Page 40 of The Cursed Kingdom

He tightens his grip, continuing until I flinch and rip my arm from his. Queen Gitta’s come to my defense dozens of times over the years, but her pardons aren’t endless. I may be tied to her son, but she has a duty to protect her people. Objectively, I know the backlash murdering this faerie will cause.

“I’ll see to it,” Kie repeats.

He heads toward the dawdler, and I listen to his footfalls as I collect our items. Kie dropped his bag onto a small patch of delysum, the fucking idiot. It’ll only harm him if ingested, but I still don’t want him coming in contact with it.

I hate the faeries, but Kie has grown on me over the years. I consider him to be the brother I lost when our forked mate bond snapped into place. My family’s visit to the faerie capital was meant to be quick, a day or two at most. I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would’ve been left there, traded away to the faeries in the name of peace.

I haven’t laid eyes on my parents or brother since. Kalix was only seven, one year older than Kie. It’s hard to imagine him as a grown man, and I can’t help but secretly hope we cross paths during this trip.

My parents can get fucked. The great Alpha Theon abandoned me, and my mother stood by and let it happen.

Kie’s footfalls vanish, but I’m unconcerned. He’s capable of protecting himself, and he knows to call for me if he runs into trouble.

I bet he’s trying to catch the woman off guard. We’re far from the wall, but a loud enough scream might still draw attention. Attention we don’t need.

I swipe my hand over his bag, brushing off the remnants of delysum. It grows wild out here, but the particular patch he disrupted is in its second bloom. The vibrant-purple leaves have already dried and shed, and the fluffy, lighter purple seeds have emerged. The wisps float up into the air before vanishing, off to kill any magic they come across.

I toss Kie’s and my bags over my shoulder, impatient to continue moving. The shifters are most active in the evening, and I faintly remember learning about several small factions of shifters who live near the wall. We’re still in their territory, and I’d like to be out of it by nightfall.

I’ll need to shift into my animal form tonight, a fact I’m not looking forward to. My second form wasn’t welcome in the faerie capital, and the transformations have grown painful afterso many years of disuse. It’s nothing I can’t handle, but shifting is no longer something I do for fun.

It hasn’t been for years.

Kie’s voice travels through the forest, and I drag a hand down my face with a low sigh. Why the fuck is he talking to the dawdler? He’s not usually one to drag out his kills, and I was under the impression that was his plan. He said he’d see to it. In my book, that means snapping her neck and being done with it.

My blood boils, and I fight back the urge to shift and finish this once and for all as I storm in their direction. I should’ve known better than to trust Kie to take care of this. He’s got a soft spot for the delusional ones.

Chapter Sixteen

ABBY

MY FEET ACHE, my head is pounding, and my back is stiff—the trifecta of hell.

I lick my lips, peering over the stone I hid behind. I don’t see anybody, and I pray this isn’t some sort of trick as I rise, tightly clutching my knife. What are the odds it was a shifter? I wait a minute, double-checking that nobody is around, before stepping away from the rock.

My foot catches on something, though, and a low grunt slips from my lips as I stumble forward. My knife flies from my hand and clatters to the ground, and my body quickly follows.

I land with a hardthump, and pain immediately vibrates up my legs.

Every muscle grows taut before I scramble to grab my knife. That was too loud.

Several long seconds pass, all spent in total, all-encompassing panic. Did they hear?

My knees burn from the fall, but my gloves protected my hands. I assume they did, at least. I’m not really in a position to pull them off and check. There are more pressing matters at hand.

I rise, my eyes darting around. My already too-thin leggings ripped open, and I can feel the skin on my kneecaps is torn.There’s a basic first-aid kit in my backpack, and I’ll patch myself up later. If I can survive the painful blisters currently littering my heels, I’m pretty sure I can survive anything.

My anxiety is at an all-time high as I straighten up and begin walking, heading in the opposite direction of where the person just went.

I’m extra careful to watch where I step, wincing with every small twig and leaf crunched under my sneakers. They’re impossible to avoid. I do skirt around the larger ones I know will make a lot of noise, but I’m not perfect.

“What do we have here?”

I jolt and spin toward the voice, my heart pounding.

Bright-violet eyes shine at me from only a few feet away, and I tighten my grip on my knife. A man is leaning against the base of a tree, his arms crossed over his chest as he carefully regards me.

He’s a faerie. A tall, muscular faerie I’m not going to stand much of a chance against.

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