Chapter 96 Chapter Ninety-Six

Chapter 96 Chapter Ninety-Six
Teresa lifted her chin and shifted her shoulders, causing the chains around her wrists and ankles to clatter against each other. Her eyes flicked over Isla’s shoulder again to where her dragon continued to fight its restraints in an earnest attempt to break free and rescue its rider. Teresa puckered her lips, and Isla knew, before the woman spoke, that her words would be a barter.

“I’ll tell you what I know… if you release Lussida so she can go and heal before your mate starts in on me and finishes her off.”

Isla’s eyes narrowed. “Tell me what I want, and I’ll keep him from torturing you in the first place,” Isla countered.

Teresa laughed. The sound was sharp, echoing across the vast space in an unnerving way. She shook her head. “That’s adorable, really, but do you know who your mate really is?”

“I’ve seen what he’s capable of, yes,” Isla confirmed.

“And you think you can tame a man like that?” Teresa asked.

“No. Even if I could, I wouldn’t want to,” Isla said, causing Teresa’s eyebrow to pop up in appreciation. “But I do have the ability to reason with him, and I believe he’ll listen to me… If the information is good enough.”

Teresa laughed through her nose and looked down at the ground as she considered. She gave a singular nod before her eyes clashed with Isla’s. “Where shall we begin?”

“Why were we selected? How many of us were there?”

Teresa looked up as if trying to recall. She gave a shrug. “Half a dozen,” she guessed. “We were all there for different reasons: Insurance between warring nations, payment for barters unfulfilled, training…” She picked at her nail. “Experimentation,” she added, her gaze flicking up to Isla.

“Which one were you?”

Teresa smirked. “I was special,” she said with confidence and a shimmy of her shoulders. “Payment, training, and experimentation. A triple threat.”

“And me?”

Teresa chuckled. “You came in a year or two after me. Tiny little thing. Alpha Slade brought you in. He knew how valuable you were to Eredhal. A half fae. He knew if King Kairen got a whiff of you, figured you out, he would want you as a prize. He would come after Tridea with every ounce of power he held. Maybe he’d want to marry you off to one of his sons. Maybe he’d want to use you to find the rest of the fae. Either way, it would grant Eredhal a power no one else could hope to muster. Something had to be done with you. He gave you to the council to do with you what they will.”

Isla looked down as the tingling of forgotten memories threatened to surface. Nothing specific. Dingy walls with moisture collecting and molding over. Chains. Rats scurrying over her feet, waking her from her sleep when they tested for a pulse with a bite of her flesh. Fear. Needles. Shocks. Water filling her lungs. The chantings of a curse trying to be broken. The pain that came from another failed attempt. She shut her eyes hard.

“They experimented on me.”

“Vigorously,” Teresa confirmed. Isla shoved up to her feet and turned away. “The other girls and I had a bet on how long you would last. Every time they dragged you back to your cell, half of us were impressed; the others… well, they were tired of losing.”

Isla spun around. “And which lot were you in?”

Teresa smiled. “This interrogation is concerning the council’s transgressions. Not mine.”

“What were they hoping to achieve by experimenting on me? To harness fae magic?”

“Possibly. Use you to find the rest of the fae. Figure out a way to make more of you. See how many times they could poke your wolf before the fae came spiraling out. All good theories, but that’s all they are. If you want real answers, you can ask the council yourself.”

Isla scoffed. “The council that you work for,” Isla said, her voice dripping with venom.

Teresa’s smile wavered for the first time. She glanced down at her cuticles. “‘Work for’ implies some form of compliance.”

“Then what is it that brought you here?”

Teresa quirked her head to the side. “A debt repaid.”

“To who?”

Teresa straightened her back. “You have a traitor in your midst.”

Isla’s eyes narrowed. “I beg your pardon?”

“I do the odd job for the council, it’s true. I go where the money is, and I don’t care who’s shelling it out.” She leaned forward. “Everyone has a price, Princess, even you.”

“And everyone has a line they refuse to cross,” Isla remarked.

Teresa pursed her lips and sat back. “True.”

“What was yours, Teresa?”

“I had just finished a job and arrived back home when a letter was sent. A contact from within the council wanted me to track the ever-elusive Mate Killer and his band of merry men. They’d slipped through their fingers and needed a more experienced person to take the helm.”

“More experienced than who?”

“The council had installed a mole within the Mate Killer’s ranks years ago. Whether he’d gone soft, been killed, or was having second thoughts, he’d gone dark. No contact. The assassination of the king and queen of Eredhal had apparently weakened his resolve. Originally, the job was a simple track-and-report-back mission. Easy.”

“What changed?” Isla asked.

