Page 8 of The Wild Hunt (Sold to the Fae Duet #1)

The first thing I notice as I step into Faerie is how sweet the air is.

It’s rich and heavy and full of life. I fill my lungs in a long and slow inhale, though I stop short with a sputtering cough when I feel as if my lungs have filled with moisture.

That was going to need some getting used to.

I take another breath, slower this time, and find I don’t need to inhale as much as I would on Earth for my lungs to be filled.

This seems to prevent the thick feeling of moisture from entering my airways as well.

The second thing I notice is the earthy scent in the air. It’s refreshing and calming.

Third, I hear them: the cheers and jeers and spits of disgust.

I blink to clear my gaze, and there they are.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of fae crowd the clearing I have appeared in.

They line the edge of the forest beyond, and I even spy some sitting in the trees that tower like gnarled, thousand-year-old oaks from our world, only some are taller than skyscrapers.

I squint as my head drops back to see the tip of the tallest one. I can’t.

“Move it, human,” a scathing and feminine voice commands from behind me. I jump as if I have awakened suddenly from a dream, having completely forgotten about the why when the where was so surreal. My neck cracks as I swing it to look at the female standing by the exit of the portal .

She is slim and elegant and at least a head and a half taller than I, and I’m considered tall for a woman. Her features are sharp and cruel and, damn it all to hell, fucking beautiful . I almost groan at the gnawing pit of envy that bubbles in my belly.

Her skin is Egyptian-like in its dark and golden tones, and her long hair is blacker than midnight.

I’ve never looked into such a depthless tone of black before.

It’s oddly terrifying. Her eyes are golden with flecks of caramel, eyes that squint at me in frustration as a single, perfectly trimmed eyebrow raises at my blatant stare.

The expression said straight up that I wasn’t the first of the Chosen to have unabashedly checked her out.

My cheeks heat, and I feel my shoulders hunching before I can stop them.

“Sorry,” I say, then turn and hurry after the girl who had been ahead of me on the other side.

The line seems to have been reformed on this side of the portal, though it’s woven in a snake-like pattern like those you would find yourself in when waiting to enter a Taylor Swift concert.

If only that were what we were being lined up for.

I join the end of the queue, ignoring the fae that stand nearby, laughing and chattering amongst themselves as they look over every one of us.

I scan the row of women ahead and to my side, searching for the petite form of Akari.

I spy her only two rows across, looking nervous enough to pee her panties.

“Akari!”

Akari’s head shoots in my direction, and she breaks into a grin of relief.

I duck beneath the first rope between us, ignoring the scoffs as I cut the line.

They should fucking thank me for giving them the tiniest bit of extra time before we meet our fate.

I slip past a few more women before ducking below the next rope, and Akari meets me there.

She holds me in a rib-crushing hug that I reciprocate, though I try to gentle my hold a little.

I am a lot stronger than she, her body so slight in comparison.

“Oh, Delta! I am so glad to see you!”

I pull back and gently clasp Akari’s cheeks in the palms of my hands, holding her steady so we can have this moment to just be with one another.

“There is no place I’d rather be than by your side,” I tell her, pulling her close and planting a chaste kiss on her forehead. Akari blushes beautifully.

“I have to thank you, too,” she says, looking away from me in a sudden timidness as I let her face go.

“For what you did when I made the Crossing. I don’t think I could have done it without you.

I definitely would have had a panic attack had I come through the nervous wreck I had been before that.

This air is… so unnatural. One girl after me had an attack just after she Crossed, and rumor is someone earlier had fainted. ”

I almost snort. Typical for the rumor mill to have begun so soon.

I hold Akari’s hand as I join her in her part of the line, my eyes darting back to the hundreds of fae celebrating our arrival.

“It’s certainly going to take some getting used to,” I say, forcing myself to take half a breath less than usual. “Have you seen the others yet? Jabira and Jasmin?”

