Chapter 7 - THE PRICE OF ROYAL BLOOD
“ servitude?” Morwenna echoed, her laughter ringing sharp and cold through the ruined cabin. “Oh, Jareth. You always were remarkably arrogant to think I wanted a broken dog in chains.”
The Fae sorceress glided closer, the obsidian silk of her gown whispering against the floorboards. She reached out a pale, long-fingered hand, her sharp nail tracing the line of Jareth’s jaw before he jerked his head away with a growl.
“I have no use for a rebellious Alpha who would sooner tear out my throat the moment my back is turned,” Morwenna purred, her eyes shifting toward Kaye, who stood frozen by the hearth, shielding the baby with her entire body. “No... the debt was drawn in blood and lineage. The child is the prize. But...”
Morwenna paused, a wicked, calculating light dancing in her obsidian eyes.
“Since you are so desperately eager to bargain away your life for theirs, Alpha, I will offer you a different wager.”
Jareth slowly rose to his feet, his muscles coiled like steel springs. “Name it.”
“You wish to keep your son? You wish to spare your precious queen the agony of losing her firstborn?” Morwenna smiled thinly. “Very well. You shall have him. But the ancient laws of blood-exchange cannot simply be erased with words. A life for a life. A soul for a soul.”
She pointed a slender finger directly at Jareth’s chest.
“You will walk into the Shifting Mists of the Fae Realm voluntarily. You will surrender your title, your crown, and your memories of this family. You will serve as the Guardian of the Northern Gate for one hundred years. If you survive the trials of the mist without retaining your identity or begging for release, the debt is cleared, and your son remains untouched.”
Kaye gasped, stepping forward despite her terror. “Jareth, no! She’s tricking you! You won't survive a century in the Fae mists!”
“Silence, human!” Morwenna snapped, a wave of magical pressure slamming into Kaye and knocking the breath from her lungs.
Jareth didn't hesitate for even a heartbeat. He looked back at Kaye one last time, his golden eyes filled with an infinite, heartbreaking tenderness.
“Live,” he whispered to her across the smoky air. “Raise our son. Tell him his father was a fool who loved his mother too much to let her cry.”
Before Kaye could scream, before she could cross the room to stop him, Jareth turned and stepped straight into the shimmering, cobalt-blue portal that Morwenna had ripped open in the center of the cabin.
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The moment the Alpha King crossed the threshold, the portal collapsed with a deafening thunderclap, leaving behind absolute, suffocating silence.
Jareth was gone.
