Curse of the Cruel and Lovely : Allied Kingdoms Academy 3

by J. M. Kearl

  I pulled it free and meant to open the cover when a clattering noise sent me flying into a nearby alcove.

  Gideon was right behind me. “Someone is in here. I can hear their thoughts.”

  “If you can hear their thoughts then how did you not know they were here before?”

  Looking up at me with a scowl, Gideon said, “They just entered hence the clattering of the door.”

  I slowly poked my head around the corner. “Do you know who it is?”

  “He is Fae, well at least partially. Though I am not quite sure I know who it is. It is not Prince Helios or the King.” He paused. “Although the inner monologue is familiar somehow.”

  “Well what is he thinking about?”

  “Many things I will not say but mostly he is wondering why you were out of your room.”

  Panic seized me. “Is it a guard? Have they been checking on me? Maybe I should just get back.”

  “No, I do not suppose it is a guard,” he mused.

  “What do you suppose?” I snapped. Holy phoenix he was frustrating sometimes.

  “He does not know we are in here. If we stay quiet we will get a chance to go through the books and find an answer.”

  Quieting my breathing, I peeked out again. The man in question was Firo Hazelvale. I felt like going over and punching him in the face. He was the reason I was in this mess in the first place. Not entirely but he played a part in it all.

  “I know you’re in here,” he called.

  I glared at Gideon. “I thought he didn’t know where we were.”

  “He does not. He is trying to draw you out if you are in here.”

  I squeezed the book in my hand. What if the answer wasn’t in here? I knew who had the answer. And he was in this room. “I’m going to ask him.”

  “Visteal, that is reckless. Do you think he is on your side? Because he is not.”

  Firo would never be on my side but, “I’ll ask him and if he doesn’t tell me then I’ll find the answer.”

  I stepped out just as he was about to leave. “You again.”

  He turned around with a smile. “Dear princess, how lovely it is to see you. What are you doing here?”

  I held the book behind me. “Just doing a little research. This contest, is there anything you recommend I do to prepare?” Maybe I could trick him into telling me without asking straight out.

  “How do you know about the contest?”

  “Your half brother told me.”

  He smirked. “I have a lot of half brothers, be more specific.”

  “Helios. Who else?”

  “Let that bit of information slip, did he?” His eyes briefly fell to Gideon. “But I assume if you’re asking me about it you didn’t hear any details. And they don’t want to tell you just yet. They’re concerned about your reaction.”

  Alright now I was getting worried. If they were hiding it, it couldn’t be good. “I just don’t understand, why I would be a part of a contest? If they don’t want me to know it must be dangerous.”

  He licked his lips. “Very dangerous.”

  “Please just tell me.”

  “I don’t think I will.” He stepped behind me and tapped the cover of the book. “But you’re a clever girl. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” He started for the doors then. “You should get back to your room before Gwindola sees you. She’s a wretched wench.”

  Don’t I know it. Gideon and I appeared back in our room and I pulled the book open. I sat down and read for a while but found nothing about contests. It would take me all night to get through this book too. The entire beginning was on what brides should expect and how wives should behave. It was so chauvinistic I couldn’t even stomach reading further so I started flipping through, hoping something would jump out at me. When it didn’t, I slammed the book closed and threw it across the room.

  Maybe I needed to go back. But it was late and more than anything I wanted to know if Zyacus and the boys were alright. I wrote another note and sent it. Please answer me.

  7

  Zyacus

  I pushed the door open to the tavern. A puff of smoke wafted out, the smell nearly strong enough to knock me backward. Almost every table was occupied but no one turned to look at us. No one even seemed to notice we’d walked in. I’d expected mostly women but it was about half and half. Some of the people here appeared to be half Fae with the pointed ears but not quite the face of a full Fae. The tavern was dingy, dirt floored, and ill lit with only a single window leaving candles to provide the light. Round tables took up the center and the edges were lined with booths and squared tables. And one in a darkened corner near the bar top was empty. It would be a good place to hopefully go unnoticed. I led us through the room and we slid into the booth seats. Before I even fully settled in, the candle in the center burned brighter and a note floated out, moving toward me.