Akari shakes her head. “Not since last night.”

I nod and drop the subject. Jabira would be fine. She was a strong woman. Jasmin, though… I worried for her. She was such a nervous little thing; I could see her as being the one to have fainted earlier. And if that hadn’t been, I wouldn’t put it past her to be another fainter, anyway .

“What are we lining up for?” I ask after a moment of silence. We have moved a dozen steps forward, but the line is drifting in small and slow shuffles. I just knew my impatient ass was going to chaff soon just to get a damn move on.

“I don’t know,” Akari replies. I almost laugh when she stands on her tippy toes to see over the heads of the girls in the rows beside us.

Her eyeline still barely reaches my chin.

She flushes when she realizes how ridiculous it was and quickly drops her heels back down.

“I suppose you’d tell me if you saw anything, what with your supermodel height and all. ”

I smirk. “And yet the fae are still so much taller than I. Did you see that female by the portal? Her hair was intense !”

“Completely unearthly,” she agrees, her cheeks reddening as her eyes dart away from mine. “She was very…” She trails off as she struggles to explain the beauty of the fae.

“Striking?” I ask. “The most beautiful being in all of existence?”

Akari nods enthusiastically. “Yes! Exactly that.”

My lips kick up in a smirk. Girl had the fae fever worse than I did!

The line moves agonizingly slow, all the while the tail end growing longer and longer as more of the Chosen make the Crossing.

I’m starving and I desperately need to pee, but there isn’t a toilet in sight.

Fuck, did they even have toilets? Was I supposed to squat behind a bush?

Were chamber pots the go-to in this world?

My bladder hoped to find out real soon.

I try to distract myself by spying on the fae.

Each one of them owns their ethereal beauty and superiority.

I spy pointed ears of all different lengths, sharp vampire-like canines glinting from behind wicked lips, and lots of skin.

Despite covering their most private areas, the visible skin is tantalizing and verges on inappropriate.

But I didn’t mind ogling them from afar.

I might as well let my eyes feast while I can.

I might hate them now, but I know I am fully capable of loathing them entirely, too.

And by that point, I will be well and truly over the magnetic attraction they all seem to emanate.

Eventually, we get close enough to see the Chosen being marched onto a stage, twenty at a time.

Here, they are told to turn to display all angles, then someone separates them into two groups.

Watching this happen more and more, I search for a pattern distinguishing those sent to the large, circus-like tents from those herded into a fucking paddock, of all places.

The paddock was obviously for the rejects.

What they were being rejected for, however, was unclear.

There didn’t seem to be any common denominator at all.

I briefly wondered whether age, weight, or beauty had anything to do with it, but quickly dismissed the idea when a woman who could have been a supermodel was rejected, and a woman with the appearance of an ogre was sent to the tents.

I saw beauty in both groups, age differences, and varieties of ethnicities.

There just wasn’t a common concept that I could pick. And fuck did it frustrate me.

My thoughts evaporate so quickly when I spy Jabira and Jasmin taking the stage.

They stand close together and survey a group of fae sheltered in a secluded area that practically screams: ‘ We are important fae! ’ I can’t see the group properly from this distance, but right now I couldn’t care less.

I needed to know what was about to happen to Jabira and Jasmin.

Jasmin looks about ready to wet herself. She is pale and shaking like a leaf. Her eyes are wide and frightened as she stares at her own two feet. Jabira is confident in her stance, and her eyes are steady as she eyes the collective of important fae.

Someone says something, and Jabira and six other women are led off the stage and herded towards the paddock.

“No!” I gasp.

Why was Jabira rejected? She was so damn beautiful and brave! Did they not like the courageous ones? Was that it?

I struggle to watch Jabira as she looks over her shoulder at a pleading Jasmin, whom someone pushes in the opposite direction. Jabira smiles encouragingly at Jasmin, nodding reassuringly at the feeble girl. It seems to have no effect on Jasmin. Complete loss has overcome her.

