That night (at least I thought it was that night and not another), the young servant returned with more food and more smiles.
Again I attempted to converse with her. “Hello. I’m Raewyn,” I said as she set the bed tray in front of me.
She simply smiled and nodded but didn’t offer her own name. As before, she turned to leave the room.
“Wait. Please,” I said.
The girl turned back to face me. So shecouldhear me.
Perhaps she was unable to speak.
Perhaps she just didn’t want to.
“If you are able, please tell me where I am,” I said. “I don’t remember arriving here. I don’t recognize this room. Do you know what happened to me? Am I at Castle Seaspire?”
She shook her head side to side, then her eyes went round, as if she’d made a mistake.
The girl held up a finger in the universal gesture forjust a minutethen turned again and dashed away, leaving the door open this time.
Minutes later, I heard the sound of heavy footsteps coming down the hall.
Stellon.
My heart picked up speed, and my breath quickened in anticipation of seeing him.
The Fae prince entered the room. But it wasn’t Stellon.
It was Pharis.
And he had the nerve to smile.
“They told me you were awake. How are you feeling?”
In answer to his question, I lifted the heavy water goblet from my tray and hurled it at his head.
Quick as ever, he ducked to the side, and the glass smashed against the wall behind him.
Pharis let out a surprised laugh. “I see your strength is returning. Good thing that wasn’t a dagger. It’s me, Wildcat.”
“Iknowit’s you,” I said. “That’s why I threw it.”
Grabbing the sharp steak knife from its spot beside my plate, I drew my arm back again. Before I could throw it, the blade flew from my hand off to the side where it embedded itself into an intricately woven wall tapestry.
I whipped my eyes from the apparently enchanted knife back to Pharis’ face.
“I have acquired a whole list of new glamours since we last saw one another,” he explained. “There isn’t a thing you could do to hurt me.”
He approached the bed and dropped into the chair beside it, looking very relaxed.
“Although, I’m not sure why you’d want to scar this perfect face. Some thanks I get for saving you from the gallows.”
“Yousaved me,” I said, shock dousing my anger and turning it into disbelief.
His tone was amused. “Do you not remember the three-ton dragon that swooped in and carried you off to safety?”
I gasped. “That was real? I thought I dreamed it. I had nightmares of flying high above the earth in the grip of a monster.”
“It was real,” he said. “And it was under my control.”
