Page 7

ALIX

“ Y ou were supposed to bring her straight to the king.”

“Yeah? What do you think Thorne would do if he saw his bride dressed like that?”

“So you decided to leave her alone to go running through the castle? Nice, Ashwater.”

When I wake for the second time, it takes me less than a second to know where I am.

The scent of roses as well as the mattress beneath my cheek tells me I’m back in the ornate castle bedroom. Worse, the wet chill covering my body makes it clear that I’m still wearing Daemon’s soaked and muddy T-shirt. Gross.

I want nothing more than to tear this thing off and crawl under the covers, but I resist. I keep my eyes closed, listening to three male voices arguing. I’m almost certain one of the voices is Daemon’s. The other two are harder to place.

“I didn’t have time to come up with a better plan,” Daemon says. “How was I supposed to know she wouldn’t recognize Odessa?”

“I don’t understand why this happened in the first place,” a lower, huskier voice replies.

“Yeah,” says the third voice, with a smile in his tone. “We’re not stupid, Ashwater. What the fuck were you thinking? No woman is worth going back to Dyaspora.”

There’s a loud bang, like the sound of a fist hitting the wall. “I was thinking I had no idea who she was.”

Keeping my eyes closed, I tune out the voices. I need a plan.

Part of me still wants to believe that I’m dreaming or stuck in some perpetual renaissance faire, but I can’t even sell that lie to myself. I just saw an entire castle full of magical creatures that not even Disney World could replicate. The only possibility is I am in Ellender.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t make me feel the tiniest bit less crazy.

“Stop arguing,” a fourth voice chimes in harshly, cutting off the background chatter. “She’s awake.”

I go stiff, feeling a room full of eyes on me. My closed eyes twitch, and I try not to move, feigning sleep.

A chair creaks, and I hear footsteps approaching, and sense the heat of a body leaning over me. “You’re a bad actress, Peaches.”

Damn it.

I open my eyes and look up into Daemon’s brilliant green gaze. “Don’t call me that.”

Just as I thought, I’m back in the enormous bedroom with Daemon, but this time, we’re not alone. In addition to Daemon, there are three strange men gathered around my bedside. All four of them are dressed identically in black pants tucked into shiny black boots, and bright-red military jackets.

Instantly, my gaze darts to Daemon’s shoulders.

They’re normal—aside from the golden tassels of his toy soldier costume. I’m 100% sure that if everything I’ve seen so far is real, then the wings were real too. But they’re nowhere to be seen. I don’t know whether that’s a relief or more frightening.

“What’s going on?” I ask, my voice shaking a little. “Who are you?”

Daemon’s eyes narrow. “They’re the ones who warned me you were outside in time to find you.”

I narrow my own eyes in response. I’m the one who has the right to be angry here and he’s giving me attitude?

The bronze-skinned man to Daemon’s right looks between us and rolls his eyes. “Excuse him. I wish I could say the ninety years in prison are to blame for his manners but he was always like this. I’m Kastian.”

Kastian holds out a hand for me to shake, and I grasp his fingers robotically, unable to think about anything besides ninety years in prison . Is that supposed to be a joke?

“That’s Jett.” Kastian points at a handsome east-Asian-looking man, who immediately flashes me a wide grin. He has close cropped black hair and impossibly straight, white teeth. He’s shorter and thinner than Daemon or Kastian, but his muscles stand out even beneath the fabric of his own red jacket.

“And this”—Kastian claps a hand down on the fourth man’s broad shoulder— “is Fox. He doesn’t talk much, don’t take it personally.”

Fox’s expression is flat, almost bored, and he barely looks at me as I sit up straighter. He’s by far the largest of the group with muscles like a bodybuilder. His skin is pale, and his blond hair is tied back in a bun at the nape of his neck. He reminds me of a Viking.

“O-okay,” I stammer. “Got it. Now tell me what the hell is going on. Why did you bring me here?”

Daemon falters, looking at a loss for what to say. Again, Kastian calmly takes over, leaning forward to look directly into my eyes. “No one is going to hurt you. You’re safe here.”

