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I try to retreat—only I’m stuck. Too late, I feel his magic glide around my thighs, my stomach, invisible vines imprisoning me in place. The scent of tulips and lilies fill the air, their cloying sweetness causing me to choke.
“Let me go,” I snarl, but it’s hard to feel intimidating when you can’t move. I try another tactic. “They’ll notice I’m missing.”
“No, they won’t. These statues were a gift from Queen Titania herself. They have the marvelous ability to slow down time. I could hold you here for days and on the other side, an hour will have passed.”
I swallow. He takes yet another step. And another. His head cocked sideways as he examines me. I’m reminded of the animalistic way the griffin did the same, only I can’t control Prince Hellebore.
“Why did it not hurt you?” he asks again, this time softer, his voice almost melodic.
My pendant heats between my breasts; he’s trying to use compulsion to make me answer.
Frick. Gritting my teeth, I struggle against his voice, against the seductive power trying to invade my mind and override my will. The invisible vines keep wrapping tighter around me, growing thicker by the second.
“The water protected me,” I grind out, glaring murder at him.
“Someone found a way to protect you from compulsion.” He shakes his head in disappointment.
“Sorry to ruin your fun, psycho.”
Yes, keep taunting him, Summer. See how that works out for you.
The air wheezes from my throat as he cords his magic so tightly over my chest that my ribs crack. “Clever, guessing it hated water. And yet, when that selkie snuck up behind you, the beast braved its aversion and protected you. Why?”
My eyes widen with rage. “You saw the selkie about to eat me and you didn’t tell me?”
“I’m an Evermore. Did you expect me to care one way or the other if you die?”
Fury sends searing heat bubbling over my chest. “If that’s true then why did you save me this morning?”
“Save you? Is that what you think I did?”
Oh, God. When did he take another step closer? I strain harder as a sense of doom starts to set in. The magic feels just like real binds, and my body is starting to freak out.
“Do you know what we do at Whitehall to mortal shadows who break our rules?”
“Drag them to creepy time-warped gardens and bore them with questions?”
“We drop them in the middle of Ranth Forest and then watch as the predators hunt them down.”
“Stop. Please. I don’t want to hear this.”
“When the predators draw close, they have to fight for the right to claim their prize.”
I shudder as his meaning becomes apparent. “I’m that prize?”
“Prize isn’t quite the right word, but yes. No one plays with my toys until I’m done with them.”
For frick’s sake, somebody needs to punch this guy in the pretty mouth. Take him down a peg or ten. “Why me?”
He shrugs, as if my selection was completely arbitrary. But the burning hatred in his eyes says otherwise. “Because you represent everything I despise about mortals. You’re soft. Weak. You don’t belong here.”
“Unbind me and I’ll show you weak,” I growl.
He tsks. “Now. I’m only going to ask you this one more time, and then you won’t like what happens next. Why did that creature protect you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t protecting me. Maybe it thought I looked too stringy and the selkie would taste better.”
His heavy-lidded eyes make a point of looking me up and down, and then his turquoise blue irises go scary-dark, the ominous shade of raging storm clouds.
