AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I approached his desk, skirting the chairs and placing my hands atop it. “I’m serious.”
“Oh I’m sure you are,” he said with a bitter smirk and mischief in his golden eyes. "How about this, Princess.” Standing to his full formidable height, he rounded his desk, sauntering towards me. I spun, making sure to keep my front to him at all times. He kept coming until the back of my thighs were pressed up against his desk with nowhere for me to go. “You can obey. You can submit to me completely. I want you on your knees before me every second of every hour, my name spilling from your lips in awed reverence.” He placed his hand on the side of my face, cupping my cheek. “I wish to own every inch of you until you’ve utterly forgotten the life you had before. Is that what you want to hear?”
My mouth opened and closed, words escaping me entirely. His face was so close to mine that I could pick out every fleck of gold in his eyes—eyes that matched the golden tattoos, which began to glow on his skin. “You’re insane…” I whispered halfheartedly. I tried to move away, but the hand on my cheek clamped down harder, holding me still. “Why did you do this to me?”
He paused for a moment, taking the time to stare into my eyes as if searching for some hidden answer to a question he never even asked. I was trapped in his lure, unable to look away for even a second. Magic flowed through every inch of his lean body. Mage magic, mixing with his faerie blood to create a creature of unimaginable strength. The magic locked away inside the collar flared white hot and I winced.
“Were you under the impression that the princes of the Wild Hunt went around making bargains with just anyone?” Dread pooled in my gut. I held my hands in tight fists, the warmth of my glowing brand causing sweat to bead on my palms. I wanted to lash out at him with it. “Oh, you beautiful, naïve creature,” he cooed. Trapping me against the desk, he knew there was no way I could get past him.
“Just tell me what you know. I’m so—” My shoulders dropped and my whole body suddenly felt heavy. “Riven, I'm so tired.” My eyes stung with unshed tears of pure frustration. “All I ever wanted was to make Drystan better.”
“And you did that,” he said, softer this time as he tucked a tendril of my hair behind my ear. “Your brother has been cured of whatever sick spell your witch of a queen had him under. He’s free now because of what you sacrificed. Is that not enough?”
It was, wasn't it? I’d done what I set out to do, and I'd saved my brother. I saved Karn, didn’t I? The truth was, I didn’t know what became of Drystan or the humans I’d left behind with Reena still in power. All I knew was that I left him with more of a chance to take everything back than he’d had this time last year when he’d fallen asleep and never woke up. What else was I supposed to do?
“Why the collar?” I asked more firmly this time, swallowing back any tears that begged to let loose. I couldn’t afford for him to see me crumble. My hand flew to the collar as it flared brightly again. “Please don’t lie to me. I might not be able to mind-speak the way you do, but I know when I’m being lied to. I think I deserve to know what’s going on here.”
“Are you sure you’re ready to know the truth? It might not be the answer you want.”
Despite his ominous warning, I nodded. “I can handle it. Anything is better than knowing that everyone knows something I don’t.”
“Alright then. Here’s the truth, but don’t you dare blame me. I'm simply the messenger. We knew who you were from the moment you spoke the words to summon us. When your blood touched the soil so close to the Veil, it called to us, and we had no choice but to answer. Had you been anyone else, we wouldn’t have hesitated to remove your head from your shoulders for sport.” I shook my head in disbelief. “It’s true. It’s why we alerted the Sluagh the day we brought you here. It’s why they’re rushing to the Void Wood at this very moment. For you. Their queen commander is coming to purchase you, and in exchange, she owes us a favor. The kind of favor only the undead can provide.”
His lips brushed mine as his fingers sunk into my hair. I was frozen in place, unable to move or speak or even think clearly. Fear like I’d never known washed over me in waves. Every horror I‘d ever heard about the Sluagh, every nightmarish story ran through my head one after the next.
They were coming here. For me. Just for me. They were going to buy me. They were going to snatch me away and take me into the darkness where no one would ever find me again, and there was nothing I could do about it. This collar around my neck kept me chained to the auction house, to these faeries that were so willing to sell me for a favor.
