AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ari,” I said to the sword chick.
Her eyes narrowed and flashed suspiciously at Calian before looking back at me. “Fullname.”
“Ariana Faust.”
The admission relaxed her slightly, though she didn’t know it was a lie.
“Welcome to Vevol, Ari. I’m Ana.” She reached a hand out and grabbed my arm, then unceremoniously yanked me inside the Stronghold.
The door slammed behind me, and she released my arm before quickly getting to work on the locks. “Did he touch you?” she demanded as her fingers moved deftly over the mechanisms.
The woman had clearly done this more than a few times.
“Um, not really, no.”
“Good.” She was halfway through all thirteen of the locks—I counted. “Lian isn’t one of the worsts, but being touched by any of the seelie bastards is a good way to get yourself locked into a mating you don’t want.”
Did she mean being touched at all?
Because he had touched me, just barely—and twice.
And she had called him Lian, pronounced Lee-in, which was clearly a shortened version of his name.
Which meant he had given me his whole name.
Which meant…
Oh, fuck.
“Bastard,” I hissed between my teeth.
“What?” She shot me a demanding look. The woman didn’t seem to have any other settings besides suspicious and demanding.
“He did touch me—twice. It felt like getting electrocuted. And he said his name was Calian.”
Her expression twisted into a grimace. “You’re fucked.”
After turning, she spun and started walking down the hallway a hell of a lot faster than I expected.
I had to jog to keep up with her. “Does it mean what I think it means?”
“That he’s decided you’re his mate? Yes.” She didn’t bother glancing at me. “We’ll throw you a funeral when you’re gone.”
My eyebrows shot upward as she led me into a large room full of couches, books, and strange-looking screens that sort of reminded me of TVs. “He’s going tokillme? I thought it was like marriage.”
“We call them funerals because they’re the end of your humanity,” another woman chirped.
My attention jerked toward her, and I found her curled up on a couch off to the side of the room. She held a book in her hands, and a soft-looking blanket was draped over her legs. She wore a sweatshirt and a pair of fuzzy socks, along with what looked like leggings from what I could see. Her curly black hair was up in a puff on top of her head, and her expression was a hell of a lot more relaxed than Ana’s. Her skin was dark brown, and her eyes soft hazel.
At least she looked comfortable. That meant the stronghold wasn’t a fucking prison.
“What? I thought we all change when we get here,” I argued. “They said I’m a phoenix.”
“Yep, we can all shift into a legendary beast form like they can. You won’t transform until you’ve bonded with your mate or been taken to the unseelie half of the world, though, and you have to last five years here to make it to the unseelies. If Lian has decided you’re his mate, I doubt you’ll make it one.”
Shit, this was a lot to take in.
“What’s your name?” the laid-back woman checked.
