What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)

by Harper L. Woods

“Come whatever may, we will fight for our freedom,” I said, rubbing the cloth along her skin. Goosebumps rose along her flesh, and her back arched into me when I dragged it over her breast, the sensitive tip hardening beneath my touch. “Until chaos reigns,” she murmured, turning her head to look at me from the very corner of her eye. Something dark flashed through it, a dark streak of gold reflecting off the night sky before it faded away just as quickly as it came. I did my best not to show my surprise, not wanting to add to my mate’s uncertainty about the things that marked her as different. In all my years, I’d encountered a great many beings. None so strange as her. “And eternity begins anew,” I said, echoing the vows we’d taken to one another. We may not be able to complete our mate bond yet, but I would give her every part of me that I could in the meantime.

“I doubt that I need your blood any longer. I am not human,” she said with a sad sort of smile. It was bittersweet, as if she would miss the part of her that required my essence inside of her. “Need it or not, you will take it, anyway. I like knowing that I’m inside of you in any way I can be. I like watching you drink me down and beg me for more,”

let her take more than I should have, hoping against hope that my blood could help sustain her through the tests Mab would force her to endure the next day. If it meant I would see her safe, I would do whatever it took it took. Even if it left me weakened.

This was where I would spend the rest of my eternity if given the chance. Fuck the world and what it needed. This was my home.

The peace she offered transcended sex, giving me a few moments where it didn’t feel like the fate of the world rested upon me and now my mate. The one who seemed gifted with the threads of fate themselves.

Her cheeks hollowed out. Her mouth pinched in rage. Whatever it was that the male had failed to deliver, she wanted it more than she wanted to know what I was. Her eyes were wide, wild, and feral as she stared down at the male before her. It was the first hint I’d seen of the madness many had alluded to; the first sign that she had that within her.

There wasn’t much that I knew about the prison, only that it was the home of the most terrifying creatures of Faerie. The things that could not exist within our world without destroying it.

All it took for evil to flourish was for the good to do nothing. Mab hadn’t even done the job herself, instead ordering her man to handle her dirty work for her. The callousness of it all made me want to weep. I determined then and there that no matter what came of me, I would always kill my enemies myself. I would not put the stain of that soul, of that death, onto another person. I would give them the dignity of being worthy of my time, more than a muttered command or the wave of a hand. There was honor in that, something the Queen of Air and Darkness seemed to have none of.

Tartarus. The Prison of the Gods. There was no telling how many of the Gods had been locked in there, trapped in a magical place that no one seemed to know how to access. As a girl, I’d wondered who ruled the prison, who knew where the entrance was and who sentenced creatures to an eternity of suffering within its confines.

“How much more do you think your mate can take before he intervenes and gives me what I want? You refuse because you think it will harm the precious world, but he doesn’t care about the fucking world. He would burn it all and every living being within it to the ground if it meant you remained unscathed. You can defy me all you want, Little Mouse. But he will not,”

There was no trace of the shame he must have felt, only his sense of duty in protecting me clouding his judgment. I wanted to condemn him for it, to judge him for what he might have done. But could I have sat there and watched Mab skin him alive when I could have put an end to it?

My suffering had been a show, a test to prove whether or not she could allow me free. It had been entirely unnecessary, but she’d proven her point. We were powerless against her.

Every part of me recoiled from the honorific upon his lips when speaking to someone else. That deep, hollow thing within me rose up, struggling against the ties that bound her still. She thumped against my chest, teeth and claws scratching as if she meant to tear her way out of me. There was only one person he should be calling his anything, only one woman who should be his Queen.

wanted to feed on it, to turn it into ash and dust until nothing remained of the queen who shouldn’t have been.

I could practically see the fuzzy, blurred form of her standing amidst the stars. She was nothing but a silhouette in the darkness, a golden, glowing woman who was not meant to be contained. She found freedom in the dark. She and I remained separate, two minds within one body. I couldn’t grasp her thoughts, couldn’t wrap my fingers around the parts of her that she kept hidden from me just yet. I tried to sink into her, to connect in a way that might offer me some protection.

The beast within me recoiled, sinking back down into that hollow place where she slept. It wasn’t safe for her to come out, I knew, but I missed the euphoria she filled me with. The knowledge that she would protect us at all costs.

No one existed but the two of us, not Caldris or Malachi. We both knew they had become nothing but pawns in the games we would play with one another. “We’re going to have fun together, you and I.”

