Chapter 330

Elain stared defiantly at the male before her. He and several others had come into the room in which she was being held and had pulled them all to their feet. She didn't know his name, but his face was familiar enough. "What is it that you want?" She asked, lifting her chin as she spoke.

He smiled at her, a thin, nasty, smile. Elain met his eyes and then allowed her gaze to move around them. She had been pulled by her bound wrists away from the others and through another door. The others had been lost from her sight when the door had swung shut behind her, but Elain had heard Ashk's demanding voice, not sounding even the slightest bit afraid, and it had given her enough confidence to hold her own head high and meet these folk in the eyes with her own steely gaze. At least, as steely as she could manage. Elain knew that she had nothing on Nesta.

"You're not in any position to be making demands." The male said, and Elain raised an eyebrow.

"Then what is the point of this?" She asked, "If you're not going to tell me what it is that you're after, what is the point? What are you getting out if it?" The slightly bewildered look in his pale eyes told Elain that she was speaking to the wrong fae. This male was not in charge, and Elain doubted that he even knew what is was that was happening. "Perhaps…" she went on, "You could send in the one making the decisions…"

Nastiness filled his eyes then, and Elain resisted taking a step back. "What make you think that's not me…?"

"I'm a seer, remember?"

"You have no ability now." He retorted, smiling in a way that suggested he thought that he'd gotten one over her, "We saw to that."

"Ah, yes." She replied, "The faebane in the tea, wasn't it…?"

"Yes!" he laughed, the sound suggesting that he thought he was extremely clever.

"How original." Elain thought she might goad him into getting whoever was the one actually behind this. "Sorcha pulled that not long ago."

"She dosed wine in the palace." He said, a little sulkily, "We had to organise it in the city, into tea not made by us…"

"Ohh." Elain kept her voice monotone, sounding uninterested and unimpressed, "That's so much more clever…" The sarcasm in her voice was not missed by the male who sneered at her.

"It wasn't easy." He told her and Elain rolled her eyes. She knew that she was pissing him off, and she hoped that he might just tell her who had organised this or, at the least, what it was that they wanted.

"And did you come up with that yourself?" she asked, still trying to sound uninterested. She could tell by the look that crossed his face that he had not.

"You're a little mouthy for someone without any power…"

"You may have robbed me temporarily of my seer abilities," she replied, trying to work as much distaste into her voice as possible, "But that doesn't change who I am and I will always have more power than you." She was talking now, unable to stop herself, and she could see that he was getting angrier and angrier, and that was only making her talk more, trying to push him further. "I'm the mate of the Heir to the Day Court, the sister of the High Lady of Night, and I'm the future Lady of the Day Court myself… who are you?"

She was unprepared for the slap that came her way, and she was unable to bite back a pained gasp as her bound hands came up to her face, trying too late to protect herself.

"That's the problem." He told her. "You're unworthy of this Court, and we're not going to let you and those ferals from the Autumn Court taint our High Lord."

Elain swallowed, willing the tears of pain welling in her eyes to disappear before he saw them. Ashk had said that they needed to hide their fears and their weaknesses, and she wasn't about to show him that he had hurt her. She lifted her chin, meeting his eyes again. He lifted his hand as if to strike her again, and Elain lifted her chin even higher. "Go ahead…" She hissed, "Hit me. See how well that works out for you when Lucien finds me…"

That seemed to make him hesitate and he blinked before lowering his hand. "So, I take it…" he said, voice irritated enough to match the expression on his face now. "You will not willingly leave the Day Court…?"

"I will not."

He blinked again and then grabbed the cord binding her wrists. She followed him as he yanked her forward, pulling her back to the room she had come from. Elain remained silent and tried her best to take in any and all details she noticed before they were back in the dimply lit room and she hurried back across to Tisia who was still cowering by the far wall. Ashk was missing, and Elain was unable to do anything about the fear that spiked though her at that. As she sank down beside Tisia, Elain tried reaching again for the bond connecting her to Lucien, hoping that the faebane would wear off soon and she would be able to feel him once again.