Page 39 of The Forbidden Fae King

“Why do I care?” He echoes. “These are my lands. If the humans plan to return to them, I want to know.”

“I can assure you; humans do not want to return to slavery at high fae hands.” I spit.

My entire body trembles, with fear for Caitlin, with terror for myself. I did not travel all this way, I did not fight Finan, to become another man’s plaything.

“And yet, you are here! Prejudice and all.” Frustration pitches his tone, as he spreads out an arm. “Did they force you through the portal? You look like a virgin sacrifice, with flowers in your hair.”

My hand trails up to my hair before I realize it, touching the bruised ruins of those flowers.

A man in the camp laughs, drawing my attention. He sits on a large stone a few paces away from us, leaning forward in his seat as though he is watching a show.

A woman with lilac hair cleans a bloody wound on his arm.

He is a peculiar-looking man, with skin so bronze it is almost red in tone and hair shaved almost to the scalp, but it is the tattoo of an immense tree across his face that captures the attention. The faint silvery lines start as roots reaching across his chin, the trunk a thin line up his lips and nose, and the branches of the canopy expanding over his forehead and under his eyes. It all accentuates the sharpness of his pointed fae ears.

I stare at him wide-eyed.

“Oh those were the days!” he says.

“Not helping, Drake.” My captor throws a glance over his shoulder.

“What? The virgins were willing. They chose to migrate to our realm,” the man called Drake retorts.

“I don’t think humans remember that part of their history,” the woman mutters at Drake’s side.

“I am NOT a virgin sacrifice!” I stand. Boiling rage simmers through me. I have endured too much over the last few hours.

“Did you hear that Aldrin? Not a virgin.” Drake raises an eyebrow, then laughs again.

“Will you shut up!” We both roar at Drake, at the same time. The man shrugs.

The warrior before me, the one called Aldrin, gives me an examining look. “I will make you a bargain human girl: I will free your sister from Cyprien and give her back to you. Both of you will answer all of my questions and then return home immediately through the portal.”

A cocky half-smile curls on his face and he holds out a hand to me, bridging the distance, as though he offers an olive branch and not a curse.

I will not fall for this trickery. A bargain is how they bind humans.

“You expect me to trust a high fae with secrets from my land? To be used against my people? I know better than to make a bargain with your kind.” I cannot help the venom that spews from me. This anger is the only thing keeping me together.

“Fine.” He drops his hand. “But Iwilltoss you and your sister back through that portal. Maybe I will send a message with you to your rulers. These are harsh, dangerous lands. I will not have naive girls wandering freely through the forest and getting themselves killed, then having the humans blame us high fae for it.”

Aldrin stomps away, but glances back. “And for the record, we do not take humans as slaves.”

I have no words.

Be wary of the high fae, they will out maneuver you at every turn, my grandmother’s voice rings through my head.

He might not call me a slave, but I am his prisoner, and there is an invisible line between the two.

“Klara, heal her wounds next. Humans bleed out stupidly quick.” Aldrin bites out before leaving.

As soon as he disappears, I become a shaking mess, all the fightdraining out of me. Bile rises in my throat, but I manage to keep it down. Bone-deep fatigue rushes through me and I sway on my feet.

I finally notice blood smeared across my skin, and the abundance of cuts crisscrossing my arms. Most are shallow, but some are deep gashes, still seeping blood. When I shattered those vines, the fragments cut me too. I had hardly felt the pain.

What if I hurt Caitlin? Injured her badly? A sickness rolls through my stomach at the thought. I didn’t know I had power like that.

I look at the fae woman. What was her name again? Klara. My vision doubles and her form becomes a lavender blur.

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