Glow (The Plated Prisoner Series Book 4)

“No, Goldfinch,” he interrupts. “I’m good to you. But I am every bit the villain that I warned you I was.”

I’ve always been treated like treasure, but with Slade, I’m simply treasured

Then I take off my ruined, gold-splotched clothes, feeling like they dried with paint splattered all over them. Though as soon as I drag the shirt off my back, I freeze at a sharp stab of pain that shoots down my spine.

I stop.

Suck in a breath.

Seconds go by. Time’s pendulum swings like a spectator, eyes ticking from Slade to me as we watch each other.

He wants to talk. I can see the agonized words held back in his mouth. I can see the emotions he’s ready to face. But when I snapped back into consciousness in that other cave, those very emotions were too consuming. The memories too raw. I didn’t shove up walls only for my gold and my fae nature. I barricaded everything else too.

“I’m not ready.”

My lips are protective over that truth, pursing together defensively as soon as I’ve said it. I’m not ready. I can’t go there. Because if I go there, then I’ll have to think and process and feel. I don’t want to feel yet. The clock can count down all it wants, but I’m still not going to give in.

“What’s the Grotto?”

Lu and Judd look to Slade, as if they don’t know how to answer. I thought this would be an easy question, but considering the hesitation that’s settled in the room, I guess I was wrong. The first drip of anxiety filters into my stomach, which is the last thing I want. Turning my head, I look up at Slade.

I finally get a chance to get a really good look at him, and what I see makes even more of those worried droplets fall down. He has circles under his eyes, and his five o’clock shadow has turned into the start of a thick beard. There’s tension held at his brow that he can’t hide from me, and he’s still wearing his wrinkled, gold-splotched clothes.

His eyes soften as he watches me. “The Grotto is our home in Drollard Village.”

“Okay...and where’s Drollard Village? Are we still in Fifth Kingdom?”

Judd grins and chucks his hands behind his head as he stretches his legs out in front of him. “That’s an interesting question. See, because it was Fifth Kingdom, but now it’s not. And technically, Drollard Village doesn’t exist. Neither do the people who live here.”

My mind swims. “Um. What?”

Slade shoots him an impatient look before turning his attention back onto me. “We’ll explain all of that later. How are you feeling?”

That’s not what I want to talk about. Not at all.

Ignoring his question, I shove the blankets that are still wrapped around me. Now that I’m awake, it’s sweltering under all these layers. When Slade loosens his hold enough for me to do that, I take the opportunity to stand. My bare feet sink into the soft fur rug as I pad across the room to the window. I look out, squinting at the swirl of glowing blue. “What is that? It’s almost like we’re—”

“In a house built inside a cave? Yep, we are,” Lu tells me.

“And it glows,” Judd pipes in.

My brows lift up in surprise. “Wow. It’s pretty.”

“Auren?” Slade calls my name tentatively, but it makes the skin around my eyes go tight.

Instead of answering him, I look back to Judd. He seems like a safe bet. “What kinds of card games have you been playing?”

I can tell that he sees right through me, especially when his eyes dart over to Slade for a split second before he answers me. Still, he plays along. “Oh, you don’t want to know, Gildy. Lu cheats.”

“I do not!” she says with outrage. “It’s not my fault you can’t hold your wine while we’re playing, and you make awful bets.”

He rolls his eyes. “See? Mean.”

A little laugh escapes me, but that quickly gets washed away when I hear, “Auren.”

I paste on a smile and turn to face Slade, but my stomach churns when he slowly stands up. “Yes?”

“I asked how you’re feeling,” he says carefully, his eyes the color of summer grasslands.

I can feel Judd and Lu staring at me, and my face goes hot.

“I’m fine.”

“...let her sleep. It’s late.” That’s Slade’s voice. I realize even though we’re now inside and he isn’t carrying me through a blizzard, he’s still holding me. Like he doesn’t want to let me go.

My heart breaks a little at that.

I hear someone else scoff. “I don’t care if it’s late, she needs to eat. She’s been sleeping for four days. She’s done. Gildy Locks, you’re done. Wake up!”

My eyelids flutter open when I recognize Lu’s voice, and I blink up at a smooth wooden ceiling before my gaze shifts to Slade’s face. He sighs when he sees I’m awake.

“Did that work?” Lu asks a second before her face appears above me.

“Of course it worked, it’s not like you were quiet about it,” he replies.

She grins when I glance up at her. “There you are. Stop being lazy.”

Slade makes a noise of warning, but I feel my lips tugging up into a smile.

“I’m in a house with five damn men, and they’re driving me nuts,” she tells me. “I need someone to commiserate with.”

“Gildy should commiserate with me,” I hear Judd cut in from somewhere across the room. “You’ve been mean.”

Lu spins around. “Beating your ass at cards every night doesn’t make me mean. It makes me superior.”

“Yeah, but stealing the wine does make you mean.”

She sniffs. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

With Slade’s help, I sit up, but he keeps me tucked against his lap on the oversized chair.

“Auren,” he says firmly, and despite how heavy my eyes are, they rise up. “Nothing about what we just did is anything shameful. You don’t need to feel embarrassed.”

I scoff, shaking my head as I pull on his gloves, feeling slightly better at having my hands covered.