The iron at my throat made my body heavy, even without the scalding burn of the iron to touch my flesh directly. Compared to the moments where that creature had danced just beneath the surface of my skin, her magic coursing through my veins, the inevitable feeling of being completely powerless was a nightmare in itself. I wanted nothing more than to revel in that power again, to feel my body flood with the cold hollowness as it surged toward the surface. Staring down at her felt like looking into a pit, a well of something unknown lurking inside of me. If I ventured deeper into that pit, I might never emerge again.

“I’m not a Princess,” I said, staring up into her dark eyes defiantly. I didn’t care what my connection to Caldris meant to these people—being a princess implied I would one day sit in a stuffy throne room and conduct business for the courts. I’d be more likely to run free through the meadows at night and avoid all sense of responsibility entirely, and I wouldn’t apologize for it.

would say that is all the more reason that you need to be protected. The hands of the Fates themselves have woven themselves into your very existence. You being here cannot be a coincidence. You are meant for great things, Princess Estrella. I cannot wait to see the day when you realize it,”

“You have more allies within this Court than you have allowed yourself to see. Blending in has become necessary to our survival, but I assure you, we are here,” Nila

“You are a daughter of the night, Princess Estrella. It is time you experienced the luxuries of one.” She picked up one of the round tables, setting it closer to the bath and lining the surface with a collection of other vials. “Think of it as armor. Court life is not an easy one. There are no swords to protect you here. Allow me to show you the pampered ways of the Fae. I promise you will take Mab’s breath away the next time she sees you, as well as your mate. For entirely different reasons, but both are equal motivators in court life.”

“Because there is privilege in beauty. There is power in taking away the breath of your enemy so that they never see you ready to slit their throat, too fixated on the curve of your lip. There is strength in allowing yourself to appear fragile, all the while knowing that your pretty silken skirts hide a dagger that could carve the heart from a male’s chest,” she said, her lips curving into the sly smile of a woman who was well acquainted with such deceptions.

I would never forget the sound of it tearing from her body, never stop hearing the sound of her screams echoing through the throne room. She’d taken the pain, suffered through it, and managed to remain strong despite knowing it would come again. But I hadn’t been able to bear the pain in her eyes, the tremble in her body as she suffered. I hadn’t been able to listen to another pained whimper, another broken sound escaping her lips before she could stop it as Mab gripped her flesh all over again. I’d been weak, and I feared we would all pay the consequences for it.

Estrella had saved me, long before she’d ever known of my existence.

Not all who inhabited the Court of Shadows were evil, but those who were deserved no less than being exterminated and sent to Helheim where they belonged.

Her boredom was bad enough, but it was when she thought she was feeling “kind” that the true cruelty she was capable of reared its head. She would make me choose between two impossible forms of suffering, and when I suffered, she would make me feel as if it was my fault and not hers. Because I’d chosen it in the end.

Reward. My body, my cock, was not a reward for anyone but Estrella. I

I would love her until chaos reigned, no matter what or who tried to come between us. I would gladly suffer the pain of a thousand knives rather than allow another woman to touch me in the way that only Estrella had the right to. I’d suffered without her for centuries, never knowing the touch of the female who would change me. I’d never do anything to hurt her, gladly taking the pain upon myself instead.

“I should castrate you for your rejection,” she said, glaring down at me. “It is a shame that your cock will grow back. My vengeance would be depriving your mate of that piece of flesh I am sure she loves all too much.”

To live for centuries and still require the reassurance of a male companion was a particularly sad trait, and in anyone less despicable, I might have felt pity. But not for her.

I needed to embrace the fact that femininity did not equal weakness. That it was only the standards men placed upon us that made us believe the two were mutually exclusive.

Women did not insult the attractiveness of those they thought beneath them. They insulted those they perceived to be a threat, wielding their own insecurity as a weapon against them.

“You and half the realm, it seems. But it is me who will share his bed for the rest of his days. He lives within me, his soul as much a part of me as mine,” I said, pausing as I delivered the final blow to her confidence. I might not have done it if I hadn’t known she would already be my enemy, but nothing I could say or do would change my fate where her jealousy was concerned. I smiled sadly, my eyes filling with pity. “You are nothing to him, whereas I am his entire world. Dressed up pig or not.”

If love was weakness, then what Caldris felt for me would be his ruin.

“Through death comes life.” My voice echoed through the mist between us.

“She was loyal to Alastor, Twyla’s late husband. She is one Goddess I would not have stood a chance against in a fair battle. So while we were in the Autumn Court for Mabon, I slipped a drop of serpent’s venom into her wine at dinner, and then I crept into her room while she slept it off, and I cut her heart from her chest and fed it to my snake.” “You have no sense of honor, do you?”

“Surely, you’ve noticed the statues that line the halls of Tar Mesa? Each one of them represents a God, a Goddess, a creature, or a Sidhe that I have slaughtered in my quest for power.”

