Page 49

Sav

J ack threw a punch that dropped one of the orcs, but Raine was faster—steel flashing, blade pressed to Jack’s throat.

I couldn’t breathe. My feet wouldn’t move. They were going to take him and bury him in the spring court dungeon where he would never again see daylight. “You can’t hurt him! He’s an emissary.”

Sage arched a brow. “The human is no emissary.”

Jack cleared his throat around the blade at his neck. “He’ll want me back. If we tell him I was kidnapped, I’m sure he’ll agree.”

I glared at Jack, all thoughts of him being strong, evaporating. He was an idiot. An idiot who was going to get himself killed. Had I planned to do the very same thing? Yes. But my plan didn’t involve telling a manipulative, backstabbing, power hungry fae court royal who he was.

“Raine. Take the human to the prison.” Sage snapped her fingers and Raine motioned to his soldiers. They wrestled Jack’s arms behind his back, but he’d stopped fighting, a thin line of crimson running down his neck.

“You’re making a mistake. He will trade them for me.” Jack shouted as he was dragged through the door.

My heart was in my throat as I watched them go. I had to do something. I couldn’t let her keep him.

Sage rushed forward, grabbing my hands.

I frowned, glancing down at our clasped hands. My sister’s wild mood swings made her dangerous. She never did anything without reason, but the reason was anyone’s guess. This false sisterly affection she was displaying only set the hairs on the back of my neck on end.

“Talk with your friend, sister. Make the emissary understand his value to our court. We need him.”

I fought to get the terror under control, trying desperately to think clearly, and tore my hands from her grasp, moving away from her. “Why would I do anything to help you?”

Sage’s brows lowered and her lips formed a pout. “I suppose you wouldn’t. You’ve never cared much for your court or the fae in it.”

“I’m here for them! Just because you don’t consider the low fae a part of your court doesn’t make them any less a part of it!

” I exclaimed, my heart rate picking up speed.

In a matter of moments, I’d lost control of the situation.

“I’m marrying a male I don’t love to save them.

Or have you forgotten?” I exhaled a long breath, trying to calm my racing heart.

Even now, they were dragging Jack to the prison and I had no way of stopping it.

“This is the reason you signed my contract?” Kaspar’s smooth voice, tipped in ice, sent another chill down my spine as he stepped through the doorway into the room. He had appeared from nowhere, as if the mere mention of our impending wedding called him.

I looked past my sister to the prince clad only in a pair of thin trousers, hanging off his hips.

His clear sign of disrespect at dressing so informally would have made me laugh, but the sight of him, knowing he must have my true name by now, had dread pooling in my gut and only intensified my rising panic.

I trust him. I trust him. I repeated the chant in my mind several times, willing it to be true.

“Your highness.” My sister dropped her chin.

“I’ll marry you if she won’t.” Hazel’s seductive voice drifted in behind Kaspar as she stepped into the room.

Of course Hazel chose this moment to appear.

I swore the pair of them spied on me, waiting for the worst possible moments to crash into my life.

My chest was tightening as everything began to spin out of control.

Could I rely on my two friends to help me now?

They hadn’t been jailed for sneaking supplies from the castle to the low fae in their lands or for the lingering attentions of a wayward husband, seeking his wife’s sister’s bed, even if his advances were unwanted.

I sucked in sharp pained breaths, trying to tamp down the memories as the panic clawed at me.

“Hazel,” I began, but my throat constricted and my heart thrashed against my chest.

A memory hit me like a punch to the gut. The last time I’d been trapped down there. After my sister had learned of my secret betrothal to Bracken, a guard with no power or title, she’d left me alone in a cell with nothing but my broken heart for months.

My skin crawled. They didn’t know what it meant to be locked away here. To be forgotten. Starved. Broken. Shallow breaths were darkening the edges of my vision, but no one seemed to notice the room closing in on me or the way I gasped desperately for air.

Kaspar’s terrible, cold eyes met mine, piercing my very soul, but where I’d hoped for reprieve in them, I found none. “Sav, tell me now. Did you sign our agreement to save the fae in the human realm?”

The question pushed back some of the panic and I remembered why we were doing this.

For the folk who were imprisoned in far worse conditions than I ever had been.

I had to keep my head. I wouldn’t let my sister win.

Meeting his sea foam eyes, burning with some emotion I couldn’t read, I dragged in a long breath, feeling my thrumming pulse begin to slow.

I wouldn’t lie to him, just as he had never lied to me.

“Yes.”

The room steadied.

His expression fell. “ Why didn’t you ask me? Why beg your sister for aid when I would have given it freely?”

Hazel cleared her throat. “This seems personal. If you’ll excuse me.”

“Wait,” I called as Hazel attempted to dart past Kaspar. I needed to speak with her. If any part of our friendship had ever been true, I needed to know I could rely on that friendship now. “Sage has your pet.”