Page 70 of Fae Champion

“You knew?”

“We goblins always know … eventually.”

“But-but what of the Gladius Probatio? And the rest of the Fae Heir Trials? I thought we were in a magical contract until the two heirs were chosen. And the king? She can’t just kill my father … can she?”

“I don’t know what will happen, or what the queen can and can’t do. From everything we goblins have seen over years, she’ll do whatever she wants, whenever she wants. You must find the way to survive it, and hope she doesn’t scent Rush on you.”

Itsked. “Pru, enough with that already. I just scrubbed. She won’t smell him on me. She’s not a damn dragon or one of those weird, creepy feethles.”

“That’s not the scent I’m talking about. You and thedrake have mated. And if she notices, she might not think her hold on him is sufficient anymore to get him to do what she wants.”

Realization dawned on me. “And if she doesn’t think she can trust him … if she thinks he’s involved in some conspiracy against her…”

“She won’t want him as the crown prince.”

“She won’t need him alive at all.”

Curtly, Pru nodded, her nimble fingers speeding along one of several braids she’d sectioned my hair into.

“Oh by the dragons…” I murmured, unsure what to do with my mounting dread. “Even if I win today, or Rush wins today, we might still … lose. What am I to do?”

As if in answer, Zako’s voice swelled in my memory.There will be a time when the only person you can rely on is you. If you become tempted to question your strength, your power, don’t. Dig deeper. It will always be there, waiting for you to seek it.

At the time, I assumed he’d meant it as an encouraging platitude, rare for him. But he’d known who my true father was even as he touted himself to be that man. He’d known I was the daughter of royalty. Perhaps he knew more than that even. Maybe he understood why the land hadn’t let me die.

“Yes, Mistress,yesssss.” I discovered Pru staring at me. “That’s it.”

“Maybe we should still say goodbye though,” I said. “Just in case. The queen is … well, the queen. Who knows what might happen today.”

“No, Mistress,Elowyn, I no longer think there’s need to say goodbye.”

Atop the velvet stool, I spun toward her, peering down at her although I remained seated.

“The queen might be more powerful than any who’s ever reigned over the mirror world,” the goblin said. “But someday, sometime, whether it’s now or in ten thousand years, someone will come along powerful enough to defy her.”

I snorted. “You’re not suggesting that’s me?”

Pru’s black eyes no longer glimmered with unshed tears. They shone with the kind of strength she was suggesting I might possess. “Why not you?”

I chuffed. “Seriously, Pru. Even if I do have some magic, I don’t even know how to use it. And the queen’s got so much she can freeze me in place with just the snap of her fingers.” I hadn’t told anyone, not even Rush, that I’d been able to resist her power—just a little.

Pru brought over my undergarments and fighting leathers. When I rose to step into them, she repeated what the guard in the arena had said, moments before the earth sucked him inside it. “Forever as one in the light. Forever divided in the darkness.” She tilted up her chin, as if readying herself that very moment to head into battle. “One day, someone will come along to save us from the darkness. And when that time comes, we goblins will fight.”

“What, Pru, what … come on. Don’t put that on me. I’m not some savior.”

“I don’t think you are either. But when things get bad, we must become whom we never thought we’d be.”

“And things are bad,” I said before she could.

“Not quite as bad as they can get, but close.”

I stepped into my pants and Pru knelt to strap on weapons holsters along my thighs.

“Don’t get your hopes up, okay?” I said. “This is all insane. I still barely know how this world works.”

“It’s not the world you need to understand, but yourself.”

I scowled down at her head, her hair dark yet thin across her scalp. “What’s up with you today? D’you drink some wise sage tea or something?”

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