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Where a sitting room should have been in a regal room such as this, there was instead, a large golden cage inlaid with diamonds and rubies, large enough to fit at least seven bodies inside, much like the ones that dangled from the ceiling for dancers in the bidding call. There was no door to the cage, telling me it was simply for show, and that I wasn’t going to be locked up inside of it any time soon. It was surrounded by five thrones made for five faerie princes. Hanging from the top of the cage were four golden chains with cuffs on the ends.
I paused, counting again. There were five thrones.Five?That didn't make any sense. Was there another prince I wasn't aware of?
I stopped just inside the threshold as Erix shut the door behind us, my mouth slightly open as I fought for words. Luckily, Erix spared me the effort. “This is where you’ll be staying from now on. You can come and go as you please. You’ll have access to every inch of this city as long as you come when you’re called.”
“Like a dog,” I muttered, slicing a glare his way, snapping out of my confused daze.
“I don’t recall allowing our dogs to sleep on a bed of feathers and silk, but I suppose if that’s how you want to look at it.” He stepped up behind me, placing his hands lightly on my shoulders. “Did I not tell you that our concubines are showered with luxury? Every pleasure you could ever want is at your fingertips. All you have to do is comply with your prince’s demands.”
I turned my head, placing our cheeks together, feeling the scruff that dusted his skin and the warmth radiating off of him. “And what are you demands, exactly?” My heartbeat sped up, and his fingers tightened on my shoulders. A sudden memory flitted through my mind, one of those glowing blue eyes of his, tattooed hands skinning up my inner thighs, and golden chains anchoring me in place as he whispered to me.
I blinked out of the memory, my whole body flushing from head to toe. How could I have known that this would happen? How had I seen this faerie prince before ever having met him? None of it made sense, and it didn’t feel right to chalk it up to magic, that wasn’t fair. Something else was at play here, and I was so curious.
His lips skimmed the shell of my ear as he took a deep, slow breath. I shivered when he turned his face toward my hair, burying it in my thick curls as he caressed my shoulders. His hands felt so good on my skin. Rough, soft, heavy, and delicate all at once. I wanted to feel them in other places, too. Places that hadn’t been touched in far too long. But then he pulled away, leaving me chilled. The wind blew through the window, sending the sheer, white curtains into a frenzy.
“Are you sure it’s wise to give me a window?” I asked, padding towards it, taking in deep lungfuls of fresh night air. The window overlooked the treetop city where bridges lit with hundreds of burning torches and lanterns crisscrossed, creating a labyrinth of levels.
Winged fairies avoided the bridges and ropes altogether, the flap of their wings thunderous as they caught the air beneath them. Somewhere off in the distance was the clash of steel weapons, either from training or recreation, I had no idea.
Erix stopped beside me, pushing aside the delicate curtain and gazing out over the kingdom of the Wild Hunt. His blue eyes were so luminous that it seemed as if they’d sucked in all the moonlight themselves. “The collar around your neck wouldn’t allow you to get very far without one of us knowing.” I frowned, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from cursing him. He cut his eyes at me, a grin pulling at his lips. “You asked…”
I spun, placing my back to the window as I surveyed my new quarters. They were much grander than the small room they’d kept me in previously, so I couldn’t complain about the change. The bed looked soft and luxurious, and I’d just noticed in the far corner of the room, there was a floor to ceiling bookshelf, stocked with dozens of thick novels for me to devour.
Erix must have seen my eyes light up because he asked, “You enjoy reading?” He headed for the bookshelf, and I followed on his heels. He plucked a thick tome from the shelf, the pages worn and ratty and the spine long cracked. “This one’s one of my favorites, I thought it might help you pass the time.” I took the book from him, scanning the title. It was a love story, but written by an author I’d never heard of. “The author is fae, I doubt you would have had any of their books in your Karnish library.”
I raised a brow as I turned toward the bed, carrying the book with me, idly paging through it. “That’s where you're wrong actually. My father was known for his fascination with faeries. He used to tell me bedtime stories about Faerie. Legends about beasts of the Void Wood, tales of knights disappearing through the veil and returning years later without aging a day.”
