AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I called on my magic, but nothing happened—I’d sent all my available strength into Talia. She rolled to her knees, then stood and faced the harpy and the pack of circling hags. In her hand was the jeweled dagger. Good girl.
“I will go willingly. Do not hurt him,” she said, holding on to her dress.
“Talia, no.”
She cut sharp eyes at me—how could I argue with the woman who said she was glad she’d set me free? She slipped the sleeves of her dress back up and stomped toward me. “At least let him secure my dress.”
The harpy let out a shriek that was likely a laugh, and her magic released me. I landed on my feet and touched Talia’s shoulders, my nose bumping against her sweet-smelling hair. My fingers fumbled as I secured the buttons and loops at the back of her dress. Her skin was warm against my icy cold fingers.
“Don’t look too long at that woman’s eyes. And don’t listen to the music. Don’t eat anything. Especially the fruit.” My fingers finished, and I grasped her shoulders. “I love you.”
The hags closed in, their wings folded and dragging along the ground and their eyes hungry. The one with white irises reached for Talia, but I knocked her hand away. One of the middle-aged creatures grabbed my wrist and dragged me out from behind Talia.
My wrist seared at her touch, and I groaned, backhanding her. She barely flinched. Another reached out for my legs, wrapping her arms around them.
Talia swung the blade, but the winged creatures evaded her. The youngest of the crows darted forward and jammed a raspberry in Talia’s mouth, clamping her jaw shut. As Talia’s eyes locked with mine, a black bag dropped over my head.
39
Talia
The first thing I wanted to do was to laugh, but I choked on the sound. I stared blankly as the strange bird-like woman dragged Rafael’s body away. I was supposed to be doing something. What was it? My hands hurt.
“Come with me,” said the lovely dark-haired fae. She beckoned me, and I followed. “Our king is most excited to meet you.”
I was going to meet the king!
The winged women, who weren’t nearly as lovely as my guide, scurried down the hall and out of sight. Rafael’s feet slipped around the corner. I hoped he was going to get to meet the king, too, though it was odd that he was going the other way. And being dragged.
“May I see your blade? You won’t be needing that.”
I handed it to the woman, admiring the way the light caught the emeralds in the hilt.
She accepted it with a smile, though for some reason, her smile made me uneasy. The dagger disappeared into the folds of her flowing dress. “You should wear this in your hair,” she said, smiling, as she reached up to stick an orange blossom over my ear.
I touched it with gentle fingers. “Thank you.” My smile faded, and I glanced back over my shoulder in the direction Rafael had just disappeared. “He wanted me dead,” I said. There was something off about the statement, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was. It felt true.
The woman nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, he did. But he will not harm you now. Come, the king waits.”
She hurried me down a flight of stairs, out onto an enormous terrace that looked vaguely familiar. The tiles were so perfectly polished that I could see the stars reflected in the floor as I walked. A bell chimed nine times, and at the final chime, every visible door on the palace walls opened. Courtiers streamed out, dressed in their finest. My jaw dropped as I watched them come.
A man in a golden suit with a pair of tiger tails in place of regular tails marched out twirling a cane. His face was oddly contorted to look like a tiger’s as well. I shivered. That was no mask. His skin crinkled as he flashed us a grin, the fur and stripes at odds with his human bone structure. One woman’s dress was so wide she blasted part of the wall away to pass through the door, only to flick her wrist and reconstruct the wall once she’d cleared the doorframe.
Cheeks glowed, hair sparkled, and every brow and ear and wrist dripped with jewels. These fae looked like circus performers, but the disguises were part of them, not easily taken off like a mask or a costume.
One woman looked me up and down, offered me a strange smile, then waltzed past toward the open space before the musicians, who sawed frantically on their stringed instruments. My heart rate increased with their tempo.
“She approves of your costume,” said the woman beside me.
I glanced at my hands. They’d stretched and widened, and my fingers had five awful claws hanging at the ends. I almost laughed, but for the grinding sensations in my joints. A wave of pain shot through me and, with the pain, a burst of clarity.
The fae streaming all around me were not friendly. Their eyes leered at me. Their noses turned up. The woman beside me was no friend either. But even as I began to step away from her, I couldn’t recall why I wanted to. She was so lovely. And everyone here seemed to be having such a grand time.
“Why is no one saying anything?” I whispered.
“Because it offends our king for anyone to speak before blood is spilled. It isn’t a party until there’s blood.”
I nodded, though I couldn’t say why I agreed with her. It just sounded right…although the idea of bloodshed turned my stomach. The woman nearest me, an aloja, I guessed, had a dress made of an actual waterfall.
