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As they drew closer, Bree scanned the group. They were bigger than Prince Taveon. Almost twice as tall and wider, thicker, more muscular. Their faces were gnarled and twisted, large bulbous noses and scars on every cheek. As they stormed toward the two of them, their long, stringy hair streamed out behind them, highlighting the yellowish sheen to theirskin.
“They look like orcs,” Bree muttered as she took a step closer to thePrince.
“What are orcs?” heasked.
Bree rolled her eyes. “Nevermind.”
Sometimes, she forgot where she was: a world where no one had readLord of the Rings. Fairy tales were not stories here. They werereal.
“Take on the smaller ones. I’ll focus on therest.”
Prince Taveon raised his sword and charged toward the Wilde Fae. Bree’s breath got caught in her throat as she watched him run straight into the heart of the storm. The smaller ones? As far as Bree could tell, none of these creatures were particularly small. Still, she raised her dagger and followed Prince Taveon, and the next few moments became nothing but the clash ofsteel.
As Bree entered the fray, she came face to face with a female who—in her eyes—was practically a giant. Bree swallowed hard and tipped back her head to stare up at the fae. Her hair was bone white, and her teeth were yellow. She hissed and slashed a blood-caked dagger at Bree’s head, and the entire world around Bree began toslow.
Bree’s powers were limited, but they were still there. The heightened sense of smell and hearing had never come to her, not like they had for Norah. She couldn’t control the elements of her season because she didn’t have one. She’d become a fae, but she hadn’t become an Autumn, a Summer, a Spring, or a Fall. Instead, she was just Bree. Bree with her beastly shapeshifting form. But with that form came a fewperks.
For one, she could move impossibly fast, though she had never been certain whether she was actually spinning like a whirlwind or whether the world was slowing down when she moved. Probably, it was theformer.
The Wilde Fae’s blade moved toward her head as if it was dragging its way through a thick tub of molasses. Bree ducked down, twisting her own blade and aiming it right at the fae’s stomach. Because that was about as high as Bree could manage to getit.
The Wilde Fae screamed when her dagger missed its mark, and then she screamed even louder when Bree’s weapon sunk deep into her flesh. Bree gritted her teeth as a dark sticky blood poured from the wound. She hated blood, though there was a deep dark part of her—the beast—that cravedit.
The light died from the fae’s eyes, and Bree pulled the dagger from her body just in time to block a blow from another attacker. This time, she faced off against a male. And he was even bigger than the female and a hell of a lot faster. Bree ducked. Again and again as he swung wildly at her neck. She didn’t even get a second to blink, his attack so frenzied andferocious.
The beast within her grumbled, as if slowly waking from an endless slumber. Her teeth began to ache, and her stomach clenched tight. Even though she’d taken the Starlight cure that allowed her to control the beast, it was still awake inside of her. She carried it around with her wherever she went, and it lusted for the sweet taste of fresh blood and flesh. It wanted her to let go. It wanted her to transform and slash these fae to pieces with her long and jaggedclaws.
Bree swallowed hard and blinked those thoughts away. And then she jumped as high as she could before stabbing the fae right in the throat. He fell within an instant, vacant eyes staring up at a raven-filledsky.
When she turned, she found the rest of the Wilde Fae had fallen. Along with the Prince, who was sprawled across the ground with gooey blood caked on his luminousface.
She strode toward him, anger and fear churning through her. He looked so different like this. Almost small and broken, even though she knew he was nothing of the sort. He was dangerous, conniving, and violent. He wanted to use her for his own gain, not for the help of others. He had lied to her to get her here, and he wanted her to become his vessel ofmurder.
“You know I could stab you right now and go straight back home,” Bree said as she stood over PrinceTaveon.
“You could but you will not.” He smiled up at her with a kind of smug superiority Bree wanted to smack right off hisface.
“You think you know me, but you don’t,” she snapped. “You’ve never even spoken to me until today, and barely at that. You think you own me now, but in truth, I could do anything I wanted to you right this second. And no one would everknow.”
“I know you, Bree Paine,” he murmured up at her. “You are fierce and loyal and stubborn. You are also weak. You could kill me now and go back, but you willnot.”
Bree continued to stand over him, her blood boiling. She hated that he thought he knew her. And she hated that he was right about everything.Almosteverything, at least. She would not become a slave to this cruel fae. She would not kill for him. She would not lose every last shred of humanity she hadleft.
“You’re the only one who knows that Princess Norah killed the King.” She raised her weapon. “Otherworld will never be safe as long as you’realive.”
And with that, she made her lastkill.
