Page 48 of The Forbidden Fae King

I am going to die.

Those Cú Sídhe will rip me apart the second they escape. But the attack doesn’t come.

A narrow stream of fireballs erupt above my head, right through where I had been standing. The high-pitched yelps of the Cú Sídhe pierce the night, so close and loud, I clamp my hands down over my ears. The ground vibrates with the galloping of their retreat.

The expected scent of burnt fur or foliage is absent. The beasts don’t wail in pain, so they aren’t injured. I have no idea what happened.

I roll over then freeze as Aldrin stands over me.

I collapse my head back onto the moss. The fight flees from my body as bitter disappointment floods me.

I am slowly lifted to my feet, not by his arms, but by the roots of the trees surrounding us.

A dozen tendrils of them smoothly wrap around my body, until I am completely bound by him again, arms pinned to my side. I try to pull free and fail. I could try destroying them, but I would probably pass out.

I glare at Aldrin. A distance behind him, a few other high fae wait in the shadows, but they are too far away for me to make out their faces.

“I had this!” I growl at him. “Don’t think you have come in as a big hero and saved me!”

I never wanted to see him again.

“Saved you?” Aldrin barks a harsh laugh. “Keira, I savedthem.” He points in the direction the Cú Sídhe fled in. “There was no need for you to kill such healthy creatures. Not when this world is dying because there aren’t enough fae in it. A simple fireball scares off Cú Sídhe. If you don’t know something as basic as that, you shouldn’t be running off into the night in these lands.”

I glare hatred at him. At the injustice of those words, when I was fighting for my life.

“This is typical of humans, to kill a fae needlessly.” He dares to throw at me.

“You are the one who has taken me as your slave. You have taken away my freedom, and you dare to chastise me for defending myself? Those Cú Sídhe tried to take me as a meal. I did not hunt them!” I spit venom at him, but I don’t show how close I am to breaking. My whole body trembles from absolute terror.

Aldrin’s entire face falls, and the roots of my bindings slacken around me. “You are not a slave. You never were.” His voice breaks.

“Your prisoner then. What is the difference?” I laugh bitterly.

“You are not my prisoner.” He takes a few steps to close the distance between us, then falters.

“What do you mean? You had me carried away from that battle against my will. You held me in your camp with the ward and kept me up in that tower so I couldn’t escape.”

“No,” Aldrin says, eyes wide. “We rescued you, healed your wounds, and gave you food and shelter. We allowed you to roam freely in our camp. Gods, the ward is an illusion spell to keep us hidden, not a barrier. I even offered to help rescue your sister.”

“You offered me a bargain!” I yell. “I know nothing about you, Aldrin, but you hold me against my will and expect me to feed you information about my realm. Why would I trust you? Betray my people to you? For all I know, you were one of the fae lords who lived in my realm and took our lands before the portals were closed.”

I am hyperventilating. My chest heaves against my loose bonds and it is all I can do to stop myself from shattering into a million pieces and crying in front of this cruel fae man.

“I wasn’t even alive back then,” he says slowly, deflated. “Few fae are left who lived in your lands during the Dividing War.”

I blink at him. “I thought high fae were immortal.”

Aldrin raises an eyebrow at me. “Do you really think it is possible for anyone to be immortal? Our time moves slower here. If a fae visited the human realm every twenty-five of our years, almost ahuman lifetime would have passed in your realm. That’s how your myth started. True we live a lot longer than humans, but no one is immortal. I think a lot of what youknowabout fae are myths, distortions, and pure fabrications created by the humans who closed the portals and needed to justify their actions in your histories.”

Confusion rolls through me, chased by bone-deep fatigue. I am so sick of his games. I can’t tell the lies from the truth anymore. Maybe my assumptions and prejudice created my own prison. Maybe not. The moment I escaped; he chased me down. A cage without bars is still a cage.

“I am not your prisoner?” I waver.

“No. You never were.” A deep sadness rolls over him as he looks at me.

I don’t believe him. The events of the last two days rearrange themselves within my head and I see it, exactly how this man can rationalize to himself that he hasn’t taken a human slave.

Maybe he believes he is better than other high fae, that he won’t force his will on a human girl, but he is holding what is not his to keep.

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