Page 14 of Deliverance

My mind is still spinning with everything I have learned, attempting to catch up and remember the significance of the doe. If Prince Alaric has found that woman, then they can stop the Unseelie from taking her. Hope comes to life inside me like a seed sprouting and reaching for the promise of the sun. We might be safe from the tyranny of the fae once and for all.

The room has fallen quiet, the weight of the silence pulling me from my musings, and I am shocked to see that everyone is looking at me. With slow, soft footsteps, the prince moves towards me then kneels. My breath catches in my throat, my mouth as dry as a desert.

Why is he looking at me like that, and why is everyone watching so intently? Did I miss something important?

The smallest smile pulls at his lips as though he can read my thoughts.

“Iris, you are the key to protecting us all.”

Chapter Seven

Nyx

As I look up from my grizzly task, a tremor seems to go through the land. It is one only I can feel, and it fills me with dread. Blood drips from my knife and onto my cloak, but I do not care, the corpse cooling at my feet.

Standing, I turn to stare up at where the sun is still high in the sky, so tense that I feel nauseous. I have never prayed, there is no point because no deity would ever deign to listen to my prayers, but I want to fall to my knees and call out to anyone who can hear me, wishing there was a way to change fate.

Something is shifting in the forest around me, and while it is nothing I can see, I canfeelit. The feeling of excitement and murderous joy, glee, and… change.

There is no denying it no matter how much I wish otherwise.

They have found her, and I will never see her again.

Chapter Eight

Iris

Pandemonium ensues after the prince’s declaration, yet all of the noise in the room seems to fade away as I stare at the male in front of me. I am vaguely aware of people moving about the room, throwing their arms up in the air and arguing about the bombshell the prince just dropped on them. None of that seems to matter in this moment, not when I have a fae male looking up at me as though I am the answer he has been looking for his entire life. Up close, he is even more radiant than I thought possible, and I realise too late that this is a weapon in its own right. The fae use their beauty to lure us close, exactly how the two males in the forest tried with me on my way here.

A prince kneels before me, a human who lives on the edges of society. It makes no sense. He is treating me as an equal, and I do not understand why.

I have found the doe… You are the key to protecting us all.

Those words are about to change my whole life. In fact, just thinking about it makes me feel sick. I am a simple girl who keeps to herself, not some saviour. The prince is wrong. He hasto be wrong. I know nothing of the fae and spend most of my time talking to flowers. How am I supposed to save us all? I cannot fight, and I like to think I am smart, but I have little education, and the only thing I really have going for me is my intuition. Having good instincts is not going to save us.

However, Alaric and Blaise clearly think I am this doe from their stories, the human woman the Unseelie need to break their curse. Alaric is a prince, he would not be kneeling for a human woman unless he thought he was right, and his companion has been giving me strange looks. Mostly, he observes the humans with devilish amusement, like a child watching ants scurrying on the ground, and at any moment, he could choose to crush them. He doesn’t look at me that way. In fact, every time he looks at me, he just seems puzzled. These two fae have been travelling the realm to create an alliance, yet it seems like they were really searching for this female all along.

It could be a coincidence that they found me, I think to myself, but I’m sceptical. The prince took one look at me and declared I was the one they need. Am I to be written into this alliance? This is beginning to feel completely overwhelming.

That cannot possibly be true, could it?

You shall make a stunning queen…You are definitely the one.

My interaction with the fae in the woods on my way here rings in my mind like an alarm bell. At the time, I assumed they were trying to charm me, but now I am not so sure. They said I called them and they answered, which is how they found me. Nonsense. There is no way I could have called them to me without my knowing. There is nothing special about me that would attract these fae, but then how do I explain everything that has happened?

Staring at the kneeling prince, I shake my head as I attempt to clear the fog from my mind. A part of me feels drawn to him,and a deep sense of longing settles itself into my heart. I am sure it is just his fae allure that makes me feel like this, but in the moment, it is hard to see past that. I open my mouth to speak, only instead of words, all I can manage is a croak, my throat dry and constricted.

“May the lady and I have a moment alone?”

The prince’s voice cuts through the din like a sharp blade, silence falling in its wake. Alaric keeps his gaze on me the entire time, yet the others in the room instinctively know he is addressing them. His gaze is hypnotic, and I feel as though I could stare into his green eyes all day.

Unfortunately, the quiet does not last long, and I am abruptly ripped from my gawking as Robert steps forward and knocks into the chair I sit on, jostling me.

“Absolutely not!” Robert hollers, seeming to miss the fact that he almost just bumped me from my chair. The prince does not, though, as he seems to notice every single move I make.

The mayor walks towards us, and the prince finally stands to face him.

“You are going to have to explain things more than that, Your Highness,” Mayor Marshal orders, quickly tacking on the honorific at the end. “You were welcomed into my home, informed me of a great threat, and then gave me next to no information, and now you want to be left alone with my son’s betrothed.” Huffing, he crosses his arms over his chest. His advisors mimic the action behind him, pleased that their boss is standing up to the prince.

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