Page 96 of Kingdom of Faewood

The intensity of his eyes burned. “You’re ready to be free.”

I took a deep breath. I still didn’t know if I was ready, if I would ever be considering what could happen with my collar becoming loosened, but it was now or never. And I chose now. I chose freedom.

“Yes.”

A heartbeat of silence passed. Jax continued to watch me. Silent. Intent. An emotion blazed in his eyes. It was raw. Wild. And it swirled with so much regret that I sucked in a breath.

But in a blink, it was gone.

“Of course. You deserve nothing less than complete freedom and happiness, Elowen.” Absolute sincerity rang in his tone. “You deserve the realm. And I’ll do everything I can to ensure you get that.”

My lips parted. His heartfelt words pierced my soul, but before I could even contemplate a response, he signaled Lars over.

The guard hefted a huge sack of coin that I hadn’t realized he’d been holding and gave it to Jax.

The Dark Raider deposited it at the end of my bed. His throat rolled in a swallow. He wouldn’t look at me, but I could have sworn that something hovered over him. Something that was on the tip of his tongue, that he wanted to say, but...

He released the sack and stepped back. “Rulibs, as promised, to begin your new life.”

The full sack dipped the mattress toward it. Heavy coins within it clinked together.

For a moment, I was speechless, then I managed to sputter, “That’s all...mine?”

Jax nodded. “It’s enough to buy a nice property and whatever else you’ll need to get started. As for leaving this chamber and relaxing the hold your collar has on you, I’ll return with your guardian shortly.” His throat rolled again in another swallow. “And I wish I could help you more, that I could help ensure your freedom is guaranteed”—a swell of power pulsed in his aura—“but it’ll be up to you to venture to the supernatural courts and plead your case for true freedom.” He didn’t elaborate further and instead turned stiffly, then signaled his friends with a nod.

But even though he hadn’t spelled it out for me, I knew what he meant. It was up to me to convince the courts, because we wouldn’t be staying in touch. He wouldn’t help me with the authorities, because Jax and I weren’t actually friends. We wouldn’t stay in one another’s lives. After today, I would never see him again.

I was on my own. And he would be someone I’d known briefly in my life, someone who had come into it as violent as a thunderbolt yet had left me as silently as soft rain.

And realizing that, knowing that he would now only be a memory...Something inside me threatened to shatter.

At the door, Jax glanced at me one last time. I could have sworn that he was trying to control his aura, but pulses from it pounded through the room.

A flash of wildness shone in his eyes anew when our gazes locked, but as before, he snapped his attention away the second we made eye contact.

With stiff movements, he left the room, and all of his friends departed behind him just as quickly.

Alone, the quiet of the extravagant chambers threatened to suffocate me. I sat there, stunned and confused. My heart cracked, and I had no idea why I felt like crying.

A huge bag of rulibs was now mine. Jax would be returning soon with my guardian to release my collar to the extent of his ability. And then he would let me go.

Almost everything I’d ever hoped for was coming true.

So why do I feel so empty?

Hours passed.Hours and hours of pacing and waiting, and pacing some more. The sunlight through the foggy windows grew less intense. Evening had come, yet Jax hadn’t returned, and neither had any of his friends. Mysoon-to-be release had come and gone.

I paced faster in my gilded cage. The earlier raw emotions that had nearly cleaved me in two had morphed into feelings of impatience and uneasiness.

I thought surely Jax would have returned by now. That, by this time, I would be walking the streets of Jaggedston on my way to the courts, with my loosened collar hopefully under my control.

But he hadn’t come back.

Evening eventually bled into night and then night into morning. I slept fitfully, waking at every little sound, hoping against hope that the ring of the key in the lock would jar me awake. Nothing greeted me but the sound of my breathing, the bells in the capital beginning to toll, and the pounding of my heart that wouldn’t stop its erratic beat.

Yet Jax still didn’t come.

When the sun was fully risen, my pacing continued. Up and down. Up and down. I walked across the chambers back and forth in hurried strides, eating up the carpet like a ravenous beast.

---