Page 33 of Ruling the Green

But there wasn’t anything left in me as my face pressed to the cold floor, as the pain became a million stab wounds through every inch of skin.

I heard the sounds as Nira moved things around. “This? This flask?” she asked, but I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t move. Could barely think.

Nira reached for me, ignoring the way a ragged, broken sound escaped me as she pulled me up and dragged me to sit against the tub, using her shoulder to keep me upright as she uncapped the flask and held it up to my lips.

The second I felt a single drop on my lips, it was like a sunbeam burst open inside me, chasing away the cold, the pain, the bone-deep ache to be close to my lake again.

“Whoa,” Nira said as I jerked hard, gasping for air my lungs felt like they hadn’t breathed in days.

I reached for the flask, holding it in front of my mouth, but only allowing one more drop to fall onto my tongue.

I could hear it. My lake. I could hear it calling to me in the water, could feel it stirring inside me as the second drop leached into my system.

My vision sharpened.

My mind cleared.

I let myself listen to the lake for one moment more before capping the flask.

Sensing Nira’s gaze on me, I turned my head to find her watching me with those disarming golden eyes. She searched my face for a long moment, then looked at the flask and back at me.

“Hell’s teeth,” she said, and I could see the realization forming. “You’re a water fae.” She reached for the flask, uncapping it and sniffing. “Is this from your water source?”

I gave a slight nod.

“Why would someone—” she started, but was cut off by the bedroom door opening and men’s footsteps moving inside.

“Serin?” Jet called, and I was surprised how strong the urge was to go to him.

“In here,” Nira called back.

Both men moved into the doorway, taking in the scene of the two of us on the floor, of the foreign flask in Nira’s hand.

“Is that from a servant?”

“No,” Nira said, handing it back to me. “It’s Serin’s.”

“Serin… Serin didn’t have anything.”

“Yeah, about that,” Nira said. “Where are all her belongings? Why is she wearing your clothes? What the fuck have you dragged me into?”

Jet glanced at Vishen, who moved into the hall, glancing around, then calling Knight to stand outside the bedroom, locking it, then moving back into the water closet with us.

“Serin was kidnapped and used as a stand-in for Gemma Grimwood,” Jet told her.

“That’s… that’s treasonous.”

“Yes,” Jet confirmed.

“Why isn’t he hanging from the front gate, his entrails spilling out to get picked apart by vultures?”

I shrank away from the vile image that put into my mind. Admittedly, my life had been quite insulated from the cruelty some Dark fae were known for. My heart ached at the idea of such violence. Even if Grimwood had treated me terribly, pulling me from my life source to slowly fade away in the court so his daughter didn’t have to marry the prince.

“Things are… complicated politically right now,” Jet said, choosing his words carefully.

Nira let out a laugh. “Oh, I’ll say. A mad king leading us into a pointless war.” The men’s brows raised, but they didn’t contradict her. “What? I’m not supposed to notice he’s a ranting lunatic who is ready to send thousands of men and women like me to our deaths all for, what, his pride?”

“I suppose I thought he was fooling more people than he is,” Jet said.