Page 18

The only thing different about the nursery is that more beds and cradles have been brought in to accommodate the influx of children from Karnon’s prison.

I try not to shudder as I stare at the kids. They were frightening before, when they were simply strange children who drank blood and prophesized, but now, knowing how they were conceived… The horror washes over me again.

Even after the nurse announces us to the kids, none of them move.

The hair along my arms rises.

There’s something deeply unsettling about these kids, this place.

Taking a deep breath, I head toward the window. Des is right at my side, his heavy boots thudding with each step, his jaw tight.

“You came back,” one of the children says, her back to me.

I falter for a moment before pulling myself together. “I did.”

“You weren’t supposed to,” another says.

I’d forgotten these kids act as a single unit.

As one, they turn, watching me with wary eyes as I approach them.

Des steps in front of me, and several of them hiss at him.

“Any of you touch my mate like last time,” he says, speaking over their hisses, “you’ll find yourselves banished.”

Surprisingly, the threat works, and their hisses die off.

I catch Des’s eye as he steps aside, and I give him a look. Threatening kids, even creepy ones, is not kosher.

He meets my gaze with a steely one of his own.

All right. Banishment it is.

The children split their attention between cagily watching Des and shrewdly studying me.

I crouch in front of the closest child, a girl with flaming-red hair, my eyes scouring her features. No horns, no claws, no slitted pupils. She looks nothing like Karnon, save for the fangs she must have in order to drink blood.

“Slaves live such short lives,” she tells me as I assess her.

Slaves, the official classification of most humans living in the Otherworld.

Ever heard of human babies being swapped with fae changelings? Ever wonder what happened to all those human babies? Enslavement is what happened to them.

The Night Kingdom deemed the practice illegal some time ago, but the other kingdoms still allow it.

“Why do you say that?” I ask the girl, trying to hide that I’m majorly creeped out.

“They are dirty and weak and ugly,” the boy next to her says.

I’m acutely aware of the fact that, in these children’s eyes, I am one of the humans they’re degrading.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see wispy, curling shadows form at the edges of the room, a clear indication of Des’s rising anger.

I focus on the boy. “Who told you that?”

“My father,” he replies. His mouth curves into a small secretive smile. “He’s coming for you.”

I straighten and take a step back, my eyes glued to his face. Blood rushes between my ears.