Page 37 of Kingdom of Faewood

He shrugged. “Simple. I saw enough of your personality yesterday to know that you wouldn’t give up easily, so I offered you a way to seek your guardian out, and you took the bait, exactly as I hoped you would.”

My brows drew sharply together. “What do you mean?”

“There’s a reason I picked an inn across the street from a shop that sells dillemsills.”

I nearly choked. Coughing, I bit out, “You chose that inn for that lone reason? YouknewI would find a way to acquire one and call for Guardian Alleron’s rescue?”

“I didn’t know for certain that you’d be capable of it, but I hoped for it. When I sealed the room with a locking spell, I chose one that could be broken out of.”

“In other words, you wanted Guardian Alleron to come for me.”

“Yes. When I took you, I didn’t know about your collar. I saw that you wore it, but I thought it was a piece of jewelry, not a magical device, and when its complexity became apparent, and you confirmed that the only fairy capable of removing it was your guardian, I knew I needed to capture him too. Yet returning to Leafton wasn’t an option. I needed him to come to me.”

I stilled, freezing so completely that I was like a wall of ice on the Solis continent’s Cliffs of Sarum.

When my mind began turning again, I rasped, “Soeverythingwas set up? All of it? Taking me to the inn, choosing an inn across from that shop, leaving me alone to meddle?”

“Yes.”

My cheeks burned. And I thought I’d been so clever, fooling all of them and feeling so superior behind their backs.So foolish, Elowen...You’re an absolute imbecile.

Shame fired through me. “You must have had a good laugh at my expense.”

“No, actually, we didn’t. Truth be told, we were all quite impressed when you broke through my sealing spell so quickly.”

“It was an easy spell,” I mumbled, but then my head snapped back. “Wait...you werewatching me?”

“The entire time.”

I gritted my teeth. “From where?”

“Across the lane. We were on one of the shop’s rooftops, hidden under an illusion.”

An illusion.I’d been right. One of them did harbor magic from Mistvale.

But any sense of smugness I felt that I hadn’t been wrong about everything dimmed when the depths of his plan took root. He’d played me like a fiddle.

“Stars and galaxy,” I whispered.

No wonder he’d never returned during the night. If my cheeks had been pink prior, that was nothing compared to the flaming scarlet they felt like right now.

Jax nudged me. “Don’t be embarrassed. You truly surprised me. I thought it would take you half the night to find a way to open the door or window, but you did it much faster than I would have thought possible.”

I snorted. “Right. Now, you’re truly making a mockery of me.”

“I’m not, actually.” His voice turned softer, more sincere. “Most females would have lain on the bed crying or screaming for help, but not you. You took matters into your own hands and found a way out.”

Some of the heat in my cheeks abated, even though I told myself I was stupid to believe anything he said, but he seemed...genuine, which I wasn’t sure how to interpret.

I entwined my fingers through Phillen’s mane. “And the thirty guards who my guardian brought with him? Did you truly kill all of them as it appeared?”

He was quiet for a moment. “What do you think?”

My chest rose with a deep breath. “I think they all still live.I think your arrows were dipped in a powerful potion that rendered them unconscious. And I think someone in your group wields Mistvale illusion magic, making it all appear that they’d died when, in reality, they haven’t.” I paused. “Am I right?”

He chuffed. “Stars.”

When he didn’t say more, I frowned. “Well, am I?”

---