Page 75 of Royal Captive
None of it was real. It couldn’t be. The fae were different from us, but they weren’t gods. They were cruel and kind just like humans.
“Eve … it … I just wanted you to know. It was awful what Fallon did. I didn’t like it at first, even though eventually I did.And I don’t care if you had fun with Alihandro. It’s ok. I … I love you.”
My hands curled into fists as I balled them under my dress, pressing them into my inner thighs to steal warmth from that part of my body. I wanted to reassure him back, but I felt like a used out blanket, constantly stretched thin and worn out. I’d loved him for a long time now, even when he’d thought himself unlovable. It had taken death games and stupid fae to help him realize it, and I’d take it in whatever form it came in.
“I know, Ellis. I love you, too. And I get it. Mostly. I won’t pretend to understand completely, but I believe you thought it was the right thing to do. And I’m sorry that she … that she did that,” I ended. I’d always been awful at expressing myself verbally.
The silence stretched between us like a chasm, until he cracked a rare grin at me. It felt like a peace offering we’d climbed a mountain for.
“We’re both pretty bad at this royalty thing. Maybe it’s best we’re both here,” I offered, despair threatening to overcome me. I turned and faced Ellis on my bench, suddenly afraid to be alone.
Ellis crouched down against the bars that separated our spaces, pressing his body into the iron.
“We’re trying, Eve. That’s more that can be said for most kings and queens.” His face screwed up as if he was in pain.
I slid off the bench and down next to him on the ground, the cold seeping into my legs as we twined our fingers together around the bars.
“What is it?” I whispered to him.
His head bent forward, dark curls obscuring his face.
“Something’s going to happen soon. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve seen snippets of it—mere flashes, but my magick can feel it, and it’s left me anxious.”
“You saw it? Like in a dream?” I asked. It had been a while since Ellis had mentioned his dreams. Hadn’t he mentioned before he’d seen me in them? I wondered if it had anything to do with the prophecy Calten had told me.
“It’s murkier than that. I’ve seen clearly before—snippets of my family, you, but this is different. This is an all-encompassing sense of change and catastrophe racing straight toward us. I don’t think there’s anything I can do to stop it.”
My fingers squeezed his.
“There’s nothing we can really do,” I said.
His head lifted, an expression of defiance looking back at me. “We can get close to Hayida. We can learn his secrets and trade them to the king to get out of here. Or at the very least, get you out of here.”
I opened my mouth to argue with him, then closed it as he glared at me, nostrils flared.
“How is Hayida supposed to lead a rebel operation from a prison cell?” I argued instead. “He seems too much of an obvious choice.”
Ellis’s lips pursed. “Perhaps that’s why it is a sneaky choice. He’s so obvious, he’s not obvious.”
I blinked. “I don’t—”
“Even if he isn’t the head rebel, he must know a lot about something! He’s been here too long not to know anything!” Ellis sounded desperate, clutching onto anything.
I didn’t have the heart to say what I truly thought: that if Hayida had any information that was important, wouldn’t the slave king have extracted it a long time ago?
“We’ll stick with Hayida” is what I said instead, curling my hand around his as much as I could.
What other choice did we have?
Twenty-Five
ELLIS
Iwoke in the middle of the night, my hand still curled around Eve’s through the iron grate separating our cells. My muscles ached and protested from the awkward position, but I didn’t dare move. Eve needed rest, even if I was wide awake. It might have been my fae blood, but I never needed as much rest as others in the castle.
Instead, I tried to process everything that had happened yesterday.
Hayida had told me in the fae language to starve Eve, but not why. Well, he hadn’t said that directly. He’d told me not to let her eat the food.
