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forty-seven

Poppy, Pippa and Pera came to get me ready.

They brought with them a dress made of white silk and golden threads— exactly like something Lyall would love, so damn similar to the designs of the queen’s dresses that it made me sick.

But when I told the chambermaids that I would rather wear something else, something black, they made it perfectly clear that Lyall had ordered that dress for me himself, and it was the only one I would be allowed to wear.

I clamped my mouth shut and kept my head down and I swallowed the anger—which was very much not like me. Hopefully, though, this would be the last time I would have to go against my own self.

By the time they were done with my hair, I wanted to burn the entire fucking palace to the ground, especially now that Rune was back and I felt semi-normal.

I felt calm knowing he had his magic back, all of it, and he could protect himself so much better from everything.

He’d been dangerous enough with that seal, and without it, I wanted to think that nothing could hurt him anymore. Nothing at all .

And that’s what I focused on while the girls finished my makeup, then helped me get dressed.

That’s all I allowed myself to think about—Rune and the end of this fucking torture and the beginning that awaited us far from here.

My family and my home, what it would be like when I returned and finally saw them again.

With Rune. On Earth. In Oregon, USA.

So fucking surreal.

The vial I was playing with that the seer had given me had lost its shine.

It no longer seemed as deadly to me as in the beginning.

I had half a mind to throw it away but decided against it at the last second.

The words she said to me whispered in my ear, but I ignored them.

Not now. Maybe later when I could talk about it with Rune.

Maybe then we could figure out where that place she spoke about was, if it was even real.

Pour this where the world forgets itself … yeah, it sounded very much made up.

For now, I just hid the vial under the waistband of my pantyhose when the chambermaids weren’t looking.

I was excited and nervous and impatient all at once, and when they left, I had a few minutes before the guards knocked on the door to tell me it was time.

In those few minutes, I walked out into the gazebo, which would be one of the only two things I’d miss from this palace, the other one being the books.

Luckily, Rune had one hidden for me in his shadow pockets still, and we’d take that with.

The view was breathtaking. Half the sun had already hidden behind the horizon.

The sky was caught in a strange kind of in-between, where the gorgeous mix of oranges and blues and purples hadn’t yet faded, and silver had already risen.

I watched in awe, fingers curled loosely around the stone edge of the railing, as the sun melted beyond the sea, while the full moon climbed steadily in the sky across from it.

In this moment they faced each other like they were old friends—or maybe like old rivals forced to share a sky.

I wasn’t sure if the sun set in the west and the moon rose in the east here, but it looked…

strange. I’d never seen them both so clearly before.

Even though it was absolutely beautiful, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was also a warning stitched into the sky.

And just before the guards came for me, I could’ve sworn the full moon was looking right at me.

In my mind, I said goodbye to the bedroom, too. The bed and the books and the vanity table. It was the last time I was seeing this place, and I wasn’t going to forget it. Not a single moment, and especially not the night before when Rune had been with me.

I realized that this part of my life had really come to an end, and I would probably never again sleep in a royal palace in the fae courts of Verenthia—and you know what? That was perfectly fine by me.

The guards led me down the hallway and the stairs.

For once, I tried to see everything, the paintings and the lights, the colors on the walls, the patterns on the marble floors.

I tried to memorize them because I was never coming back here again.

When I went home, I would want to remember last night in the Queen’s Palace of the Seelie Court.

What strange turns my life had taken, now that I thought of it. And to be honest, in this moment I couldn’t bring myself to regret any of it.

Sure, I’d have changed a few things along the way, but all in all, if it all led me here, to this moment, I’d say it all worked out for the best.

Because Rune was there, dressed in black velvet and a silvery white shirt, standing at the corner of a wide hallway on the first floor of the palace—and I wouldn’t trade the moment our eyes locked for the whole entire world.

He looked like he crawled right out of my dreams. His hair was sleeked back, and his jacket melted around his shoulders like it was trying to make me fucking jealous.