I lose sight of Jasmin as she enters a tent, but Jabira stays by the fence of the paddock, her eyes searching.

I stand on my tippy toes and wave both of my arms in the air.

It takes a moment, but Jabira’s warm brown eyes eventually find mine.

She smiles and waves as I do the same. Akari jumps up and down by my side, and Jabira’s eyes turn to her.

She seems to soften when she realizes we are together.

Jabira’s eyes never once leave us as we crawl our way towards the stage.

I don’t know whether to be relieved or terrified when it is finally our turn.

I reach out a hand, and Akari takes it gratefully.

We climb the stairs together and walk to our places.

An arrogant female stalks towards us and rips our hands apart.

She is by far the shortest fae I have seen so far, and our eyes are level as we glare at one another.

I sneer as she hisses in my face, flashing a set of small but pointy canines when I refuse to back down.

I don’t break her gaze as I blindly reach for Akari.

She accepts my hand again and I hold firm, even as the female’s eyes thin to slits .

She tilts her head suddenly, as if listening to something, then swears furiously. She gives me one last disdainful look, then stalks off the stage, leaving my line of sight free to finally see who the hell these important fae are.

Holy fuck, are they sitting on thrones? I blink in surprise as I take in the arrangement of obvious royalty. There are two groups, split down the middle, each with a large throne sitting in the forefront and a dozen smaller chairs just a step behind.

My eyes, on instinct, track to the pure white, almost opalescent throne on the left.

I look over every fine inch of the high-backed chair, from the barely there rainbows that glint throughout the white when the sunlight glints in just the right spot upon it, to the cushioned seat and slightly reclined back that its owner lounges proudly and lazily within.

And then my eyes find him and fuck it all to hell, I Gods damn melt .

He’s fucking perfect. I take back my earlier comment about the female from the portal. This was the most beautiful being in all existence. And with the cocky slant to his perfectly plump lips? Yeah, he fucking knows it.

I lick my lips as I stare for far too long at his mouth, then run my gaze over the rather large canines I spy behind his growing grin.

My eyes rove up his perfectly stout nose to his shockingly pale locks, like silver moonlight cascading in gentle yet unruly waves down to firm shoulders, then back up to his strikingly amethyst-colored eyes. Eyes that are locked on me.

I hastily pick up my jaw from the damn floor and harden my features.

His smile only grows. I stick my chin in the air and pointedly turn away from him.

I scour the fae scattered behind him, but it is as if they all sit in shadows that my eyes can’t penetrate, and my gaze involuntarily slides back to him.

And he’s still staring.

Fine. I’ll bite.

He obviously wants my attention, so I give it to him.

We stare into one another’s eyes as if we are a part of some sick game that has the loser looking away.

I am no loser. I feel my eyes thinning, my frown deepening, and my lips pouting the longer we stare at one another, while his grin only grows, and I swear his canines lengthen too.

Perhaps it’s some kind of intimidation tactic the fae have adapted.

Well, consider me un intimidated, Mr. High-and-mighty-fae-on-a-throne.

He raises an elegant eyebrow and tilts his head to the side like a curious cat. A dangerous cat.

Just then, I feel a hard tug on my hand, and I realize we are being led off the stage.

I blink down at Akari, who is eyeing me nervously.

I just missed our entire judgment. Did we make it?

I turn and see a bunch of women being herded to the paddock, where Jabira waves encouragingly.

I wave back. Akari and I had made the cut.

And fuck, I just lost the fucking stare-off.

Don’t look back. Don’t look back.

I fucking look back.

He’s lost his grin, but his eyes remain fixed on me.

He studies me thoughtfully, his eyes running up the long length of my legs, the sway of my hips, which I may have swished a little extra, the curve of my waist, up to my shoulder, and across my extended arm and the middle finger I hold up firmly in his direction.

He blinks…. Then throws his head back and laughs.