Page 80 of Kingdom of Faewood

“Where’s your mask? Why did you take it off? And why is everyone else allowed to see you but not me?” Sooner or later, fae would be on this road. They would see Jax, but he didn’t want me to.

Instead of replying, Phillen trotted forward, and we were moving again.

Jax’s arm locked around my waist to keep me in place, but I rubbed against him, something, anything to give me a clue as to what was happening.

And the second I came in contact with his clothing, I felt the difference.

The smooth dark shirt he’d been wearing since we’d met was gone. In its place was something thicker and rougher.

“You’ve changed your clothes too.”

“Elowen,” he said in a low warning tone.

Something in me snapped. Any hope that had been building within me that the Dark Raider actually cared for me and perhaps wouldn’t deceive me broke.Lies. Everything withhim had been a lie. He was hiding things from me. Possibly many things. And to think I’d desired this male and had even hoped of possibly being considered his friend.

Stupid, so stupid, Elowen. Did you actually think he cared for you? Nobody cares for you. He’s just using you like every other male, and you fell for it.

“Elowen,” he said more quietly as we rode on. His tone turned lower, rougher. “It’s not what you’re thinking.”

“Then what is it?” I hated that my voice broke.

“Please, just trust me on this. You can’t see or—” His throat bobbed in a swallow. I could feel it since he was sitting so close. “Or hear when we get closer to the capital.”

“You’re going to take away my hearing too?” Panic tightened my throat.

“Only for a short while.”

A moment of silence passed, and the only sound that carried on the breeze was the clopping of the stags’ hooves. Everywhere I looked was darkness so black that terror tightened my chest anew.

The age-old feeling of betrayal and knowing that there wasnobodyin this realm who I could trust or count on sank in.

“Why, Jax?” my voice sounded broken, pleading. “Why are you doing this to me?”

His breath caught, and his arm tightened even more at my waist. “I’m sorry, Elowen. It’s truly necessary. Please forgive me.”

CHAPTER 19

I sat in a world of black silence. It felt like time took on no meaning in this bottomless void I’d been plunged into. As promised, as soon as the sounds of the city grew near, Jax had muttered another apology, and then he’d robbed me of hearing too.

With only my sense of touch, scent, and taste left, I clung to them, desperately soaking up every detail that I could decipher.

Phillen, in his stag form, continued to shift beneath me. Each time he moved, my legs tightened in worry that I’d fall off despite Jax’s steady grip.

Scents of a crowded city eventually came. I could tell when we passed a salopas—the aroma of wheat brewed in the air. And I knew when we passed a shop that sold leather products due to the rich fragrance of tanned hide swirling around us.

Other sensory clues came as well. The feel of Jax’s breathing. The pounding of his heart. The steady way he held me, or how his body turned tenser and more rigid with every step we took.

I had no idea where Jax was taking me or why it was clouded in mystery, but I clung to his promise that this was temporary and that he wouldn’t leave me in this state, even if I was a fool to believe that too.

I had no idea how long it’d been since he deprived me of sight and sound, but it felt like hours even though I guessed it wasn’t.

Still, I wasn’t ready for the feel of my hearing to return. Out of nowhere, sound came flooding back.

I gasped, and Jax’s arm held me steady, then the press of his lips came to my ear. “We’re here.”

I trembled in his arms. My sight was still gone, and I struggled to understand this clandestine arrival or why he would allow me hearing but not eyesight.

“Now what’s happening?” Ihatedthat my voice shook.You’re weak, Elowen, so weak.

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