“He’s telling the truth. I am a princess,” I growled, trying to break free from his grasp.
“Quiet, street lady. My gobbas are hungry, and you will make a fine dinner.” He dropped my arm without a care, and I landed with a thud on the leaves below us. Once again, before I even had a chance to stand, goblins swarmed over me, hauling metowards the fire.
“Wait a minute!” Lukas shouted, panic settling into his voice. Clearly, this was not going how he planned. “You want dinner? Take me instead.”
“You are wumbah,” Grimlurd chuckled, pausing the goblins who were dragging me away with another lift of his hand. “I do not care who your papa is, but lucky for you, I made a deal with someone who would not be happy if I killed you before she had her chance, so you live… for now.”
Deal? What deal? And who was ‘she’? Even Lukas looked confused.
“Strip her first,” Grimlurd ordered, as my heart nearly leapt from my chest. “No point in cooking the dress when we can use it for rags.”
“No!” I yelled, but my desperate protests were ignored. Goblins leapt onto me. There were so many tiny hands touching me everywhere. It was relentless. Panic surged from my chest, bubbling out as I screamed and slapped the beasts away, but they kept coming. First, the deep purple skirt was torn away in long ribbons. Then, a horrendous rip sounded down my back as the dress tore in half.
“Stop!” Was the last word I heard before a tremendously loud crack boomed from the sky.
A fierce streak of lightning. Followed by the most deafening roll of thunder.
CHAPTER 32
Blinding light filled my vision. So blinding, it was as if the Ancients themselves had decided that I’d suffered enough. Suddenly, all the little goblin hands vanished from my skin, and when I finally opened my eyes, all I could see was an endless white void. My hearing was gone, too, replaced by a constant whistling. Though I knew I was still in the forest. I could feel the wet leaves under my bare legs and the scraps of my gown falling away, leaving me in just my corset and bloomers.
“Run!” a nearby goblin screeched, piercing through the whistling. Then, there were the pitter-patter sounds of tiny feet scrambling away as I continued fumbling blindly on the forest floor.
“Grimlurd’s dead,” another goblin squealed. In the distance, I could hear the sawing noise of a rope being hacked apart.
“He’s fae!”That squeal made me flinch. Was Arenn here? Frantically, I blinked, desperate to clear the imprint from thelightning. Someone must’ve summoned a storm. It couldn’t have been natural. The weather was so calm until the second my gown was in pieces. Arenn’s sisters wielded fire, and he clearly could manipulate nature – so maybe he could summon lightning, too? He must’ve come for me after noticing I’d run away. Imagine chasing your bride into the woods and finding her with her gown being torn away by goblins. You’d be furious. Furious enough to conjure up a storm and strike down the goblin leader then and there.
Just then, a pair of strong arms lifted me from the ground.
“Arenn?” I questioned as my vision finally cleared.
“Who’s Arenn?” Lukas loomed over me. With a halo of brown hair circling his striking face, he appeared almost angelic against the backdrop of the night sky. And in that moment, something about him smelled sweeter too, like citrus fruits from the warmest parts of the realm.
As I continued to stare, his concerned eyes searched over my exposed arms and legs. “Did the lightning hit you? Are you confused?”
Confused didn’t even begin to describe the mess that scrambled my mind. But it wasn’t because I’d been struck by any bizarre lightning. Glancing past him, the sky was completely clear again. No trace of even a single wispy rain cloud. There was definitely magic at work here.
“What happened?” I stuttered. “What was that?”
“Nothing,” Lukas said dismissively as he hauled me to my feet. “Just a freak storm. We’ve had a lot of those recently.”
“But, the lightning… it came out of nowhere.”
“Like I said, a freak storm,” he repeated, frustration growing in his tone. “Now let’s go before the goblins realise that too.”
Surrounding us were hundreds of panicking goblins. They squealed and scampered around the camp in all different directions, a few bumping into each other and tumblingbackwards. It was utter mayhem. A few metres away, lying on the ground in a smoking heap, was the charred body of Grimlurd. It must’ve been a direct hit from the lightning, as a horrific scar traversed down his mossy skin.
Suddenly, a crazed goblin slammed against my leg, and I yelped. But just as the little beast steadied himself, his gaze swung to Lukas, and all the green drained from his face. “It’s him!” he screeched. “He’s no o’oman, he’s fae!” The goblin collapsed backwards in fear, his chest heaving dramatically as if he were inches away from a horrific monster instead of two scared humans.
“It’s time to go.” Lukas tugged on my hand. In the chaos, I hadn’t even realised he’d taken it.
“But what does he mean?” I stammered, my gaze darting between Lukas and the petrified goblin. “Why do they keep saying you’re fae? What are you hiding?”
The prince’s jaw tightened as he turned away, his lips remaining sealed.
“Are you human?” I wasn’t even sure why I asked that question. He had to be. His ears were round, and there was nothing supernatural about his perfect face. Still, with his hand in mine, I could feel a strange sensation, as though something powerful was crackling beneath his skin.
“Was it you?” I insisted, louder this time. “Did you summon the lightning?”
