Page 10 of Fated or Knot

Then I leapt onto the stone railing overseeing the two-story drop to the garden and jumped.

5

LARK

Wind whistled past my ears, whipping back my hair. Yet I still heard Fal’s exclamation. “Lark, what are you doing? There are stairs!” He sounded…amused. There was definitely an edge of surprised laughter there.

I called upon the meager lining of essence I still had within me and flapped my wings, briefly lifting in the air with a scattering of magical sparkles. I glided further into the gardens and away from the ridicule I’d find with Fal if I’d stayed. Had I seen his full reaction, it would’ve turned to mockery, something I fully deserved for pretending I deserved to be seen.

Servants like me didn’t get to choose our packs. I wasn’t permitted to chase fanciful ideas like fate and scent matches when I was sold to Pack Ellisar. And why would I want a twisted bond with an Unseelie? He and his brothers would steal me away to Serian, their homeland, to meet the fate all Seelie did at the hands of their cursed kin. Better to evade them and find sanctuary in a city away from alphas of all kinds.

My gaze blurred for several reasons as I descended from my glide. I was running out of essence, and fatigue was less of asuggestion now and more like an iron weight secured around my neck. Cold air wrung tears free from me. I hiccupped a sob and tried to blink hard to clear my vision. This only succeeded in dropping me unwillingly into unconsciousness for one vital moment.

When I came to, I was falling. I had time to scream before landing in a patch of grass in an ungainly tangle of limbs. My smock smacked the ground with a metallicclangI felt to my bones as I vibrated with the force of my reacquaintance with the earth.

I lifted my head to try to take inventory of my new aches and scrapes but gave in to self-pity instead. I curled up into a ball and cried, keening like only a wounded omega could manage. Everything hurt now—my ankle and foot as always, but notably, my heart and the inside of my head throbbed together. And it was all my fault. I should’ve known coming here under false pretenses would only get me hurt.

I cried myself out. After nearly two decades under Cymora’s thumb, it didn’t take longer than a few minutes. I cracked open my swollen eyes and found urgency as I remembered a small detail. Fal had said there werestairs. Stars, he could be right behind me. I’d be much easier to kidnap to Serian from the gardens, as opposed to still being at the Omega Masquerade. Or he could simply find me to mock me for my graceless fall and the resulting pity party. Either way, I didn’t want him to see me like this.

With a huff, I leveraged myself to a seated position and brushed dirt and grass off my side. The world fuzzed in and out of focus as I righted my balance and tried to take a proper moment to note what was wrong with me.

I pinched myself, trying to shake off the lethargy clawing at my body.Don’t go to sleep!There was no telling what I’d wakeup to two or three days from now if I succumbed to my lack of essence.

I couldn’t just sit around; I had to move. As I pushed up, the scrapes I’d acquired from landing on my right side pulsed with the more dangerous pain lancing up my leg from my lame foot.

“You can do this,” I said through gritted teeth as I stumbled through a few steps. I ran my knuckles under my eyes and the lingering wetness making chill tracks down my cheeks, smudging the thick coat of my makeup. More tears followed, my eyes still leaking as I struggled to take a deep breath to calm down.

I dragged myself to a garden path that was illuminated by a few sparsely placed essence lamps. With my sight wavering, I just picked a direction at random, and my gait smoothed out some before I walked headlong into something.

It felt like a wall, except no stone had a give of softness or jiggled when it rebounded a crying pixie. Strong arms caught me before I could tumble to the ground. “What’s this? A sad little omega?” a male asked.

Except he had a thick accent, so it sounded more like, “Wuh’s dis? A sad li’l omehga?”

With the nearest lamp behind him, I only had the impression of a broad fae bending down to envelop me. He was hard with muscle but cushioned with extra padding, especially around the middle. And giving off a radius of heat that I appreciated as the evening’s chill pushed past the last vestiges of my pre-heat to settle over my skin.

Another sob wracked my body while this stranger cradled me against him. He stroked my hair and left his broad hand cupped over the back of my head. “There, there. No need for sad,” he murmured. “Omegas most blessed ladies. Li’l and sweet.”

He coaxed a sound from deep in his chest, and it vibrated through every bone in my body. My crying weakened, tearsreceding like he used some kind of magic on me. I’d heard that an alpha’s purr was soothing, but it was amazing how comforted I felt as I laid my cheek on his chest and snuggled in. He smelled so nice, like mallows toasting over an open flame. I inhaled caramelized sugar mixed with a burnt edge to satisfy with a bit of char.

For a few minutes, I let myself be soothed. I could give in to the weight of fatigue wrapped around my limbs and simply fall asleep here in his arms. This alpha was everything I needed on a level my body recognized and reacted to.

I wished I could stay as his purring lulled me, just “li’l” and protected in the circle of his arms. But my stomach cramped viciously again, and with the stark reminder that my heat was coming with a vengeance, my skin felt flushed and too tight across my frame.

I sighed out of my mouth, clamping my eyes shut in denial. “I need…” I stopped when I heard the croak in my voice and cleared my throat. “I need to go.”

“Go where?” he asked.

“Away from here,” I murmured, trying to tug myself free of his hold. He let me go with slow reluctance. I stumbled a couple steps back before picking a direction and starting to trudge that way.

“But where are you going, wee pixie?” he asked from behind me. For such a big male, he walked quietly.

I stopped under the halo of an essence lamp and craned my neck up at him. He was a salamander, I think, with maroon hair and brass-toned skin marked with a sprinkling of brown freckles. He had a well-manicured beard and mustache to match the fluff of hair on his crown, which was cut short along the sides. His attire resembled traveling clothes, with the exception of a vibrant scarlet cloak secured under his chin with a goldring. His gray gaze roamed over my expression, and his generous mouth formed a frown.

Those eyes were small in the crag of his face and made tiny by how he squinted at me. That accent sounded suspiciously like Fal’s, just a lot more concentrated. It’d make sense that an Unseelie pack would send the member who spoke Theli the best to the Omega Masquerade.

Stars, two Unseelie in one evening. I shouldn’t just be standing here looking at him, but I had the strange sense that I could trust him. Besides, I didn’t have the energy to run.

When I still didn’t say anything, he shifted closer to me, moving slowly. He pinched the edge of his cloak and lifted it to my face, rubbing away the smudges of makeup down my cheeks. I didn’t flinch away from the tender touch.

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