How Does It Feel?

Mendax agonizes over Callie’s fragility; he must marry her, and she must become immortal like him. Even in the midst of their passionate embrace, he holds back, both because he wishes to torment her, withholding what she clearly desires, and because he wants her well-rested for the final trial. The final trial must be endured. But Mendax will protect her, because he must have her.

The Queen interrupts them and reminds Mendax that she wants Callie dead. The Queen makes clear her disgust at Mendax’s desire for a human, the same beings who destroyed his father. She tells Mendax to move forward with the plan to invade the human world. Mendax moves to strangle her, but she vanishes into smoke. He returns to Callie, telling her to get ready for bed. He will tell her about the final trial once he has some more information.

Callie thinks of her family as she bathes—not her mother and sister, dead long ago in a car accident, but her adoptive family. She also reflects on how much Mendax’s people wanted him to succeed; she resents that he never has to hide who he is. She sets the bathroom on fire, taking revenge on the fairy mirror that does not want to show her true reflection.

Mendax returns, and they engage in playful banter that quickly turns sexual. Mendax stops them, however, because he must tell her about the final trial. She is to face the “gridiron of fates” (280). In the arena, there will be two doors from which Callie must choose. Behind one door is a portal back to the human world; behind the other is a vicious beast. Mendax will subtly tell her which door to choose. He leaves her, and she wonders whether she should trust him.

Callie agonizes over her predicament before entering the arena. A part of her wants to stay with Mendax and remain in the Unseelie world. She feels a connection with Mendax, but she cannot accept the idea of becoming his possession. She wants her freedom more than she wants him.

A crowd watches Callie as she enters the arena. She looks to Mendax, and he gives a subtle nod of his head. She decides to trust him and chooses the door he indicates. The beast rushes out at her, a snake-like dragon. She thinks he has condemned her to die rather than let her go, but he leaps into the arena to protect her. The Queen deceived Mendax and switched the doors at the last moment. Callie knows she should have trusted what her family told her about the Unseelie.

Callie makes a run for the other door, and freedom, when the beast catches her in its teeth. Mendax compels its mind, forcing it to let her go. He runs to her and tells her that the Queen betrayed them, but Callie begins to cry: She must complete her mission.

Mendax is caught off guard by the blade that Callie plunges into the weak spot between his wing and his body. Callie admits that she is an assassin, but she has been sent by the Seelie, not the humans. She serves Queen Saracen and reminds Mendax that he, and his Unseelie Fae, are the villains of the story. As she walks away, he attempts to compel her to return—but he cannot, because she has not given him her true name.

Mendax is wounded, but not fatally. He did not reveal his mortal vulnerability to Callie. He smiles at the thought of reclaiming her. He will not rest until she is back with him.

Callie wakes in a hospital, disappointed by the drabness of her human surroundings. Earl tells her that she was found near her house, in a patch of destroying angel mushrooms. Their toxicity nearly killed her. Cliff is there, too, blaming Earl for the situation. Their bickering upsets Callie, and the nurse asks one of them to leave. Callie asks that Earl stay.

She shifts in her bed and feels the wound on her leg, the wound that the beast in the arena delivered to her. Her memories come rushing back, and Earl—the disguised Seelie Prince Aurelius—calls her Calypso. He tells her to call him Eli, just as she always has. In saving the golden fairy, Queen Saracen, all those years ago, Callie, whose real name is spelled Caly, was taken in by the Seelie royal family. However, she had to relinquish half of her heart to warrant their protection until she proved her loyalty. In assassinating Mendax, Caly has succeeded.

Eli admits that he was the fox who saved her and acknowledges that the ability Caly has to attract animals was a blessing bestowed by Queen Saracen. Still, Eli’s presence is not much comfort to Caly; she yearns for Prince Mendax. She will now be allowed into the Seelie court because she has killed the Smoke Slayer. Eli warns her that, if Mendax is not truly dead, and Caly is admitted to court under false pretenses, she will certainly be killed. Caly assures him that Mendax is dead, and Eli is eager to escort her to the Queen, where her heart will finally be made whole.