Page 93 of Bride of the Midnight Prince

Chapter 28

Kat

Idon’thavetheluxury of the prince being gone for my raid this time. I wait until after dark, after he has dismissed me for the day. I left him in his study, and now I ease the window open and slip outside.

The night is unusually chilly, with a biting wind and a smell like rain. Clouds cover the stars and the moon.

I grab my Ivy Mask bundle from behind the outhouse. I must keep Prince Rahk off my trail, and judging by how things went last time, usingolleaisn’t enough. So I’ve hatched a new plan. A very different, risky plan, but one that I believe will pay off well. I put all the things I need in a sack—including a little present for Ymer—don my usual Ivy Mask garb, swipe theolleaon the bottoms of my shoes, and start my run toward the forest. I keep my eyes sharp, and several times a tree’s moving shadow in the wind spooks me and I duck into hiding.

When I get to the forest, drenched in sweat and hot despite my cold ears, I pant for a moment, and then I hurry toward my cart. My task is made difficult by the forest’s recession, which has left faint shimmers like fireflies along the ground. The ground itself almost seems to vibrate beneath my feet.Strange.

“Who goes over yonder?” booms a loud voice.

I startle straight out of my boots and whirl.

There, sitting with his thick legs stretched out in front of him, his back bowed forward, is the enormous form of Ymer the Indefatigable.

Onthisside of the border.

His moon-wide yellow eyes latch onto me.

For a moment, we just stare at each other. I’m not sure which of us is more shocked.

Then his rocklike fingers clench around his club and he lurches to his feet. “You nasty elf! Ymer will skewer you and roast you over a spit!”

Well, this is going to complicate things.

I throw myself into a somersault as Ymer smashes his cudgel into the ground where I was just standing. I roll back up to my feet only to nearly fall on my face as I try to dodge his next blow. “Ymer the Indefatigable!” I cry, and yelp as he tries to grab me with his other hand. “I come in peace!”

“You have stepped foot into Ymer’s territory, and now Ymer will eat you!” he roars.

I spew a string of curses as I dart behind him, taking advantage of his slow maneuvers. If I’m not careful, he really will eat me, and I would never get over the shame of that. “You’re not supposed to be here! You need to go back to Faerieland—saints!”

The cudgel lands mere inches from my foot.

“Ymer will not leave unless the ruler of this land bids Ymer go!” he roars. “Whichyouare not. So now Ymer will eat you!”

I trip. I catch myself on my hands and knees. My heart slams into my throat as stoney fingers clamp around my waist and lift me straight off the ground.

“Ymer!” I shriek as he brings me toward his craggy lips. “You can’t eat me because I brought you a present!”

His mouth is open, a rotting stench assaulting me mid-air, so I get a clear view of all the lumps on his blackened tongue. But he pauses, my legs dangling a solid four or five feet above the ground, his grip digging painfully into my waist.

“A present?” he echoes.

“Yes!” I cry, wiggling to loosen his grip. “I brought it for you because I felt bad that I kept passing you and not letting you eat me!”

He narrows one of those massive eyeballs at me. Something is growing on his eyelid. “How does Ymer know you are not trying to trick Ymer?”

I lift both my hands. “If you put me down and let me open my bag, I will show you the gift.”

“Ymer does not know if he should trust the nasty elf.” With that, he turns me upside-down like I am a doll to abuse. I cling to one massive, rusted fingernail and brace myself as blood rushes to my brain.

“If I am lying,” I say between gritted teeth, “I will leap into your mouth myself. You have that on my word as a nasty elf.”

He drops me unceremoniously on the ground. I roll in an effort to not snap my neck clean in half. Then I cast about desperately on the ground for my dropped sack. My fingers close around the cloth and I nearly sigh aloud in relief.

“Here!” I say, digging around in my sack until I find the smaller sack inside. I yank it out and hold it up.

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