Jack

"J ack! Stop!”

I raced down the hall, ignoring Hazel. I wouldn’t let Sav do this. Damn the consequences. She couldn’t throw her life away. I shoved the doors to the throne room wide, wincing as pain sliced down my arm, and glanced around the grand—entirely empty—space, spinning in a full circle.

I stopped as Hazel entered and faced her. “You lied.”

Her shoulders rose and fell. “You couldn’t have stopped it, and it wasn’t your choice.”

Something in my chest fractured. “I’m too late?”

“She signed the contract an hour ago.” Hazel moved into the room, tail curling behind her.

I backed up, holding up a hand. “What’s wrong with you?”

Hazel’s lower lip jutted out. “You couldn’t have stopped it. This marriage was planned years ago. It was going to happen. The only reason she’s not dead for her disobedience is because Kaspar forbid any interference while she decided. It was important to him she choose him without coercion.”

“But she was coerced. She did it to save the fairies trapped at the AFF.”

Hazel shrugged. “Maybe he got tired of waiting.”

I stormed past her, leaving the throne room and marching down the long hall, boxed in by creeping vines.

Where Winter had been a frigid place, beautiful for its starkness, this castle was wild and overgrown, a feeling of being smothered as the forest seeped in through every crack and crevice, overwhelming my senses as I fled the empty throne room in search of Sav.

I wanted to call out to her, but I feared what would happen if they heard me.

Rain beat against the glass, caging me in.

It had been raining for hours, since mid-day, and it seemed like it would never end.

This place was nothing but a prison of pretty flowers and deceptive floral scents.

Though it was cloying, a bit of Sav’s natural scent lingered among the botanical blooms. I couldn’t imagine someone as brave and hard-edged as her growing up here, but there was a lethal beauty to the place that couldn’t be overlooked.

“Come. I’ll take you to her room.”

I spun, finding Hazel right behind me. I eyed her warily. She had claimed to be on my side, on Sav’s side, but from the moment I’d met her, she had only made things worse. “No thanks. I’ll find her myself.”

Hazel rolled her eyes, planting a hand on her ice-blue, velvet clad hip.

“Think whatever you want of me, but you’ll never find her wandering the halls of the spring court.

It’s a maze.” Not waiting for my reply, she turned around, going back the way we’d come.

“I sent a raven to my court. Mother Mahonia will be here tomorrow. In the meantime, try not to get yourself run through by any more Spring court soldiers,” she called over a shoulder.

I crossed my arms over my chest, watching her go.

She stopped, realizing I hadn’t followed, and turned.

Her bright green eyes softened, and she glanced around the empty hall before moving back to my side.

Unlike Winter, where the halls were lined with guards and fairies moved about at all hours, I hadn’t seen a soul in Spring apart from Hazel and the princess.

Hazel stepped closer, pitching her voice in a way that oddly made it clearer even though it was quieter.

“Sav is fond of you, whether she’s admitted it to herself yet or not.

She wouldn’t leave your side for two days.

I had to sit with her to pretend she was consoling me instead of the other way around.

” She shook her head. “You don’t trust me, but trust that I know my friend. ”

Warmth swelled in my chest. A memory of Sav’s eyes, wild with terror, flashed in my mind. She had cared. I’d seen it. I just needed her to admit it to herself.

“Come on. She’ll want to know you’re awake.”

Hazel resumed her silent walk, and I moved, my step lighter than it had been in days.

I had been a tumult of unexplainable emotions since that night she answered the door to Alice’s room and our eyes met.

I had feared for days now that I was making a fool of myself, that her tentative glances and jealousy had been all in my mind.

That she cared for the blue-skinned man who had laid claim to her, but I was finally beginning to understand.

Sav hid her feelings behind a mask of cold confidence and half-truths to leave you unsure of where you stood with her, but underneath it all, she cared deeply. It was there in every selfless act, in the things she didn’t say. And some of that big heart of hers had been reserved for me.

We reached a large arched door, painted green, and I stared for a moment at the contrast to all the others in the hall.

Where each was plain wood, this one was a deep forest green.

I smiled. Her minor act of defiance in a pretty floral cage.

