Page 109 of Royal Captive
A choked sound left me before I could help it, my knees weak, mourning a future snatched away before I’d even allowed myself the luxury to contemplate it.
I thought of the other ‘half-breeds’ back home. I wondered if their magick had settled at all. Or perhaps they were all dead, and there would be nothing to return to but death and bleached bones.
My fear tasted like ash in my mouth.
“Ellis.Please.” Eve’s voice was on the outskirts of my panic, a small white bird trying to land on crashing waves in the middle of a storm.
Even if I returned and everything was well, what then? I could not control the raging tempest inside of me. My magick was out of control and I did not have the confidence to take it in hand, no matter what Feyanna said.
Would any child I have bear the same burden?
I remembered the fear in Eve’s eyes. She was afraid of my magick.
I couldn’t hurt her. I couldn’t hurt an innocent child.
Footsteps paused in front of us, then approached rapidly. I felt a presence stir in front of me, and I knew even in the pitch black it was Feyanna.
“Take me and the others with you. I will help you conquer the madness,” she whispered though there was no need. Eve wouldn’t know what she said whether she screamed or sang. My free hand reached out toward Feyanna, and she gripped it with a fierce strength.
Eve tensed next to me, taking half a step forward but going no further, waiting for me.
Always waiting for me.
“S-she wants to take her people with us home. In return, she will help control my magick. And everyone else’s,” I added in wildly. Because that would be a condition of Feyanna going with us—she would have to help the others, not just me. Viana, Lyra and Lily, the three brothers … everyone.
Eve tensed against me, but didn’t protest. She simply kept my hand in hers and walked me forward. Feyanna’s grip broke from mine and she took quick steps to get in front of Eve.
The voices remained distant in my mind as long as I focused on the pressure of Eve’s hand in mine. But as the tunnel’s passage ascended in a tight spiral, more voices and sounds joined until it was a cacophony in my mind. I closed my eyes and kept walking.
“Ellis. There are people here. Many people. I can hear them.” Eve’s voice whispered against my temple, a hint of fear.
My eyes snapped open as Feyanna put a hand on my lower magick, magick pushing through both of us, igniting a line of torches up and down every twisting catacomb.
Dozens of eyes glittered at me from the darkness. Hundreds, perhaps.
Eve gasped next to me.
And I didn’t blame her. Faces and figures came out of the darkness at us, curious, but not threatening. Men. Women. Fae.Children.I recognized people here and there: Ranc, one of the overseers we’d first met, who had fed us and welcomed us to the fae realm. A few fae wore remnants of guard uniforms. Just how many people had been secretly against Fennis’s rule?
They pressed in from all angles. But their focus wasn’t on me. Hell, it wasn’t even on their princess. It was on Eve.
Eve’s breaths hitched with anxiety, her fingers curling into fists reflexively at her side.
“Seems odd that no one acknowledges their princess, don’t you think?” Eve said to no one in particular, her tone clipped as it echoed off the surrounding rock.
Feyanna watched Eve warily, one eyebrow raised in challenge.
Eyes followed Eve and me, curious but not afraid. But Feyanna? There was recognition in the way their eyes slid right past her—speaking to a familiarity that froze the blood in my veins.
They knew something about Feyanna that we didn’t.
“These people knowher.” Eve’s voice rose in pitch as she spun around in a circle, her braid flying behind her in the dim light cast by the torches. “And not just as their princess. Half of them at least, I’d say.”
“Take us to the barrier, now,” I demanded of Feyanna, feeling uneasy and trapped in such a small space.
The fae princess smirked at me and led on. As we walked, they followed. I tried not to drown as the voice in my head rose again like a wave sucking me in and pulling me under.
Thirty-Four