  Visteal. I snatched it and quickly unfolded the paper. After reading it I glanced around the room, wondering if there were anyone I could ask for ink. “Visteal is fine. The deal is on,” I announced to the boys. “I’ll be right back.”

  Taz grabbed Visteal’s note I left on the table, and I made my way to the bar top. “Evening,” I said to the barkeep. “Is there a way I can get a quill and ink?”

  The young woman with golden hair to her waist looked me up and down. “Well, hello handsome. Where did you come from? I thought I knew every man in Summer.”

  I had no idea how to keep my recent arrival here under wraps so I didn’t bother to try. “I’m from Norcandlia.”

  “Mmhmm,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “We all are, honey. When did you get here? Who brought you?”

  Since I couldn’t be an ass and also get what I wanted, I had to answer. “Not long ago. I came with… Firo Hazelvale.” He sounded less conspicuous than saying I came with the Summer Prince. Although wasn’t Firo a Summer prince too, well at least half. I was sure that would bring a myriad of questions I didn’t want to answer.

  She groaned. “Ugh, Firo. He got me too some years ago. Sneaky bastard, that one, always looking for more workers for the family farm. I’m lucky I get to work here so I don’t fry in the sun... You don’t look poor though. Your clothes are fine. How did he con you into coming here?” She reached below the bar and pulled up a bottle of ink and quill but didn’t let it go. As if she was holding it hostage until I answered.

  “People make deals for more than money,” I said and reached for the ink.

  “Oh, he wants to remain mysterious,” she purred. “I get it.” She passed the bottle to me. “Bring it back when you’re done.”

  I hurried to the table and snatched the paper from Taz.

  “Hey, let me write something,” Taz complained. “Tell her—”

  “No,” I said, pulling the quill from the ink. “What are you going to say? You’re worried about her?”

  Aric chuckled.

  Taz glowered at him. “I want her to know she can count on me. I’m one of her best friends.”

  “She knows that.” I quickly wrote. I’m glad you’re safe. When can we meet? And where? We found a small village with humans.

  I was about to set the paper on fire and the barkeep approached. “You didn’t tell me you had friends…”

  She eyed Aric with more lust than she had me. He smiled at her. Taz appeared a little disappointed. He wasn’t a bad-looking boy but he also looked like a kid. Aric didn’t.

  “Can I get you three anything to eat? You’re allotted two meals a day as long as you are registered to your Fae family. I can check the scroll.”

  Well we wouldn’t be eating by the sounds of things. I did bring some coin but I wasn’t sure if she’d accept it. We three exchanged glances.

  “We won’t be registered yet,” Aric said. “We just got here.”

  Her brows furrowed. “And Firo let you wander free? Have you been assigned jobs?”

  I pulled a gold coin out of my pocket. “How about we don’t discuss our business? You take this and bring us some
thing to eat.”

  Her eyes widened. “Hesstian gold? Boy, now I’m intrigued but I’ll take it and keep my mouth shut.”

  Aric leaned closer to her. “We need somewhere to stay for the night. Any ideas where we can go?”

  Her eyes darted around the room and she slid into the chair next to Aric. “There’s a room upstairs. It’s for whoever works. Tonight is my shift. You’re welcome to go up there.”

  “Thank you,” Aric said, giving her a wink.

  She stood, beaming. “I’ll be back shortly with those meals.”

  I whispered the spell and sent the note off to Visteal.

  Taz leaned back in his chair. “How the hell am I supposed to get any girls to look at me with you two around. It’s like I don’t even exist.”

  I laughed and roughly patted his back. “The last thing we need to be worrying about is you getting girls.”

