I lifted my chin. He wanted to call me out on tricking people? “I’d have thought you would have respected that. You fae love to trick humans, don’t you? Or is it not so much fun when the boot is on the other foot?” I hoped he’d see I was too lippy to be a princess and leave me behind.
His face hardened. Even through the mask, I could see it. “There’s trickery, and there’s outright lying.” He wrapped his hand around my arm again. “And no one respects a liar.”
I didn’t care what he thought of me. I was not going to Faery with him. And I certainly would not live the rest of my life there. I had to look after Mother in her last days. “Then you’d better leave me behind in case I upset the prince with my bad habits.”
“The prince has many of his own bad habits. Perhaps you two will find them a common talking point.” He pushed me out the front door where his horse waited, chewing on flowers from Mother’s garden.
I stood beside the massive black beast that Xion Starguard rode through the sky night after night. There was no way I was getting on that thing. I dropped onto my knees in the grass, my arm pulling in his grasp.
“Get up.” His gaze was on his beast and he made soft clicking noises with his tongue.
“No.”
He turned, blinking long and slow. This time when he spoke, his voice was measured, almost daring me to disagree. “Get. Up.”
I narrowed my eyes. Perhaps that made me a fool, but I didn’t care. “What do you want from me? If I’m not to be his bride, then leave me here, I’ll tell no one the shoe fit.” Who would I tell? Who would even believe me?
“You have just become a colossal pain in the prince’s ass and leaving you to live your life in ignorance is no longer an option. Now get up off the ground and get onto the horse.”
“No.” I shook my head. “You can’t make me.”
“Can’t I?” Anger flashed in his eyes. Wind whipped up and with a flick of his hand, Xion immobilized me.
Immobilized.
No longer in control of my body.
I could breathe. And blink. But no matter how hard I tried to move, my body wouldn’t obey.
Another flick of his hand and my dress disappeared, making way for a pair of charcoal riding pants tucked into knee-high boots, and a black long-sleeved shirt with a scooped neck, and I was suddenly on the back of his horse. I tried to throw myself off, but the only place that happened was in my imagination—my body didn’t move a fraction.
Xion seemed to know what I was trying to do—I had no idea how. “I wouldn’t bother,” he said as he climbed on behind me, one arm going around either side of my body as he took the reins.
“Please don’t do this,” I begged, grateful the magic holding my body hostage allowed me to speak. I needed to be with Mother. I didn’t want her to die alone. “I never even met the prince and I guarantee he won’t like me. He will be revolted by my ears. Please don’t make me marry him.” He’d said I wouldn’t have to, but my guess was that was a lie.
“Oh, I agree, he won’t like you.” His head moved and I could almost feel him looking down his nose. “You’re not exactly from the right stock for a royal bride.” Meaning I was too human. And probably that my body was too broken and ugly to be one of the royal family. He laced disdain through his words, but they lit a glimmer of hope inside me. Perhaps he hadn’t been lying when he said I wasn’t to marry the prince.
And if the prince didn’t want me as a bride, then surely I could stay home. “Leave me here. Pretend you never saw me.”
Xion clicked his tongue and shoved his heels into the horse’s sides until we started to move. “Believe me. If that were an option, I would gladly leave you behind.”
I pounced on that admission. “Do it. No one will know. I won’t tell. Leave me here.”
Another long silence followed as the horse ambled past our cottage and toward the woods, some strange magic making his feet silent on the ground. “It’s not that simple.”
“It is! You just have to make it—”
“Quiet!” The word burst out of him with a growl and I jumped. Or I would have, had I been able to move. His tone suggested anything other than complete silence would be unwise. So, I focused on the woods looming in front of me and switched to thinking how I might escape.
We rode to the little brook where I’d lined up to enter Faery a week earlier. With no one else around, I didn’t see the guard until we were almost past him, sitting on a stool, reading. He barely glanced at Xion, waving one hand to allow us through, and we trotted into Faery.
I braced, expecting the same tunnel I’d walked into before, the one that led directly to the king’s ballroom where, travelling on the back of this horse, my head would be very close to scraping the ceiling. There was no tunnel. Only more woods. Thicker than the human part we’d just left, tree trunks sparkled in the sunlight while the autumn leaves upon them were brighter than any in Iadrun—orange, burgundy, red and yellow. The birdsong was louder and coarser here, and the insects that buzzed past my face left behind trails of colored light. Between the trees, glowing butterflies floated out of reach. It was beautiful, but everything this side of the Crossing was a trap. According to Mother, things my imagination had never considered lurked in the woods of Faery. Things that would gulp me down for breakfast.
I tried not to think about what might be hiding nearby, because at some point I would have to run through these woods. I would escape from Xion and I would return to Mother.
Since I couldn’t move, my only weapon was my tongue. Which I used as often as I could, trying to wear Xion down. “Tell the prince you lost me. Tell him I told you I needed to use the bathroom and ran. Stars, tell him I didn’t attend the masquerade. Just let me go.” If he used his imagination, I was certain there were plenty of excuses the prince would believe when Xion didn’t bring me to him.
