, not one that condemned her for her actions. Eblis hadn't quite realized it, but she realized then that if even Yven would not have followed her-Yven who was always kind and loyal to her-she would not have continued with them. Eblis would've taken the Queen by herself.
Still, she only chewed on the inside of her cheek and spoke. "The Queen was cruel before; but the King's death has made her even more cross. She blames me, and I have yet to figure out why."
"Something else happened, though," Patrasche said, lips pursed in a half-smile. "When I saw you in the Winter Court, you were not quite acting. I saw the way you looked at that male, at the others."
Her mouth tightened, dread thudding in her heart. She wanted to coil her words close to herself, protect them from Hybern and war, from them. Eblis knew she trusted them. But with this?
She sighed. She needed to be truthful; that was the only way to sway them.
"My time in the Night Court changed me, as I've been told you might've noticed," she began warily. She was met with nods. "I found my mate-Azriel. He is a Shadowsinger like I, and used to be my closest friend before I was killed by the King. I gave him the me that was broken and hurting to garner sympathy, and sympathy was what I got. That, and love and caring and friendship. Even after I betrayed all of them, they still believed in me. Eventually." She remembered Feyre's words then. I understand now, Eblis. Why you gave up.
There had been no judgement, or pity.
Just heartbroken sadness.
"There is something they-my friends and family-have that I want, and I know I won't get it serving the Queen still. There is something they have, that I want you to have, which I never gave you when you came into my care. I'm not sure what it is yet, but I know that freeing you and myself will get us that much closer." She hesitated, not sure what she was saying, but knowing it was the most truthful thing she'd said to them in a long while. It felt right in her gut. "I trained you to be killers and spies and heartless, and you grew up with a strength I hadn't instilled. I tried to be an ally in a place where you wouldn't find any, but in the end I prevented you from ever really trusting anyone but each other. I have broken you in a way that is irreversible, but I hope to try and fix it in any way that I can."
Some straightened as if she'd hitten a sore spot, and some merely contemplated her words as if they'd never thought about it; before the words were out of her mouth, Eblis herself had never considered the way she'd raised them to be incorrect or wrong, just merely the fumblings of an inexperienced parent. But she'd spoken the truth.
"What do you want us to do?" Yven asked.
"You'll work with me?"
"We were going to before, but now we want to even more."
She smiled, relieved, as Patrasche spoke. But it was Wenry who made her pause as he said, in a flat voice brooking no argument, "You made the best of what you had. The best of what we had. We would follow you to the ends of the world."
Eblis very nearly collapsed into her chair, and Imillion's wing brushed against her again. The male was smiling, broadly and with pride. She did not deserve it. She did not deserve them.
They will die. It will be your fault. She stiffened as Kilow spoke mind to mind, almost mistaking it for her own thoughts. Eblis turned to the female, taking in her scrutinizing gaze and scarred hands that were folded in her lap, near her weapons. Her chin jutted a little higher in response to the glance, but the spy did not falter-nor did she seem spiteful.
Join at your own risk, she said back, taking a leap.
Kilow blinked, and then a slow smile spread to replace the surprised expression. She dipped her head in a nod. We are your responsibility, but we do this of our own accord. There is a difference.
She nearly wilted. Thank you.
Lead us, Spymaster.
"I'm glad you decided to turncoat with me," she said, and was met with more than a few grins. "Now, let's begin with the first act of treason..."
***
She told them everything she knew, and by the end, they were ready to go with their new assignments. She'd decided to send Patrasche, Yven, and Jace-those who had had at least a few hours of rest-to Valhallan, Montesere, and Rask respectively for back up forces should she fail. Asryun was placed as Madalyn's new guard and was quickly sent to familiarize himself with the female, though Imillion's lips tightened. Amaron and Imillion joined their efforts to sway the townspeople in Feyre's place, and Eblis kept Requeza and bull-headed Amerilda close to her side to help her turn the army around, both of them the next strongest daemati.
By the time the moon was high in the dark sky, shining over their meeting, everyone had gone their separate ways besides her and the two others. They rested their heads on the slightly warmed stone table, her shadows swirling around, and attacked the minds of the army. She fell asleep that way after snagging onto a wide swathe of unprotected faerie warriors deep in the mountains of The Middle. They were weak and tired, and fell easily beneath her mental talons with little argument unlike the others. Amaron and Requeza had varying levels of success, but by the time she woke up the next day, they were already gone.
She now had three days left to turn the army around.
