“You know I can’t do that. Even the vampire king can’t reach you here.”
Gritting my teeth, I continued my climb. With a whoosh of air and the brush of feathers against my skin, Vincent flew past me and waited for me. By the time I reached him, I was out of breath again. Oxygen seemed to be thick and thin in this bloody realm all at once. Like it was doing everything it could to kill me.
The branch we stood on was so thick it was safe enough to walk on without grabbing onto any of the smaller branches for stability. Still, Vincent reached for me to steady me when I stretched to my full height. I slapped his hand away with a hiss and trudged toward the objects that had snagged my attention.
A lump swelled in the back of my throat when we came close enough to see exactly what they were.
They were primitive cages, at least half a dozen of them made of bone and rope.
Not all of them were empty.
A petrified corpse of an undistinguishable animal lay curled at the bottom of the smallest cage, the other beside it being several times its size with a much larger body inside. Its occupant looked like it might have been human at first glance, but the skeleton alone was huge. Almost as big as Vin’s full fae form. Its boney fingers were still wrapped around the bars of his prison, and its jaw was frozen into a permanent scream.
“W–what the fuck? What is that?”
“Wood elf,” Vin huffed, coming up behind me.
“Uh, no. Nuh-uh. There’s no freaking way elves are that huge.”
“This is Fairie, Little Monster.” I could practically hear the eye roll in his baritone cadence. “Elves are nothing like they are in human tales. They don’t make cookies or shoes or toys for a jolly old fat man. They are wild, vile creatures that live in the trees and terrorize unsuspecting fae.”
“What’s it doing here? And what’s with all the cages?”
He gave a thoughtful hum and reached to jerk loosely on a vine holding up one of the empty cages. “Another tribe made this. The hunters in my village have used the same sort of technique before. These are meant to store prey when fae hunters are out on hunting trips that stray far from home. My kind eat meat, but we get more nutrients from pain. Since the prey provides the most benefit to the village when brought back alive, the cages keep them from wandering off while preventing other jungle predators from stealing the kill.”
My stomach knotted as I stared at the man who’d clearly died from starvation or thirst.
“They never came back for this one, though?”
“Hunters become greedy when they capture a larger kill. All they need is a small taste to leave them craving more.”
My blood roared in my veins when I twisted around to see the way he eyed me.
“Wood elves are a rare prize. If the fae who’d captured it managed to bring it back to his village alive, there’d be a feast in his honor. Had he brought back two of them? He could keep one for himself, and the amount of pain he could draw from it would be enough to challenge the strongest of warriors in his village. He might even be lucky enough to best the village chief in combat and take the chief’s mate for his own.”
Vin rapped his knuckles over the cage holding the corpse. “Since this was never retrieved, it’s safe to say the hunter didn’t get lucky with the second elf he attempted to capture.”
My brow scrunched in confusion. “How can something like a wood elf kill a dark fae? I thought your kind was supposed to be the kings of the jungle or something.”
“We are the superior creatures who call these jungles home, but that doesn’t mean we’re always the strongest.”
I’d only been in this god-forsaken jungle a few minutes, and the infernal flames of my anger were building by the second, each nugget of information I gathered adding fuel to the fire.
This place wasn’t safe at all.
Fairie was filled with monstrosities far more dangerous than Feral.
My mate must have figured out what was going through my head, either from the rapid hammering of my heart or the way my legs trembled because he reached for me. Before I could get away, I was being lifted into the air, and in the next breath, he was tucking me into the cradle of his arms.
The tenderness in his eyes softened my defenses for just a beat. Long enough to take the full blow that his next words dealt.
“Do not fear. I’ll keep you safe. Forever. I make this oath to you.”
It felt like a lie.
In the past month, all the guys had lied to me about something. But Vincent’s was the worst of all.
He’d promised me Dagon’s heart. He’d promised he’d remain vulnerable and honest. He’d promised to share me with the other princes and keep his fae side under control.