  Taz snorted. “Easy for you to say. You have Visteal.” He pointed a finger at Aric. “And you had Legacy. I’ve wanted her to like me for years and she never even gave me a chance. And you had the gall to throw that relationship away like she was nothing.”

  Aric’s eyes darkened significantly. “I didn’t throw her away. You don’t know anything so stay out of it.”

  “Settle down, Tazy.” I tried to sound light but I was worried about what Aric might do. “Aric had his reasons. She also had hers. No one was treated wrongly.”

  But Aric had to keep it going. “And last I checked she had a new boyfriend so she didn’t seem too broken up about me. We’re friends, end of story.”

  I hadn’t realized he was so hurt by what happened with Legacy. He hadn’t talked about it much. He only repeated, she was better without him. I cleared my throat. “Let’s focus on the task at hand. We need to help Visteal, and find out as much as we can about this place.”

  Both settled into a brooding silence. Thankfully, the girl brought our food, a hunk of some sort of brown meat, chunks of white potato-looking pieces. We wouldn’t be getting anything different so I ate up. We were about halfway through our silent meal when the entrance door swung open and in walked the group of women we’d left tied up in the desert.

  I quietly groaned. “What are the chances they don’t see us?” Not that we couldn’t beat them, but we didn’t want a fight with every person in this place.

  Taz lowered his head and put his mug in front of his face. “Slim to none.”

  A quick peek over his shoulder and Aric shoved in a couple more mouthfuls. According to him, he still liked the taste of food although he didn’t need it to survive.

  “We’re looking for a group of Night Court spies.” The leader announced to the room. “Anyone seen three outsider human boys?”

  The barkeep’s eyes drifted our way. She nodded toward a doorway and hurried out from behind the bar top. “Ladies, we don’t have any spies in here. I know you’re doing your jobs but let’s not cause unnecessary panic. We’ve all had a long day. Let the folks eat, huh?”

  “Behind that door,” I murmured and disappeared.

  Taz and Aric showed up a moment after me. To the left a set of stairs led up. Straight ahead led to the kitchen. But I waited, listening for any trouble.

  “We know they came this way,” a woman snapped. “At least one of them is a blood drinker. You know how dangerous they are.”

  Both Taz and I gave Aric a quick. “What?” he whispered. “I was hungry.”

  “Now we have targets on our backs,” Taz hissed.

  “We would have anyway,” Aric shot back.

  I opened the door to peer through the crack. A man stood up and pointed toward our empty table. “There were three boys that came in not long ago,” a male voice said. “They were there.”

  Two of the women marched for the table. After giving it a quick glance they looked to the barkeep. “You served them. When did they leave?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m busy.”

  That gold coin did wonders for loyalty.

  The leader pointed toward where I now stood and the front entrance. “Tear this place apart. We need to find them and bring them in.”

  I darted for the kitchen. “If we hurry out the back we can find somewhere to hide.” Taz knocked over a bowl and the cooks started cussing. I spotted the exit and shoved through the door. Everything else looked like homes and were no doubt occupied. We had nowhere to go. “We need to go back to the Fae city. It’s bigger and there are bound to be more places to hide.”

  We started jogging the outskirts of the village, staying out of view but going behind the huts. I knew I had the magic to make the jump but I didn’t know if Taz and Aric could. It was far enough that it could drain their energy too much to do a second time. “Can you two make it to the city?”

  “Maybe halfway,” Taz answered. “But I don’t know the exact point and we could all end up in different areas.”

  “We run then,” Aric said. “It’s what we train for.” He tapped Taz’s chest with the back of his hand and grew a smirk. “You can keep up, can’t you?”

  Lowering his brows, Taz picked up his pace. “Let’s see who keeps up with who.”

  We made it out of the village without a hitch and jogged for the city. I thought it would be a breeze until I heard a low rumbling growl.