Teresa chuckled darkly. “The mole resurfaced. Said their target had made his way to Deveraux. With the tracking job no longer needed, my contact asked if I’d take on a new directive.”

“To invite us to the council to discuss our union,” Isla said with a nod as though she already knew.

“To kill the Mate Killer,” Teresa corrected.

“Sylvan?” Isla asked, surprised. “Not… me?”

Teresa laughed. “You? The rare fae hybrid born of fated mates?” Teresa laughed some more. “Of course not, silly child.”

Isla paced a few feet away before turning back. “You said you were here to repay a debt. What do you owe Sylvan? Or is the debt for me?” she asked. Teresa looked away and shifted uncomfortably. “Not me… or Sylvan,” Isla noted, staring at the woman as though she could see through her. “There was more to this ‘directive,’ wasn’t there?”

Teresa let out a sigh of boredom that hid nothing. “The council wanted the whole lot of them gone. The Mate Killer, his beta…” Teresa cleared her throat. “His second-in-command.”

“Cole.”

“Or whoever the Mate Killer had installed,” Teresa answered flippantly.

“You refused to kill your mate.”

Teresa’s eyes flashed. “He is not my mate,” Teresa argued.

“Yet when you touched him the other day, he did not burn,” Isla said. Teresa looked anywhere but at Isla. “Your connection isn’t completely severed.”

Teresa sighed again. “My bond with him is completely severed.”

Behind her, Lussida continued to cry out her outrage at the situation and fought against her chains. “Your dragon… She did not accept the rejection.”

“Stupid animal,” Teresa said, confirming Isla’s hunch. “All instinct, no brains. No understanding of what cannot be and why.”

“You took the job without the intention of fulfilling it. You came to warn us. You came to make amends… at least in a way you could stomach. You tested Sylvan and my bond not for your selfishness, but for confirmation that you were doing the right thing.”

“You’re a mighty fine weaver of stories, Princess,” Teresa said with a condescending tilt of her head. “But my narrative is far from bright and shiny. I’m here to do a job, and if I’m unsuccessful in one regard, well, at least I can still get half the pay and have some fun while I’m at it.”

“What’s the message then?” Isla asked.

“I thought you wanted to discuss your time in the council’s underground?” Teresa prompted. “This conversation is more your mate’s speed, no?”

“Deflecting?”

“Biding my time.”

“What else is there for me to know?” Isla challenged, crossing her arms.

“Aren’t you curious about what happened to your memories? Why they let you go when the rest of us were never so lucky?”

“Enlighten me.”

“Mommy dearest,” Teresa said in a sing-song voice.

Isla scoffed. “My mother didn’t know I was at the council. Even if she did, she wouldn’t risk the safety of her people to save me or make a second deal. She was too confident in her craft of binding my soul. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were using me to find her, but it would never be the other way around.”

“Not that mommy dearest.”

Isla’s heart skipped a beat and restarted with painful surges that sludged through her iced veins. “Cecelia,” she breathed.

Teresa raised her brows twice and sat back like she’d won something. “I remember her sprinting through the hallway calling your name. You were so beaten down, you didn’t even recognize her. Only Slade had the power to remove you from the Council’s clutches. It took weeks. Eventually, though, there she was again, carrying you out, leaving the rest of us behind without a second glance,” she said, spite radiating out of each word. She spit on the ground by Isla’s feet. “I was left to rot in that hole for another decade. I was only released when they thought they’d broken me. When they thought I was nothing more than a tool. I took Lussida and ran. Lived off of livestock and gutter water for years until we came across a village with a gang problem. When Lussida took out the gang with a single breath of fire, they offered us every coin in their pockets. And you?” Teresa sneered down at her. “A princess with smooth hands and perfectly brushed hair. Nothing more than a flailing fae who can’t control her wolf long enough to settle a fight.”

Isla was still reeling from the discovery that Cecelia was the one who saved her. The woman she had always considered her mother saw herself that way too. She was not a filler or replacement; she was her true guardian, her mother. A calloused hand wrapped around Isla’s upper arm, and she jerked. Her eyes cut to the figure standing beside her: Sylvan, with rage simmering in his eyes. Isla glanced toward the chamber entrance and spotted Gregory watching from the shadows, his jaw ticking.

“Fine work, dragon rider,” Sylvan growled. “Offer just enough information and a quick deviation to throw off your opponent.”

“I live to impress the monarchy,” Teresa spat, her demeanor a complete shift from how she’d slowly softened throughout their conversation.

“I’m afraid you’ll have a far harder time dissecting my focus. Let’s get back to what’s truly important that you wished to divert from, shall we? Tell me about this rat you claim is clawing his way through my inner circle,” Sylvan insisted.