Page 8 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Five

No, no maybes!

I will make it back home.

I will get through this.

I had nothing to do with this rebellion. They must know that.

I reach the top of the hill and come up alongside Arion. Hands on my knees, I bend over, taking in several deep breaths.

“Did the mortals break our princess?” Maven asks with a chuckle.

“She’s been living as a mortal for twenty years. Give her a moment.” Arion crouches in front of me. “Are you all right, faeling?”

My lungs are tight, my body drenched. The buzzing in my legs isn’t helping the weakness in my muscles. And my head is spinning.

“I don’t feel so good,” I huff out.

“You need water. We’re almost there. Stand up and take in several deep breaths.” He hooks his hand around my inner elbow and coaxes me up. I suck in another breath, thinking it’s more woods or hills in front of us, dreading it already. But then, in the distance, sitting in a smoggy valley is a giant castle with a dozen spires stretching toward the sky.

“Holy shit,” I say.

Maven smiles at me. “The Summer Court. Isn’t it lovely?”

“It’s…something.”

The air from here reminds me of the smog I’ve seen in pictures of polluted cities. It’s thick and almost yellow.

Something is definitely, definitely wrong with the fae realm.

“It’s all downhill from here.” Maven follows the path, heading for the palace.

Arion waits beside me, his jaw set in a grim line.

There’s no going back at this point. He knows it and I know it.

“If she commanded it,” I ask him, “would you kill me too?”

He cuts his gaze to me, eyes narrowed. “Why would you ask me that?”

“Would you?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“Well, it could be worse. You could have said yes.”

He grumbles.

I start ahead of him on the path.

I should be afraid. I am a little worried.

But something in my gut tells me there’s more going on here than just my parents’ rebellion.

Like Arion said, if they wanted me dead, I’d already be dead.

The hike down the hill isn’t as bad as it was up the hill and I’m able to catch my breath. Some of the path is steep and rocky though and I have to watch my footing. Whoever dressed me after I passed out in the fairy grotto didn’t think to equip me with hiking boots.

When the earth levels out, the castle looms larger and cottages start to dot the countryside. As we pass, some of the fae come out of their houses to watch. A man with big purple eyes glares at me from his front stoop. At the next house, two children with tined horns like that of a deer point and whisper.