Page 99 of Kingdom of Faewood

I froze, not moving a muscle even though it nearly killed me to quiet my breathing.

“He’s in a right tizzy tonight,” one of them said quietly to the other. “Best to steer clear of the ballroom if you can manage.”

“Stars Above,” the second replied. “He punished poor Willowman this afternoon when all he was doing was dusting the chandelier in preparation of their arrival now that they’re all back in residence, but I guess Willowman’s odor offended the king. It must be because of that emergent meeting that House Graniteer called. The king’s been positively dreadful.”

The king? House Graniteer?It felt as though my heart stopped, and for a moment, my disbelief cut through the pain. I couldn’t be where it sounded like I was.No. That wasn’t possible.

The other onetskedand said something more, but they’d grown too far away for me to hear any of their conversation.

Chest heaving, I stepped out from behind the curtain and peered cautiously down the hall. The females were gone.

I paused to study more of the details of wherever I was. Forest green, gold, and sapphire blue colors were everywhere.With a sickening sense of dread, I held my arm carefully and bolted.

I flew down the remaining stairs as fast as I could. Panic began to consume me, making my movements louder, but if I was where I suspected...

I yelped when I hit the bottom floor too fast and jarred my arm.

Cradling it more, I searched for a way out. A wide hallway spread out before me, but pain was clouding my vision again. Blinking, I tried to see straight. Through a fog, I could barely make out two large doors ahead. The city was visible through them, and its meaning was clear.

An exit.

Relief hit me. Panting anew, I leaped off the last stair and plunged right through an invisible ward.

My body seized, the ward’s grip holding me briefly before releasing me.

Once on the other side, I didn’t pause to contemplate why a ward had been surrounding where I’d been kept. Instead, I ran, surging toward the exit.

A clatter came from the side, then someone boomed, “You there! Who are you?”

My collar rattled violently at my throat, and my arm throbbed with every beat of my feet, but the doors promised freedom. If I could just reach them.

My uninjured hand clasped the door handle and yanked on it.

Fresh air swirled into the entryway.I made it!

I leaped out of the door, but just as my feet were about to touch the stones outside, someone clamped onto my shoulder.

I screamed and tried to jerk away, but whoever grabbed me was strong. He wrestled me back inside, then slammed the door and spun me to face him. The spin threw me off kilter, and my broken arm collided with the closed door. Blazing white-hot pain sizzled along my nerves, blacking out my vision.

“Who are you?” the male demanded.

My vision cleared just enough to gaze up at a wildling. He wore serving garb, very similar to what the staff wore in Faewood Kingdom’s court.

A sickening sense of dread filled me all the way to my toes. “I’m no one.”

He harrumphed and hauled me roughly toward him, his eyes widening when the rulibs clinked together in my bag. “What have you got in there? Coin, eh? Are you stealing from the king?”

Oh Goddess.I fought him, tried to get free of him, but when he knocked into my injured arm again, blackness coated my vision.

“What’s going on out here?” another male called, running into the room.

“I found this female fleeing the west tower, then trying to escape. She’s a thief. Got a bag full of rulibs from the sounds of it.”

The wildling thrust me forward, and I nearly collapsed from the pain.

The second male frowned, also a wildling and also a servant considering his attire. “It looks like she’s injured. Was that your doing?” he asked the first one.

The large wildling who had grabbed me huffed. “It most certainly wasn’t. I found her like this, trying to exit the serving fae doors. Perhaps she broke her arm when she was running through the palace, or she injured it when she broke in here.”

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