Apart from the soft shuffle of our bodies with every step the horse took, and the noises from the woods, there was silence. Xion might refuse to speak, but that didn’t mean I had to. “Why aren’t we flying? That’s usually how you get around, isn’t it?”
There was a long pause before he responded, his voice deep and low. “Because right now, I don’t want anyone to see us.”
“Don’t you have a spell for that?” I muttered, barely able to contain my sarcasm. My rear ached from sitting in one place so long and I couldn’t even scratch my nose. If he could do all that with magic, surely he could conceal us from whoever he was hiding from.
“Why didn’t I think of that?” His sarcasm wasn’t even remotely contained.
“It was just a suggestion.”
A deep sigh followed his silence. “I can only hide us while we’re on the ground.”
“You’re saying there’s a spell on us right now? No one can see me?” And no one could rescue me. Not that anyone would. Selina was the only likely option, and she’d have to find a way—and the will—to come into Faery first.
“Unfortunately, it’s not being seen that’s my main problem at the moment.” His legs moved as he guided the horse with his knees.
“It isn’t?” I didn’t think someone like Xion Starguard had problems. “What is your main problem, then?”
He sighed again, and I could almost see him lifting his eyes toward the sky. “The noise one of us is continually making.”
I tried to twist around to face him, just to see if he was kidding, but the magic still bound me. “You think I talk too much?”
“Got it in one.”
“Let me go. Then you won’t have to listen. Just imagine how angry the prince will become, listening to me day and night.” I wasn’t a talker, not really. But I could make it seem like I was if it helped me out of Faery.
A humorless laugh rumbled from his chest. “I’ll deal with the prince’s anger any day over the incessant squeaking of your voice.”
Squeaking? My voice didn’t squeak. “I’d have thought you had a spell for that, too.”
We rode in silence after that. The woods grew thicker with each passing minute. So thick, no sun penetrated, and a chill grew in the air. I tried to note the trails we travelled upon, in case there was ever a chance to escape.
I didn’t think of Mother, or Selina, because thinking of them reminded me that the only place I might ever see them again was in my memories. I also tried not to think of what may happen when we finally reached Prince Fergus. I wasn’t the woman he was expecting. Would that anger him? Whichever way I looked at it, there seemed a high possibility I’d end up his slave.
“Is this my punishment for singing?” The Wild Hunt only took Tobias that night, when they should have taken me, too. There had been plenty of opportunity for Xion to whisk me away while he was in our house, yet he hadn’t. Since I’d never met the prince, perhaps this kidnapping was really about my singing.
“For singing?” Xion didn’t seem to know what I meant.
“Yes. The day you took the baby, I forgot myself and was singing in the woods.”
There was silence behind me before he finally answered. “The Hunt came for the baby that day. No one else. I was unaware you’d broken that rule.”
I wasn’t sure if I should be relieved or not. I hadn’t brought the Hunt to Tobias. But now I’d admitted what I’d done to the leader of the Hunt. I pressed my lips together and vowed not to speak again.
We rode for what felt like hours without a stop. I needed to go to the bathroom but didn’t bother asking because I knew what his answer would be. I’d as good as told him a bathroom stop would be the perfect time to escape. There was no way he would allow me to relieve myself in the bushes.
“What’s wrong?” he growled. The spell keeping me still had loosened a little the farther we got from my home. I guess he’d noticed me wriggling.
“Apart from the fact that I’ve been kidnapped and am currently bound by magic against my will?”
A beat of silence. “Apart from that.”
It was my turn to hesitate, but the reality was, I couldn’t hold it much longer. “I need to use the bathroom,” I mumbled.
He shook his head. I felt the movement through the arms that he wound around me to grip the horse’s reins.
I was tired and scared, and that small movement brought my anger on. “Your nag won’t mind when I wet myself all over his back? You won’t mind sharing a saddle warmed with my—”
“Obsidian is a Huntiano.” I felt his stare on the back of my neck. It was as if he expected I would be impressed. “He is the finest horse in all of Faery.”
I wasn’t impressed. I knew nothing about human horse breeds and even less about fae horses. “Well, whatever he is, he’s about to be very wet if you don’t tell him to stop soon.”
A long silence followed. I made the small wriggling movement that the magic allowed and finally heard a long sigh. Xion clicked his tongue and pulled on the reins. The moment the horse stopped, he swung down to the ground and looked up at me, waiting for me to do the same.
I glared at him. “Magic, remember?” There was no shortage of bite in my voice.
He smirked as if he had been waiting for me to remind him, then flicked his fingers. Immediately, the resistance I’d felt when I tried to move disappeared. But I had no time to balance myself before I slid from Obsidian’s back to land in a heap on the ground, my pride hurting worse than my body. Xion snickered.
What an ass. I jumped to my feet and sprinted for the nearest tree. When I was done, I stood up, retied the strands of hair that were curling around my face into my hair clip, and looked around. The woods were so thick, I could only see Obsidian because of the movement he made as he bent his head to nibble on the grass at his feet. If I was going to escape, this was the time.
