Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
“I was trained from a very young age,” I assure her. “It’s an essential skill for one with my gifts.”
“Okay.” She releases a breath. “I’m giving you access to the queen. To my sister. I’m trusting you because Kendrick trusts you. But if you touch one hair on her head, I will make the things Mordeus did to his prisoners look like a holiday, and you will wish he’d found you instead of me.”
I know I’m supposed to be intimidated, but the princess’s words only make me respect her. More importantly, they help me understand her. “I will protect your sister as if she were my own. She is a good queen.”
Jas nods sharply. “Then tell me what you need to know.”
“Everything.”
Hale and his friends are in a circle discussing something in low murmurs when I exit the cottage in Jasalyn’s riding leathers. I can’t return to the palace wearing a castoff gown without raising suspicions, and she agreed to trade clothes.
I pull the door shut behind me and fold my arms, frowning at my brother. “Is it true? Mordeus lives?”
Natan blows out a breath. “Is that what you two talked about for so long?”
Hale is just looking at me, eyes worried.
“You didn’t think I’d want to know that?”
Skylar scoffs. “We don’t know anything for sure. You want us to debrief you on all the rumors flying around Faerie? You should hear what they’re saying about this so-called plague. Some believe Mab is punishing descendants of her enemies from the Twilight. Others believe those fire gems they all wear to amplify their magic have turned toxic. Nothing more than superstitious hogwash.”
I hold my brother’s gaze. He knows what’s at stake for me. I’m merely a pawn to Mordeus. If he thought that he could deliver me to my father to restore even an ounce of his power in this realm, he’d do it. Hale might threaten, but he’s sacrificed too much to keep me alive, and I’ve always seen his threats for the bluster they are.
“You’re still worth more to him alive than dead,” Natan says.
I cough out a laugh. “Really? That’s how you’re going to comfort me?” I stomp toward them to untie my mare. “Thanks for nothing, Nate.”
“Hey.” Hale tugs on the long braid I twisted my—Jasalyn’s—hair into before riding here, and I turn to him. “Try not to worry about it.”
“Mordeus is the reason I barely remember my own face,” I say. “He’s the reason your father—our father—is dead.”
“And if he really is back, you’ll be safe in the Wild Fae Lands,” Hale says.
My eyes burn with unshed tears, and my vision goes blurry. “And what about you? Am I not supposed to worry about you either?”
He cocks a brow. “Thought you hated me, little sis.”
I sniff. “Just because I don’t want you to rot in his dungeons doesn’t mean I don’t hate you.”
“Gods, so much mushy gushy crap,” Skylar groans. “Pull it together.”
Hale pulls me into a hug, and I hear the scuff of Sky’s boots on the gravel as she walks away.
I hug my brother back, my chest already aching with the loneliness I know will hit once I leave. “Three years is too long,” I whisper against his chest.
“I was thinking the same thing. Mom misses you,” he murmurs. “Find us that doorway so we can go home, okay?”
I pull back and nod, swiping at my cheeks. “I should get to the palace before nightfall.”
Hale’s gaze flicks toward the door. “Did she tell you everything you need to know?”
I huff. “Not even close, but I’ll manage. She keeps herself isolated, so that will help.”
“Don’t be too isolated,” he says. “You have a king to woo.”
I shake my head and mount my horse. “I asked. Their relationship isn’t like that.”
“Make it like that.”
I arch a brow. “And when we switch back? You’ll be fine with the princess becoming the new Wild Fae queen?”
He backs away from my horse. “I’ll be fine with the princess doing whatever it is she needs to do to be happy.”
I don’t even think he knows he’s full of it. “You know she’s only going with you so she can kill Mordeus, right?”
Skylar barks out a laugh from ten feet away, where she’s obviously been listening while pretending to groom her horse. “She’s scared of her own shadow. How’s she going to kill a resurrected wicked king?”
Hale’s broad chest expands as he draws in a long breath. “I suspected something like that might be involved.” He pats my mare on her hind quarters. “Let me worry about the princess. You have enough on your plate.”
I flip up the hood on my cloak, and he frowns. “That’s not her cloak.”
“She refused to part with it.”
“She gave you the boots, though,” Skylar says. “She wouldn’t let me wear the boots.”
“Get over it already,” Remme mutters. He snags a silky bag from Skylar’s hands and tosses it to me.