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Chapter 1
Bree
Bree Paine wasn’tin chains, but she was a prisoner all the same. She rode beside Prince Taveon, the son of the King who ruled over the realm of the Dark Fae. The former King, actually. His death at the hands of her best friend was why Bree was in this predicament in the first place, though she’d be lying if she said she didn’t find this whole thing more exciting thanterrifying.
“So, what exactly is it that you want me to do for you? Or are you not going to tell me?” Bree asked as she cast a sideways glance at the Prince who rode beside her. His face was angular, his jawline sharp and smooth at the same time. His skin faintly glowed, like the pale shimmer of a midnight moon, and his pointed ears cut through his long, thick strands of coal blackhair.
If he wasn’t a dangerous, violent Dark Fae, he might be fairly goodlooking.
Okay,reallygoodlooking.
Prince Taveon kept his gaze focused on the path ahead instead of giving Bree even a momentary glance. “I shall be training you to fight forme.”
Bree frowned. “Okay, but forwhat?”
“It will all be revealed in time,” he merelysaid.
Bree rolled her eyes, but the Prince didn’t see. She had agreed to this whole thing in an exhilarating moment, plowing forward with the hope of saving the Light Fae’s realm—Otherworld—from the hands of the Dark Fae. But it was impossible not to wonder if she’d made a mistake, especially when Prince Taveon wouldn’t tell her a damn thing about what he had planned forher.
“Come on,” she said, tightening her grip on the horse’s reins. “You’ve got to give me something. At least tell me what’s going to happen when you have to tell everyone that King Midas is nowdead.”
His frowned deepened. “Technically, the crown should go to me, but there may be some...disagreements about that. Some of my father’s aides were not too keen on me. If they have any suspicion at all that I helped Princess Norah escape...well, I cannot say how they will react. They can be vicious and cruel when they feelwronged.”
Princess Norah was Bree’s best friend and the future ruler of Otherworld. She’d been kidnapped by the Dark Fae and taken into their realm, but the Prince had helped her escape when he realized she didn’t possess the same kind of shapeshifting abilities that Breedid.
Bree was a Redcap, which meant she had the ability to change into a wolf-like beast, though it wasn’t a power she was particularly proud of. Redcaps often killed innocents. And that was something that Bree never wanted to do.Ever.
“You speak as though you’re nothing like them,” she couldn’t help but snark. He was, after all, the one who had originally kidnapped her friend, Norah, even if he had also been the one to bring her back. Bree had a sneaking suspicion he had only ‘rescued’ Norah because she couldn’t give him what hewanted.
Finally, he cut his eyes her way. “Just because I am letting you ride unchained, do not forget who you are speaking to. You are my servant from this moment on. You will do as I say, and you will show me respect. If you cause problems, I can always make things worse for you, and the rest of my kind would do nothing but cheer meon.”
Bree blinked and glanced away from the Prince’s face, grinding her teeth together. How dare he treat her this way? Especially when she was practically doing him afavor. She could have said no when he’d made his demands. She could have told him exactly where he could shove it. But she couldn’t have, not really. Prince Taveon had made his position very clear. Bree could go with him to the realm of the Dark Fae as a sign of good faith, as a sacrifice from Norah.Orhis kind would invade Otherworld, enraged by the death of their King and desperate for blood. Lots and lots of blood. So much blood that the beautiful lands would drown init.
Because Princess Norah? She’d been the one who had killed the King, making her and the rest of Otherworld ‘Enemy Number One’ in the eyes of the DarkFae.
“Come on. Just tell me something. Anything.” Bree shot him a smile, hoping the expression would ease some of his strange gruffness. “The whole point of you wanting a Redcap like me is because you’re hoping we can come up with a way to end the Tithe, right? Once and forall.”
The Dark Fae and the Light Fae were bound together by a yearly Tithe. Every year, the Light Fae took human babes from the human realm, swapping them with their own fae children. The humans were corrupted by the magic of fae, and they were transformed into vicious beasts. Into Redcaps. The beasts were then sent back into the human world so the infection could spread through humanity like the deadly virus itwas.
All because the Dark Fae needed the energy of humans to survive, and the Redcaps were their way of getting it. Every time another human got infected by the virus, the Dark Fae got another hit of life-forceenergy.
If the Dark Fae didn’t get that energy, every single one woulddie.
But Prince Taveon wanted to find a way to change things. Or at least that was what he’dsaid.
He stopped his horse suddenly, letting out a frustrated sigh. “If I explain things to you, will you stop pestering me? I prefer to spend my journeys inpeace.”
She gave him a look. “Man, you’re fun, but okay. Sure. I’ll stop talking to you if you give me someanswers.”
He cut his eyes her way, his entire body taut. “Very well then. Just remember that you insisted on hearing this now. I will not be telling anyone the truth about my father’s death, and you would be wise to follow my lead. The Court will be told that he fell from wounds inflicted by a Breking monster. One that wasnotcontrolled by Princess Norah. The Dark Fae will not invade as long as they do not know the truth about hisdeath.”
A deep frown pulled down the corners of Bree’s lips. “Wait a minute. You told Norah that they’d invade unless you brought back a sacrifice. That they would see me as payment for what shedid.”
His lips twitched, and he refused to meet her eyes. “If they know the truth, they will invade, sacrifice ornot.”
Blood boiled in Bree’s veins as she stared hard at Taveon’s brutally handsome face. “So, you lied to me. You wanted me to come here with you, so you came up with a lie to get mehere.”
“A slight twist of words and nothingmore.”
