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I saw Cadoc first, leading the way with his black eyes already trained on me. His hair was long and loose today, blending in with the black of his riding clothes. They were finely made, swirling with silvery-stitched symbols that I couldn’t interpret…some kind of rune language.
The nameless faerie followed behind him in black clothing with stitching made of spun gold that matched the hue of his eyes, and an ornate leather baldric was strapped across his chest. Behind him was Haelo, clad in black like his brother, offsetting the glow of his white hair that was half tied back behind his head and topped with the crown of antlers. His shining, white eyes were haunting against the darkness around us, like a spirit wandering aimlessly through the woods.
The faerie princes of the Wild Hunt were as terrifying as they were beautiful. Their sinister presence filled the courtyard with unease as the human men shuffled and murmured nervously. I found myself searching for the horned male with the batlike wings, but he was nowhere to be found. I wasn’t sure if that was better or worse.
Neera reached out to me and beckoned for my hand. I gripped it, squeezing her fingers tightly. “When they take me, I need you and Zephyr to run.” I felt her freeze in my grip, but I refused to look at her, keeping my eyes on the princes. “Don’t you dare try anything reckless. You’re no match for the Wild Hunt.” I hoped my warning sunk in, because I needed her to get to safety. Zephyr, too. If anything happened to him because of me…
“Princess,” said Haelo, his voice like music ringing out over us all and filling my whole body with buzzing tremors. He chuckled, shaking his head at me. “You neglected to mention that you were royalty. Naughty, naughty halfling. You might have to be punished for that.” My stomach dipped at the promise in those words and the glee with which he said them.
To my shock, Ruarc moved before I could respond, stepping in front of me with his blade at the ready. “What does the Wild Hunt want with our princess?” His voice shook as he fought to keep his composure. Ruarc knew how easily these faeries could end his existence.
I frowned at the back of the captain’s head. Why was he trying to defend me now? I was the exiled halfling princess that Karn didn’t want anymore, so why risk his life this way?
Cadoc grunted, and with the flick of his wrist, a tendril of black smoke seeped from his fingers and whipped across the distance between him and Ruarc. The blackness wrapped around his throat and his blade clattered to the ground. Ruarc was dragged forward and brought to his knees, all while Cadoc barely moved a muscle. The darkness appeared to be a part of him somehow, like he’d simply extended a limb. He pulled on it, and Ruarc tried to scream, but nothing but choking sounds made it past his lips.
I could have grabbed for him or tried to drag him back to me, but I couldn’t find it in myself to make the effort. The Wild Hunt would take me no matter what happened here today, and there was no use in fighting against them. Ruarc should have understood that.
Cadoc grinned at Ruarc as he lifted him up off the ground by his throat. “Your princess decided to make a deal, and we’re here to collect.” Tilting his head, he exposed his mouth full of sharp teeth that had the other human men shrinking backwards. “I suggest you stay out of the way, human. It won’t end well for you otherwise.”
“My brother enjoys playing with his food,” Haelo said with a chuckle. Then he turned back to me, holding out a beckoning hand. “Time’s up. We fulfilled our half of the bargain, and I expect you to honor yours.”
A cold shiver raced through me as I stared into his eyes filled with glowing white light. He was so beautiful, it hurt to look at him for too long. Tearing my gaze from his, I looked at Neera now, who was glaring at the princes as if it was taking all of her restraint not to leap off of Zephyr’s back.
“Go!” I swatted Zeph’s side, and he hissed, spreading his wings out wide as the humans scrambled to get out of the way. “Zephyr, now! Take Neera away from here—that’s an order!” I fought the tears that rimmed my eyes as his big lion head turned to face me. I sunk my fingers into his black mane and placed a hasty kiss between his eyes. “Go…” I whispered, and I hoped he could hear in my voice just how much I was going to miss him.
I could have sworn I heard a low wine slip from him, but he covered it with a roar as he pulled away from me, tipping his head back as Neera held on tighter. Her eyes were wide as she glared at me. “I’m going to find you, Ky.”
Her words were like a sword to my gut. I couldn’t say anything to that, because we both knew how impossible that would be. So, I watched helplessly as Zephyr rose off the ground with a push of his wings, blowing my hair back over my shoulders and my hood off my head. Once they were in the air, they quickly disappeared into the dark clouds overhead, and slowly, the thumping flaps of his wings faded away. Swallowing thickly, I tried to hide the grief that flooded through me.
The third faerie prince, the one I had no name for yet, spoke in the old language, so fast that I couldn’t make out the words. It was clearly an order, because in the next heartbeat, at least five erasu were surrounding me. I tried to cut them with my small blade, but all it took was one swipe of a spindly arm to knock it from my grip. The clinking sound of metal filled my ears, and I cursed when I felt something cold and tight wrapping around my torso.
Chains…
They wrapped me in a thick, black chain made of iron. It burned where it touched slivers of exposed skin and I shrieked in pain, but they only pulled them tighter as I fell to my knees. The human guard began yelling unintelligibly, but with the blood rushing in my ears, I was deaf to it all. In my peripheral, I watched as Cadoc flung Ruarc to the side, his body crashing against a stone pillar. He was still moving, and I breathed a small sigh of relief that the faerie prince hadn’t killed him.
The chains were pulled tighter and I screamed, blood from my burning wounds dripping beneath me and pooling on the tile. I’d always been so careful to avoid the poison metal, and now I was engulfed in it, drowning in agony.
Lifting my head, I glared into a pair of bright, molten gold eyes belonging to the faerie prince who’d ordered me chained up like some kind of beast, but before I could curse him, my vision went dark. Some kind of thick fabric was pulled over my head and tightened around the neck.
The last thing I was conscious of was being lifted from the ground, nearly weightless. After that, the pain grew too much to take, and I felt myself slipping away.
Kyre
Iwoke to a burning sensation creeping down the length of my spine.
I groaned as I blinked open my eyes to the sight of the night sky and a canopy of trees above me, swaying in the sweet-scented breeze. I lay there for a moment, trying to orient myself. Something was incredibly off. Wrongness surrounded me, and the longer I lay there, the more the burning ache in my back began to throb.
A dark shape moved overhead, obscuring the starlit sky, and I screamed. Bright-white human-like teeth grinned back at me from a face of nightmares. An erasu. With a curse, I rolled over, knocking the faerie creature out of my way in the process, and it hissed back at me, crouching several feet away in the shadows.
All I could do was crawl away, the pain in my limbs and spine too strong to ignore. My whole body felt like it had been stretched out, wrung out, and left to bake in the sun. I realized quickly that I was crawling through tall, violet-colored grass, with swaying white flowers interspersed between the shafts of moonlight that managed to make it to the forest floor. I stopped crawling as I noticed little glowing orbs hovering in the air, buzzing around my head and landing on the flowers.
The air smelled like jasmine and moss, and I took several deep breaths, letting my eyes fall closed as I tried to calm my racing heart.
“How unfortunate that you cower at the sight of your own kin,” came a deep, familiar voice from above me, and I froze. A pair of boots stepped into my path, and my eyes traveled up and up and up until I was looking into a bright pair of golden eyes. The faerie prince held out a hand for me to take, and I knelt there, staring at his palm, which was covered in golden tattoos.
“What did you do to me?” I rasped out, my throat burning with every word. I felt dizzy, my body threatening to topple to the side, and my eyes were heavy enough to sleep. Had they drugged me?
“Get up, halfling,” was all he said, not answering my question.