My chest gave a small spasm. How I understood her need to defy her captors in a cage of her own making.

Hazel knocked, and Sav’s clear voice spoke through the door.

“Come in.”

A feral sort of energy thrummed in my veins.

I longed to step through the door and sweep her into my arms, claim her lips with mine, and reassure her I was fine.

That I was grateful to her for saving me.

That I was furious with her for agreeing to marry someone to gain an army.

That there was still time to undo her reckless decision.

Hazel turned the knob, and we stepped into a large room. On the opposite wall, an expansive window exposing neatly trimmed hedges and rows upon rows of tulips, expertly cultivated by color, formed a bright backdrop to the sparse space.

Movement at the edge of my vision caught my eye, and all my focus shifted to Sav.

She stood, running a hand down rich green fabric as she tracked my approach.

Her auburn hair was loose around her shoulders, cascading in waves down her back, and I counted several freckles on her bare shoulders before my gaze trailed up the line of her slender neck to soft pink lips, finally landing on sparkling hazel eyes.

Since arriving in Faerie, they had brightened and today, in her home court, they seemed more purple than brown. Thick, dark lashes blinked, her chest rising and falling as I strode through the room, closing the distance between us.

She made no move, but her keen eyes scoured the bandage wrapped around my chest, before burning a line up my body to my face.

For the briefest moment, I glimpsed concern in her eyes before it banked, locked away behind her walls, and her eyes met mine in passive indifference.

I had planned to say so many things when I saw her, but those eyes were like ice, and they froze me in place.

We stood for long seconds, neither saying a word, and the air was charged with magnetic energy, our bodies leaning toward one another.

“He knows about the marriage contract.” Hazel said, shattering the silence.

I exhaled a puff of air as the electricity fizzled between us.

Sav’s gaze narrowed on her before it turned back to me. “And? Why would Jack care about my impending marriage?”

“Why would Jack care?” I asked, shoulders tensing as I squared them. “Jack is right here.”

Sav’s mouth flattened into a line. “And still alive. Surprisingly.”

Her terse words sparked fire in my blood. “How could you marry him?”

She turned, fully facing me, crimson staining her cheeks. “Why do you care?!”

Heat simmered in my veins, and I closed the distance between us as my eyes narrowed and I stared down at her. She met my gaze with one of defiance, daring me to answer the question.

“You know exactly why I care,” I seethed, crowding into her space. “I made myself clear in the winter court.”

Another flash of emotion, there and gone, slid over Sav’s face, but I couldn’t discern it. There was a scent in the air, something that smelled like fear, though I couldn’t say how I knew that, and the anger blazing through me banked.

Stumbling back, I inhaled a sharp breath. Red dots bloomed on the bandage at my chest and my head swam. I was dizzy from being on my feet so quickly after the injury. I couldn’t smell emotion. It was blood loss.

I shook my head, trying to clear the dangerous thoughts running through my mind.

Thoughts of the violent things I wanted to do to the man who Sav would marry.

I had to get out of this room, away from this woman, before I forgot every oath I’d ever planned to take.

“I should go…rest.” I turned, hearing a sharp inhale behind me, but she said nothing. Didn’t stop me as I stormed out.

Outside her door, I leaned heavily against the vines running down the wall.

Dainty white and yellow petals were crushed under my forearm as I sagged into them, attempting to catch my breath.

What was happening to me? Why was I allowing this woman to shred my common sense and why did I feel so…

off? The magic in this place had affected me somehow.

Was it dangerous for a human to remain in Faerie so long?

The anger bubbling under the surface was far too similar to the snaps of rage my father was prone to and shame washed over me.

What would my mom say if she saw me now?

Knew the vile thoughts racing through my mind?

She had always calmed my father, but nothing about the woman in the next room calmed me.

I was a tempest of scalding emotions, and they burned hot, threatening to scar my soul.

Something was wrong with me. I could feel it in my blood, thick and strange.

In this place, anger bloomed like poison.

Blooms stretched their petals toward me, reaching for my bare arms, and I pushed off the wall, backing up.

They were lovely delicate things, like Sav, but I had no doubt if I got too close they would bite.