Page 19 of Taken By the Shadow Prince

Will witches be welcome in the country? Will they be accepted, respected? Will the dark spot that is Aligris finally be bright again?

And what of me? What will change in who I am? I don’t think spending half a decade in the demon realm—Atheya, Armin calls it—will leave me an unchanged person. What if I’m too afraid to go back, when those five years are up? What if they and no longer think of me. While that might be hard for Ellis to do... I’m not so sure that everyone else might still think to wonder about me after so many years. I couldn’t blame them, either. Not even if I wanted to.

Five years is a long time to wait for anyone, especially someone who holds so little value in the palace. It wouldn’t be overly difficult to find another alchemist, someone to replace me.

People learn to grieve and move forward without those they’ve lost in less than five years. That’s what it would be like, right? I doubt Armin would let me visit, since doing so would defeat the consequences of the bargain. And I don’t know if sending letters from one realm to another is even possible.

Armin clears his throat and touches my shoulder gently. “You’ll have to be nicer to the rabbit, if you plan to eat it.”

I look down.

I’ve gone and mangled the thing’s back leg. I’ve been too distracted to pay attention. I scowl and stand. “You skin them. I’ll go find some water.”

“Will you thank me forthis, at least?” Armin calls out after me.

I don’t answer as I stop by my tent and pick up the canteens I brought with me. They’re mostly empty, but there’s a fresh spring not too far into the woods.

No, I should tell him.I owe you nothing.

But perhaps I do. Perhaps he’s been more generous than I might even know in this bargain. These demon witches might be the only thing that saves Aligris from the onslaught of what will be thousands upon thousands of angry fae. And while we will have our own numbers of soldiers and witches that Kal and Kelsa are rallying as of this moment, who is to say that these sixty demon witches, who hold more power than anyone else in this country, might not be what tips the scales.

Perhaps I owe him more than what I am already giving him.

Perhaps I owe him everything I have, everything I am. I would give it all to him if he asked for it. If I knew without a doubt that trading my fuckinglifewould be what saved the country, I would do it. I would give my mind, body, and soul over for that certainty.

But nothing is certain.

And so maybe giving him those five years will be worth it, and maybe they won’t be. Maybe I’ve done enough, and maybe I’m a fool for thinking I’ve done right by Mair in this bargain.

Either way, it doesn’t matter.

It’s already done.

Chapter 12

Mavey

the first one

We travel for two days, talking only when it’s necessary.

I can’t tell if I dislike him more than he dislikes me, or if it’s the other way around. He certainly seems put out by my presence, from the way he watches me with burning eyes when he thinks I can’t see him. Or, if I truly can’t, then I can certainlyfeelthose eyes on me, burning into my back, my soul.

Do I still have one? Or was that forfeit in the bargain? I’m not entirely sure what the fine print is on deals with demons. I don’t know much about them, in fact. I only knew how to summon them because I once read a book about magical properties that had explained how to summon demons. Although it hadn’t said that I’d be summoning aprince. To be fair, the book had been old enough that the pages were so brittle they nearly fell apart in my hands if I merely turned it too harshly.

I hadmeantto catalog the information in my notebook, but, well...

I can’t say it hadn’t come in handy.

Armin rode on the back of a black horse that he’d summoned from who-the-fuck knows where when he realized we’d not be walking.

I think we’re almost there, too, but he still hasn’t saidwherewe’re going. He looks around more closely now, though, as if waiting for the next turn to take.

I finally break down and ask twenty minutes later, “How much further?”

He says, “I don’t know how to convert my people’s measurements of distance into your people’s.” Armin pauses, flicking his eyes about the surrounding wilderness. “But not far, if that’s any help.”

I bite down on my tongue to keep the snide remark inside. It’ll do me no good at all to say anything—though it might release a little of the tension in my shoulders. Armin is just as unbearable as Kal was, if not more so—simply because that cockiness of his isn’t unfounded like Kal was. No, he has every right to be arrogant, to have an obnoxiously large ego, and it only makes him that much more annoying.

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