AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Scoffing, I turned away. “And I’m to trust your word now? You aren’t a gentleman. You’re a fae. A deceitful, lying scoundrel—”
“I cannot lie, Ren.” It was jolting to hear him call me Ren and not by his nickname for me.
I scowled. “You lied by withholding the truth.” Daring to meet his eyes, I sought any sign of remorse, any hint of feeling at all behind that cold mask he wore. Nothing. “What is the purpose of tending to my injuries? I’ve been told they torment and wound humans for sport. Or am I being trussed up before I’m executed?”
Garrick looked away, and I wondered at his unwillingness to look into my face. He couldn’t lie, but he could omit things. What did he have to hide this time? “As far as I know, the king and queen have no wish to kill you currently. They ordered meto tend to you, to ensure you’re cleaned up for a feast. They will present you to their court.”
I threaded my fingers together in my lap, trying to still their trembling. “As their new plaything?”
“I don’t know their plans, as I am not in their confidence.”
Inhaling deeply, I forced myself to ask the question that haunted me, the one I feared would only have painful answers. “Why did you do it?” Tears swam in my eyes, blurring my vision. “You told me you don’t agree with how the king and queen treat humans. Why did you betray me?”
Garrick remained stoic, not reacting when a tear slipped freely down my cheek. Like he’d never cared. “I am their obedient hunter and servant.” It sounded rehearsed, as if he’d told countless others he’d tracked down for the royals this very same thing.
“You serve a woman who murdered her subject and cut his finger off like it was a trophy,” I whispered, my voice shaking with disgust. I studied him again, taking in his broad, muscled frame, the stubble on his square jaw, the absence of emotion in his gold eyes. “Or is that what you are too? A careless murderer of your own kind?” I swallowed back my rising bile. “Did she have you kill him for her?”
His expression was stony. “The Silverfrosts aren’t like the rest of us. They are powerful. Our rulers. The highest of fae-kind. It’s our responsibility as their citizens to obey them, and it’s their right as our king and queen to punish us if we do not.”
“They’remonsters.”
Darkness seeped into Garrick’s gaze, the first hint of emotion. His tone pitched low. “And have you forgotten whatIam?”
I swallowed thickly, remembering how at first, the idea of him shifting into a wolf had terrified me. How quickly—and foolishly—I’d grown comfortable with him, trusting him.Thinking he would only protect me and never hurt me. But he’d only ever defended me from the other fae so he could have the honor of taking me to his king and queen himself. All along, he’d been hunting me. Fooling me. Using me.
“Why did you come to the ball in Altidvale?” I asked hoarsely. Garrick couldn’t lie, but had he twisted the truth in some way when he’d spoken of coming for entertainment? Hadn’t he first told me he’d been in the area on business? Had the Silverfrosts somehow known I had magic and wanted me even before Charles had offered me to them?
But Garrick shook his head, as if reading my thoughts. “If you think King Preston and Queen Nerissa sent me to find you that night, you’re wrong. They didn’t know you existed until Charles offered you to them. It wasn’t until then...when you told me what he’d done...that I knew they’d send fae to find you. That’s when I knew they’d expect me to bring you to them.”
Pain pierced my chest to hear him speak of the transaction so plainly.
Before I could collect my thoughts, Garrick stood abruptly, turning so his back was to me. “I’ll prepare your bath. It’s nearly noon, and we don’t have long. Their feasts begin early and continue long into the night. It wouldn’t do for you to be late and...upset them. Don’t try to run again. There are guards in the hall who will stop you nearly as easily as I did.”
He strode into the washroom without another word, leaving me to seethe on the bed. When I heard water running, somehow trickling from some faucet in the washroom that made me wonder if the fae had wells inside their castle, I stood cautiously and tested my balance. The world swayed, my head pounded, and nausea swept over me in waves, but it was manageable. True to Garrick’s word, the pain in my neck had already dulled too, leaving only my headache and strained muscles to plague me. Icrept toward the window, peering out onto a frosty, unforgiving world.
Beyond the foreboding stone wall encircling the castle, the mountainside descended in a pure white sheet toward clusters of pines and mist. More mountains rose on the horizon, breathtakingly beautiful and gilded by the sunlight. Far below, tucked between the mountain I was on and the next, there was a city, idyllic and peaceful where it settled beside a glistening lake. From this height, I could just make out puffs of chimney smoke rising from the buildings, all painted in cheerful shades of pale yellow and blue and green, as if the city’s inhabitants were determined to bring color in their world of white.
It was startling how peaceful it appeared, a city of fae I’d been taught were vicious. A city in the shadow of a fortress-like castle belonging to terrible fae. Ones who were worse even than the stories portrayed them.
And I was trapped, their newest plaything with an unknown destiny. Cursed to a life of torment.
I couldn’t climb out of the window, even if I thought Garrick wouldn’t stop me before I made my way over the sill. The sheer drop from my room to the courtyard below told me I was several stories up.
Doomed. Tears pricked my eyes, but I swallowed back the urge to cry once more. I didn’t want Garrick to see me break again, not when he’d only watch me coldly.
My mind ran through my options. If I had fae blood that granted me magic, I wondered if it meant I also possessed glamour. If I could command Garrick, I’d have the might of a wolf on my side. Maybe I could order him to tear out my attackers’ throats and lead me to safety.
I both hated and loved the thought.
“Your bath is ready,” came Garrick’s voice, pulling me from my thoughts.
I whirled, finding him leaning against the washroom entryway. His face remained chiseled from stone, though there was a more casual air about him that reminded me of the more carefree man I’d met. Now I realized it had all been an act. He’d made himself charming, made himself into the type of man I’d begin to fall for. He’d seen my loneliness and preyed upon it. Preston’s words again echoed in my head.He does so love to hunt.
“I don’t see why they won’t lock me in their dungeons and be done with it.” I lifted my bare wrists. “Why remove my shackles? Why give me a room and send you to help me heal? Why invite me to a feast?”
Garrick’s eyes were hard. “I already told you, I don’t know their plans.”
“Why did they sendyou?”
