“You aren’t a human changeling. Your beast is different than theirs. You need to be trained. Now, enough talking. Transform into thebeast.”
I just stared at him. Little did he know, I couldn’t. It was a precious tidbit of information I’d kept to myself all this time. Because if he knew I didn’t truly have a beast inside me, then he might very well kill me on the spot. I’d no longer be any use to them. I’d just be the nuisance daughter of Queen Marin, a fae they’d had assassinated because she didn’t fit into theirplans.
And ifIdidn’t fit into their plans? My fate would be thesame.
“Go on.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I am not asking for anything complicated for now. Just transform. Let me see your beastlyself.”
“I’ve got a bit of stage fright,” I said, lying through my teeth. “Like you said, I’m new to this whole thing. I don’t think I can control it that well justyet.”
The Prince let out a heavy sigh and made a few attempts to rile me up, hoping to draw the beast from my skin. I pretended to make an effort, straining and panting and curling my hands as if they were claws. After several hours of this, he finally gave up. And, luckily, he didn’t appear to be suspicious justyet.
“That is enough for today.” He knocked on the wooden door to alert the guard that we were done. “We will try again tomorrow. Get some more rest. Perhaps your body is too tired for thetransformation.”
But he was wrong, of course. The next day, I ‘tried’ yet again to shift into a beast, but it was impossible. I was immune to the Redcap venom. I was never going to change. Still, the Prince pressed on, trying to coach me through a transformation that would nevercome.
Three days later, the knock didn’t come on my door at dawn. ‘Dawn” as I had quickly realized, was the moment the moon began to peek over the horizon. A light silvery glow would fill the sky, signalling the world that it was the start of a new dark day. I still hadn’t gotten used to it, and I doubted I ever would, but I was beginning to find the rhythm of this strange darkplace.
The knock finally came several hours too late. The Prince had a strained expression on his face, and he averted his eyes as he stepped inside the room before murmuring something to the guard that always stood outside my door, all day and night. I swore he neverslept.
The guard disappeared, and the Prince cocked his head to listen to the distant sound of hisfootsteps.
“Be honest with me, Norah,” the Prince said suddenly, dropping his voice into a low whisper. “You are no Redcap, areyou?”
I pressed my lips tight together. I’d known this day would come eventually. There was only so long I could keep up the charade. The Prince, no matter how horrible he might be, wasn’tstupid.
“I’m not sure what you mean,” I finally said. “Your father sent that girl after me. She slashed my neck to pieces.” I pointed at my throat. The marks were still there, though they’d begun to fade over the past few days as the healing magic of my heritage shot through my skin and blood. “A lot of venom filled mybody.”
He pursed his lips. “That is neither a yes or a no. Tell me, Norah. Are you aRedcap?”
“What do youthink?”
He blinked at me, and then kicked the stone wall of my cell. Swearing under his breath, he strode from one end of the small room to the other. He jammed his fingers into his dark hair, almost as though he were trying to jerk out the thoughts spinning through hisbrain.
Which were what,exactly?
He stopped short and gave me a nod as if we’d been in the middle of a conversation all this time. “I cannot believe I am doingthis.”
“Doing what?” I arched an eyebrow, doing my best to mask my own emotions. Fear churned through my gut at the knowledge that he knew the truth about me now. Would he take me before the King? Would he slice off my head right here andnow?
“Come on.” He grabbed my arm in his rough grip and yanked me out the cell door. “We better hurry before the guard comesback.”
“Wait,” I said, my feet stumbling over themselves. “What are you doing? Where are you takingme?”
“I’m taking you back to your goddamnrealm.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Prince draggedme all the way back to the Faerie Ring and through the dark jagged rocks before he spoke another word. His body was brimming with an intense kind of energy, that same dark power that felt like chaos and greed. He dropped his grip on my arm and stepped back, staring at me as though he were looking at aghost.
I took several steps back, putting some distance between us. Enough for me to shadow myself and run if he so much as looked at mefunny.
“Go,” he said. “Go back to your people. Find another way for us to get the energy we need tosurvive.”
Without another thought in his direction, I turned to run, though my feet slowed before I got very far. I cast a glance over my shoulder, staring hard at the dark figure that still stood there shivering in the white mist. “Why are you letting me go? Your father is going to killyou.”
“He wouldn’t kill me literally, but hewouldkill you.” The wind whipped around his face, and his dark hair slashed against his skin. “The Dark Fae cannot go on as we are. I truly believe we can find another way. But hurry. I don’t know how long it will be before my father findsout—”
His eyes went as wide as saucers, and an arrow slammed into his back. He tumbled forward, falling face-first onto the blanket of snow. King Midas rose up behind his son, evil delight dancing in his reddish eyes. He held an empty bow, and a quiver of arrows was slung across hisback.
