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I grin and stand up. “Good. I’ll buy some Iter Dust. Be there in a half hour.”
I’m already lowering the phone when I hear him yell,“Wait, what do you want?”
I quickly raise the device to my mouth. “I’ll tell you when I see you.”
“You f—”he starts, but I end the call.
My mind is clear enough for me to stand, and a laugh starts in my stomach and bubbles up in a riotous sound. As soon as I am back on my hooves, I start speed walking back to the eastern quarter of the forest.
Steering through the crowd, I spot Lucinda fawning over Cherie’s outfit. I march up to them, slightly breathless from the elation.
“Mom, Cherie.” I nod to my family before grinning. “I’m leaving.”
Mother’s pale amber eyes go as wide as saucers. “No, wait. You can’t go. You promised you would come.”
I smile. I am not a Fae fool. The promise I made was very clear and left no room for loopholes. “And I did, but that was your only condition. If you try to compel me, I will never speak to you again.” My mother’s mouth is still open, and I glance at my sister. “And Cherie will never speak to you again.”
Cherie starts, but she has always been a sweet sister. She bites her tongue and nods. We’ve always taken care of each other when it came to Lucinda.
Our mother’s mouth opens and closes, and a look of absolute shock is frozen upon her features. I grin back at her before turning on my heel and walking away.
“Send me my things! I’ll come to visit soon!” I call. Even I am surprised. I have no idea exactlywhenthat will be, but I do want to come back.
When I reach the parking lot, I find the strange Toad Usher.
“How much for some emergency Iter Dust?” I say.
“Where to?” the bulbous male croaks.
I stare at his skin, which is shiny from his mucous coat. I’ve heard of snail slime serum, and I wonder if it is as good for the skin as the commercials say. “Port City, near the Frozen Sea. I need to get to the shipping docks.”
“Three hundred gold pieces,” he says.
I am tense. It’s an outrageous cost for enough Iter Dust to travel that far, but I don’t have time to waste. I withdraw the electronic card from my waistband and wave it over his phone.
He checks his notification and nods. “It’s done.”
The toad hands me the pass, a small bottle filled with the overpriced powder. I unstop the cork and unceremoniously dump it over my head.
I’m smiling so broadly my mouth hurts. It doesn’t matter. In less than three hours, I will see the Winter Fae again.
Face to face.
And this time… I will learn her name.
Chapter16
A Dark Numbness
ELVA
My captors are growing tired of me. They whine and bitch about me when they think I am asleep. They whisper my fate between themselves into the frozen air.
As if the icy air can’t sense what I am. As if it won’t bring their words straight to my ears.
Though I can no longer use my magic, it still calls to me. It brushes across my skin, trying to find a way in.
What began as multiple meals a day are slowly becoming less frequent. Some days, they refuse to feed me altogether. The pangs of hunger in my stomach, which used to keep me up at night, have faded to familiar aches. My muscles have deteriorated. The skin beneath the iron cuffs is raw, crusted with days of blood, and sticks to my bones.
