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)
How long was I sleeping?
One of the males turns and—no. Men.
I was captured by humans?
I push myself up and am surprised to find my arms work again. Perhaps if I move quietly enough, I can slip out before they notice me. My ring.
My stomach sinks past the floorboards. My cloak is gone.
If I had my ring, I could sweet-talk them into anything I wanted and walk out the door. They’d never remember they had me here.
I ease up as slowly as possible. If they are human, they won’t have the same keen hearing as the fae. If I’m very careful—
The mattress groans beneath me, and a man whips his head around. When his eyes meet mine, I can’t breathe.
Those eyes.
So icy blue they’re nearly transparent, like I could see all the way to his soul.
I know those eyes, know those thick, dark lashes. Between the eyes and his long light brown hair, someone might mistake him for pretty—if it weren’t for the absolute masculine angles of his jaw and the scruff lining it. If it weren’t for the sheer strength and power so obvious in the way he stands.
There were nights in Mordeus’s dungeons that the fear alone was enough to drive me over the edge. There were nights when the darkness threatened to swallow me, and I wished for death. Until Kendrick was thrown into the cell across from mine and he realized how much I needed a friend. Until Kendrick talked me through the darkest nights.
Close your eyes, Slayer. The sun will rise again tomorrow.
“Kendrick?” I say before I think better of it. Why is he here? Why am I here? Did he rescue me from my captors? But why would he be in Faerie? Wasn’t he freed after Mordeus was killed? Why didn’t he go home?
Kendrick eases to his feet, hands up, palms toward me as if I’m some wild animal he’s trying not to spook.
“What are you doing here?” I ask. But I should ask something altogether different. What am I doing here? Who were those people in the woods?
“Careful. She’s not restrained,” one of the other men says. His voice is vaguely familiar. He sounds like the male who captured me, but that doesn’t make sense. My captors had to be fae—they used magic on me—and this guy is with Kendrick, who would never let anyone hurt me. If Kendrick is here, it’s because he saved me.
“She won’t hurt me,” Kendrick says, eyes never leaving mine. “Jas, we need to talk.”
I look back and forth between him and his friends. Both face me now. One is thin with big wire-rimmed glasses, a messy ponytail, and a gold hoop in one ear. The other is stocky with long dark hair, a trim beard, and hard eyes. He’s acting like he’s Kendrick’s friend but looking at me like I’m a snake that might strike.
“What’s going on?” I ask. “How did I get here?”
“By horse,” the bearded one snarks.
I do recognize his voice. “It was you. You’re the one who captured me.” I swing my gaze back to Kendrick. “Why?”
“You could’ve been seen by any number of rebels in that camp if we hadn’t grabbed you,” Kendrick says. “We needed to talk to you anyway, but your whereabouts required us to”—he exchanges a look with his friends before turning back to me—“expedite the situation. So you didn’t end up hurt.”
I shove off the bed, and the second my feet touch the floor, I realize they took my damned boots as well as my cloak. I stomp toward him. “I didn’t ask for your help.” I poke his chest with each word.
He glances down at my finger.
“Don’t try to use your magic on him,” the bearded guy says. “We will restrain you again if we have to.”
I whip my gaze to him. “What magic?” I blurt, then cringe at my inadvertent admission. Even though the whole realm knows I’m human, my sister’s advisors told me to never reveal my lack of power. There’s strength in their assumptions, strength in keeping them guessing.
We don’t want the world to know anything more about you that they might perceive as a weakness. And besides, your powers will come to light anytime now.
By the time my sister was seventeen, she could wield shadows. Even as a human. But the only magic I have comes from my ring—and that was forged by a witch in the human realm and is currently either lost in the swamps or wherever Kendrick’s men have my cloak hidden away.
“What magic?” the bearded guy scoffs. “You think humans are stupid, Princess?”
Kendrick shoots him a look. “You’re not helping.”
“Ignore Remme,” the other guy says. His voice is soft, soothing. A low murmur more suited to libraries and classrooms than the battlefields and barrooms his companion was built for. “He missed his nap today.”