Page 28 of Fae Champion

“You must move like one of the humans or she’ll notice,” he said, so softly that I leaned toward him to hear.

I didn’t bother asking whoshewas or how she’d learn we were traversing the halls. Ears and eyeballs, with severed flesh and nerves dangling, bobbed beneath dim orbs that lit the hall only enough to keep from tripping.

Finnian clasped my wrist and walked, shuffling his steps as if his mind were controlled, as if he truly didn’t register the nature of his surroundings.

As if he were a human entranced by the magic of this world, forever beholden to it.

Advancing at that agonizing pace, my muscles twitched with the need to hurry by the time we finally reached the end of the hall.

“Remain calm,” he whispered. “Steady your heart.”

I nodded, hoping he couldn’tactuallyhear my heart beating. I focused on keeping my every inhale deep, the following exhale long and easy.

“Good,” he said, tucking me behind his larger frame, and turned right into another hallway. This one was better illuminated, the doors on either side farther apart. Each of these doors encased a small window, and I spotted frilly curtains lining the inside of a few. The “nicer” cells, then, likely for the most submissive and cooperative of the humans.

My stride hitched as I spotted a masculine figure at the end of this hall. Finnian glanced back at me and tugged on my wrist. Warily, I shadowed his every step, aware of how much taller he was than me, and yet every one of his footfalls was feather-light.

When we reached the man whose back was to us, Finnian slowed.

The man turned.

My eyes widened.Reed!

The stable boy leaned his head around Finnian’s shoulder to find me. His lips pressed into ahard frown when he took in the state of me. I had no idea what I looked like, but the thunderous pinch of his features suggested that every torment I’d endured showed on my face and body.

Finnian pointed to the left, Reed nodded, glanced at me a final time, and disappeared down the hall in the direction Finnian suggested. We took a right.

Several turns later, Finnian stopped in front of a tapestry. Woven beautifully, it portrayed yet another gruesome scene of a man in armor and a crown, presumably the queen’s father, killing dragons, their heads piled up around him. Despite my imminent escape, I couldn’t help but grit my teeth. What a waste of skilled artisan labor and fine silk. “What a twisted, sick fuck,” I muttered under my breath, unable to hold back my judgment on the infamous King Erasmus the Bloody.

Finnian looked around us, doing his best to appear nonchalant, and pulled aside the tapestry. He pushed open a door behind it and shoved me through it.

“Follow the pathway until you reach an unlocked door. Rush will be waiting for you on the other side of it. You never saw me or Reed.”

Before I could thank him, he closed the door behind me without making a sound, and plunged me into total darkness.

9.A PRETTY DISTRACTION, AN AGENT OF MY ENEMY

The tunnel Finnian shoved me into was wholly black and, thankfully, high enough that I could walk without crouching. Its rough stone walls reminded me of the twisting caves the dragons claimed as dens within the Nightguard Mountains. The darkness was so encompassing I would have easily believed I stood in the center of a mountain.

As fast as I could while ensuring I didn’t stumble, I made my way through the passageway, dragging my hands along its sides, feeling for a door. Under different circumstances, the blindness might have unnerved me. But given what I’d endured the last several weeks, relief fluttered through my chest, light as the touch of butterflies, even though I certainly knew I wasn’t yet safe.

So long as I was within the mirror world and within the queen’s reach, there was no beingsafe. Not for me, probably not for anyone. However I managed it, I had to grab Xeno and Saffron and return toNightguard. The dragon protectors wouldn’t let them take me a second time.

That buoyant relief sputtered.

Or would the dragon shifters hand me over just as they had last time? Even once I told them how badly I’d been treated?

No matter, wherever I went would be better than here. I’d find a way that the queen bitch wouldn’t kill any goblins in my name and start a new life somewhere else. Anywhere else.

Rush.

The urgent thought arrived, unbidden and unwanted.

Rush was nothing more than a pretty distraction.An agent of my enemy.

The familiar reminder landed with a hollow thud and rapidly swept from my mind—where my thoughts, seemingly all on their own, conjured up Rush’s handsome face and tantalizing body. He was moonlight personified. His eyes, his hair, his light tattoos…

He was gorgeous, strong, fierce, and yes, I was drawn to him like bees to flowers dripping pollen.

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