“Safe?” I scoff, inching further away from him. “Dude, there are goblins downstairs. I don’t know about you, but that’s not what I’d call fucking safe.”

His soothing expression cracks. He raises an eyebrow and turns to Daemon. His eyes go wide, and he mouths “Goblins?” in a way that clearly translates to What the fuck?

My thoughts exactly, dude; what the absolute fuck.

Without warning, a bulky mass of ash-colored fur launches itself onto my lap. My heart jolts with fear, and I scramble backward, ready to defend myself from another terrifying creature.

Then the beast meows at me. “Sushi?”

Nana’s enormous gray cat makes himself comfortable on my bed. My gaze flicks to Daemon. “Oh my fucking God. You didn’t just kidnap me, you took my grandmother’s cat too?”

“I thought you’d appreciate having your pet with you,” Daemon drawls.

Oh, so he’s a thoughtful kidnapper now? Yeah right.

Half furious, half terrified, I scramble out of bed.

The moment I stand, I realize that probably wasn’t the best idea.

Daemon’s wet shirt is stuck to my body which leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination. I might as well just take it off.

Shivering, I quickly cross my arms to cover myself. “Can I get something dry to wear? Please ?”

Daemon stares at me for a long, charged second. Then, seeming to remember we’re not alone, he tears his eyes off me and glowers at his friends. “Here.” He rips the quilt off the bed and throws it at me. “Use that while we find you some clothes. Where’s Odessa?”

“I’ll get her,” Jett says cheerfully, edging toward the door. “I saw her yesterday when we arrived, and Gods, she looks like she’d?—”

“Stop!” Daemon and Kastian bark at precisely the same time.

Jett just grins wider. “I was just going to say she looks like she’d be really nice. I’ll be right back.”

“Yeah, I’ll fucking bet that’s what he was going to say,” Daemon grumbles, running both hands through his burnt-honey hair. “Fox, go with him. He’ll just end up bothering Dessa for the next hour, and Isabelle will freeze to death before Thorne ever knows she’s here.”

Fox nods and rises silently, following Jett out of the room. I barely notice him go, unable to split my attention as I stand with my arms crossed, dazedly watching Sushi make biscuits in the silk bedspread. There’s a low buzzing in my ears and that’s the third time someone has called me ‘Isabelle.’

What the fuck is going on?

Daemon leans over to Kastian. “I don’t know how long we can avoid Thorne. He’s bound to know she’s here after that shitshow downstairs.”

Kastian rolls his eyes. “Actually, your luck continues to astound me, Ashwater. The king isn’t here.”

“What?” Daemon barks sharply. “Why? Where is he?”

“No one expected you back so soon. Last night the king dropped us here with the rest of the soldiers he doesn’t want to keep close, then left for the Winter Palace.”

Daemon lets out something between a laugh and a sigh of relief, then runs a hand through his already disheveled hair. “Damn. That’s the first real stroke of luck I’ve had in the last century.”

Kastian rolls his eyes again.

Just then, the door swings open again and Jett walks inside, followed by Fox. Now, they’re accompanied by the same AI Barbie who was in my room before I tried to run. She’s carrying an armful of fabric and laughing lightly at something Jett must have said in the hall.

My eyes widen and I take a wary step backward.

Everyone in the room is model-material, but this woman is a little creepy. She’s curvy, like the Venus in the half-shell, with red-blonde hair that looks straight out of a shampoo commercial. Her face is way too symmetrical, her movements slightly too graceful to be real, and now that I’m looking more closely at her, I notice that her eyes aren’t blue, they’re violet . Like Harold and the purple fucking crayon.

“Oh hell,” the woman says briskly, looking me up and down. “What have you all done to her?”

“We didn’t do anything,” Daemon mutters. “She did that to herself by running outside in the middle of a damn storm. She needs something else to wear.”

“Clearly!” The woman laughs. “Don’t worry, I’ll fix her up before she goes to see the king.”

I don’t like how they’re talking about me like I’m not here. Like I’m an object to be dragged around and dressed up for their own inscrutable purposes. The woman hurries toward me, and I shrink back toward the window.

At my obvious fear and disgust, the woman stops short, looking at me with concern. “Isabelle? What’s wrong?”

