Page 1 of Fae Mates

Chapter 1

I lay on the mossy ground with Lady Gala’s cruel voice echoing through my ears. The shrill sound picked up in volume until it drowned out the beating of my pulse. If I didn’t break free of her freezing curse, she would steal my destiny, and I would turn human for the academy’s sadistic wards to take care of the rest.

She loomed in my limited line of sight, her pale, blue eyes cruel and bright, and the blood on the tips of her ice-pointed nails glistening in the sun like jewels. I wanted to snatch my gaze away from Lady Gala’s, but her terrible magic held me in place.

With a malicious smile, Lady Gala knelt at my side, and the curtain of her platinum hair swept over my face. With a pop-pop-pop, her icy talons ripped the buttons of my stolen jacket open. A cool breeze swirled around my bare chest, making my insides shudder with revulsion.

As I clenched and unclenched my muscles, all four princes stepped close to get a better look, but not even the anger and humiliation burning through my veins could set me free.

“You failed,” she whispered into my ear. “In the end, my princes were too noble to fall for your lustful ways.”

Anger flared through my insides. She was wrong. She had done something to them—I was certain. The tip of one finger twitched. Then another. If I could ball my hand into a fist and move my arm, I would ram it straight into her smirking face.

“Well, let me tell you something.” Her cool breath chilled the shell of my ear. “You’re not the only female who can mate outside her heat, but you’ll soon realize that when the throne is mine.”

Before I could wonder what she meant, icicles plunged into my heart. A cry spilled from my lips along with coppery liquid, and my vision turned black.

* * *

“Oh, my lord,” whispered Sicily’s voice. “It’s Prince August.”

My arms collapsed to the cobblestones, and I jerked my head up to meet my sister’s brown eyes. We were kneeling side-by-side on the paving stones with a bunch of other people I recognized from the fateful morning the princes stole the apple boxes.

All the air left my lungs in a pained sob. “Sicily?”

She stared back at me as though I’d gone mad, and I sucked in a deep breath, trying to make sense of events. The last thing I knew, Lady Gala was trying to turn me human, but I hadn’t expected to be back in Doolish.

Up ahead at the waterfront, one of the United Nation’s floating containers stood with its door open, and a huge ogre lifted a box with an apple logo. My throat spasmed. This wasn’t right.

I blinked hard, but the illusion remained. Then I closed my eyes for a few seconds and imagined salt in my mouth. Of all the glamours to fabricate, why did it have to be with my sister, who no longer existed?

“This isn’t real.” Ignoring a twinge deep in my heart, I staggered up to my feet.

Sicily grabbed my arm. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“Maybe.” I walked through the crowd of kneeling humans, ogres, and even Coltrane, the horny centaur, and walked to the white carriage. A few people hissed at me to get down, and someone tugged at my ankle, but I shook myself free.

A sea breeze blew hair into my face, and I licked the salt off my lips, but it did nothing to dispel the glamor. It didn’t matter. This situation was no different than my jaunt through the skies with Elijah and the scene at the remedial building where the other fated had tried to convince me to side with them against Lady Gala. Someone was running some kind of glamour.

Prince August stood by the white carriage dressed in his school uniform, and Prince Caulden stood at his side. They both stared me down, one with a heated glare and the other with cold disdain.

“What is the meaning of this?” Prince August’s dark eyes blazed.

My insides shriveled under the heat of his glower. What if this wasn’t a figment of Lady Gala’s magic? Prince August could have me arrested for treason.

Thinking fast, I bobbed into a deep curtsey. “Begging your pardon, Your Highness, but if you’re looking for iPads, they’re not in those boxes.”

Prince August glanced at his brother, whose stoic mask curved into a tiny smile. He turned back to me and said, “If this is your attempt to secure the iPads for yourself and this rabble, I’ll make sure you have no fingers to tap on the screen.”

My lips trembled as I spluttered out my explanation that the logo didn’t share the same features of the one used by the computer company. Throughout this, Prince Caulden’s gaze narrowed, and it reminded me of how he had looked in my direction the first time we’d met on this very dock.

“Let’s see if what the human says is true.” The Winter Prince flicked a wrist, parting the crowd with his ice pathway.

My heart pounded hard enough to rattle my ribcage, and I swallowed hard. If this was real life, and the boxes contained iPads, every faerie who had conspired with the princes to get one was entitled by magic to dole out a punishment.

Just like before, one of the guards walked to the container, but this time, he only took one box.

“You there,” said Prince Caulden to someone within the crowd. “Which human dares to stand in the presence of two princes?”