“It’s true,” he says firmly, his eyes pulling me in. “You’re fae, just like me, which means we’re going to have wild, raving urges. Like fighting and fucking. Those two go hand in hand.”

My cheeks heat at his bluntness, and then I go hot all over when he carefully slips a hand to the back of my neck. His hair is disheveled from my fingers spearing through it, some of the strands stained with streaks of gold, even more of it dragged down his cheeks and gleaming on his lips. Something in me wants to purr at seeing all my marks on him like that.

“It’s completely natural,” he goes on, his voice rumbling through me with decadent heat. “And I, for one, fucking love it when I see more of your fae nature coming out.”

I let out a shaky smile. “I must not be that fae, considering these,” I say, tapping against the rounded tips of my ears.

“I have them too,” Slade points out, and as if to prove his point, his body shifts. His spikes absorb back beneath his skin, stealing away the wisps of his aura and the shine of scales along his cheek. When his eyes are green once more and his ears no longer pointed, he taps against them. “Though, mine are rounded in this form because I’m only half fae.”

“You are?” I ask in surprise. “Maybe I’m only half fae too. I don’t remember my parents well enough to know.”

“Could be.”

I’m relieved that we’re off the other subject, but now that reality is settling in, there are about a hundred other subjects cropping up in my mind. Subjects I don’t want to think about yet. I wrap my arms around myself, suddenly feeling incredibly tired.

The second he notices me shiver, Slade takes me by the hand. “Let’s get you back to the Grotto where you can rest.”

Fae.

The moment he says the word, I know it’s true. I know that’s what this beast inside my chest is, the one that even now, lies in wait, talons gripping the rungs of my ribs.

I look around the shadowed space of the strange cave, and that grip tightens. Gold is splashed everywhere in messy blotches, most of it congealed in puddles around the ground. When I look at it, all I can think of is how the fae in me took over. How it tore through me, hooking onto the reins of control, yanking them right out of my hands.

And with it...

Great Divine, the noises.

Every glint of gold in the cave is a glint in the castle as it shuddered and spread. Every reflection gleaming back at me is me seeing this wild version of myself tearing through people, killing them with merciless sweeps.

But the guilt? Her feeling guilt over killing Midas, now that will kill me.

I don’t know how many seconds pass as her mind recalls what transpired, but finally, her eyes hook back onto mine, and my heart nearly drops down through my feet at the tears gathered in them.

“How?” she whispers. “I felt my power leave me when the sun set. That shouldn’t have been possible, but I—” Her words choke off. “There was something inside of me that just snapped open.”

“And it was fucking glorious.”

She flinches. “How can you say that?” she asks, her voice cracking. “I became a monster.”

But I shake my head, brush my thumbs over her wet cheeks. “No, baby. Not a monster. A fae.”

When the gold starts to move, starts to come closer to her, she flinches back with a cry. “No, no, no, no, no!”

“Auren.”

Panic has set in, her head shaking nonstop. For the first time since she woke, worry creeps up the back of my neck. Before, when she was attacking me, I had complete confidence that she would snap out of that state and come back to me, had complete confidence that she was in control of her magic.

But now...

Her breathing starts to go quick and hollow, like no matter how much she inhales, she can’t get enough air.

“Auren, look at me.”

She spins in place, looking around wildly. “I don’t… Where am I? I can’t let the gold go. I need it away from me! I need it to stop!”

I stride forward, but the sound of my boots splashing through the melted gold makes her flinch. “It’s okay,” I start to tell her, but she isn’t hearing me.

“What did I do, Slade?” Her arm grazes the cave wall, making the gold splatter there stick like syrup against her sleeve. She wrenches back from it, cowering with a full-body tremble. “Oh goddess,” she breathes, a hand clamping over her mouth in horror. “What did I do?” The question is a shaken whisper. A cornered recognition with its hindlegs backed against a wall.

Sidestepping, I slip in front of her, gripping her by the arms. “Look at me.” She tries to jerk away, but I keep my grip firm. “Auren, look at me.”

Her gaze snaps to mine, her pupils blown with fear, the pulse in her neck racing. “What did I do…”

“Breathe with me.”

I take in a deep breath, pursing my lips slightly to blow it back out. I do this again and again until she starts to mimic me. At first, her breaths are still too quick, her eyes too wild, but slowly, her breathing calms down enough that she’s no longer hyperventilating.

As her panic ebbs, her gold no longer dollops with movement. I can tell the moment she severs her hold over it, because it no longer seems alive. Instead, it’s just liquid left to dry on the floor.

“That’s good,” I soothe, running my hands up and down her arms. “You’re doing so good. Keep breathing.”

She lets out a shuddering breath, watery eyes lifting to mine like she’s seeing me for the first time. “Slade.”

“I’m here, baby.”

My chest has gone tight. I’m so overjoyed that she’s awake, that she’s herself, but I don’t want her to feel fear, to feel despair.

Her gaze drifts to the gold splatters along the cave walls, to the pool of it solidifying on the floor. “Great Divine.”

I watch it—the memories—as they seem to fall into place one after the other. There’s a whole host of expressions that cross her face, but all I can do is brace myself, waiting for the onslaught. Of blame. Of hate. Of guilt.

I think that’s what will cut me deepest. Not her blaming me or even hating me for rotting her—I deserve that.