Kestra’s smile turns into a crooked frown as she glances at me over her shoulder. “Oh, Ash, I’m?—”
“Don’t.” Sorry, she was going to say sorry. And she is. She apologizes nearly every morning. “You are just as much a prisoner as I am.”
And every day her father keeps me locked in the tower, apart from not just my mates, but from the wildlands my court calls home, kills a small part of me every day. Turns out Moros knew just how to torture a Wild Court Fae.
Remove her ability to touch the soil. I learned far too quickly that I recharge that way, which sleeping in a tree hollow should have been the first hint.
This tower is killing me. Slowly. Day by day, something inside is going quiet. Like my Wild magic is forgetting how to breathe.
And it isn’t just that, it’s my earthly home. With my cousins, and my family.
“Well.” She sighs, giving me one of her charming smiles. It isn’t that they’re rare, they’re just so warm and wholesome. “Mine was by choice.”
Kestra is the embodiment of a Disney princess. Only she’s Fae, and Unseelie and could probably kill you with that same smile.
“You could have stayed.” She never would have remained at the Academy. Not with Kieran returning to the Unseelie Court.
No, this sweet princess is my handmaid. By choice. To remain near a woman she barely knew.
Knows.
“Don’t you start, either,” she scolds me while making the bed. I’ve told her not to do that but she doesn’t listen.
Kestra needs to remain moving at all times. She doesn’t stop.
Cleaning. Researching. Gardening.
Honestly I’m exhausted just watching her most days.
“Fine, I won’t.” I make my cup of coffee from the beans she smuggled from the other side. Well, Earth. We are on the other side. “Oh, this is the best.”
“Kieran picked them up,” she teases, tossing the blanket to remove the wrinkles.
Just his name. My heart skips. A strange pinching twists through me. And as always I look at my left wrist where our bonding bracelet glows.
I got the guy. Sure.
His dad just won’t let him near me.
And the other two? Finnian’s probably buried in some archive pretending research will fix this. Orion’s out there somewhere burning through the Borderlands looking for a fight he can win.
I don’t even know if they’re okay.
That’s the part that wakes me up at night. Not the cold. Not the stone. The not knowing.
“Oh.” I hide my interest behind my cup of coffee.
Kestra sees right through me. “If it helps he’s more asshole than brooding lately.”
“It doesn’t.” I wrinkle my nose as I take another long sip of coffee.
“I hear father may introduce you to the court,” she says and I know she is trying to ease me into their life. “Starting with breakfast.”
Into the Unseelie life.
I love her for it no matter how much I know I don’t belong here.
“How fascinating.”
