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“Don’t worry about it,” she reassured me. “We’ll find someone to take care of that.”
I choked back my protests, reminding myself that I had no money to pay anyone for the repairs.
“I’m Shay,” she told me, opening the driver’s door to her tiny smart car.
Tentatively, I let myself in the passenger’s seat as well.
Shay buckled herself in and glanced at me. “You’re a fae, aren’t you? I have a nose for these kinds of things.”
Of course I was a fae. Most residents of Ironhelm were faeries, except for the odd witch or warlock. Still, I just nodded in affirmation.
“You’re running from something? You locked into some kind of arrangement?” she questioned bluntly, turning on her vehicle and zooming away from the broken convertible.
I gave it a last look in the side-view mirror, knowing I’d never see it again. But I was really worried about leaving it there, in plain view, for anyone to find and track back to Ironhelm Place.
“Are you a witch?” I mumbled, stunned at how well she could sense things.
Shay grinned at me again and shrugged.
“Enchantress in training,” she explained. “My mentor says I’m a natural. I tend to believe the professionals.”
I tensed at the idea, swallowing the lump forming in my throat.
What if she knew Aradia? Did all enchantresses know one another?
I didn’t want to ask her too much, lest it fall back on me.
“What’s the matter? What did I say?” Shay asked worriedly.
“Nothing,” I whispered, keeping my eyes trained on the world outside, the lush landscape whirring by under Shay’s foot.
“I know you don’t know me at all, but I promise I’m a friend,” she offered lightly. “In fact, all of my roommates have a story—some of which I don’t even know.”
I glanced at her covertly, and she nodded vehemently, the sincerity flooding the interior of the tiny car.
Hope welled inside me, but my guard remained up. I didn’t know her, but I was also out of options. I was distinctly out of place in my too-fine dress next to her blue jeans and tank top, her fingers covered in silver rings. I envied her freedom at that moment, but it didn’t overcome my aching, broken heart.
“I promise, I’m a friend,” Shay said again, trying her best to convince me. “But I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want. I’m only trying to help someone who looks like they can use it. I’ve been in some pretty dark places myself, and if not for the kindness of strangers, I wouldn’t have gotten where I am today.”
Her sincere tone and bright, verdant-gray eyes convinced me. It wasn’t as if I had much of a choice. It was either go with Shay, or… what? Find some alleyway in Anderlane? Panhandle in my ostentatious ruby gown? The gods had given me an out, and I’d be a fool to refuse it.
“Thank you,” I rasped, thinking of how much she reminded me of Maywin.
In another life, this was exactly how I could have envisioned Maywin living. A piercing sadness stabbed my heart at the thought of my maid and companion, whom I had left behind at the palace without any sign of where I was going—or that I was leaving at all.
Is Cade treating her and Rufus all right, considering all this? What did he tell my parents?
I wouldn’t have left them if I’d believed them to be in danger, but there was always a chance that he might react badly once he read the letter. The fate of the kingdom rested on our union, but there had to be a way to circumvent the blood oath, enacted well before either Cade or I were born.
Or he might simply return to his love affair with Stralia, as he had always wanted, and leave me in peace, sending my parents back to Carrottrove along with my two servants. Both thoughts crumbled my heart. I hadn’t thought my actions through, not really. My sickened stomach had guided me out the window and through the shadows before the haze around my eyes had cleared, but even now, I wasn’t thinking properly.
My hands curled into fists, the sweat soaking through to stop my nails from digging into the skin.
Anderlane loomed before me, a mountainous city after miles and miles of relatively flat landscape. The night had brought me past crop fields and meadows, over an oddly shaped river of water, and then through a maze of moderately shaped towns, which seemed too small, too conspicuous. I couldn’t be sure if Cade had put out word to look for me, but if he had, it would be too easy to find me in little villages that I had passed along the way, and the cities had been too close.
Assuming anyone would look for me.
Shay continued to drive, her confidence radiating as she handled the main roads, swerving through the medium amount of traffic, navigating the “idiot drivers” (as she muttered more than once). I was too smitten by the new surroundings to pay too much attention to her sometimes careless maneuvers, even when she often flipped off other drivers at random.