  8

  Visteal

  I changed into a silky pair of black pants and a white long-sleeve top, and waited by the candle for Zyacus to send me another message. It had been at least twenty minutes since I sent my own back. Why was it taking so long? I assumed he was still in the human village. I told him I wanted to meet by the pond outside my window but now that I thought about it if he’d never seen it, it would be difficult for him to use magic to get there. The appearus spell always required the place to be pictured in the mind.

  Sir Gideon sat on the end of the bed tail whipping back and forth. “Perhaps I should try to find them.” Cats had the ability to teleport. If he knew where they were he could get to them no matter the distance. “I would rather not leave you but I know you are safe for now.”

  “Can you get into Zyacus’s head? Or one of the others?” All I wanted to do was leave this place to be with them. If I had to sneak away every night I would.

  “I will give it a try.” Gideon closed his big green eyes.

  I watched him with trepidation. After about thirty agonizing seconds, his eyes popped open. “I cannot get through to him but I sense he is in danger.”

  My gut twisted. “That’s what you’re going to leave me with! He’s in danger.”

  “As I said, I cannot get through to his mind. It is possibly the distance.”

  I grabbed my weapons and my old clothes. If I were going to fight I needed something more than this light silk. I changed in record time and pulled my boots up.

  Gideon watched me with a lazy, judgy gaze. “Where do you plan to find them?”

  “I don’t know. But I will.” I strapped my sword on and a knock at the door sounded. Shit. Why right now? “Who is it?”

  “I am Freeda, your maid.”

  “Come back later,” I hollered.

  “Gwindola insisted I check on you.”

  That wench. I groaned and pulled the door open a crack. “I’m fine, thank you.”

  The human girl with thick black curls stood in the low-lit hallway. She held a handful of beautiful blue fabric. “May I come in. This is your dress for tomorrow.”

  If I let her in it might be obvious I planned to sneak out but if I didn’t she might report back to Gwindola and I couldn’t risk her doing anything to my brothers or parents out of spite. I opened the door wider and she stepped inside. Her eyes gave me a quick once over and she moved to the closet. “I’ll just hang this in here.”

  “Thanks.”

  When she came back out I stood in the center of my room with a hand resting on my sword’s hilt. “Have a good night.” Get out of my room.

  She fidgeted with her hands for a moment. “Um, are you going somewher
e or do you normally wear a sword to bed?”

  “Maybe I’m worried someone will try to kill me in my sleep.”

  “If you were going somewhere,” she glanced back at the door, “know that guards plan to check on you every hour.”

  I tapped my foot. Trying to think of a plan. I grabbed her arm and led her toward my bed. “You lay in my bed, pull the blankets up, pretend you’re me. I’ll be back. I have to check on my friends.”

  Her worried eyes searched the room like she looked for a way to escape. “No, I can’t. If I get caught they’ll kill me but they won’t kill you. For some reason you’re important to them.”

  If only I had a transfiguration potion. Although that didn’t work out so well for me last time. “Look, I have to get out of here. My friends are in danger.”

  “They will likely be fine without you, Visteal,” Gideon said in my head.

  I didn’t want to hear that. I wanted to go. I had to see for myself. “Why are you here?”

  She lowered her head slightly. “I’m a servant.”

  “No, I mean in Faerie.”

  “I was born here.”

  “But you’re human.” From everything I’d heard humans didn’t belong here.

  “The Fae lords go to the human realm sometimes and make deals to bring humans to be servants and workers. My parents are from there.”

  “They take men too?”

  “Not as often but they do. The men are less likely to make deals. Women seem to be more desperate to escape.”

  “If you help me, I’ll bring you back to the human realm. Soon, I will go back. That was a part of my deal. I just have to help them first.”

  “Help them with what?”

  I shook my head. “I can’t say.” I had to sweeten the deal. Make it more enticing. “In our world you won’t be treated like scum. We have no Fae lords.”

  She turned away and hurried for the exit. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”

  I waved my hand and slammed the door shut with my magic. “Wait, where is the human village? What direction?”