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If he had spikes crafted onto him, he would have bristled from head to toe with my simple annoyed statement. I was right, and he knew it. Whatever had happened, no matter how lippy I had gotten since the last time I saw The Raven, I had been left alone. While others were slapped and beaten for the smallest of mistakes, I remained relatively ignored save for weak threats.

“Fine,” he growled, narrowing his eyes on me. “Return to the warrens. The court has gone on the hunt, and His Majesty has not visited his quarters in two days’ time. There is nothing for you to do in there today.”

“Oh, gee! Does this mean I get a Saturday all to myself to lounge about and work on my firelight tan?”

“It’s Tuesday.”

“It was sarcasm.”

“Just return to the warrens, dammit!” He snarled and stomped, pointing back down the corridor.

“Sure thing, boss. I’ll definitely do exactly that.” I smiled sweetly and turned on my heel.

I had absolutely no intention of returning to the warrens. If I was granted a day without the guards looming about and a day I was not locked into the King’s apartments, I was going to make the most of it.

Every morning, I had used my fingernail to scratch a 21 into the top of my thigh. Reminding myself of my promise but also to remind me that this place was not my home, and I needed to find a way out as soon as possible.

I had been blinded when I came here so I didn’t even know where the entrance was, but I was going to find it today.

I wandered the palace, walking corridor after corridor, virtually abandoned by souls aside from the occasional human and the even more rare guard. I found the kitchens, full of a small hive of humans cleaning pots and pans and cooking. I watched them for a long while, as they loaded wicker baskets with food for a small army and set them on a windowsill to be carried off by unseen creatures.

After stealing a roll from a cooling rack, I abandoned the kitchens, out a door that led into what looked to be a kitchen garden. The air was redolent with spices hanging thick like the freshest incense. I strolled lazily, soaking in the warmth of the sun as I walked the rows of vegetables and berries.

This would have been an idyllic day, surrounded by the bounty of nature and the sun on my face, if it weren’t for the press of reality.

A small corner of the garden hid an abandoned wooden gate, draped in brilliant green ivy, blending it nearly completely into the ancient stonework. A quick look around told me that no one was outside. Not a single soul would see me as I snuck to the gate and pried it open. No one would witness me as I slipped through it and settled it back on its latch.

It was not that simple, though, and the garden I slipped out of was part of a greater complex. The one behind the gate was massive. So massive that as I stood on tip toes on a large boulder, I could barely spy the edges of it melting into a vast orchard of trees. If freedom was on the other side of those trees, I would find it. I had all day to wander, with no one keeping track of me.

The garden of the palace proper was virtually abandoned, like the rest of the castle, except for the humans that tended to it, and they had no time nor interest in watching another human walk through their hard work as long I didn’t disturb it. So, I did, wandering the neatly manicured hedges and flower beds. The riot of colors, the majesty of the sculptures and fountains, was humbling. In another world, in another time, I would have stopped to truly marvel at the otherworldly beauty that was laid out before me. Flowers I had never seen before and didn’t know the names of bloomed in dinner plate size blossoms. Fae flowers that were so breathtakingly beautiful sweetened the air and filled it with a glittering whimsy that was straight out of some fantasy movie.

It was truly a garden of Eden. Too bad the normal denizens of this garden were more evil than even the snake that had inhabited Eden.

It took me the better part of the day to make it through the garden with the occasional stop at a pond filled with glowing jewel-like fish swimming lazily in dark water surrounded by shimmering water lilies.

The orchard surrounding the garden proper was a milúll grove—because of course it was. The shadows lingered thick between the gnarled ancient trunks, speared through with the radiance of a sun that the boughs did everything in their power to hide. I had never been truly afraid of the shadows, not in the traditional sense. I had been afraid of what might hide in those shadows.

Here, though, I knew what nightmares were hiding in them. They stalked the hallways and corridors that I traversed every day. There was no need for me to fear what might be in the shadows when the reality was as horrific as anything my mind could conjure.

“I wouldn’t advise it.”

The voice of a woman, gentle and melodic, sounded from my left, and I turned to face it, ready to fight off anyone that would stop me from my mission.

It was a Fae woman, one I had seen in the throne room the first day I was here, but I couldn’t place exactly why I remembered her. Only a watery memory of sunlight catching her soft summer-sky eyes stood in my mind, the finer details erased completely. She was beautiful then, but in repose and with the golden halo of the sun playing in her rich chocolate locks, she was a goddess.

She sat at the base of one of the fruit trees, the vastness of her skirts swallowing up her legs, a swath of grass below her and the roots she sat on in a blanket of midnight-blue velvet that feasted on the sunlight and cast back a soft radiance of its own. A carafe of water, condensation sliding down its surface, and two glasses were off to one side while a small picnic basket rested atop her dress, and in her lap was a large leather-bound book.

Pale cornflower-blue eyes smiled up at me as I debated whether I should run or act cool. The roses that seemed to grow directly from her scalp danced between her soft curls and caught the light nearly glowing with their perfect deep-red hue.

“Why not?”

It was a stupid question. I should be ignoring this woman. She was dangerous. She was part of the court and the only Fae I had met that were even somewhat decent people were from the temple. The jury was still out on The Raven.

She shrugged and bit into the juicy flesh of a fresh milúll, gesturing with it as she crunched. “Spiders” was her simple proclamation with a mouth full of burgundy fruit.

I was not thrilled with the spiders in Human. I had no interest in learning what Fae spiders looked like. My waking nightmares conjured great minivan sized creatures with too many eyes and mouth parts dripping with venom.

“I can handle a few spiders.” I lied.