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Despite my drug-induced daze, I try to move the sink again. I kick, trying to shove it to one side. The Vampire watches for a second, and I even slam my body against it, resulting in a myriad of purple and blue bruises, but it doesn't move an inch.
He is right.
Time slows as I fall back onto the floor. I can only pray that I wake before the rats come.
Just as my eyes go blurry, I see the Vampire rip the sink off the wall and leave.
The smell intensifies, and I gag.
Whatever drug they used this time isn't strong enough to make me fully unconscious. I am unable to move. Hours pass, and I lay there.
No one ever comes.
My brain is still wide awake, and it buzzes with endless thoughts.
If these people belong to my mother, I’m unsure why I'm still here. She’s cruel, but I’m reasonably sure she would have had me carted to her when she found me.
No doubt, she has a lavish prison already prepared for me. Only the best cell for her heir. Helena and I used to joke that our parents were cut from the same cloth.
Her father is known in the seas as the Wicked Ice Mer King, Cruelest of the Cruel. King Phelix is the most evil of the three DemiGods who reign in Aranthium. His other two brothers, Raphael Zeus and Aidoneus Hades, are rumored as no less powerful but significantly more... fair in their treatment of their subjects.
My mother? She lives up to every single aspect of a Winter Court Fae. She's ruthless and cunning, devious to a fault. Her shifter animal, a white snow leopard, is frighteningly large and can snap a person's neck in one crunch. I've seen it happen.
No, if this is my mother, I would already be locked in my icy tower, awaiting my long-dreaded coronation. I know she plans to compel me into a loveless marriage the moment I arrive as punishment for my misdeeds. I've already escaped one such marriage. There's no way I can do it twice.
My owl is screaming inside, trying to claw her way out. I’ve never gone so long without shifting, and it feels worse than the iron cuffs.
I can’t imagine living the way that Summer Fae male does. He hasn’t shifted in over two years.
His osprey must be in so much pain.
Shaking my head. I try to imagine what his shifter form looks like. What it would be to fly next to him, soaring over the ocean together. My owl hums at the idea of flying next to another Fae, sharing wind currents, and experiencing life together.
The Fae I claimed without his knowledge.
I keep replaying our limited conversations in my mind, dissecting every word, glance and note we shared. They’re the only thing keeping me sane. I picture him in my mind, tracing his features over and over again in my drug-induced haze.
By now, I know every inch of his face. I memorized how his eyes look as he gazes at me filling out paperwork, thinking I don’t see him.
I don’t even know his name.
But I feel like I know him.
Chapter13
Home, Sweet Home
NATHANIEL
The thick, rich fabric rustles around me as I wake up in my canopied bed. The smell of lemongrass assaults my senses, and I open my eyes. Bright colors fill my eyes, and when my vision darts back and forth, the wildflower wallpaper moves as if I were sitting in an actual field. This is what I think hallucinating would be like.
I mean, I could be. In the Summer Court, mushrooms will bloom anywhere. They like heat and magic. The bag of Iter Dust is still in my hand, just in case I change my mind about staying for the whole visit.
I sigh. The world around me is bathed in greens, reds, and yellows. Lucinda hasn’t changed a thing in my room since I left. Seeing the paintings from my ‘artistic phase’ hanging on the walls, alongside a chipped Faerie lute dangling from a hook on the wall, I wonder if my time in the Port City was but a pipe dream.
Acid pools in my stomach as I wonder if everything had just been a dream. An enchanted vervain trip gone wrong. What if I never left this place?
What if the Winter Fae was just a figment of my imagination?
