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“Why did you manipulate him?” I clutch the saddle, afraid I might fall from my mount. I glance over the side at the dizzying height.
Quinn adjusts his saddle, places a foot in the stirrup, and with one lithe movement, sits atop his wolf. “It’s the only way to get what you want.” A wicked smile spreads over his lips. “Besides, he won’t have to worry about it for too long. I dropped a healthy dose of ground Sneed Root into his tea. Deadly to fairies.”
With that, Quinn’s wolf takes off, with mine right behind it. I don’t have a chance to process what he said because I’m clinging to the saddle for dear life. The wind howls around us as the wolf’s powerful muscles surge beneath me, propelling us forward through the forest. The rhythmic pounding of its paws against the earth echoes in my ears along with a voice somewhere in the back of my mind screaming that I need to turn back. But it is impossible.
The world blurs around us, trees becoming a kaleidoscope of greens and browns as we speed through the dense forest. As it navigates the wild terrain, the wolf maneuvers around obstacles, leaping over fallen logs and weaving through the underbrush. My hands ache from holding on because half the time, it feels as if I’m about to fall to my death.
And yet, like Mafekadi, there’s an untamed magic in the journey somehow keeping me from slipping. When I entered the fae village, I felt alive for the first time in my life, making my mundane existence within Avren’s walls feel lifeless. Although Quinn is taking me to a place that turns my skin cold just thinking about it, this journey is what the wilderness is all about.
We finally slow to a halt outside of Rumsford. Quinn dismounts his wolf but doesn’t make any kind of move to help me get down.
“I need to pick up something I left behind.” He crosses his arms, giving me a smug expression. “My wolves will babysit you while I’m gone.”
As he strides away, the arrogant straightness of his back, along with his confidence, makes him even more attractive. I shake my head, trying to clear it of his glamour.
“Oh, and Maribel, darling.” He turns, looking a hundred times better than any of the models in the city. “If you try to escape, we’ll ride together for the rest of the journey, and Brutus will go back to Mafekadi and tear your friend to shreds.” He pets his wolf on the muzzle.
When Quinn is nowhere in sight, I test the waters by slipping slightly to the right in the saddle. It garners a low growl from my wolf. A warning. Even if I manage to drop to the ground, I believe the fae’s word about killing Levi. What’s the worst that can happen if he takes me to Frostacre? The king wants me for a reason, which I assume involves keeping me alive. He sent a bounty hunter after me. I play out different scenarios: he keeps me in prison, he sends me to a laboratory to test my abilities, or he wants me as his queen. Ok, my mind is wandering a bit too much. I give into my furry prison, pitching forward and laying my head on its neck.
The absolute worst scenario would be if the Kindred Few come to rescue me. Grayson and Levi won’t hesitate. They were in Frostacre days before. Bastian and Evie will grumble about wasting time and resources on me, but in the end, they’ll give in to their brothers because they’re family.
I close my eyes, succumbing to the gentle rhythm of the wolf’s breaths.
“Wake up, Maribel,” a voice tickles my ear. “We need to get to the Gretis Expanse by nightfall. Word of your existence has spread, and I have little doubt the vampire queen wants in on this action.”
“But why?” I sit up, my back aching from lying in a strange position for so long. If I fulfill this damn prophecy and take down two cities with my bare hands with a mystery person by my side, who’s saying I won’t dismantle the Supe kingdoms too? Apparently, I have kickass, untapped skills I have no knowledge of.
Quinn mounts his wolf, then circles around me as easily as if he were guiding a horse. His silver hair flows over his shoulders as if painted by an artist’s brush. “I am the simple retriever. Those are questions for King Cirrus, if he chooses to answer.”
“If I’m so powerful, Mr. Malum, why aren’t you shaking in your boots?” I wish I had the power to call lightning down and blast him into oblivion for what he did to Levi and Avo.
In a slow, methodical motion, Quinn sidles up beside my wolf and leans in close. His breath has the power to freeze me from the inside out. I shudder as the pad of his lip touches my earlobe, but I can’t seem to move away. “Because you haven’t had your awakening. When we reach the expanse, I can lay you down in the grass and show you all kinds of things.”
I lean away from him, almost falling from my wolf. “In your dreams, fairy boy.” The real power coursing through me is the ability to resist his glamour in brief spurts. If I can push the edges out for longer periods, I might see the bloodthirsty, disgusting creature hiding behind his pretty face.
He frowns. “Methinks, you have a too much freedom for such a smartass little girl.” With a wave of his hand, golden rings encircle my hands, keeping them in place on my wolf’s saddle. A shimmering material floats through the air and covers my mouth.
What the hell? I try to say the words out loud, but nothing comes out.
“Behave yourself, and I might remove them tonight.” And with that, Quinn takes off again, my wolf following closely behind.
We ride along a less-travelled path, circling the Lake of Glass. The day before, when Levi and I walked the shore, my heart was full, basking in the opportunity to get out of the cabin and explore. Today, going to a new place fills me with dread. The bindings make me feel more helpless than I did before, and I still don’t know what the king of the Unseelie Court wants with me.
Beyond the lake, the landscape thickens with pine forests, farther to the south of the Grove. As Quinn slows his wolf near a stream, I gaze into the valley below. How far away are Bastian, Grayson, and Evie? What will they do when they return and Levi and I are gone?
Quinn dismounts, leading his wolf to the water. With a flick of his wrist, my bindings disappear, and he holds a hand to me. “Get down. Humans have so many needs to attend to.”
I twist onto my stomach, placing a foot in the stirrup, and hop down, stumbling and landing on my bottom.
“So graceful, my dear.” He takes the reins of my wolf and leads it to the stream, where the creature greedily laps up the water. “The king prefers curtsies.”
“Remind me to practice after I use the little girl’s room.” I inch toward a tree and motion with my thumb. “Do you mind?”
He removes a pipe from a satchel slung over his shoulder, strikes a match, and lights it before slinking down and sitting against a tree. He closes his eyes. “Don’t be gone for too long.”
Behind the tree, I rest the back of my head on the bark and envision my next move. About ten minutes ago, we passed a stand of boulders I recognized as a place close to the Grove. And the Grove isn’t more than ten minutes from the cabin. A mixture of fear and excitement stab at me. If I make a run for it, he will catch me—especially on a wolf. But there’s a possibility I can make it back to the cabin within the safety of the wards before he knows I’m gone.
I need to try because the alternative is too horrific to imagine. Levi never told me about the king in Frostacre, only about his uncle.
