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“You’re going to pass out here in a moment, Thea. We’ll have plenty of time to talk when we get home.”
I tried to ask him what he meant but blackness clouded over any sort of control I had over my body. My eyes fluttered open and shut as I fought passing out. The last thing I saw was the treetops above us in the night sky before I lost my ability to fight anymore.
Chapter 17
“Wake up!” Nev clapped his hands loudly in front of my face. My head pounded as it tried to chase the fogginess away, allowing bits and pieces of what happened to come back to me. Peering up at Nev from the ground, I tried to spit out the rag he tied into my mouth so I couldn’t talk. Wherever we were was much hotter than the Crimson Kingdom and I didn’t particularly like it.
My arms burned with a sharp pain. Nev had wrapped the magic cuffs from the tips of my fingers up to my elbows while I’d been passed out. The sharp barbs punctured my flesh, making it bleed.
“Good morning. I was worried that I accidentally killed you with the paralyzing powder.” Nev’s boyish looks had vanished. The man who stood in front of me now looked like a crazed lunatic. His eyes were empty voids and I squirmed with discomfort. His red hair was sticking every which way, and his clothes were dirty and soaked in sweat.
“That worked out better than anything I could have planned,” he gloated. He pulled the gag from my mouth. My mouth was so dry I could hardly breathe without it being uncomfortable.
“I don’t understand. You were my friend.”
“I was never your friend.” He scoffed like that was the stupidest thing he had ever heard. “You were entirely too easy to trick.”
My head pounded so violently that I squeezed my eyes shut to find relief. Dizziness combined with the intense heat made it difficult to focus on anything when I opened my eyes again.
I tried to find my voice again. “I saved you.”
“You did,” he conceded. “Thanks, by the way. If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to carry out my assignment of making sure you disappear from the trials.”
“You’re one of Riven’s men?” I asked him in order to gauge his reaction.
Nev stepped towards me with a wild anger in his eyes. He lifted his hand and slapped me across the face so hard that I fell over. I squeezed my eyes shut at the pain of rocks and sticks poking me.
“Riven was a moron.” Nev sat me back up before going over to his bag and grabbing food. He sat in front of me and ate it. “Riven was just a small pawn in the game. I’m a bigger player than he was ever going to be. He talked too much.”
“Are you going to kill me?”
He took a bite of his apple before glancing off to the side. Nev seemed lost in thought for a long moment.
“No. My assignment was to make sure you stayed alive and get the king and Cassius to leave the castle to find you.”
“They won’t come for me,” I huffed. “They couldn’t give two shits about a participant in the trials.”
Nev threw his head back and laughed so loudly that birds flew from the trees. I watched him as he stared back at me and raised an eyebrow.
“You actually can’t remember anything?” He sighed, annoyed. “They would burn down the realm to find you, Thea, and not because they care about you, but to keep you from getting into the hands of the Kingdom of Cerithia.”
“Cerithia?” Something in mind wanted to know why everyone in Crimson was so weary of Cerithia. “Why is everyone so damn secretive?” All this cryptic bullshit was getting old.
“Well, you’ll know who they are again real soon.” He shot me a satisfied smirk. “Do you realize how many fae have died because the Crimson Kingdom refuses to give you back to who you belong to because of the prophecy?”
It was starting to feel like everyone knew about the prophecy except for me. I glared at Nev, wishing I could light him on fire. The darkness that lived deep in my chest hummed alive. I could feel it clouding any rational thoughts I might have.
“The Crimson Kingdom is the one you should hate. They are the enemy!”
“I never said they weren’t,” I snapped back.
“No, but you crawl into Cassius’s bed and sleep with a man who single-handedly destroyed the alliance between the Kingdoms of Crimson and Cerithia. A man so ruthless he would kill anyone for his own benefit. The man is a fucking psycho, and you just look right past it and fuck him anyways.”
“It’s none of your business what happened between Cassius and me.”
“He has a reputation as a cold-blooded killer. A liar. A thief. An evil soul disguised with a pretty face to help him trick those around him and you fell right for it…again.”
“Again?” Confusion clouded my thoughts.