“Oh my God!” I burst out. “Can you all stop calling me Isabelle? My name is Alix!”

I’m met with confused gazes, and there’s a long pause before Daemon speaks. “You mean you were going by Alix to avoid suspicion, right?”

“No, genius, I mean my name is Alix. Alixandrea Knight .”

Something weird is going on here—weirder even than being kidnapped by my one-night stand and ending up in a fantasy land. Somehow, they seem just as confused as I feel.

“Look,” I continue, almost pleading. “I don’t know what’s going on here for so many reasons, but if you made a mistake or something, you can just bring me home now. I won’t tell anyone, I promise. I wouldn’t, anyway. I mean, claiming to have been to Ellender is a one-way ticket to a padded cell, so…” I trail off.

The men seem bewildered, but Odessa narrows her eyes, scrutinizing me. She walks around the side of the bed, coming close enough to look directly into my face.

“My Gods,” Odessa breathes. “You’re not Isabelle.”

“What?” Daemon barks. “What the fuck are you talking about? Of course she is.”

Odessa shakes her head. “She’s not. It’s been sixty years, but I remember my friend. Belle wasn’t afraid of me. This isn’t her.”

“But she has the necklace,” Daemon insists, hurrying around the side of the bed to stand in front of me. “And I found this!” He reaches into his back pocket and extracts a paperback copy of Nana’s book. “Look,” he says, pointing at the cover. “Her name is on it.”

“That’s not me.” I almost laugh. “Isabelle is my grandmother.”

Daemon and Odessa freeze, staring at me. After a long second, Daemon’s face cracks into a smile. He looks like he’s on the verge of laughing, like he thinks I’m fucking with him.

“Sure, Peaches.” Daemon flips the book in his hand over to look at the back, then shoves it in front of my face, showing me the author photo beneath the blurb. “That’s you. Isabelle Reading.”

I look at the photo and wince. Why would the publisher choose this picture?

The photo is maybe forty years old, probably taken when A Kingdom of Thorns was first released. In the photo, Nana is in her late forties, but she looks at least two decades younger. She has the same long curly brown hair as me, our eyes are a similar shade of blue, and most incriminating of all, she’s wearing the gold and ruby locket.

“That photo is old,” I say. “It’s not me. It’s my Nana. Are you telling me that you know her? Like she’s actually been to Ellender?

Daemon ignores my question. He glances at the photo, then back to me. “But you’re identical.”

“I guess?” I say weakly. “But it’s not me, so whatever you were planning, I can’t help you.”

Daemon backs away from me and walks slowly around the bed again before sinking into his chair. He looks…broken. “That’s it, then. We’re all dead.”

My brows furrow as I take in Daemon’s shattered expression mirrored on every face in the room. “Um, that’s a little dramatic, don’t you think? How are you dead? Why did you want to bring my grandmother here?”

“Did Belle tell you anything about Ellender?” Odessa asks.

“Of course,” I say, almost laughing. “She wrote that entire book about it.”

As I speak, the full gravity of this situation finally dawns on me. If Nana’s book wasn’t fiction, and she actually came here at some point, maybe all of it was real. My gaze falls on Jett, who is the only one with short enough hair that I can clearly see the tips of his ears. Sure enough, they’re pointed. “Oh my God,” I blurt out. “You’re Fae.”

The four men just stare at me, but Odessa laughs. “Actually, I’m a siren, but I wouldn’t have to be to see that you desperately need a bath. Why don’t you step into the bathing room with me, Alix . I’ll help you get cleaned up and then we can all talk about how to fix this mess.”

Odessa leads me into a large ensuite bathroom, which she calls the “ bathing ” room and closes the door behind us.

The bathroom is nearly half the size of the bedroom, with a white marble floor and towering ceilings lined entirely in arched windows. It’s still raining heavily, letting almost no light in from outside. Instead, there are brightly lit oil lamps on the wall between the windows. In the center of the room, a round bathtub looks so inviting I could cry.

“I’m all set.” I tell Odessa. “I don’t need your help or anything. Just some dry clothes would be great.”

To my chagrin, she walks over to the enormous porcelain tub and turns on the faucets. “Don’t be silly. I don’t mind helping.”

