Page 95 of Royal Captive
ELLIS
The barrier was open? What?
My first thought was that it was another fae ploy—a lie to catch me unawares. She was desperate for our help, and would say anything to get it, wouldn’t she?
And yet she knew she was dying, and that help wasn’t coming. Why lie then?
The wind howled angrily. It was as if the land itself was part of this rebellion and attack. And maybe it was, for all I knew. My magick hummed in veins, not angry, but simply ready and impatient.
“What do you mean, the barrier’s open?” Eve asked first, her eyes shining with confusion. “I thought it was closed after we came through!”
The female sighed, leaning back against the rubble.
“When you came through with Cassus, it opened. It stays open until the humans eat the fae food. Then it closes, since it senses that all have accepted their new life in this realm.” She closed her eyes, her breaths coming in short pants. “Fenniskeeps special humans for his pleasure on a diet of food only made by human hands, grown using human techniques. No magick. No sauce.”
I frowned at the odd comment, pitying the dying female before me. The blood loss was getting to her, and soon she’d be incoherent.
No sauce.What a strange thing to say.
But Eve must have known something I didn’t. Her eyes went wide, lips parting in an ‘O’ of surprise.
The female coughed up blood. “Fennis accidentally killed the last human on a pure diet in a rage, shortly after you got here.”
She giggled, a little hysterically. Bursts of magick curled around her, then fizzled out, knowing the situation was futile.
The fae female’s eyes tiredly slid to Eve. Was this female a rebel? Someone with Fennis’s blood in them? It seemed so incredibly improbable, yet here we were. Then again, what was the line between rebel and court sycophant?
Hayida was right; Fennis’s world was crumbling around him. There were more rebels within the fae than Fennis had ever thought, or at least fae who were sympathetic to their human friends, including his own family members and nobles.
“No sauce. No fuckingsauce.” Eve’s voice strained, her fingers tracing the wound Alihandro had left on her neck, now half-healed. If I squinted, the mostly straight gash with bumps almost looked like a bird in flight on the horizon. “What does this mean?”
Eve leaned down, putting her neck in the female’s face.
The injured fae gave her a weak, wispy grin.
“It means it’s finally happening,” the fae female coughed out.
The riddles and vague innuendos were going to be the death of me.
“Eve, what the hell is she talking about? What have you realized?”
Because my love had that look in her eyes—the same look she’d had the first time I had laid eyes on her on the balcony, drunk and depressed. It was a look of fire and vengeance, and of a woman blazing her own path and content to destroy anyone in her path.
I wanted to burn in the holocaust of her convictions.
“The barrier is open because of me.I don’t know if it was on purpose or we fell into it by sheer dumb luck, but I didn’t eat at the first fae picnic with everyone else. And when I finally did eat …” Her hands balled into fists. “They all knew. All of them knew. Calten, Alihandro, Shyllon … but they’re notallrebels, are they? Why’d they do that? Why’d they all help me together, not even realizing it?”
She turned to me, desperation and confusion in her eyes.
And then I understood. These individuals had worked together underneath Fennis’s nose to make sure Eve only ate food grown and prepared with human hands. Shyllon wasn’t a rebel, but he still sensed something important. And he’d helped.
Butwhy? Why was that so important to the rebel faction? They’d tried to hide it from Fennis as well. That was significant, but I couldn’t figure out why.
Lightning shot down from the sky, lighting the roof of a destroyed building on fire. This world was disintegrating in front of our eyes!
Fennis did not have control. He couldn’t protect Eve even if he wanted to honor our deal, if he survived. If Fennis wouldn’t or couldn’t protect Eve, I’d have to throw in with the other side. I had no choice, even if the rebel side kept blowing shit up and feeding my queen like she was an experimental rat.
“Ellis, help me with her.”
