Page 11 of Until the Stars Fall

I scrambled backwards as best I could, my feet slipping in the grass until my back pressed against a tree. I should move, skirt around the trunk and hide, or run all the way home. But I couldn’t leave, not without knowing if the hound would be okay. Ignoring how my backside ached from my fall and how my throat throbbed from the attack, I pushed myself to stand, but I didn’t retreat.

I watched as the hound finally released the fae and stared him down with a terrifying snarl, as if he were daring the fae—who was now holding his wounded arm to his chest—to attack. Surely he would. A fae was far stronger than any hound, far quicker too.

But the fae only backed up a couple of steps, hatred blazing in his dark eyes.

Would he run? Was he feigning his surrender?

My eyes flicked back and forth between the two until the fae spoke.

“Seems rather unfair to come at me in hound form, Prince.”

Wait.Prince?

I snapped my attention back to the hound in time to see him instantly shift into a fae male. Tall. Handsome. Familiar.

Prince Connor.

My heart stopped.

My breath caught.

My mind spun into chaos.

I’d almost been killed, of course, but somehow—as ridiculous as it sounded—that would have been better than this.

I had spoken to this hound.

I had spilled my heart to him.

About hisbrother!

The prince didn’t look at me as he straightened and casually slid his hands into his pockets. Nothing in his expression indicated he’d been on the offense moments earlier, attacking this male. No fury blazed in his eyes. No tension laced his jaw. His anger, instead, seemed to be quietly simmering behind his calm exterior.

Connor tipped his chin up slightly. “Griffin.” The fae didn’t return the greeting, so the prince spoke again. “You know the rules. Humans are not to be harmed, on our property or anywhere in this kingdom.”

The fae—Griffin, apparently—curled his lip. “You mean like the rule that humans are not to attend these events?”

I swallowed hard.

I had broken the rules. Brennan had warned me.

The prince shrugged. “This is one of our staff. She was not a guest. She was not in attendance.”

At this, Griffin faced me with a look of disgust so potent I wanted to sink into the earth and disappear. I was nothing. I was no one.

“Odd attire for a staff member,” he said.

Connor sighed. When he slid his gaze to mine, I looked down at my mother’s dress.

My face might have flushed with embarrassment if I wasn’t facing the king’s punishment. Instead, the blood rushed from my cheeks and my stomach sank as I berated myself silently.

Love made us stupid.

Of that I was becoming more and more certain. With each passing second, I waited to be grabbed and dragged back to the palace.

“She will be dealt with,” Connor said simply, with no hint of emotion, as if he were commenting on the migratory pattern of birds rather than my fate.

I jerked my chin up when Griffin growled and rushed at the prince. He didn’t attack Connor or even touch him. Rather, he flashed him a wicked grin.

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