His eyes sparkled as he smiled, just that half smile where only one corner of his lips curled up, and it was so perfect my heart hurt.

The memory of him saying those three words to me just that morning crawled all over my skin and settled into my soul.

This guy was mine—and holy shit, I had no idea what I did to deserve him, but I’d take it.

I’d be forever selfish and I’d take him, even if he thought he was the one who didn’t deserve me.

I’d take him every single day for the rest of my life. Every second.

“Wildcat, you take my breath away,” he whispered when I was close enough to hear it, to read the words on those beautiful lips my whole body yearned for.

I smiled so big my cheeks hurt. “It’s literally painful to look at you,” I breathed. “But, yes, you look very handsome tonight, Mr. Moody.”

He gave me a full smile only for a second, and I about melted into a pile of goo at his feet.

He reached out his hand and I put mine over it, and though something was going on somewhere behind him, beyond the open doors, I didn’t pay it any attention.

Not yet. I just focused on his eyes, the way they sparkled, how alive he was when he leaned down and kissed my knuckles.

I swear his lips sent electricity jolts throughout my entire body.

“I wish I could take you away right this second and take that dress off you with my teeth, but we have to get this over with first,” he said, slowly stepping to my side, putting my hand over his forearm.

And I thought, this. This was exactly how it should be, my arm laced around his. Together for all to see. It felt exactly right.

“It’s almost over,” I whispered and finally looked ahead, at the open doors in a wall painted with golden flowers and birds. I saw what was beyond them, where the music was coming from.

It wasn’t like the Whispering Ball at all. This room was bright, with so many lights coming from both the lanterns on the wall and the golden fae lights floating close to the domed ceiling, which was also covered in paintings of half-naked Seelie fae.

The room wasn’t as big as the ballroom had been, either, and there were tables covered in golden cloths on every inch of space, the marble underneath almost completely white with golden specks, the long windows on the walls framed with curtains that could have been made out of shimmer.

The strangest thing, though—there was another set of doors on the side opposite where we were entering, and a lot more guests were coming through. Half the tables were already taken, but when Rune and I went through the doors, the magic that hung in the air nearly suffocated me.

By now, I knew exactly what that meant—we were locked in an illusion. At least this part of the room was.

We were standing on a platform, higher up than everybody else, with a long table in the middle, and high-back, golden chairs on the side, looking out into the room.

This was the same kind of magic that had been around the box when Lyall took me to see the game in the Hollow.

The fucking slaughter he called a sport .

It was the same kind of magic, and all my instincts fired up at the same second. I stopped walking and Rune stopped with me. I realized none of the guests who had sat down or were still coming in were looking this way at all. Like we were invisible to their eyes.

Yes, definitely illusion magic, and so much of it I was going to fucking choke.

“Good evening, and welcome to the Crown Prince’s special feast!”

Ahead, a few feet away, a woman holding a golden bowl was greeting a couple who had gone through the same doors we had, and they were almost at the edge of the platform.

“So much magic,” I whispered, as the couple dipped their fingertips into the bowl that woman held, and I felt so goddamn uncomfortable in my skin so suddenly that I was seriously debating running right back where I came from.

“It’s the illusion. He wants to make a dramatic reveal. Nothing to worry about,” Rune whispered in my ear, his hand over mine.

“They can’t see us,” I said because it was obvious that nobody was looking our way at all.

“No, they can’t. But we will be sitting down there, too. Look.” He nodded ahead at the couple who’d arrived before us, and they were descending the stairs at the side of the platform to go sit at one of the tables in the room.

Someone else was coming through behind us, two fae women, both Seelie, with impeccable dresses and their chins raised high. We were right in front of the doors, so Rune pushed us slightly to the side to let them through.

“Good evening,” they chirped, nodding their heads at Rune, who nodded back as he mumbled the same words. Easy to see the lust in their eyes as they scrolled down the length of him. They didn’t even glance my way, but at the moment I couldn’t even find it in me to be jealous.