He didn’t kiss me. Instead, he pulled back, brushing his lips lightly against my cheek, warm breath caressing the shell of my ear as I stared blankly ahead. “I only wish you knew how badly I want to keep you.”
* * *
Riven
There was lessthan a week until the Sluagh queen would sweep through the Void Wood with her undead host. Until we would have no other choice but to hand over the halfling.
It wasn’t what I could have chosen were I in control. I would have found another way, but we were running out of options. With every breath I took, the Sluagh closed the distance. They would be here any day now, moving as swiftly as a dark wind through the trees and over the mountains. There was no stopping them when they had a bounty within their sights.
If only she knew the truth. The real truth. The one I chose not to tell her, knowing it would only break her more. Some might say I was cruel for toying with her this way. Some might say I was cold and unfeeling. It might even be true, but not when it came to our halfling princess. Our concubine. Our Kyre.
I wanted to hate her. No…that wasn’t right. Hate was too strong a word for what I wanted with her. What I wanted was to feel nothing in her presence. I wanted to look into her amber eyes without feeling like my heart was about to burst out of my chest. What I wanted was to send her far away from everything that might hurt her. Even if it meant protecting her from herself. Even if she didn’t understand why I’d placed that dampener around her neck. If I had to be the bad guy, her enemy, then that’s the role I would play.
I needed to find Vazden. He would know what to do. He would understand. He might even be the only soul in all of Faerie who ever could…
Kyre
Ashadow fell over my body, blocking out the moonlight. Vazden lowered himself to the mossy forest floor beside me, his long legs bent as he rested his elbows on his knees. So human-like, and yet so far from it.
“You need sleep. I can see the days wearing on you.” Reaching out, his thumb gently brushed beneath my eye where there were, no doubt, splotches of purple and blue from nights of fitful sleep or none at all. It was hard to sleep in a house with faerie princes who wanted nothing more than to toy with their new pet. Even harder knowing what was inevitably coming for me.
I’d been sitting on the edge of the clearing for the last few hours, staring out at the beasts that feasted on heaps of raw meat. The princes were on a hunt and hadn’t been back in two days, but for some reason Vazden stayed behind. I’d met him out here every day, keeping to my schedule of feeding the remaining creatures, the herd considerably thinner until they returned. I realized I didn’t mind it as much as I thought I would have. Things were quieter down here on the ground without the constant chattering, giggling, and moaning of faeries.
I’d even managed to get down here by myself without the need for Cadoc’s wings. I’d forgotten just how much I enjoyed climbing through the trees, feeling the rough bark under my palms. The ladders and bridges helped, too. Back home in Karn, I’d spent more time out on the fringes of the woods than I ever did in the city. It felt nice to stretch my sore muscles again, even if the pain in my neck and back occasionally brought me to my knees.
I didn’t leave the auction house too often, but every once in a while I’d be sent somewhere or another to fetch an item or to deliver a message. The other day, Haelo had me selecting dresses for concubines to wear for bidding day. We’d spent three hours in a room with a nymph named Tetra who spun the dresses from silks she harvested meticulously. It surprised me just how invested Haelo was in the tediousness of it all. I realized he enjoyed the monotonous things, like reading and music. So very normal. So very unlike the Wild Hunt of legend.
Haelo, Cadoc, and Riven were often locked away in Riven’s study speaking in hushed voices while I fussed over them, serving them drinks, dusting bookshelves, and pretending I wasn’t trying to hear every word. Half of their conversations took place inside of their heads, so after a few days of trying, I simply gave up.
It was all busy work, but I didn’t mind. They had yet to seek me out again for anything other than menial tasks, and Erix had been avoiding me altogether. He hadn’t bothered to visit me in my dreams, nor did he attempt to pull me into his. I found myself looking for him throughout the day, trying to work up the courage to corner him somewhere and make him face what happened between us.