“Respectfully, I’m not so sure I want to get naked in front of a stranger.”

“ Respectfully, ” she mimics, raising an eyebrow and looking me up and down, “that ship has long sailed. You’ve been flashing the entire castle since the moment you got here.”

My face flames and I silently cross my arms tightly over my chest, covering as much as possible of my wet T-shirt.

Odessa cracks a smile and sits on the edge of the tub. “Look, don’t worry. I’m not going to stay, I’m just making sure you’re settled and then I’m going to go find you some different clothes. I thought I was dressing you to go meet the king, but you don’t need to wear a gown.”

I huff. “Thanks.”

I should probably be more grateful for her help but I’m really struggling to find it in myself to be grateful for anything at the moment. Anyway, Odessa still kind of freaks me out.

As if she read my mind, Odessa speaks up. “You’ll get used to it—to me, that is.”

I don’t have to ask what she means and even though I’m beyond freaked out, I can’t resist the urge to make sure I didn’t offend her. “I’m sorry, I’m sure you’re very nice, it’s just…”

“You’re frightened of me,” she finishes, nodding. “Humans are so funny about that. You should be much more afraid of the Fae than the sirens. Outside the water, I’m no stronger than you are, but the Fae could kill you without blinking an eye.”

I swallow thickly. She’s wrong actually; I’m equally afraid of everyone at the moment, but it does help to know she’s not any stronger than me. Anyway, if she really was friends with my Nana, she can’t be all bad.

“So, you know my grandmother?”

Odessa trails her fingers in the rapidly rising bathwater. “Yes. Isabelle and I were fast friends. As I’m sure you and I will be.”

Yeah, no. No thank you.

“I’m not sure I’ll be here long enough to make any friends. I’m pretty much hoping that now Daemon has realized he fucked up, he’ll take me home.”

Odessa purses her lips, looking slightly disapproving. “Interesting.”

I don’t know what to make of her response and struggle to come up with anything to say. In the silence, a horrible idea occurs to me. “Oh my God. He’s not your husband or something, is he? Please say no. That would be just fucking perfect. I’m trying to get over my own cheating asshole husband and end up being the other woman. Fuck, what is wrong with?—”

“Hey, wait!” She holds up both hands, interrupting my diatribe. “Calm down.”

I really wish people would stop telling me to calm down, but in this case, it might be warranted. I suck in a gasping breath and try to quell my panic. “I am so, so sorry. As soon as I can leave, believe me, I will.”

“Alix, please stop. Daemon isn’t my husband. He’s my cousin. Kind of. Really more of a brother, actually.”

“Oh.” I blink at her, confused. “Okay…that’s good, I guess.”

She laughs. “You need to stop jumping to the worst possible conclusion.”

“Yeah, well, rational thinking kind of abandoned me when I woke up in a castle full of goblins,” I mumble. “So how can you be cousins if you’re not Fae?”

She waves a hand in the air as if shooing away my question. “We’re cousins by marriage, but were raised together like siblings. It’s hardly anything you need to be worried about. All that matters is that for however long you’re here, I’m happy to have you. Your grandmother was the last human to come here who I truly liked. I miss her.”

“When did my Nana come here?” I ask quickly, glad for the change of subject.

“Nearly sixty years ago,” she replies, standing abruptly.

“How long did she stay? What happened?—”

Odessa cuts me off with another laugh as she walks toward the door. “You have a lot more questions than she did. I think I’d better let Daemon answer them for you. This is his mess anyway.”

“But wait!”

With her hand on the knob, she turns, her expression sympathetic. “Breathe, Alix. You don’t need to hear the entire history of Ellender before you’ve even taken a bath. Just try to relax, and I’m just going to find you something else to wear. Do you have any requests?”

“Sweatpants?” I blurt out without thinking.

She laughs melodically. “Unfortunately, no. I wish. Human clothing is so interesting, I’d just die to be a part of your world.”

On that enigmatic note, she closes the door, leaving me alone. For a long moment, I don’t move. I stare blankly at the bathtub, still disbelieving that I’m really here.

Nana, what the hell were you hiding?