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In the bushes to my left, a few stray Underfae tittered an incomprehensible response, as I’d been speaking for their unseen ears alone. Ignoring them, I squinted out across the dark quarry to the shadows on the opposite side.
There were two ways to win the Wilde Hunts: First, you could cross the boundary established at the beginning of the trial. Second, you could still be alive in the morning. Since I was human and most hunters were immortal, it made the most sense for me to win by crossing the boundary before I died of injury or exhaustion. I could only assume that the boundary was on the other side of the water, otherwise, the quarry would be an odd choice for a hunt.
I peered over the ledge, frowning. Would I survive a fall into the water below? Would it be safer to walk around?
Off in the distance, a sharp laugh cut through the night, and I froze, every thought fleeing from my mind.Fuck.
Turning slowly on the spot, I scanned the darkness behind me. My skin prickled with fear, and my breath caught in my throat as three dark figures melted out of the trees, moving toward me far too fast to be human.Hello, again.
“Hello, Slúagh,” the nearest male said in a gravelly voice.
Relief and fear hit me in equal measure. I didn’t recognize the voice, and now that I looked closer, these males weren’t quite as tall nor as muscular as the ones I’d initially expected. Still, encountering anyone on the hunting grounds was bad for your health.
My grip tightened around my knife. “Don’t even think about coming any closer.”
The three Fae males laughed, high and cold, the sound seeming to echo off the trees and fill the entire clearing.
The male to the left, who was slightly shorter than the first, stepped forward into the light and leered at me. “Oh, she’s a pretty one. Do you think she’ll cry before she dies?”
The first male—the leader, I guessed—looked sharply at his companion. “Eyes off the Slúagh, Thelonious. We’re not here for her, just the crown.”
I swallowed thickly. Normally, I might be offended by their use of the word “Slúagh,” a rude name for humans, but not now. Not when I was solely focused on surviving the next ten minutes. It was almost impossible for a human to defeat a fairy in any type of combat, and I’d never been all that good at fighting, anyway, but I wasn’t about to simply lie down and let them kill me; I’d come here to win.
“You want to be king?” I asked, trying to instill a note of derision into my voice. It came out sounding a bit like Lady Aine, one of the Everlast princesses. I supposed there were worse comparisons. “Let me advise you against it. The Everlasts don’t appreciate losing their crown. You’ll only end up in the dungeon until your own hunting season, and if you somehow survive that, they’ll either kill you or attempt to use you as a chess piece in their games. It’s hardly a fate I would endorse.”
“You look alive enough to me, Slúagh,” the third male jeered at me. “Like a well-kept pet.”
“Something like that,” I muttered.
“Where are the Everlasts now if they care so much?” the leader called. “Shouldn’t they have finished you off by now?”
I paused, pondering that. Undoubtedly, the male had meant to taunt me, but in truth, it was a fair question.
The house of Everlast had held the throne of Elsewhere for the last seven thousand years. That was, until a year ago, when a band of rebels attacked the kingdom, and my twin sister tried to murder King Penvalle and was instead cut down right in front of me. I hadn’t even known she was working with the rebels, and in the chaos, I lost all sense and murdered the king while covered in Rosey’s blood. According to the laws of Elsewhere, that made me the queen—assuming I could defend the crown in the Wilde Hunts.
Over the last year, the Everlast family had been obsessed with taking back their throne—some more than others.
Prince Scion, the heir apparent to the obsidian throne before my unexpected takeover, was particularly intent on taking back his power by any means necessary. He wasn’t allowed to kill me outside the hunts, but that hadn’t stopped him from making threats or imprisoning me beneath the castle. I’d entered this arena tonight, fully expecting Scion to attack me and wondering—though I was loathe to admit it—if my bargain with Prince Bael to protect me would still stand.
The last I’d seen of the youngest prince had been this morning in his bedchamber. Flames had danced in the prince’s hand, mocking me. The proof of my lies lay bare between us.
I gazed into their flickering, blue-white depths, and for the briefest moment, I could swear I beheld my own reflection projected back at me. Wide-eyed and caught, at last, in a lie I couldn’t wriggle my way out of. Snared in a fairy-trap of roundabout words and slow, methodical trickery. I’d always heeded my mother’s warnings and never intentionally given in to the simmering heat that seemed to lay beneath my skin, ready to erupt at any moment. Never spoken my secrets out loud. Never given in to temptation, and yet, none of that mattered now.
“Why don’t you tell me, mate,”he’d said.“What are you lying about?”
It wasn’t the question that stunned me so much as the wording.Mate. He’d called me “mate,” mere moments after proclaiming that I was not, could not be, human. Seconds after announcing that he’d been using his blood to bind me to him.
My heart pounded too hard against my chest, and my breath rattled—uneven and conspicuous as a wave of fear swept through me. “Put that out,” I’d hissed, eyes darting to the flames. “Now.”
The prince’s saffron eyes locked onto me as I edged away from him, backing toward the door. “Why? What are you afraid of, little monster?”
That was the question, wasn’t it.
I should’ve been afraid of him, standing before me holding fire in his palm, the shadow of a cage looming behind him, his too-sharp teeth giving his inhumanly beautiful face a predatory edge.
But no, the terror was for me.
Of me.
