Page 3

Chapter

Two

S he couldn’t breathe.

Even when Merrick’s magic finally released its death grip and his broad back disappeared as the tavern door slammed shut behind him, she had to lean against the bar to remain standing.

The Fae king was coming to Ellow.

He was finally coming for her.

Five years, she’d been out of his claws. Five years during which she’d almost forgotten the blood oath he’d forced her to swear to escape his dungeons.

But now her time was up.

Moving her hand to clasp at her chest, Lessia tried to draw deep breaths as flashes of darkness filled her vision, water dripping onto hard stone ringing in her ears, drowning out the sounds of the tavern.

Her vision blurred as a crushing weight settled on her chest, and she desperately tried to force air down her lungs.

She couldn’t do this here.

A warm hand settled on her back, and a strangled noise left her when strong arms pulled her into a broad chest, shielding her from the room. Burrowing her face into the leather tunic, she let his arms envelop her—hide the tremors racking her body.

“You’re not there anymore. You’re never going back there. You’re safe, Lia,” Ardow whispered into her hair, his hands running up and down her back.

A dry sob shook her as his warm embrace reminded her of how she’d landed in the cellars in the first place, images of kind amber eyes and melodic laughs filling her mind, and overwhelming guilt constricted her throat.

“You’re safe, Lessia,” Ardow repeated.

He continued softly hushing her until her locked muscles relaxed, until air finally made its way into her lungs and her vision returned, the deafening sounds of the tavern following.

When the pressure on her chest lifted, Lessia finally pulled back and met her friend’s worried eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her stomach twisting at the moisture lining his eyes as they trailed across her face.

Ardow gently cupped her chin. “Don’t apologize. What happened?”

“It’s—” Her voice vanished, the blood oath she’d sworn taking her air once more, forbidding her to speak of the king—to speak of anything involving him.

Ardow’s eyes hardened, the warm brown deepening as his jaw clenched. “It’s him, isn’t it?”

She couldn’t even nod, could only keep her eyes on his until Ardow bowed his head in understanding, his teeth grinding so hard she could hear it over the bustling tavern.

Ardow was the first friend she’d made when she’d come to Ellow. Being part-Fae, he hadn’t shied away from her pointed ears. Instead, he’d stalked right up to her in a tavern not unlike this one and declared he was buying her a drink .

When he’d realized she’d only arrived in Ellow that morning, that she’d never set foot in human lands before that, he’d taken her in and offered her a spare room in his run-down apartment without another thought.

That’s also how Ardow had gotten around the blood oath.

Lessia hadn’t been able to explain why or how she ended up in Ellow, but he’d glimpsed the silver snake tattoo slithering up her arm one night when she made her way back from the washroom. With his Fae heritage, his grandfather being half-Fae, he knew immediately what it meant.

While she’d been prepared for him to throw her out headfirst when he saw the brand on her arm marking her a criminal, a Fae traitor, he’d only pulled her into his arms and whispered how sorry he was.

Soon after that, Ardow learned why she had nightmares, why the soft smatter of rain on a window made her flinch, and why she refused to sleep without a burning fire even during the warm summer months—getting to know the parts of her that she could never share or speak of.

Still, he didn’t know the whole story.

There was only so much he could guess.

“I’m okay, Ard. I promise.” Lessia glanced around the room, finding Amalise’s eyes glued on her, a question in them.

She tried to roll her eyes to wipe the serious expression off Amalise’s face, but when her friend’s ones narrowed, she sighed.

Ardow had filled Amalise in when Lessia decided to trust her, and she’d become even more protective after that. Not that it was a bad trait, especially in a best friend, but Lessia wouldn’t put either of them at risk, and now that her king was coming here…

Lessia steeled her spine.

She needed to find a way to keep them far away from him.

Dragging Ardow with her, she plastered a smile on her face and headed for her friends, swiping her half-full mug off the bar and downing the now-warm liquid.

She’d do what she did best.

Pretend, for a little while longer, that all was well.