Reyna’s vision swam. Hours of captivity were beginning to wear her thin. The wood fae had brought her and Lorcan bread and water, just barely enough to sustain them for another day. A slight wind rustled through the tall grass stalks that surrounded their cage, creating a sea of gold. It would have been beautiful, if she wasn’t surrounded by thick iron bars that would burn her skin if they made contact.
“Snap out of it,” Lorcan said. “You’re an unsworn Shieldmaiden. I know your constitution is stronger than this. We have only been in captivity for two days, and they have fed us well.”
“It’s not the food,” she said in a whisper. “It’s Wingallock.”
“Your owl?”
“My familiar,” she said. “We’re linked, he and I. Spending this amount of time apart is difficult on us both.”
Lorcan was quiet for a moment. She knew that he was still annoyed at her for not explaining why she’d raced into the woods. In truth, she could not really blame him. Her mission had gotten them captured, after all. Even though it had not been her plan, she hadn’t expected the Wood Court to be so opposed to letting her speak. They were more stubborn than she had realized.
“Is it painful to be away from your bird?” he asked.
“In a way. It mostly leaves me feeling tired, dizzy, and just…wrong.”
“Can you call him to you?”
She shook her head. “I told him to remain in my bedchamber, and he is too far away for me to feel him through our bond.”
“So, you came into this thing knowing that you might die,” he said, tone turning sharp once again. “Alone and without telling a single person. Reyna, you cannot do these kinds of things.”
“Why not?” She lifted her chin, eyes flashing. “I think it’s fairly clear that no one in your court actually wants me here. The High Queen certainly doesn’t, and Thane’s had to settle with his third—and last—choice. The other courtiers have been either distantly polite or cruelly passive aggressive. The only person that has been even remotely kind to me is...”
She pressed her lips together, pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders, and turned her head sharply toward the side, looking away from Lorcan. For a moment there, she had been terrifyingly close to telling Lorcan that he had been kind to her. It might have felt like the truth, but she knew it was far from it. Thane had assigned Lorcan to keep an eye on her, more to prevent her doing something that would embarrass him rather than because Lorcan himself wanted to protect her. That was not kindness. It was just his position as a guard.
“You may feel that way, but right now, Prince Thane will be making preparations to come speak with the wood fae. In order to save you from captivity. And death.”
She turned back toward him, eyeing him warily. There it was again. That strange suggestion that Thane wasin love with her. Compared to the lifespans of ancient fae before the Fall, Reyna had not lived very long, but she certainly hadn’t been born yesterday either. Prince Thane tolerated her, if even that. They had scarcely spent any time together since her arrival at his court.
In fact, he spent far more time with her sister, pouring over books to find answers about the Ruin.
She had not succeeded in seducing him, though she hadn’t even tried. With assassins and vicious High Queens and spies jumping through her window, she had been distracted from her original intent. To marry the prince, get him on the throne, and then kill him so that she could take his kingdom as her own.
“I’m not certain if you truly believe that he cares for me or if you’ve found some way to lie,” she said.
“Lie? Fae cannot lie, princess.”
The truth may be twisted but never false.
His face was unreadable. A mask of indifference hidden in the shadows. It annoyed her. Reyna shifted against the hard ground and searched his ebony eyes for any indication of the truth. If hewerea liar, then he certainly wouldn’t tell her he was. But there was only one way he could avoid speaking the truth. And that was if he was a shadow fae.
That was impossible. The Shadow Court had been exiled so long ago that there wasn’t a single trace of their kingdom left in Tir Na Nog. They’d been banished, cut off from the rest of the continent. At the time, it had been almost a death sentence. Their lands struggled to yield crops beneath the constant darkness of their skies, and they could no longer count on the trade routes. Tir Na Nog had been at war, but smugglers still crossed the borders before the exile. Shadow fae were willing to pay a great deal for food, and merchants did not care where that coin came from. But no more. Smugglers wouldn’t risk it these days. Anyone who crossed that border was shot dead.
The Air Court had even taken control of the shadow fae’s castle in the capital city of Findius. It sat just on the border between the Shadow Court and the Wood Court. Taking the castle prevented any shadow fae king from ever sitting on his true source of power: the coronation seat. Even now, those thrones held magic, bestowing the realm’s blessing on any king or queen who sat there. Each court had a Seat of Power. And the Shadow Court’s seat had been stolen from them, as retaliation for their brutal actions.
For years, there had been no sign of shadow fae in the other five kingdoms of Tir Na Nog. They had not approached Findius or tried to take it back. Reyna doubted there were even any alive. Bu if there were any shadow fae left, they would be living on the scraps of what the land could provide.
“A lie or not, you’re wrong,” she said, turning to gaze at the campsite where a new fire blazed. From this distance, it was impossible to hear anything the wood fae said. She pressed her fingers against the tiny patches of ice that were left on the ground and breathed in deep. A slight tingle of magic whispered across her skin but nothing more.
Lorcan crossed his arms over his leather-armored chest. “Thane will come.”
She took in his strong jaw, his hard eyes, and his immovable strength. There was something he was hiding. Reyna was certain of it. “You never finished telling me about the Wild Hunt. Back in your grasslands village. Tell me the story now. It will help pass the time.”
“You’re right. We got interrupted by your Ruin. It almost seemed like it was following you.”
She frowned. “MyRuin? You speak as if you believe I had something to do with it.” And then she realized what he had done. He had distracted her from her question. Typical fae nonsense. “Nice try. Tell me about the Wild Hunt. Or is there some reason you don’t wish to discuss it?”
“It was fairly tramautizing to be chased down by Fomorians. I was only a boy. I don’t enjoy recounting it.”
