Page 91 of Prince of the Northwest Forest
Mother turns away and shifts in her seat. Einar looks like he’s about to say something when there’s a commotion in the hallway, doors banging and servants chattering.
And then Mats strolls into the room.
My jaw drops, and we all stare at him. He looks fresh as a daisy, no sign that anything’s wrong or that he’s been gone for as long as he has.
Mother is the first to recover. “Mats!” she cries, and runs over to pull him into her arms. “You’re back!”
“Hey, Mum,” he says, hugging her.
The rest of us also go to embrace him.
I’m shaking my head as I step back from the hug. “What were you thinking? We’ve been looking for you for weeks.”
Mats pales. “Weeks? But …”
“Yes. You missed your wedding.”
His face falls. “I had no idea.”
“Kalle was going to step in,” Mother says. “Only then?—”
“Then Eleanor was kidnapped,” I say, and Mats’s eyes snap to mine.
“What?” he hisses. But before I can tell him the story, he’s seen it in my mind and turns to our parents. “You were going to make Kalle marry her?”
Before they can answer out loud, I ask the question we all want answered. “What happened? We got a ransom note from the fae, saying that you wouldn’t be returned until after the wedding.”
He pinches the bridge of his nose, his dark hair tumbling into his face. “I was in the Fae Realm.” He holds up his hands at our collective inhale. “Yes, I know I’m not supposed to go there. But it’s the only place where I can find peace. I can’t read the minds of the fae. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why I agreed to marry Eleanor—her magic enables her to shield herself somehow. Because I can’t read her mind, it’s … peaceful. I don’t know her well, but I want to get to know her.”
I was so worried about you.Mats stares at me, remorse in his eyes, having heard my thoughts. Out loud, I say, “She cursed me.”
“I’m not happy about that, but you have to understand … I don’t have a lot of options. If I’m going to be with anybody, I need not to be hearing their every thought.”
I turn to Einar. “Did you know where Mats was?”
My youngest brother shakes his head. “I didn’tknow…”
“But you suspected?”
“I’m sorry, Kalle,” Einar says. “I just thought that would be where I’d go if I were Mats and needed to escape.”
“The fae said they wouldn’t return you unless we paid them,” Mother says. “What happened?”
“Return me?” Mats looks startled. “I went there by choice. I suppose they did suggest I look at their new village when I firstwent to leave, but even so, I didn’t think I’d been gone more than a day.”
“Did they treat you well?” I ask.
He shrugs. “I wasn’t there long at all, so they didn’t have much to do.”
“So are you going to marry Princess Eleanor now?” Einar asks.
Mats shrugs. “I guess so. I mean, I said I would. But I want to get to know her first.”
“Then you must go to see her at once,” Mother says.
I agree. The Fire Realm is growing stronger, and we can’t afford to waste time.
Mats reads my mind. He sighs and nods. “Okay.”
