“I wasn’t trying to get you in trouble.” She was about to turn away, but I snagged hold of one of her hands. “Please, Betsee,pleasetell me what’s going on. Why have I been brought here? I’ve done nothing that warrants being locked up.”
Her eyes softened. “To keep you safe, my lady. Truly, that’s all I know, but I believe more answers will be coming in the morning.” She patted my hand. “Now, you should try to sleep. Good night.”
She left in a flurry of arms and hands, and when the door opened, I saw several guards positioned in the hallway. I knew she hadn’t been lying. Kole hadn’t either in that aspect. Their orders were to keep me safe because, for some reason, somebody was after me.
Me, of all fae. I still couldn’t comprehend why. As far as I knew, I was a nobody, and I’d never done anything to hurt anyone. Yet the king and queen apparently knew of me. And Verin had been in my aunt and uncle’s home to hurt us, orperhaps just me if Jamie’s comments were to be believed, yet Timith had been the one to fall ill.
Once again, memories of that elixir Jamie had found in Verin’s room clouded my thoughts, as well as the peculiar thing the lying servant had said when she’d finally cut her act.“You’re all pawns in the game of night. I am merely a servant, but my liege will get to her eventually. Now that we know for certain who she is.”
She truly had been in my aunt and uncle’s home for ulterior motives that somehow involved me. Even though I didn’t understand why, I couldn’t deny that fact.
I fell back on the pillows, and my stomach churned.
The clock near the bed told me it was almost midnight. Moonlight filtered into the chambers, and my exhaustion was beginning to set in. After my terrifying visit to Silventine Wood earlier in the evening, in which I’d found the Stone, and then my emotionally charged return home with the warriors, in which my entire reality was swept out from beneath me, I was bone-tired.
But I kept thinking about my uncle, or rather, the male I’d always believed to be my uncle. But according to Aunt Gwen, he wasn’t my dead father’s brother, as I’d been raised to believe. In fact, neither Gwen nor Timith were related to me at all.
I turned on my side, stomach tumbling anew as I considered everything.
Gwen had said they’d been bound by a fairy bargain never to reveal the truth to me. She’d said the crown had commissioned that bargain.
So perhaps they were also pawns in whatever game was being played, but even if they had withheld the truth from me, I still loved them, and I knew they loved me too. Which made what Timith was turning into all the more heartbreaking. And the fact that I hadn’t saved him kept twisting my gut with guilt.
I tried and tried to figure out what in the realm was happening or why I’d been singled out, and theonlything I could think of that stood me apart from other fae was my forbidden magic—my innately powerful ability to read fae’s minds and fully and completely control them if I chose to, completely unbeknownst to them in the process.
Nobody else in the kingdom had that kind of power, even though some powerful fae could psychically control others with verbal commands. But nobody could control others as covertly andabsolutelyas I could. It was the only thing that made me unique from other siltenites.
So does my magic have something to do with this?
I frowned even more because I didn’t see how it could. The only fae in the realm who knew what I could do were me, Gwen, and Timith, and I knew neither of them would have told a soul of my abilities, so there was no way Verin could have known what I was capable of.
Tears moistened my eyes. Everything was such a mess and made absolutely no sense. But worst of all, my uncle was doomed to whatever fate lay ahead of him.
“I’m sorry I failed you,” I whispered into the dark.
I closed my eyes, and even though I tried to keep my focus on my uncle as I drifted off to sleep, it wasn’t his face that kept creeping into my mind.
It was Kole’s.
His betrayal cut me anew, and tears streamed down my cheeks as I sobbed into the pillow.
Foolish.I’d beensofoolish.
I let myself cry, just to get it all out, but it didn’t change my reality. I was alone. Caged. My uncle was either going to die or turn into something that wasn’t fae. And Kole was nothing but a warrior who’d done the job he’d been commanded to do.
CHAPTER TWO
I woke early the next morning after tossing and turning all night in a fitful rest. Dreams had plagued me. Awful, horrible nightmares in which my uncle fully transformed into an unrecognizable monster.
In my dreams, the Stone had been there, ready for me to grab to save my uncle, but every time I tried to reach the beautiful starlight gem, it fell farther and farther away.
When I finally woke, a sheen of sweat covered me. Since no one could see me use my magic, I whisked the sweat away in a furious burst of self-cleansing despite the blue cuff that shackled my wrist, then I mentally contacted my aunt.
I scratched against her consciousness, and given how easy it was, I was startled to discover that wherever I’d been transported to wasn’t overly far from their residence. Most likely, I was still in Whiteolf, or just outside of it.
She answered slowly, as though she’d been in the middle of something.Prim?
Yes, it’s me. How is he?
