Others were in her mansion, chasing the O’Connor possessed by the Sinsar Dubh, the sentient embodiment of the king’s act of contrition.

He hadn’t even gotten that right. And had been trying to clean up after that mess ever since.

But for whatever reason, it seemed he’d changed his mind about containing it and making amends. Or he’d be here now, stopping this fiasco before it happened, stepping in and saving her from paying the ultimate price for his mistakes. Righting his many grievous wrongs.

Didn’t he know she’d drunk from the flask, had her memory restored? Didn’t he know she knew the truth now?

All of it.

She shattered the ice that coated her and expanded her senses but couldn’t feel him hovering nearby. Then again she had no idea if she’d ever been able to sense him, if he’d cared to keep himself hidden.

In case he was there, concealed from her awareness, she spoke clearly, choosing her words with care. “I have my memory back. I left you by choice. I wrote you a note on a scroll I tied with a lock of my hair. I said: ‘You have become a monster. There is nothing left of the man I love.’ I wearied of waiting. You are incapable of sacrifice and that made you incapable of love. Cruce offered to take me home to my world where I could live and die and return to the All. I wanted to escape what you’d become, go home and be Zara again. Pure, small things like me don’t fare well among gods. If you ever truly loved me, release me from your prison. My freedom is the only thing you have that I want. Let. Me. Go.”

The moment she finished speaking, she inhaled sharply and stiffened.

The Sinsar Dubh was here!

THE SINSAR DUBH

I hasten down the corridor to the boudoir.

Although a confederacy of CRETINSIDIOTSFOOLS close in somewhere behind me, I pay them no heed. By the time they find their way across these ever-changing floors to the boudoir, it will be too late. I’ll be gone.

WE ARE DESIRE, LUST, GREED, AND THE PATH WE CHOOSE TO SUPREMACY.

My path to supremacy was masterfully planned, and executed with only minor unfair setbacks from which I cleverly recovered.

How easy MacKayla was to deceive, manipulate into taking me straight to the spear I required to implement my plans!

I’d enacted my ruse at length and with elaborate conviction, in case she’d been somehow able to spy upon me. Brilliance such as mine takes nothing for granted. I’d permitted her to regain my body for a time, lingering, watching, spying upon Barrons, studying how he handled her, protected her from certain information, filing that knowledge away to use at the proper time, waiting for precisely the right moment to reclaim control of her body.

The look on Jada’s face, such fun and games there! I’d wanted to smash my fist into it, giggle with delight, but interfering, underhanded Barrons had attacked me unfairly, seizing me from behind while I was invisible.

I drag the Unseelie princess behind me by her hair, cocooned in crimson runes. I summoned and slapped them on her without even breaking stride as I strode through Dublin. Although MacKayla’s body continues to weaken, I float on a cloud of radiant energy, sustained by the promise of my certain success, so near at hand.

I AM.

And I am deservedly ebullient.

I drop my spell of invisibility. It’s no longer necessary, and as I’m dragging the princess, my presence is obvious. I don’t repeat the same intellectual lapses. I whistle a cheery tune, put a hop and skip into my passage over the crimson marble floors, and burst into song: “Sh-boom, sh-boom, sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la, sh-boom, sh-boom…”

Expediency is priority. I will kill the princess once I reach the boudoir, while simultaneously summoning the Seelie Queen. The fool king didn’t realize how much of his own knowledge he was passing into me the day he created me. I know precisely where he once placed his palm on the wall in the concubine’s chamber to call his lover so he need not search his demesne for her.

Two swift strikes with the spear: princess then queen. Then I’ll sift out instantly to the Fae court to drink the Elixir of Life, the location of which will become known to me once I acquire the True Magic from the queen.

Then off to see the wizard, as MacKayla would say, to snatch aside his curtain and reveal him as the charlatan he is compared to the REAL power I am. Then I will kill the bastard king who made and abandoned me so long ago.

A giggle escapes me. It has all been so SERIOUS up until now. I’ve been so focused on my goals, I’ve not gotten to PLAY, haven’t permitted myself the opportunity to display my most dazzling powers, as I’ve required things on this world expediently, but that will soon be rectified. Then I can take my time, trot out my favorite spells. I will torture the vile, privileged, soft Seelie before I leave this world, mutilate and mutate them, leaving them hideous, deformed, amputated bits and pieces, hobble them and turn them inside out. Show them what it is to live in Hell forever. “SH-BOOM!” I punctuate the arousing thought with a shout. Then I will fuck Jericho Barrons to death. Over and over, amid much blood and torture, I will flay his skin from his bones while I fuck him. I will experience LUST to its fullest degree in every capacity possible.

Then I will sink within and torment the mouse in my house, the pathetic, fragile, morally castrated MacKayla who has already been so undone by weakness that she’s withdrawn into a catatonic, fetal ball inside me.

And all it took to reduce her to such a state was allowing her to see herself torture and kill, get a small taste of the delights in which her body had been indulging. I should have permitted her to watch all along. I giggle and burst into another song as I skip down the corridor. “B-B-Baby you ain’t seen nothing yet! Here’s something you’re NEVER gonna forget BABY.”