As I got older and realized exactly how different I was from all the other little girls at court, I really started to appreciate my father’s strange obsession. It made me feel a little less inferior, and more like a special treasure just for him.
“I suppose that explains you, doesn't it,” he said with a cheeky smile.
I rolled my eyes at him as I shut the book, placing it on the bedside table, making a mental note to start the first chapter tonight. “I guess it does. He never told me how he managed to seduce a faerie in the first place.
The story of my conception wasn’t ever spoken of back home. Not even when my father was still living. The guilt of his betrayal hung like a shadow over us all, and my stepmother could barely stand to breathe the same air as me.
“What about you?” I asked, needing to change the subject. I didn’t like dredging up past memories, especially ones that involved my banishment. I scanned Erix from head to toe, noting the riding clothes he wore. He was dressed in all black, his hood pulled back and mask pulled down, his long, ashy hair pulled back into an intricate plait. “Do you have a family wherever you come from? ” His grin faltered at my questions. “I mean, you know everything there is to know about me, but I know next to nothing about who you are or how you ended up in the Wild Hunt.”
He closed a book he’d been leafing through, placing it back onto the shelf. I moved aside as he approached, making room for him to sit on the bed, inches away from me. Suddenly, this room felt smaller than my old one, and the air was stifling. This position was so intimate and the locked door had my whole body on alert.
He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees, his legs long enough that they reached the floor without issues, as if he was sitting on a chaise and not a large bed. All of these males were so large and imposing that I felt dwarfed in comparison, and I’d never been considered small. I had curves like a human woman, but I had the height of a faerie.
“Riven and I are half brothers, like Haelo and Cadoc are. We have the same mother, but different fathers. Both mages, both faeries.” I scooted closer, immediately soaking in his every word, trying to understand who and what I was dealing with. What kind of males now owned me? “Theywere the princes, Haelo and Cadoc. Their father, King Osiris banished us centuries ago after the four of us were caught attempting to assassinate one of his mistresses.”
I didn’t know what to say. I’d never heard this particular story. I would have thought something like this would have been written in the books my father loved to collect, but it was all new to me. I knew who Osiris was. He’d been king of the Primal Faerie Court for a thousand years at least. He was a warlord and a conqueror, but I never knew the names of his heirs. I never had to, I supposed. It wasn’t like my father was very open about these things. He only told me faerie tales and read me romantic adventures.
“What did she do?” I asked.
He glanced over at me, his brows furrowed deeply. “She tried to seduce Haelo on the night of the winter solstice. She’d poisoned his wine and took him to bed against his will. When she fell pregnant months later, she blamed him, telling Osiris he’d forced himself on her. The king went into a rage and as a result, his mistress lost the child.”
My breath hitched as I covered my mouth with my palm, picturing it all so clearly in my head. A drunken night of revelry turned to treachery in an instant. “Gods, I didn't know…" I suddenly, remembered the visceral reaction every prince had had when I'd questioned them on whether or not I had the option of consent. It made sense now. "So, he was banished to the Wild Hunt and took you with him?”
Erix smiled bitterly, his blue eyes far away, as if watching another lifetime play out in front of him. His jaw clenched and unclenched. “Riven I are the eldest sons of the king’s brother, captain of his armies. I suppose that makes us cousins, but we’ve always been more like brothers, the four of us. After the king’s mistress tried to blame it all on Haelo, we came up with a plan to eliminate the problem. A plan that failed miserably, as you can see. Osiris was too infatuated with her to see reason, and until this fucking day, he refuses to face it.”
“And you ended up here…”
“Not by choice. It wasn’t enough for Osiris to banish us. He had his witch curse us to answer his call, a slave to his fucking whims. We’ve been hunting down his enemies for centuries.”
They were slaves like me, only they’d been suffering for much, much longer. Did that excuse the diabolical things that happened in this place? No, it didn’t, but was it fair for me to hold ancient faeries to the moral standards of the human world?
