Page 60 of Royal Captive
I hesitated for only a moment.
“I know Ellis is haunted by dreams. Another friend of mine hears whispers of people in places far from any realm I’d been in before this one. I don’t know about prophecies, but they see and hear something that torments them. Their fear is real. The dread is tangible.”
Calten aged a decade in that moment, eyes large and tired.
“Back in the shop, you said something along the lines of how our society ‘only works in theory, and as long as those in power don’t abuse it.’ ”
Wow, a man who listened. How refreshing.
“Yes …” I agreed cautiously.
His lips thinned, face pinching in.
“The fae society has been poaching from your land for centuries. The royal family has been nothing more than a long line of cruel torturers. The fae two kings ago makes Fennis look like a teddy bear, and that one ruled for over two hundred years. There was almost a war then, and Fennis’s father was able to smooth things over by playing both sides. Fennis tries to do the same, but doesn’t have the same, ah, charisma of his father.”
“And the people now know they have power,” I added on, mostly to myself, but Calten nodded seriously.
“Whether you believe in prophecies or not, Princess, you’re in one.”
We quickly approached the iron gates, and Calten’s frankness morphed back into his industrious, busybody self, making any further revelations impossible.
Perhaps I would simply have to decide on my own what I believed, and what I didn’t.
Nineteen
ELLIS
Ifell into a routine of sorts over the next few days, if I could call it that. Fallon shared my bed at night, and during the day I dutifully followed her around formally dressed, for no reason I could identify other than to please her.
And it seemed to please her to drag over every inch of the palace, lecturing me on history and lineage. This was complete with paintings and marble busts.
“Shouldn’t we not be sharing a bed if we’re related?” I grumbled, my feet beginning to ache from the new boots on my feet that weren’t yet properly broken in.
Fallon put a delicate hand on my arm, giggling lightly.
“Silly boy. We are so far removed! Besides,” she continued, her voice hushed as she glanced side to side to ensure we were alone, “who better to trust with your body than a brother? For practice, of course.”
I couldn’t tell if she was serious or not.
“You don’t seem nearly as paranoid as your father,” I commented wryly, eager to steer the conversation away from incest at any cost, no matter how far removed.
Fallon rolled her eyes, sitting down at the foot of a large, life-sized statue of a fae dressed for battle, which included heavy armor and a sword larger than I (or any human) could ever hope to wield.
“Father’s fear is understandable,” she commented airily, running her fingers through her hair to comb it.
“I’d be paranoid, too, if I overthrew my own father and tossed him into prison, knowing the entire time he had enough power to someday come back for me, all the while fearing my own horde of children were planning to do the same.”
My head tilted to the side as I took all of that in.
“Ah” was all I managed.
Her grin was feral.
“Grandpapa here used to have all kinds of sports dedicated to killing humans. The more creative the death, the higher you grew in his favor. Too many died, of course, so that’s when we copied our island here and set it in a different pocket of time and space, then linked our worlds together. We held the first ever Royal Hunt, and the winning humans were allowed to take their families along with our worst prisoners and live on the island, repopulating. Genius if it wasn’t so horrific.”
He … what?
“That was nearly a millennia ago. His son (my grandfather) was a bit smarter, realizing we couldn’t just massacre all the humans. He adjusted the games and things calmed down a bit. Well, until his son overthrew him. Charming, right?”
