AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I need her back. We need her back. You know her value.”
The King removed his crown and rested it on his thigh. “She can’t cross the border. When the guards catch up, they’ll return her.”
“Prince Sai is trouble,” Palaria hissed. “He’s good at finding loopholes.”
The King considered her, his eyes dashing to me, before resting on her again. “Then I’ll bide my time. She’s not worth the risk to me presently.”
Palaria gasped and stumbled back a step. “But… Your Highness.”
“I’ve said my word.”
“Forgive me, but that isn’t enough.”
The King leaned forward. “You forget yourself, madam.”
“I don’t believe so.” She rolled her shoulders back, so that she looked every bit the fearsome siren leader she’d always been. “Everything you’ve asked of me, I’ve done. I had Lira raised away from the influence of magic, far from here. I’ve kept her in the dark about our powers and how they work. Beyond threatening the sirens in my group on their lives if they revealed anything to her, I also paid excessively, even beyond the money you gave me, for her to be educated and raised with the highest standards. She’s mannered, lovely, comported, well read, beautiful, anddeeplymagical all as you wished. I sacrificed some of my best years to keep her magic untainted for your sake.”
The King didn’t answer beyond cocking an eyebrow.
Palaria’s boldness grew. “When I agreed to this—agreed to have my only child with you,”—I sucked in a breath so hard I inhaled wrong and choked, struggling to swallow without making a sound—“I expected your protection and consideration of her. She carries not only my magic now, but your blood as well. I demand that you getourdaughter back.”
The king’s jaw had hardened with her speech, but he didn’t deny it.
Holy shit.
Lira was half Seelie.
She was an heiress to the Seelie throne.
The King twisted a ring on his finger. “I wasn’t ready to start our campaign against the Prasanna. You make a valid point, though. She carries my blood, and we’ve worked hard to keep her powers untouched. If Prince Sai finds some way around the magic, then we’ll get her back, if we must do so by force.”
My heart thundered.
I’d thought I could find out information to help Lira, but what could I do with this? She wasn’t just the leader of our small troupe. She didn’t hold the blood of just our magic—she was an heiress to a kingdom. More than that, she was half fairy and caught in politics I knew nothing about.
I doubted she could run from this fate.
All my newly-formed plans to help her escape fizzled away like the smoke from the candles. I didn’t know what the future held.
Oh, Lira.I whispered internally, like she might hear my voice.I’d worried about you before, but you don’t know what all you’re caught in the middle of.
* * *
