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I shook my head, realizing I must be speaking gibberish to him. “Right, um…” I paused, attempting to think of a way to explain things for him. “When a kid’s parents aren’t around or are incapable of caring for them, the government where I’m from steps in. They remove you from your home and try to place you with families that are supposed to care for you.”
Noah nodded, and watched me, his eyes intently waiting for whatever I said next.
“I was almost old enough to be out of foster care, which would mean I could live on my own. I wasn’t in a good situation at my foster home. I didn’t want to go home, so I took a longer route through a park near my house. I fell into a pond and hit my head hard. When I came up for air, I wasn’t in my city anymore. I was in a huge lake.”
Noah’s eyes narrowed, not maliciously, but it was clear he was trying to track what I was saying. I knew I sounded crazy. I rose from the bed and ran my hand over my forehead.
“A man decked out in chain mail found me and took me to some building that was like a courtroom or a makeshift prison. I was taken before a judge who decided to place me in the palace. I fought, I didn’t want to go. I just wanted to go home, but I was brought here. Captain Coltrain met the men who were delivering me at the gates and then I was assigned to you. That’s it.”
Noah shook his head. He had stood when I had and kept moving so that he was closer to me. I wasn’t sure if it was so that he wasn’t overheard or so that I could see him, but either way I was grateful for his closeness.
He tapped his finger to his lips and kept sighing. “I don’t understand,” he whispered. “There’s no circumstance that a human brand new to our realm would be assigned to the palace. It doesn’t work that way. Are you sure they knew you had just arrived?”
“I looked like a crazy person, Noah, asking where we were and what was going on. No one would talk to me.”
“Every servant here has had to prove their worth before coming to the palace. As you can imagine, working closely with the royal family is a bit better than some people would get.”
I shuddered to think of what could have happened to me. Not that being beaten and trapped in a filthy cell was much better at the moment. “Nicole’s here though. She’s my age and she’s from my world. She couldn’t have had long to prove herself, right?”
Noah looked down before meeting my gaze. “Nicole has been a feeder since she was a child. She came to the palace once she was a teenager.”
I stumbled back, clutching my chest and struggling to understand what Noah had just said. “They take kids? They take kids from the human world and…and feed on them?”
Not they. Noah. Noah was a part of this world. This fae realm where children were being kidnapped and fed on.
I moved another step away from Noah, and the look on his face couldn't hide the sadness he held. “Yes, to feed the children of the Unseelie.”
My hand came to my mouth and I tried to maintain my composure, but the information made me sick to my stomach. But then, realization came close behind. “You don’t like the feeding. You never fed on me. You—”
“I despise the practice, yes.” His answer was curt, but he closed the gap between us once more. “There’s too much there to get into, but I don’t let others know because it shows weakness. The prince cannot be weak. Especially not now.”
I didn’t back away this time.
“Feeding on humans isn't our natural fae order. A thousand years ago, Faerie was a land of magic. Everybody was powerful in their own right and nobody needed to do anything to recoup the energy spent on magic other than exist with the elements that provide us our magic. Perhaps relax after a bout of using it too much, but still.”
Noah smiled as he spoke, and I found myself relaxing even though the horror of what this place was truly like was starting to sink in. Spies, children, feeding, all of it was enough to lose hope in the fantasy world I’d been building up in my mind.
Noah continued. “But then the hunger for power and territory began amping up between Seelie and Unseelie and within a few dozen years, we had gone to war. Our two races fought bloody battle after bloody battle until our magic had diminished. Not even a lull in the fighting brought it back. Save for a few parlor tricks like healing and the occasional glamour, it has never returned.” He rubbed his hands together like he was thinking over everything as he spoke. “During the time when magic was needed for war, the royal advisors worked alongside vampires and found we could feed on humans to fuel ourselves enough for the healing to manifest briefly. The surge of power is short but more of a high of magic than we were getting.
“I’d rather refuel on the inherent energy of nature than take from someone else. As a kid, I watched my friends feed and I swore never to feed from a human. Seeing them weakened, especially when they’re already weaker than our kind, seemed wrong. Cruel, even, in some ways.”
Noah reached out and touched my shoulder gently. “I’ve kept that promise. Though…” He took another step closer. His voice dropped and his gaze darked before he leaned his lips toward my ear. “You've tested my resolve recently.”
I swayed on my feet and brought my hand to Noah’s as it rested on my shoulder. He pulled his head away from my ear and his lips hovered so close to mine I could feel his breath on my skin.
We leaned forward and I let go of the fear of being here, the fear of what was going to happen to me. I wanted this, and I’d wanted it since I laid eyes on Noah.
He brought a hand to my waist and I winced, falling forward so far my head hit his chest.
“Cora,” he said, sounding concerned, but before he could say anything else, he was cut off.
“Time’s up!” a brash, husky voice shouted, breaking us apart.
Noah pulled me into the shadows and held his hand to my side where I’d winced. Warmth spread through my body and I trembled as the heat flared and then died down.
It took seconds, and then Noah took a huge step away from me.
The guard’s barreled into the cell like I was some criminal who would harm the prince.
“Your Majesty,” I said but stopped immediately as I caught the look on Noah’s face. He’d healed the worst of my injuries, and I felt better than I had in a long time.
But it was clear that was our secret. So I silenced myself.
“I will get you out of here Cora, I swear it,” Noah said. He took my hand as he brushed past me, squeezing it once and letting go without the guards seeing a thing.
And then I was left in the darkness, the cold, the hell of a prison. Once more alone.
