“She must have been trying to escape – perhaps a bomb of some sorts?”
“Whatever it was, that was too close. We can’t forget how dangerous these faeries can be – no matter how innocent they may look.”
Faye listened to the guards’ armour chinking and the iron bars creaked closed behind them.
“Sun up will be soon. We’ll take shifts to check in on her until then. I’ll handover to the lads who are on duty in the morn, so we’re all on the same page. We’d better inform the king too.”
“The king isn’t in Banesteppe, Oriel is at the helm,” a different guard replied.
“Perhaps we’ll inform Raxx of our decision then. He’ll be—”
The voices trailed off as the guards walked back down the corridor away from the cell. Faye strained her ears to listen in, but it was no good. Their voices bounced and echoed off the stone walls, obscuring what remained of their conversation.
The princess lay still for a moment, strapped tightly to the bed. She recognised that she should be terrified, yet no such feelings came. There was a deep part of her that felt the flurry of emotions she knew should be bubbling over right now, and yet she was tired. Faye was exhausted in a way she had never experienced before, right down to her soul.
Her mind drifted in and out of the heavy delirium that had draped itself over her, focussing instead on a slow drip of water, echoing from somewhere in the distance.
∞∞∞
A cold flurry disturbed the damp air in the cell and Faye shivered as she woke. Somewhere, her daze must have given way to sleep, but she hadn’t been aware of it. She stretched, confused for a moment when she couldn’t move her arms and legs.
“Well, looks like someone is in a literal bind,” Raxx’s deep voice spoke from beside her.
The princess squirmed, feeling her cheeks heat with embarrassment. Something about the shadow demon’s tone suggested he wasn’t entirely dissatisfied with the situation. It made her stomach flutter.
Faye scowled and she attempted to growl a response around her gag.
She heard the demon’s leather armour squeak as he moved towards her. He gently hooked his gloved fingertip into the corner of her mouth, tugging her gag free.
The princess gasped with relief, licking her dry, chapped lips. “Thank you.”
“I think I owed you that, at the very least.”
There was a long pause before Raxx spoke again.
“Whilst I very much appreciated the jolt – did you know that was going to happen last night?” he asked.
Faye’s brow furrowed with confusion. “What happened? The last thing I remember is an explosion, then the guards came in and tied me up.”
“Let me explain the full story.”
Faye barely resisted a snide response about Raxxfinallygiving her some answers, but decided to hold her tongue. Sating her curiosity was far more important.
“Shadow travel – that is, teleporting place to place – is very taxing. It uses a lot of majick energy. When we arrived at Tabitha’s, I had already used a fair amount of energy that day and wasn’t feeling at my best. Unfortunately, whilst Tab is one of my oldest friends, she is also a conniving bitch.”
The princess snorted.
“Tab used me and my weakened state as a lure to encourage you to use your majick to defend me – which I’m very grateful for, but that’s another discussion entirely.”
Without her eyesight, Faye was forced to lay quietly on the bed, listening to Raxx as he spoke. It occurred to her this was the most she had heard him say in one sitting since they had met. He had a nice voice; it was a shame he didn’t use it more often.
“When I attempted to teleport us back here, I didn’t have enough energy to perform the incantation, so I picked a closer, safer destination. I can’t remember much after that. How I managed to get us back here or—”
“I did it,” Faye whispered.
“You?”
“I brought us here. I was panicking about being missing from my cell and I don’t know what happened. I focussed really hard on bringing us here and something just took over.”