“I have been playing this game for longer than you’ve been alive, Estrella. I like to think Sarilda and I might have been an incredible team had circumstances been different. Instead, she is dead, her magic wasted. But there is still time for you and me to change our path. This world will never give us what we deserve. We must take it.” “I will never become the very thing that I hate,” I said, my words slurring as I stared up at the statue of Sarilda.

“An heir is not only a necessity, but a symbol of stability. In the event that something does happen to me, it will reassure my loyal followers that there is someone who will take my place. Someone strong enough to fill my shoes and keep hold of the kingdom in the same way I have. The right way,” she said, waiting for me to look at her.

“I have no intention of having children,” I said. Her words solidified that truth. I would not bring a child into this world, not until Mab and her evils were gone from it. I held her stare as her nostrils flared and she stared down into my eyes, her malice slithering through me. “And I would sooner burn this world to ash than ever allow you to lay eyes upon any child of mine.” “We shall see. The Fates work in mysterious ways. You are here for a reason,” she said, abandoning her hold on my elbow to grasp the door handle. “If they want you to have a child, you will have one. No matter what precautions you take to prevent it.” Unless we don’t complete our bond.

“You cannot have shadows without the light,”

“Because every life matters. Every soul matters in this world.

“Because Estrella is living proof that you can be both powerful and kind. She is your reminder that you didn’t need to sacrifice your soul to be granted the power you have. She has been given that for merely existing, and where your people hate you for what you have forced yourself to become…” I paused, watching as Mab’s eye twitched. It was the subtlest sign that I’d struck a nerve.

No matter how many centuries Mab had lived, everyone held on to the insecurities that plagued us as a child. Mab remembered how it felt to be second best, to be the dark child to her brother’s golden light. Just. Like. Estrella. “They will love her until their dying breath,” I finished, watching a shudder work through her body. As if the chill of my words crept up her neck, forcing her to acknowledge the truth of them. “Perhaps I’ll kill her first,” she said, her voice cold as she snapped at me.

“You are my greatest failure. I hope you know that,” Mab snapped. I grinned at the reality that she’d been unable to break me the way she had so many others. That I hadn’t changed to suit her purposes. “I take great pride in that,” I said, turning my back on her as I walked to the canal.

“Do you love her?” The ferryman stilled, turning back to face me for a moment. Something almost human passed over the gaunt face that remained unnaturally still. “Your mate is … unique,” he said finally, his voice inhumanly low. “That doesn’t answer my question,” I said, wanting the answer for the benefit of Estrella. She’d mourned her father, spent a life grieving for him. If she was nothing more than a duty to the ferryman, a service to the Fates, then she deserved to know the truth. She deserved the opportunity to carve him from her heart once and for all. The ferryman cast his eyes to the sky, following the path his pet blight cut through the air. The bird landed upon his shoulder, staring back at him with golden eyes as the ferryman nodded finally. “We did, but that love will not save her from what the Fates have in store,” he said ominously, turning his back on me to signal the end of the conversation.

“It is a pleasure, Princess. We watched you,” he said, looking over his shoulder as two other gnomes stepped up behind him. Lozu lingered behind them, his spirit as corporeal as a body despite its translucence as he stared at me beneath the sweep of his hat across his forehead. “You did not object when you were given work beneath your status. You stepped into the fray like you belong.” I smiled softly as he approached my knee, hauling himself up onto it so that he could come to stand in my palm. “Only a ruler who does not deserve her people would think that she is better than them.” I stood, allowing him to come to stand upon the cage. “You have a very different perception of a ruler than we do,” he

“The man who ruled me had me beaten if I did not curtsy deep enough. So, no; I think the humans and the Fae have far more in common than the Queen or my Lord would have wanted us to believe,” I said with a scoff, turning to look at Fallon and Imelda as they reached into the cage. They grasped Adelphia by what remained of her legs, pulling her out slowly as pieces of flesh sloughed off. “Cruelty is not solely a Fae trait nor a human trait. It lives in all of us.”

The last remaining elder of the Lunar Coven and Mab’s heir bowing before me stole every thought from my head. I didn’t know what had caused it. I didn’t know what I’d done. Only that part of me wished I could undo it—wished to make them all stop looking at me as if I was something they’d waited for. Where was my mate? I pushed down the thread of our bond, only a surge of pride welling in response to my terror. He was no help, no reassurance that they’d forget this moment by morning. Asshole, I thought, wishing that the bond was more than just the surge of feelings between us. Even that seemed to grow more and more muted with every day I spent in my collar, as if the magic of our mate bond couldn’t survive the constant suppression.