Derailed: A Prequel Novella by Genevieve Iseult Eldredge

Author:Genevieve Iseult Eldredge
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Monster House Books, LLC

Chapter Six

Rouen

Black-magic Moribund,

From the depths of Dark Faerie

Our darkest history

My punishment, enslaving me to him

Keeping me from you

- “Darker, Darker, Darkest,” Euphoria

My world is dark circuitry and lightning. I stand amidst it all on the service platform. I am a shadowy goddess sawing away on a glass violin.

I don’t want to be.

I saw her face in the window. The cute redhead from the club is on that train.

I shouldn’t care.

My bow falters.

“Keep playing!” Agravaine’s Command rings through the night, his face lit in ghoulish glee as I unleash the fell power of the Moribund at the onrushing train. Violet lightning slashes the night, illuminating frightened faces in train-car windows.

I shouldn’t care. But I do.

And still, I destroy.

Violet lightning sears across the train, a deadly chain burning through the steel, carving up the cars. Dread and sick amusement turns my stomach. The part of me that is all dark Fae princess-assassin, paragon of the Winter Court, revels in the destruction I wreak. But a small part of me, the quiet, secret part that the red-haired girl touched, fears I will scream, vomit, lose my mind at the idea of harming her.

Gritting my fangs, I yank my bow off the strings.

The lightning tapers off, the wave of circuitry at my feet ebbing, a dark ocean receding at low tide.

Agravaine’s sharky eyes glint evilly. “I said, play on.”

I have no choice. The Contract binds me, body and blood, even though my heart, my soul cries out against it. Captive to his will, I play on, my violin screaming with discord, searing the night with eldritch bolts. One whip-cracks down on the tracks. They shudder and heave, reins snapped by an angry hand. In a great wave, the rails rise, throwing train cars into the air like a child’s toy—all glittering glass and chrome.

For a long, teetering moment, the train hangs midair like a massive mobile.

And then gravity sucks it back down.

Train and tracks welter down, smashing into the viaduct. The frontmost cars buckle, collapsing in like soda cans crushed by a massive, invisible hand. The stink of cold iron and rust thickens in the air, choking me with its poison. With a hideous shriek, railroad ties shatter, supports groan and tilt. Bolts fly free, and the night is alive with screams and flying iron.

A railroad tie crosses my cheek, burning cold iron—the pain is exquisite. I would lose my concentration if it were my own.

But he uses my body to destroy.

The dark part of me exults at watching the Moribund twist my gramarye into a weapon of destruction. But as sheets of violet lightning take the train, the people, their lives, a flash comes to me—of the redhead, her touch, her storm-grey eyes, the way I felt when she looked at me.

Like I could be a good person. Like I could make up for all my sins.

And the small, secret part of me finds the strength to fight back Agravaine’s Command, to change the grip on my violin and bow—and turn my power from ruin to mercy.

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