Page 26 of Fae Champion

This time, I intended to deliver.

8.ENTRANCED BY THE MAGIC OF THIS WORLD, FOREVER BEHOLDEN TO IT

Though all I’d done was defend myself from an execution secretly sanctioned by the queen, she ordered me locked up in the dungeon again—as if I should have surrendered to her will and submitted to Selwin’s sword without protest.

That her subjects too often accepted her punishment, no matter how undeserved it might be, was a fact that gnawed at me—along with my mounting hatred for the woman.

Zako had warned me about the dangers of hate, how it poisoned the person harboring the emotion. At the time he imparted his teaching, I’d thought him exaggerating, ridiculous even. After all, under what circumstances would I possibly grow to detest another being? Life wasn’t ideal in Nightguard, I’d known that, and I wasn’t often treated with the respect and appreciation I so craved, but life wasn’t perfect for anyone. Icouldn’t imagine anyone so terrible and cruel to elicit such an extreme reaction.

Now, I couldn’t seem to stop myself from despising the damn woman, and I really was trying, calling on every one of Zako’s lessons to get me through the turmoil muddling my thoughts. With nothing to distract me from myself, I was failing spectacularly.

After aides dragged Selwin off the field, guards came for me next. Another host of them circled an enraged Rush, veins bulging along his temples, at the edge of the dugout while his friends encouraged him to calm down, likely reminding him of all that was at risk with this stupidly barbaric Gladius Probatio, of how vital it was that one of them win the Fae Heir Trials.

Dragonfire, how I wished I could slice off the queen’s idiotic head and useitas a footstool! See how she liked that.

Despite my awareness that the fate of an entire world was at stake—and that the wellbeing of its residents was paramount—I still wished Rush had broken through the barricade of men to save me—my dislike of being a damsel in distress be damned.

At least he understood the rules of the game the queen was playing. I was learning as I went, like a child poking a sleeping dragon to find out what happened next. How could I play a masterful game of chess when all I seemed able to do thus far was run headfirst into danger of the queen’s making.

The guards, though I’d fully expected them to deposit me in the reputedly awful fae dungeon, oncemore locked me up on the human level. My father had perhaps intervened on my behalf to spare me from whatever torment happened on the floor below. But even if he had grown a set of balls and stood up for me at last, I didn’t believe for a moment the queen would agree to something that didn’t ultimately serve her goals. The woman wouldn’t rest until she towered above my corpse.

I’d have to hurry up to pay her the favor first…

This time, I found myself in a different cell at the very end of a seemingly endless hall lined with doors on both sides—dozens of rooms that housed the unfortunate humans snared by the alluring fairytale version of Faerie so very different from the truth.

My new room was even colder than the first. My threadbare blanket, the only bedding, had holes in it I could push my entire arm through, and did next to nothing to dispel my misery as I sat and shivered.

Worse, however, was how the hours ticked by and no one, not even Pru, came to check on me. I no longer had a window to dispel the darkness or to tell me how much time had passed. My stomach grumbled and ached when no one brought me food or drink, and eventually, more to forget my distress than anything else, I forced myself to sleep, curled up into a ball on a thin mattress with spokes sticking through one corner.

At least someone would have to come fetch me for my fight the next day.

But too much time slunk by, and the shuffles beyond my windowless door that signaled thehumans heading off for their night shifts had quieted, resumed, and then silenced again. They were asleep in their rooms, which meant that beyond the near pitch darkness of my room, it was daytime—the fourth day of the Gladius Probatio.

Stiff after restless sleep and the unrelenting cold, I sat in the middle of my bed, as far away from the chill permeating through the walls as I could, and waited. And then I waited some more.

Again came the soft, monotonous footfalls up the hall from my room that marked nighttime. Another time they faded, and I did my best to sleep while my stomach clawed at me from the inside.

Had the queen left me here to die? Did no one who might care about me know where I was?

At the very least, Pru should have come. It was her assigned duty to care for my basic needs. I longed for the goblin’s droopy, ashen face, and her disapproving frown as if she were the absent mother I’d never known.

She didn’t come. Neither did Rush or Reed, not even Hiroshi, West, Ryder, or Roan. Certainly not the king.

Rush had assured me I’d be safe in the dungeon, that he’d somehow secure it. So long as I was a competitor in the Fae Heir Trials, he’d said, the queen couldn’t kill me without reasonable cause. But just because Rush had kissed me—making me feel a consuming passion I’d never before experienced—didn’t mean he was telling the truth.

The fae were notorious for their lies; everyone knew that—save the humans who believed the faes’ greatest fabrication of all: that they were incapable of lying.

They were masters of the art. Zako had warned me early on.

Rush was the queen’s agent. He didn’t deny it. And Lennox had nearly killed me when I should have been under the protection of whatever enchantment governed the Fae Heir Trials.

As the humans beyond my locked door returned for another day of sleep, my understanding shifted. This was the start of the fifth day of the Gladius Probatio. Contestants were supposed to fight every day, I’d heard Azariah say so. I’d won all my fights, so I should still be a competitor.

Yet here I was, a prisoner. The fights must be taking place without me.

I couldn’t rely on the protection of a spell that had already failed me once. I couldn’t depend on Rush to keep me safe even if those were the orders I’d heard delivered from the monarchs’ very lips. Nor could I expect Pru to find me when the queen had already threatened death to her entire lineage because of me.

Once again, I was alone.

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