Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 139662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 698(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 698(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
My gaze slides to the goblin standing beside him. It’s not Bakken at all, but another goblin I don’t recognize. The creature’s too-long teeth gleam with saliva as he stares at my hair.
“Go where?” I ask. Talking feels like gargling daggers. I thought that being fae meant feeling healthy and energetic—full of life—yet I’ve felt closer to death than life from the moment I woke up with these elven ears.
The strange male chuckles. “Well, you used a great deal of power before you even had time to recover from your metamorphosis. Of course you feel like hell.”
I glare at him. Is he reading my mind, or are my thoughts that obvious?
“Both. At least your feet healed.”
He’s right. The pain’s gone. The only evidence of last night are the shackles on my wrists and the dried blood covering my feet.
He waves haphazardly in my direction, and the iron on my wrists falls away. He offers me his hand. “Come. Prince Ronan’s sentries will arrive in moments.”
“How would he know where I am?”
“The bond?” the male reminds me with an arched brow. “If he’d bothered to come after you himself rather than sending a unit from his guard, he’d have you already. But you keep running, so his men have had quite a time trying to find you.”
There it is—the distant sound of hoofbeats. I’m so tired of running.
The male takes one of the goblin’s hands, and the goblin extends his other for me.
“Why should I trust you?”
The male chuckles. “Oh, you shouldn’t. In fact, you should stop trusting anyone. That’s a dangerous habit around here, and you’ve made quite a mess.”
“Excuse me?”
The hoofbeats are closer now. Someone shouts, “Just ahead!”
Standing, I brush the hay off my trousers. I turn and look out the stable doors, expecting to see a group of horses bearing down on us, but I see nothing. “Where are they?”
“Beyond the hill, about a mile away and closing fast,” the male says.
I twist my face up in disbelief.
The male chuckles. “You’re not used to your keen fae hearing yet, but you’ll adjust. Now, shall we?”
I hesitate. On the one hand, I have nowhere else to go, and I know this male helped the children escape their prison at the queen’s work camp. For that alone I trust him. On the other hand, he’s right. I can’t trust anyone.
“We don’t have much time, Princess.”
I ignore him and turn to his goblin. “Where are you taking me?”
“The Wild Fae Lands,” the goblin says, his eyes darting around the stables as if the enemy were hiding in the dark corners.
“But I’ve bonded with Sebastian. I . . .” I swallow. I can’t think about it too much or I’ll fall apart. “I feel him,” I say through gritted teeth. “He’ll be able to find me.”
The goblin doesn’t reply, but his companion nods. “Yes, but he won’t be able to reach you without starting a war—one he cannot afford right now.”
I can’t go home. Even if I knew how to get back to Elora, I would be hunted for being fae, either killed outright or beaten and mutilated just like Oberon was before my mother found him and nursed him to health. Sebastian lived there for two years, glamoured to appear human, but I don’t know how to glamour myself—or whether my powers would even allow it.
I could go to Finn. He came to me in that dream the night I took the Potion of Life . . . or I went to him.
Are you happy?
Of all the things he could’ve said or asked, he wanted to know if I was happy. A lesser male would’ve gloated about the mistake I made when I trusted Sebastian.
I’m confident that Finn would give me a place to stay—he said as much in his brief visit to my dreams—but I don’t understand why. I no longer have the crown. I don’t have anything he needs, except maybe this power—but he should have his own now that the curse is broken. And even if he would take me in, am I ready to trust him? Sure, Sebastian’s betrayal was worse, but both males used me, manipulated me and tried to trick me. All for what? Power? The crown? They can have it.
“We don’t have all day, Princess.” Those russet eyes shift to the road outside.
“I am not powerless. If you’re tricking me, I will lock you in a darkness so deep and vast, you will pray for the refuge of your nightmares.”
He flashes a grin to his goblin. “I really like her.” He takes my hand and the goblin takes the other.
Then I’m falling.
Flying, reeling, going left and right and nowhere all at once until suddenly we’re in a dimly lit bedroom. The windows look out to the first tendrils of dawn stretching across a tree-lined vista below. The sun is just rising here, where it was full daylight in the Seelie lands. That takes me by surprise for a moment until I remember that the Wild Fae Lands are situated far west of the queen’s Golden Palace.