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Anna looked about nervously. “Don’t say that.”
“I would! The newblood tried to kill me. He deserved it! He—”
“Was quite poorly watched,” a smooth, deep voice cut me off, and the hair on my arms stood on end. “Even my family will admit to that. My twin should have done better to keep his child on a leash.”
Judging by how all the blood had left Anna’s face, someone of importance stood behind me. How important, I couldn’t have fathomed until I turned.
My mouth dropped open. Of all the bad luck!
Prince Gervais, Prince Mylan’s twin, sat before me on horseback. I only knew it was Gervais and not Mylan himself because the latter had a penchant for absurdly flamboyant attire and this vampire was dressed rather plainly. Not that it made him any less terrifying. The wind tousled his dark curls and stained Prince Gervais’s pale cheeks pink, but there was a dangerous gleam in his eyes. One that promised pain. Behind him, four others rode, and to try and calm myself, I took them in.
Judging by their style of dress, they hailed not from Isila but from the human world. And as they weren’t chained, they clearly weren’t being taken as slaves. One, a woman about my age with one blue and one green eye, watched me with particular interest.
“Apologies, my prince.” I fell into a deep curtsey. “I allowed my anger to get the better of me.”
Gervais’s lips pulled up at the corners. “You were loud enough for everyone on this street to hear, which I cannot take lightly. It is treason to speak of any Laurent, newblood or not, in that manner. Considering that my brother turned the human, I might have you drained right here.”
The woman with the two-toned eyes let out a strangled sound. As if he’d anticipated her reaction, the male she rode next to, clearly a vampire by how he held himself, placed his hand on her arm. Perhaps he’d hoped to silence her.
It didn’t work.
“You wouldn’t!” the woman blurted out, and in her indignation, an odd sort of magic pulsed from her. She wasn’t human. Was I seeing a free witch? “She said she would have died! That sounds like self-defense.”
“Meredith.” The male let out a low growl. His shoulders tightened as Prince Gervais turned to take them in, his expression one of astonishment. The other male scowled at the prince, but added, “my mate, it is their way.”
“Well, it’s stupid!” The woman, Meredith, narrowed her eyes. Behind her, one male and one female, respectively, with black and white feathered wings that marked them as non-fae, nodded their agreement. They too wore human style clothing, so I assumed that their opinions meant little here. And, yet their combined opinions lent me strength.
“It is!” I spouted, and immediately, I wished I had not as Prince Gervais returned his piercing attention to me.
He studied me with amusement that I did not understand. “You believe that as property, you should be able to take justice into your own hands?”
“When my life is on the line, yes. Or that of any blood slave.”
Meredith gasped. “Blood slave. Tobias, I—!”
She said no more, however. Or if she did, I didn’t hear, for Prince Gervais urged his horse closer. Behind me, Anna shuffled to press herself into the building.
Shame crashed over me. I could not hold my tongue, and for that, I could be killed. But Anna was innocent. I should have considered her.
“My friend did nothing,” I added, hoping that when the prince ended me, he’d spare Anna.
“That mouse? No, I don’t expect that she did.” He leaned over the neck of his stallion. “But you, you’re a bit of a wildcat. I like that, and wouldn’t you know it? My two fae recently died.” He licked his lips. “I wonder if your master might be persuaded to part with you?”
If a more terrifying notion existed, I couldn’t think of it. I was under no illusion that this prince’s fae died from natural causes.
“Hey! Back off!” Meredith yelled, and nearly swung off her horse. Again, the vampire she rode next to, Tobias, stopped her from getting too close to the prince. “You’re terrifying her.”
“What of it?” Gervais asked, not taking his piercing eyes off me.
“Well, don’t you have a job to do?” Meredith’s chin jutted out. “Like taking us to the palace? Aren’t the king and queen just dying to meet me?”
This mystery woman was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid.
“Alas, you’re right, witch.” Gervais let out a frustrated huff and backed his horse up. Before the prince left, however, he met my eyes once more. “I’ll find you later, wildcat.”
Chapter 3
The rest of my working day was spent in bed, shaking and crying so hard that the day’s end bell didn’t even register. Nothing did. Not until Anna burst into our room.
