Page 1 of Royal Captive
Prologue
From Royal Hunt …
Ferar rode up alongside my horse and gestured that I should mount it. “You’re coming with us.
“Where?” I spat out, taking a step away from the horse. He’d have to truss me up like Ellis to get me to go anywhere.
Ferar’s head tilted to the side, grinning at me. “That can be arranged.”
Cassus grinned viciously. “Where? Isn’t it obvious?”
Ferar grabbed my arm and yanked me toward him.
Cassus was so smug I wanted to rip his manhood off. “To the fae realm, of course.”
Ferar raised his fist, and everything went dark.
One
EVE
Cold. Always cold.
Was I back in the prison pen? Part of me desperately hoped so, because that would mean that running into Ferar and Cassus on the snowy roads had been nothing more than a nightmare.
My eyes opened to utter darkness. No stars in the sky and no sounds of the outdoors. The stone underneath me was cold and hard. Probably not the prison pen, then. I reached a hand out and caught a stone wall, drawing back with disgust when slime and filth met my fingertips.
“Ellis?” I whispered cautiously.
This wasn’t the Northern Realm.
This wasn’t the prison pen.
But that didn’t mean that this was someplace good.
Fear tightened my throat, bile threatening to throw up whatever meager bits of food were still in my stomach. I fought against the overwhelm and panic, struggling to breathe. Focus. Though sore, nothing on me appeared to be injured.
Where was my prince?
“Ellis?”
No response. I was utterly alone.
“Ellis!” I tried again, my voice louder.
“Shut up in there!”
I flinched back as something struck a metal grate above me, showering me with hot red and orange sparks, which illuminated a figure in armor with a sword above me.
Breathe.Breathe.
Not responding to the guard, my eyes adjusted in the darkness, and I evaluated my prison. I could walk five paces in each direction, and there were no doors or windows in my small stone cell. The metal grate was the only entrance above me, and it was twice my height. There would be no escaping—not without any help.
“Ellis!” I cried out in desperation. “ELLIS!”
The flare of a torch blinded me temporarily as the grate above me flew open, and a figure jumped down into a crouch, torch in one hand, sword raised threateningly in the other. More light from above illuminated his silhouette, flashing off his armor. Pointed ears stuck out from behind his helmet, and his golden eyes glowed in the darkness as he glared at me. He wore more protective armor than Cassus ever had, the fae’s entire body clad in golden flames that were as much art as they were protection.
I must have stared for too long because he introduced himself by sheathing his sword and landing a vicious backhand on my face.
