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“Right behind you,” the taller Fae growled. “Let’s just get her safely to the Palace and we can worry about everything else later.”
“Agreed.” Krynn nodded. Then he looked down at me again. “Come, Princess—your Palace awaits.”
I still thought this whole thing was crazy but I didn’t seem to have any say in the matter. I was being swept along in a tide of events that was bigger than I was.
I went with them—what else could I do?
3
Seldarin
The little female stumbling through the forest on Krynn’s arm looked about as Mortal as any human I had ever seen. I watched her with narrowed eyes, wondering if I could be wrong.
But no—she had The Mark of Lolth the Spider Queen—she who had given birth to the Dark Fae. Only one who bore her Mark and had her eyes could rule The Midnight Court.
And if I needed further proof, the Markings of Lolth, which I had taken so many years ago when the Princess first went missing, were glowing and tingling like fucking crazy. They were spelled to alert me and all who wore them when the true Princess was near and the reaction couldn’t be faked. I’d had them tattooed on either side of my neck as a sign of devotion to the true bloodline of Lolth—the only Royals fit to rule my people. Krynn and a handful of others in the Court had done the same.
The little female’s eyes didn’t glow—they looked human. Almost all of her seemed to be human, in fact. But that was merely a consequence of living in the Mortal Realm for so long. Hopefully a meal of Fae food and a night spent in the Palace, where the power of Lolth still lingered, would bring back some semblance of her true heritage and identity.
She stumbled, her feet tripping on a hidden root under the dried leaves and Krynn reached down to save her. I couldn’t watch her halting progress anymore and besides, the longer we stayed out in the open, the more time Mordren had to organize an “accident.”
“Here,” I said and reached down to swing her up into my arms.
“Oh!” Her frail body stiffened against mine as I held her and her eyes—a very human shade of brown—stared up at me in panic.
“Don’t fear, my Lady,” Krynn told her, reaching out to stroke her short brown hair soothingly. “Sel just wants to keep you from tripping again—and to keep you safe.”
“Safe from what?” she whispered, her eyes going even wider.
“You don’t want to know,” I said shortly. “It’s best we get you to the Palace quickly. Before that fucker, Mordren, can make trouble.”
“Sel! You shouldn’t swear around the Princess—it’s disrespectful,” Krynn chided me gently.
“Fuck that,” I muttered, but then added, “Sorry, Princess.”
“I’m not a Princess,” she protested. “I’m a middle-aged mom whose kids are all grown and whose husband left me for another woman and took everything in the process. That’s why I look like this—I’ve been living in my minivan since the divorce.”
“No, you look like you do from years of eating human food,” Krynn corrected her. “But we’re going to fix that—at least, we’ll try,” he added.
“Did your Chosen Mate really leave you?” I asked, surprised at her admission. Who would dare to leave the scion of Lolth? The rightful Queen of the Midnight Court?
She might not look like much now, but I could feel the power inside her, trembling to break free. Any male would be a fool to leave her—and a greater fool to disrespect her by cheating on her with another.
But the little female was nodding.
“Yes, I’m afraid so. He…he didn’t want anything to do with me once the kids were raised.”
“Did you really have children with a Mortal?” Krynn asked, looking worried. I knew what he was thinking—if she’d become human enough to bear a child to a human man, there might be no bringing her back to her true Fae self.
But she shook her head.
“No—we tried for years, but I could never get pregnant. The kids were from Christopher’s first marriage.”
She made a face as she spoke her ex-mate’s name and I could see that he had hurt her deeply.
A fist of anger clenched in my midsection as the Markings of Lolth I had on the sides of my neck burned in sympathy with her distress. I had only just met her but already she was affecting me as no other female ever had.
I glanced at Krynn and saw that he was stroking his own Markings with his fingertips, a thoughtful look on his face. He hadn’t been as sure as I was of the little female at first, but I thought he was beginning to feel the way I did—the way I had from the first moment I saw The Mark of Lolth on her forehead.