I took a step away, listening for Xion’s footsteps coming after me. Nothing. Another step, followed by another pause. No movement from Xion. In fact, I was fairly sure I could still see Obsidian, waiting where I’d left him. My pace increased. When, after twenty steps, Xion still hadn’t come after me, I jogged, then sprinted, my heart in my mouth.
I was doing this. He didn’t know I was gone.
I was free.
I’d hide in the woods until night fell. Then I’d make my way back to the Crossing and back to Mother. All I had to do was keep quiet. And keep running.
Suddenly, Xion appeared on the trail in front of me, hands on hips. One moment there was only woods, and then he was there, black cloak flaring out behind him.
I changed direction, swerving hard to my left before crashing between trees and bushes, crushing flowers beneath my boots.
I’d only taken two steps before he was standing in front of me there, too. He reached out and wrapped his hand around my arm.
“Let go of me!” I pulled away and ran three steps.
This time, when he caught hold of me, he wrapped both arms around my body, lifting my feet from the ground and squeezing tight enough to cut off the air to my lungs.
“Put me down,” I wheezed, wriggling in his grasp.
There was a sneer in his voice and he spoke in my ear. “Why would I do that? I enjoy the feel of your body pushed up against mine.”
Yuck. “Be grateful you’re holding my hands, or you’d be nursing a broken nose right now.” I sounded braver than I was, but I could look after myself in a fist fight. I’d had to learn to defend myself against bullies since the day I started school and I’d won my fair share of fights. Even so, I doubted my skills with my fists were a match for anything Xion Starguard and his magic could do.
A skeleton couldn’t have eyebrows, yet it looked very much like the mask over Xion’s face was lifting one eyebrow. “You’ve got a smart mouth, girl. I wonder if you’ve got the skills to back it up.”
Nope. I’d already decided I didn’t. But that wasn’t what my smart mouth said. “Put me down and see.” I narrowed my eyes, hating the way he looked down on me. “But if I were you, I’d take a few steps back to avoid a fist to your nose.”
His dark eyes ran over me, and I could almost see him calculating my next move. He knew I was hoping to give myself a few extra seconds so I could run if he released me. Which meant there was no possible way he was loosening his grip.
But to my surprise, he said, “Very well.” He bent his knees and dropped me back onto the ground.
If running was what he expected, I’d give him something else instead.
The moment he released his grip on my arms, I spun to face him, drew my hand back, bunched it into a fist, and aimed at the bridge of his nose. My hand skidded across his cheek before hitting where I’d aimed. There was a satisfying crunch as bone cracked beneath my blow.
Then, before he could cry out in pain, before I could turn tail and run, his mask slid from his face and fell with a thud onto the dirt path beneath our feet.
I was no longer staring at Xion Starguard.
I was looking up into the handsome and mask-free face of Prince Fergus Blackwood.
SEVEN
As the mask fell, Xion’s long black hair was replaced with a shorter shaggy mop that reached his shoulders. The eyes that had been nothing but black holes behind the mask, were now brown, flecked with gold. A sheen of sweat covered the prince’s handsome face and a steady flow of blood dripped from his nose. His lips rounded in surprise as he stared at the mask lying on the leafy forest floor between our feet.
I shook my head, trying to reconcile what I was seeing. Xion Starguard and the heir to the Unseelie throne were the same person? I searched my memory to see if I should have known this already, but I didn’t think it was public knowledge. I also wasn’t sure what the protocol was when suddenly faced with an Unseelie Prince. Or if protocol even mattered given he’d kidnapped me and I’d probably broken his nose.
He walked a few steps away before turning, waiting for me to speak.
“You’re the prince?”
“Sometimes.” His
voice was soft, unsure. The polar opposite of the icy monotone that had been in my ear these last few hours. He dabbed at his nose, the blood disappearing as he held his hand to it.
“And sometimes you’re the leader of the Wild Hunt.” It wasn’t a question. Didn’t need to be. The evidence was lying at my feet. Yet, I needed to hear him confirm it. Prince’s rarely ran around hiding their identity.
He nodded, his eyes going to the ground.
“Why?”
His head shot up. “Why not? Why shouldn’t I do what makes me happy, like everyone else in the world?”
A chill went down my spine. Do what makes me happy. The Wild Hunt’s sole purpose was to steal humans. Or kill them. “And the king is just as happy that his heir is running around with the most dangerous people in Faery?”
“Most dangerous?” His eyebrows rose, and he stalked back toward me.
“The rehabilitated criminals.”
A flash of amusement crossed his face. “That’s who you think makes up the Wild Hunt?” He shook his head, chuckling.
His laughter made my gut harden. None of this was funny. “Oh, you, who so bravely hides his face behind a mask—before dragging our loved ones from their homes—thinks it’s hilarious that we might consider the perpetrators of such crimes to be some of your worst criminals? Because that is not a huge leap.”
His laughter cut off. “You think that’s what we do?”
“I know it is,” I shot back. “I’ve seen you. Twice now.”
“You must spend your time with some truly despicable people then.” His voice was low, all traces of amusement gone.
Kingdom of Yesterday's Lies (Royals of Faery Book 1) Page 7
