Page 98 of The Cursed Kingdom

We both know that.

“Zaha isn’t that bad,” Kie continues. “She’ll treat you fairly, and when you get old, there’s a good chance she’ll let you go home.”

I’ll return to dead parents and a dead best friend. How wonderful.

Aaron might still be alive, but I can’t count on that. He’s a ball of stress, and I’m pretty sure his heart will fail him before we’re old.

“You might even find you like it there,” Kie says. I wish he’d stop speaking. “The gods live quite a lavish lifestyle, and I’m sure you’ll reap some of the benefits.”

He’s only saying this to make himself feel better. He’s giving away my freedom, giving away something that never belonged to him, and nothing he says is going to change my outlook on that.

Mason speaks up. “Zaha won’t spoil her.”

I hate Mason, I really fucking do, but at least he’s willing to speak the truth. Kie’s too much of a politician, but Mason doesn’t care if what he says upsets people. I’ll give him kudos for that.

My hands are shaking, and I wipe my palms on my shirt as I try to think of a way out of this. I’m running out of opportunities to do so—I’m painfully aware of that fact. I don’t know what I can offer these men, though, that would tempt them into letting me go.

Chapter Forty-One

MASON

ABBY CLEARS HER throat. “Will you let me go if I have sex with you?”

It takes everything in me not to turn and knock her head against a tree. The level of anger that rushes through me is intense, and I clench my jaw so tightly, I’m surprised my teeth don’t crack.

Why the fuck would she ask that?

Kie lets out a quiet scoff but otherwise ignores her. I do the same, refusing to justify her question with a response.

She was fighting us with all her might when we washed her in the river just a few days ago. She kicked and screamed and made it very fucking clear where she stood on the matter. I could tell she was pissed when she realized she accidentally exposed herself in the spring, too.

Abby doesn’t ask again, a wise decision.

We’re nearing the portal. The once thick and dense forest is thinned, leaving behind small, sparse trees. Even the ground is harder, and the soil is dry.

This area used to be littered with faerie villages. Those who worshiped the gods wanted to be as close to the portal aspossible, but all that remains now of the villages are stone ruins and the occasional deconstructed well.

The shifters came through here, claiming the area after our homelands were destroyed. I’m not sure what happened to the faeries who lived the forest, but I fear the outcome wasn’t positive. Caspian wasn’t known to be a friendly alpha. He was power-hungry, so much so that he found it appropriate to kidnap and torture Zaha’s youngest sister. Lyra was rumored to have been one of the kindest gods, benevolent and trusting, and my great-grandfather took advantage of that.

He angered Zaha, caused her to destroy our kingdom, then led his people into Redstall Forest. He stole the faerie’s rightful lands, singlehandedly causing The Great War. Then the bastard went ahead and died, leaving his children to clean up his mess.

There are rumors that my grandfather Atticus went to Zaha begging for forgiveness, but it’s unclear what that conversation resulted in. He never spoke about it, and he died only weeks after my father was born.

All we know is that delysum began appearing shortly after Atticus’s visit to Zaha.

Kie refuses to look at me as we walk through the ruins. I don’t blame him.

We reach the portal just before the sun goes down, and it’s precisely how I imagined it would be. To somebody who doesn’t know what they’re looking for, this would look like nothing more than a charred spot on the ground—possibly where a great fire was left burning for too long.

It’s slightly larger than I anticipated, wide enough that Kie and I could lie side by side inside it and not touch the edges.

Creating a portal can be exhausting, or so I’ve heard, and activating this one is nearly impossible without the magic that flows freely outside the forest. This will drain Kie, and it’s the sole reason we decided to travel here by foot rather than througha portal. He needs all the strength he can get, and opening a portal into the forest will drain him more than this journey.

Abby lingers behind. Her heart is pounding, fluttering inside her chest at an alarming rate. It makes me uncomfortable, and I swallow past the lump in my throat before looking at her over my shoulder.

She meets my gaze, but her eyes don’t hold their usual malice. She’s scared, and she’s not able to hide it. She’s practically begging me for help, begging for me to do something other than what I’ve promised to do.

I hate to admit it makes me waver.

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