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To my shock, Rhynda bows reverently. When she straightens, her eyes move to something behind me. “Your Highness.”
I spin around to find Amell standing there. He’s imposing due to his height and those massive wings. But after all the time we’ve spent alone in his bed, he doesn’t inspire fear in me anymore.
“Were you standing there the whole time?” I ask him.
His lips twitch. “Only appeared as Rhynda was walking toward you.”
Relief surges through me that he didn’t hear my conversation with Will about escaping. Such thoughts could land me in the river. “What are you doing here?” I ask.
“I’m going on a trip, and I thought you’d like to come along.”
I can’t help the excitement. “Yes, I want to go. Now?” I turn to face Rhynda. “Is it okay if I leave early?”
Rhynda looks bewildered I’m asking her permission. She stammers, “Per the king, you’re free to come and go as you please.”
Pivoting back to Amell, I reach out and take his hands in mine—a move that causes Rhynda to gasp behind me and has Will backing away warily. “I can’t wait. Can we go now?”
Something flashes in Amell’s eyes. Not quite lust. Not quite amusement. But something that tells me he likes my exuberance very much. He leans in, bending low to put his mouth near my ear. “Watch yourself, Nyssa. I’m trying very hard not to take you back to my room.”
It’s a threat that would be wasted because if that were truly an option, I’d vote for that rather than a trip, and I’m sure he would too. But I pull away to put space between us.
Amell chuckles and advises, “We’ll bend distance to get there.”
He holds out a hand, and I start to reach for him but then change my mind. I turn to Will, grab his arm, and haul him toward me. My gaze goes back to Amell. “This is my friend, Will. He’s human.”
“Yes, I can see that,” Amell says dryly, his eyes on Will. “But I’d advise you not to touch, Nyssa.”
Will jerks away from me, taking a few steps back as he stammers, “My apologies, Your Highness.”
I glare at Amell. “That’s not nice.”
“I’m the king. I don’t have to be nice,” he says just before lunging to grab my hand.
Then things go dark, and I’m spinning out of control, only to suddenly straighten up when it brightens again.
I’m standing before a large stone mansion. The midnight sky is above, laden with stars and a possible sunrise on the horizon that will never actually come. I glance around and see we’re on a butte above a valley of sorts. It looks like a functioning town below with roads and buildings, and farther out what might be farms with planted crops. The hills are rocky and other than the green of vegetables poking from the fields, it lacks any type of life.
“Where are we?” I ask Amell, his hand still clutching mine.
“Calashte. It’s the farthest city from Otaxis, and the regions beyond it are completely barren.”
“Uninhabitable?”
Amell shakes his head. “Quite habitable, but by abominations that have been banished from the cities.”
“Abominations?”
“Dark Fae offspring and souls twisted by magic. Kymaris loved meddling with the natural evolution of our kind. Most have been cleaned up from the cities, but there are still those who live on the fringes.”
“And you let them live?”
“As long as they behave,” he says, his eyes glittering with death should they step out of line.
A tiny tremor works its way up my spine. God help me, but it’s attractive how powerful he is and that I’m flirting with serious danger all the time.
Amell turns and knocks on the stone mansion’s thick wooden front door. It’s so weird to me that there are things here in the Underworld as normal as houses that people—or rather, Dark Fae—live in and that knocking out of politeness is normal.
The door swings open and Truett stands before us. He’s Amell’s closest friend and offered him advice after that council meeting.
