Page 8 of The Shadow Heir

“The problem is, if you don’t come with us on the twentieth anniversary of your birth, your father will have failed to uphold his end of the bargain. You know what happens to people who do that?” He leaned forward so his eyes were nearly level with mine. “They die.”

A shudder rocked my entire body. Rage and fear and hate, like too much chili pepper poured into a dish, mixed and turned my blood to fire.

The man in the white shirt started walking again, as if he’d solved my dilemma and there would be no more arguing. When I didn’t follow, he turned around with a huff of anger and stormed back to me.

“Do you want your father to die?”

After a moment of stunned silence, I fumbled out, “I was—I was born one hour before midnight. That’s…it’s…technically, as of this hour, twenty years ago, I wasn’t born yet.”

The prince—for that’s what I assumed he was—frowned. “But itisthe day of your birth.” He almost sounded pleased I was arguing with them.

Felipe cleared his throat. “It’ll be dawn in a few hours, sweetheart, and we are to have you and the others back at court before the night is done.”

“You can’t take me until my twenty years are complete. I have until one hour before midnight,” I nearly shouted. My voice came out sturdier than I felt, but I lifted my chin and inhaled loudly to drive home the point.

The two men exchanged a glance. Then, the prince whose father was apparently the ruler of the Shadow Court, pinched his lower lip between his perfectly white teeth, deliberating.

Desperation churned inside me. “If I don’t show up to my birthday celebration tonight, people will ask questions.”

“People will ask questions, eh?” The prince’s smirk fanned the flames in my blood. “I’m ever so worried about mortals’questions.” He sighed and ran a hand through his floppy hair. “But she’s right,” he said, startling the sneer off my face.

The suited man snorted and turned aside.

“At one hour to midnight, your time here will end,” the prince continued. He winked at me, sending a shiver of disgust over every bit of my exposed skin. “You have your request, but when the time is up, youwillcome with us. You can’t run from the shadows, señorita Valencia. So don’t even try.”

As I stumbled into my bedroom not five minutes later, I was out of breath. My hands shook so violently, I couldn’t light the candle by my bedside. I pulled away the mosquito netting that surrounded my bed, shoved aside the pile of cushions meant to mimic my body under the covers, and crawled onto my tall bed. My mind rang with the words of the shadow fae.At one hour to midnight, your time here will end.

I punched one of the pillows lined up under the covers then flopped on top of them, crying silently.

“Spare me, please,” came a deep voice from the corner of my room.

I screamed like a little girl running from a spider.

Without thinking, I hurled a pillow at the voice, but it only knocked into the netting and bounced back onto the bed. Through the faint silvery sheen of the net, I couldn’t see anyone in the dark.

One of my daggers was outside the net, resting on my bedside table. The gossamer fabric felt like a cage around me, keeping me from my weapon. My eyes darted to the blade, but before I lunged for it, I sensed movement in the shadows.

Swatting away the curtain, I growled low through my teeth as a hand, dark as the inky night sky, slipped over the hilt of the blade.

“You won’t be stabbing me again, I’m afraid.”

The voice of the prince sounded from the darkness, but no one was there. My room was painted in shades of gray and black, lit only by the moonlight falling in from the tall windows on two sides.

I saw no one.

“Where are you?” I couldn’t keep the tremor of fear from my voice as I slid my hand onto my bedside table. My fingers closed over the cool handle of my brush. In a pinch, it could serve as a weapon.

“Everywhere.”

“That’s poetic.”

A satisfiedhmmemerged from the darkness. He was moving, but I still couldn’t see him.

“Let go of my knife.”

“I don’t like getting stabbed by iron.”

My pulse raged in my ears like the jangling belts of the belly dancers in the market square. “You didn’t seem too bothered by it earlier.” If this fae wasn’t affected by iron, then I’d wasted my money having an iron dagger forged.

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