Rhydian takes me to a long, narrow room with high windows. I wonder if this is what’s called a portrait gallery? The sound of running water makes me look up, and I startle. Right there, all along the middle of the room, is a babbling brook. Complete with mossy banks. It begins at one end of the room, seemingly out of nowhere, meanders the length of the gallery and disappears into the far wall.
The water is clear and unnaturally bright. The moss lining it is vivid green and peppered with mushrooms and ferns. Butterflies dance in little groups, here and there. I’m pretty sure this isn’t an original feature of Buckingham Palace.
I watch transfixed, as various fey stand by the banks with long, cruel looking spears. An orange haired fey jabs her spear in, quick as lightning, and pulls out a wriggling bright silver fish. Her companions laugh and clap while she beams. She hands the fish and the spear to a waiting servant with instructions on how to cook it.
Suddenly, my view is obstructed by Mabon. I jump and step back. Where the hell did he come from? Thousands of tiny jewels are threaded through his lilac hair, which is mostly down, with a few complex braids weaving around his dark horns. He ignores Rhydian and looks right at me.
“So, tell me everything!” he gushes as he clasps his hands together as if in prayer.
His amethyst eyes are bright, and he is grinning broadly. He looks good, and it is good to see him. I could do with a friendly face right now.
Rhydian frowns, “Not now, Mabon.”
Mabon’s gaze flicks between me and his brother. Then he sighs heavily and glares at Rhydian.
“You are no fun at all!” he declares before stomping his foot and storming off.
A muscle by Rhydian’s jaw ticks. “He will be visiting you for tea soon.”
“I won’t tell him anything,” I promise.
Rhydian’s gaze sweeps over me briefly, dark and unreadable. “You can trust Mabon with your life.”
Okay, that’s a surprise. I want to stare at Rhydian, to try to decipher more of what he is saying, but I’m here to look crestfallen and defeated and firmly in my place, so I lower my gaze to the floor.
“What about Dyfri?” I whisper so no one else can hear us.
“One day Dyfri is going to defeat us all and rule absolute.”
Rhydian’s tone is soft. Proud. If I was looking up at him, I swear he’d be giving one of his tiny, barely there smiles. Fey are so strange. Just when I think I have them figured out, they confuse me all over again.
“And your other brothers?” I ask.
“You can trust Tristan, but no one else.”
Well, three out of five brothers isn’t bad at all. Especially for a royal family. Rhydian really can’t be that awful, if even his princely brothers like him, when surely it would be in their best interest to hate him and try to get rid of him?
But what the hell do I know? I’m just an ignorant human. A mundane one at that. Grasping the intricate ins and outs of a fey court will probably also remain beyond my ability. But that’s not going to stop me from trying.
I’m going to help Rhydian. One way or another. And that is a promise that I am sure I can keep.
Chapter twenty-seven
It is the middle of the night, why am I awake? The furs are soft beneath me, it’s dark and quiet. Beams of moonlight are escaping around the heavy curtains, but I don’t think they are bright enough to have woken me.
Rhydian is behind me. Motionless and tense. I don’t think he is even breathing. My heart flutters and adrenaline floods my veins.
“What’s wrong?” I whisper.
I can’t hear anything, see anything, or sense anything. But he clearly can. What should I do? How do I help?
Suddenly, Iestyn glides into our bedroom. My head spins. I swear the door didn’t open. One minute he wasn’t here, the next he was.
“My, my, your wards really are pathetic,” he says softly. Insidiously. “No wonder a mere human could break in.”
I shiver. Goosebumps erupt all along my skin and the hair on the back of my neck rises.
Iestyn is silver and grey in the moonlight, but his eyes are still green and cold. He slinks up to me. His hand twists cruelly in my hair, and he yanks me out of bed and dumpsme on the floor. I land hard on my ass and scramble away as soon as he releases me.
