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“And I am regretting not simply making my escape while all your backs were turned,” I grunted through gritted teeth.
Despite my protest, Bael reached out one gloved hand and grabbed my reins.
The horse calmed immediately, and I rolled my eyes, even as I struggled to catch my breath. It seemed as if nothing was ever easy in Elsewhere, especially for humans, and I was loath to admit it, but I was grateful for the momentary reprieve.
“If you must know, I rode in a carriage on the way,” I sniffed. “Also a mistake, apparently. I thought you were all in the other carriages. If I’d known I was alone with only the servants, I would have taken the opportunity to run.”
Bael smirked at me. “Haven’t I warned you enough never to run, little monster? One might start to think you like being chased.”
* * *
Inbetwixt wasthe closest neighbor to the capital, so even accounting for my difficulty with the horse, the trip back from the hunting grounds only took half a day’s ride. Of course, Bael could have carried us much faster through the shadows, but I didn’t like traveling that way on the few occasions I’d done so, and he’d made no objections to my refusal.
“Taking you with me at that distance would use far more energy than I feel like wasting,” he’d said. “It would be more efficient to teach you to shadow walk on your own.”
I recoiled, almost laughing at the thought. “I could never!”
He’d merely pressed his lips together as if withholding comment. Rather than replying verbally, he held out a hand, wiggling his fingers at me.
“Put that out!”
Just as they had before, dancing blue and white flames appeared in his palm. He was holding it there as we rode, like balancing an egg on the end of a spoon in some sort of children’s game. “Why?” he asked, grinning over at me. “Scared?”
“No,” I lied, glancing around as if the enormous serpent with the ominous warning, or perhaps something worse, might spring from the bushes. “I’m…I can’t think when you might set us ablaze at any moment.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Nowthat”—he put too much emphasis on the word, as if it were supposed to mean something to me— “would be impossible. I couldn’t hurt you even if I wanted to. Mates can’t use magic against each other.”
I ignored that. No matter how many times he said the word “mate,” it was not going to sound any less foreign to me. Every time he said it, my stomach did an odd lurch—not unpleasant, exactly, but certainly uncomfortable. Like I was falling down stairs.
“Prince Scion’s magic doesn’t affect me either,” I pointed out. “And he’d love nothing more than to see me dead, so that’s hardly evidence of anything.”
Bael seemed to consider that for a moment before brushing it off as if the words had never been said. “Hmmm. Well, if you’re not going to practice using your abilities, someone should.”
“I don’t care to practice.”
“You might be able to shadow walk. It’s not overly difficult, you know.”
“I don’t care,” I practically yelled. “Just put it out!”
I didn’t want to shadow walk any more than I wanted to discuss the fire or what might or might not happen if he continued to play with it. Anyway, shadow walking would only bring us back to the capital faster, and I was in no great hurry to see the obsidian palace again.
Returning to the palace would also mean returning to my daily torment of politics, taunts, and threats. I didn’t for one moment believe that it was by chance I’d avoided Prince Scion two hunts in a row and could only assume he was planning some new torture to spring on me at an unsuspecting moment. Bael might act as a shield, but he couldn’t be with me every waking hour, especially as I knew he disappeared for at least several days every month.
“You will have to give up on this denial eventually, little monster.”
I did not reply as I glanced at the golden-haired prince, taking in his sharp profile as he rode beside me, guiding my reins. He leaned forward in his saddle, and his muscles made the fine silk of his jacket pull slightly, reminding me that while he may dress like a court-fly, that was far from the reality. What secret would he like in exchange for the answer to the riddle of his monthly disappearance?
I chewed on that question as we continued to ride in the direction of the village on the edge of the city of Everlast. The capital was, of course, named for the royal family and was broken up into two distinct districts: the free human village, often called Cheapside, and the upper city, which was home to High Fae of non-noble descent who did not live at the court itself.
“As soon as we return, I need to find Scion,” Bael told me.
I opened my mouth, then closed it again, biting my tongue. I wasn’t precisely sure if he was asking for my input or my company or simply stating a fact. “Why?”
“He was near certain before I left that something would occur during the hunt. It’s nothing you need to worry about, little monster.”
Nothing I need to worry about.Of course not, because I didn’t actuallydoanything. I sighed, my smile fading. “I suppose I will return to my room, then…”
I trailed off, leaving the question open-ended, my stomach sinking further. This was only serving to remind me of all the problems that had not seemed so apparent in the tent last night but in the light of day felt glaringly obvious, and it took every bit of my energy to hold his gaze.