Things were looking good, and she almost caught herself wearing her hope on her sleeve when she walked back to her room. But she opened it, and found herself drawing short. There were no Feyre and Lilith there, and certainly no Madalyn for her to tell about her progress. She stared at it in silence, not realizing how...empty it was until that moment. This was what she had returned to every day and every night for centuries, and had thought it a safe haven and the perfect resting place. Now it seemed lonely.
Eblis donned new armor and underclothes, and had just opened the door to go out and do something when she was met face to face with Reneau. Him, and two of the four other Loyal Daemati Guard of the Queen's.
Reneau stared at her blandly. "Where do you think you're going?"
Brandt and Uyrium stepped closer to her, blocking her in.
"Training the guards, where else?" she replied coolly. She could not fight back, she told herself. Not until she knew what the Queen wanted; she hoped she was overreacting, yet dread still filled her throat and threatened to drag her under. They were caught. They had to have been.
"Not today, General-Spymaster. The Queen is quite furious."
"About?"
"About her Daemati Council suddenly up and leaving."
She straightened. "They are mine to control, are they not?"
"You serve the Queen." Reneau leaned in the same time Brandt and Uyrium pressed in tighter. The gray of his eyes became clear enough that she could see the speckles of green and white in them, his long brown hair braided tightly against his nape. "So she controls them as well."
He leaned back, dispelling the intensity the same moment the Loyal Guard's decided to grab her arms. Shadows nipped at their skin before wedging between their grips and severing it. She shook off their touch.
"I can walk on my own."
Uyrium looked down his nose at her. "What about your whip-wounds?"
"Quite fine," she snarled, which caused both Brandt and Reneau to peer down at her menacingly. She met each of their gazes, trying to read them.
And then her magic completely snuffed out.
Brandt and Uyrium grabbed her arms, seizing her moment of surprise. Their grips were iron, and despite her loose armor, she found she could not move beneath their hands even a tiny bit. She felt like a child as they hauled her to the throne room, her feet still walking but with no purpose given that her arms were held away from the many weapons at her sides.
She'd been foolish enough to not even arm her wrists, though she knew they would've gotten rid of them instantly.
The doors to the throne room clanged open to an entirely empty room, lavish with light.
There was an armored fae, a whip in a scarred hand that was gray like stone.
There was a male, an armory's worth of blades at his sides.
There was a male, attending a fire beneath a large cauldron, one big enough for three.
And there was the cauldron, with swirling blue liquid so blue and so vibrant it seemed faux. She wished it were.
The Queen sat alone on top of her throne, not even Anastasia present for this defiling she was about to receive. Eblis wondered if it was because the Queen wished to save some of the female's nonexistent innocence, because whatever was going to be done to her was going to be so horrible; or perhaps the female, herself, had decided not to attend to make the Queen believe she was a fair and beautiful maiden. Even though that same fair and beautiful maiden had whipped her before.
Still, Madalyn was not present. So were none of her spies.
She stopped herself from sagging with relief, and instead adopted a confused frown. Eblis had to play her cards right. Perhaps buy just a little more time. I have three days left, she reminded herself: three days to turn the army around, and save her family and friends and all of Prythian.
"What is this about, my Queen?" she asked innocently. Eblis calmed her expression, pulling her years of spying and acting to the fore. She often struggled to do it around ones she cared for, but the Queen...it was easier than breaking bones to do so.
The Queen stared her faebane blue gaze down at her, and for the first time in her entire two centuries of age, there was actual hatred in her eyes. Hatred, and rage.
"Where is my daughter, General-Spymaster? Where is the Princess Lilith? Where are my spies?" Eblis flinched as waves of faebane wiped over her, making her head ache and her back shiver with nervousness. The Queen leaned forward in her throne, blue hair sliding across her brow despite the massive golden crown on her head. "Where is my King?"
"Your King, your Majesty?" she asked, not having to fake the surprise and confusion this time.
"My King." Eblis was pushed to her knees, armor clanking against stone. "You stole him from me before he even decided to leave. You stole him, and birthed that weak wretch of a daughter, Lilith, the last thing I have left of my husband besides my actual daughter. And you took both."
Her face was smashed into the stone flooring, and her teeth sung as something crunched. Blood poured profusely from her nose as she was yanked back up into kneeling by her dark hair, a male growling at her side. Her eyes watered, pain lashing across her face as even her back began to cry out in protest. She'd been able to ignore that pain pretty well, but now it leaped back at her.
When she found the gaze of the Queen again, the female was utterly stoic. "You have lost my loyalty. I gave you it because my husband had; but now I see I was right to hate you. You are the coward, because you could not stay true to the hand that fed you."
"Your hand never fed me, your Majesty." Eblis allowed the blood to dribble from her mouth, from her nose. "I fed myself."
