When All is Lost

34.

"Well," A thin nasal voice says in the pitch black. "This sucks."

"Hello?" I expect my voice to sound rough, cracked from breathing in the poison, but it's not.

"That Prince of yours can be really dumb, you know that?" The voice seems familiar, its accent reminiscent of the Fae who live in the Dovecote but something is different making it impossible to place.

"I do not. Who are you?" I ask, my eyes are not adjusting to the dark and I feel increasingly like panicking.

"I am insulted you don't know." The voice is haughty and amused. I frown.

"How would I know? I can't see you."

"You barely see me in the real world, you still know who I am."

An inkling starts to tickle my brain. Someone I barely see but know instinctively.

"Inkspot?"

"Bingo. The girl ain't dumb."

"Where are we?" I ask, soothed a little that he's here but also worried, since, this has never happened before.

"Shadow realm." I wait for more information and he sighs. "I wasn't gonna let my girl get murdered by some scumbag with shadowroot. So, I brought you here. No life force, no murder."

"Wait? No life force?" Panic kicks me in the stomach. "Inkspot, put me back. My body will die without me."

"Will it? How long have you been alive? Three years?"

"I'm...you know how long I've been alive, you've been with me the whole time."

He sounds affronted, mumbling "Not the whole time. I do things."

"Inkspot, please? Are you sure my body won't die?"

"I'm sure. Did you want to feel pain? Do you want to be eaten alive by a poison? I thought you didn't, apologies if I'm wrong."

"Ok, ok. Fine. I trust you."

"Oh, thank goodness, you trust me now."

"Are they trying to kill me?"

He goes quiet for a long time and just as I begin to realise I'm alone he pops back.

"No. They're moving you. The man child is taking good care of you."

I assume the man child means Nate.

"What are we going to do?" I ask.

"Well, as I see it you only have a few options." I can almost feel him ticking them off on his fingers. "One, stay here, have a nice time with me. Two, go back there and escape the minute you can, fight with the Fae and send the country into civil war." I shake my head to each of these and when he next speaks his voice is dark, serious. "Three, go back, and destroy the Queen who should never have been allowed to live."

My eyebrows raise slightly if I even have eyebrows in this realm.

"Which will it be?" He asks, his voice lighter again.

I don't really have a choice here and I know it.

"Number three."

"Good girl. I knew we'd backed the right baby. You had a glow about you."

I swallow.

"Inkspot..." I want to tell him how I feel, how grateful I am to him, how much I love him, but words don't do it justice. "Thank you." I try to put every ounce of feeling into those two words.

"You're welcome, Kiddo." He sounds choked up and I smile. "We destroyed a world for you."

"What?" I breathe.