CHAPTER ONE
Confession of a princess:
When flower petals fall, I no longer mind. I am used to their tiny deaths. One after another. Or, occasionally, many sweet-scented petals drop in a clump, as if they don’t wish to leave this realm alone. All colors of the beautiful rainbow eventually fall. They flutter to the ground, saying their final goodbyes on a breeze.
Unless they are black flower petals.
Those, I don’t particularly like…
THEELFKINGDOMis splayed far below King Traevon and me as we fly, making our way back from High Pointe—our retrieval of the Key of Kingdoms a success. Our Fae-gifts gently lift our filthy bodies up and down with each powerful beat of their wings, our perch a perfect distance between the woodland grounds and the hovering clouds. The magnificent beauty of Gatlin Grove, the capital of the Elf Kingdom, will forever make me smile from this viewpoint, even if I wear the dirt of the Blood Forest on my clothes…and in my hair, under my fingernails, and between my teeth.
I readjust on my flying saddle—and scratch my ass.
Perhaps, I have the Blood Forest’s dirt in unmentionable places, too, but that still doesn’t crush my contentment.
My heart sings with happiness watching my people go about their merry day under the sunshine, completely unaware of the real danger threatening not just the elves but the entire realm—and what the rulers have done to combat it thus far. That is what royals do. And, oddest of oddities, it is whatIdo now, even though I’ve barely stumbled over into my majority.
A royal protects their people from any foe.
Even a foe we’ve never seen before.Giants.
I will do whatever is demanded of me.Always.
Even if I don’t think I’m ready for this responsibility.
Royals are at the mercy of the populace. We belong to the people just as they belong to us. They have their jobs, and we have ours. Together, we are one.
And the royals willnotfail the realm…hopefully.
Father steered his Fae-gift, Javon, to the north to our castles that lay nearby. He glanced over his shoulder, and shouted in a fury, “There is something wrong!”
Penelope kept pace with her sire, keeping us a proper head length behind the elf king. I leaned forward on my flying saddle that kept my lower body strapped to her back, and bellowed, “What are you talking about, Father?”
King Traevon sharply pointed a finger toward the palace grounds. “Look!”
I squinted at my smaller castle first, but there was nothing special to note about it. It still looked the same. But then my vision snagged on the main castle—my father and my mother’s home—and I couldn’t quite understand what I was seeing. The castle itself appeared normal, the stone unharmed and the golden spires reaching high into the air intact.
What held me stiffly in place was the ground around it.
It was black. Where green, lush grass should be…black.
The shadowy hue reached far out, almost to the gates.
My heart rate sped up, pounding against my breastbone. I screeched, “Is Mother all right?”
Father rubbed against his chest, right over his heart where his Fae-spark lay—where he would be able tofeelhis soul mate’s emotions. My king didn’t respond quickly enough for my liking. He took his time before shouting, “It is peculiar! She feels happy, but it is not normal. I cannot feel her as strongly as I always do. It is quiet, hiding!”
My brows puckered. “Is that from the drug?”
King Traevon nodded his head slowly. “I believe so!”
I lowered my tensed shoulders, relief zinging through my veins, knowing my mother wasn’t hurt. I bellowed, “That is good!”
“Indeed!” Father’s head tilted to the side as we slowly started to descend to his castle’s front yard—now black. Then his face jerked back in shock, and he barked in alarm, “The blackness is moving! Don’t land, Trixie! Pull up, pull up!”
“Penelope!” I shrieked, hauling back on her black and red mane. “Do as Father said!”
Javon managed to right his flight safely with my king.