Brandt threw her forward and Uryium held fast, the movement jerking her shoulder from it's socket. She grunted, but remained quiet as they removed her armor and weapons. Only her meager underclothes shielded her skin, her day-old wounds pleading for forgiveness as her limbs were jerked around to do so.
She was left to kneel on the ground as her arms were held away from herself still, and the guard with the whip stepped forward. The already bloody bindings that covered her back were left in place, for there was no reason to remove them when a whip would do it for them. She did not turn her back to the Queen, but was instead positioned so her gaze would never leave the other female's, and whatever pain on her face that was there would be visible to all.
"I know Brandt, Uyrium, and Reneau are loyal. But I want to test your loyalty. To your new master."
"I won't say a thing."
The Queen smiled, though she was once again eerily emotionless. Eblis reached for her magic desperately, wanting to warn Madalyn not to return, wanting to warn Azriel and Rhys that she had failed; she wanted to latch onto her spies minds' and tell them to hide and protect themselves.
I have failed.
The Queen smiled. "I'm counting on it."
***
Eblis shivered. Blue sluiced from her scalded skin, slipping onto the floor and puddling until she could've been in a pool of liquid sky, her bare body cradled in it's choking embrace. But she trembled with pain, eyes barely open as that faebane leaked into her wounds, new and old, and left trailing wakes of hissing heat.
She coughed and convulsed with lightning flashes of pain before finally attempting to open her eyes. Blue fringed her lashes, and she carefully and gently wiped it away with shaking fingers. Her dark hair, plastered to her forehead from the boiling faebane bath she'd been given, still attempted to drip extra into her eyes.
Eblis could not seem to open her eyelids very well. They were swollen, she realized, a dull ache rising there. She could not lift her head. She could hardly move besides the twitching of her exhausted and beaten muscles. Her magic was silent within her, silent enough that it rang in her ears as she realized the ground was ever-cooling.
It was stone.
It was dark.
And, she realized, she was in the dungeons.
Eblis blinked, allowing sleep to claim her before she could be truly overwhelmed. But it felt like moments later that she was awakened by nothing at all, and yet a trickling feeling of dread. Pain wrapped around her, as did a freezing cold that set her trembling again. She had no clothes. She curled into herself.
Then, she rose unsteadily, attempting to peer around her. Even on her knees as she was, her arms, so terribly cold and shaking as she stretched them out, could touch either wall of her cell. She had no room for tears within her, and she simply slipped back into a corner. A small cry bit forth before she pressed her lips together; several things ripped and tore painfully along her back and legs, a lick of pain even traveling up her neck. She curled up to the wall by leaning against her arm, attempting to reserve her heat.
I have failed everyone, she realized with a sinking feeling.
"What a poor sight we have for our General-Spymaster." Her eyes pressed shut as light seared her vision, a soft scuffle of fabrics taunting her with their warmth. When she peeled them open again, Anastasia stared back at her, red hair gleaming like blood.
"What is it?" she asked, voice cracking. She cleared her throat. Sleep dragged at Eblis again, her fae body struggling to fix itself without her access to magic. It drained her reserves. She should've been dead.
She wished she was, so she would not have to face her family with her failure.
Anastasia only smiled a pretty white grin. "We found the Princess," she said, "which I'm sure you'll be glad of." Eblis shivered with cold, feeling it reach deep into her ribcage. Her head spun. Madalyn...sweet Madalyn...I'm so sorry. "You'd never believe where she was."
She nearly bit her tongue as another wave of trembling washed through her. She wrapped her arms around herself tighter, feeling the bitter defeat in her soul. It was so dark in the room despite the torch. "In town. With...Asryun."
"Oh, so you do know." The female tsked. "No fun. Asryun didn't make it-she fought hard, I'll give her that-but we had no choice but to drag the Princess here until we get her sister back from your little family."
Her head thumped softly against the wall, slightly-dry hairs brushing against her ears. Everything welled up around her, and her violet eyes were lined with silver. The stars that'd always seemed to twinkle in them sparked and died one by one, as they had never done before no matter her circumstances. Asryun was dead, protecting the princess to her last breath; Madalyn was captured and probably scared for her life; they were trying to get her Lilith from the Night Court.
Next would be her Daemati Council, and then the whole of Prythian.
"So you see, we also decided that the disappearance of the High Lady was your fault as well. You have quite the amount of charges." Anastasia plucked at a gold thread on her pretty dress. "Death would be the best punishment."
She could've sighed with relief. Eblis remained silent, however, until Anastasia tilted her quaint face thoughtfully and then clipped away, her footsteps echoing. The light fled with her, flickering with the female's fast movements.
***
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