“I think you’ll find my authority to be absolute,” he said. “I will give you another chance to come quietly, but I will not ask again.”
I swallowed hard. The more the silence between us deepened, the more I noticed my hand was shaking with the weight of the knife I was holding, while his wasn’t—despite his sword being larger, and far heavier. His blue eyes, though striking, were also cold, and detached. I was starting to believe this man would absolutely kill me if I didn’t do as he asked.
Obviously, I didn’t want to die, but I wasn’t thinking about myself; I was thinking about my mothers, and how devastated they would be if they came home to find me dead.
Frowning, I let the knife fall to the floor. With any luck, my mothers would find the place torn up and come looking for me. I had no way of letting them know where I was going, or even who I was going with, but Mother Helen was the cleverest person I knew. If anyone was going to be able to figure out where I’d been taken, it was her.
“Fine,” I said, “You win.”
The soldier standing in front of me didn’t sheathe his sword. Instead, he stood aside and allowed another of his men to step into the living room and come and fetch me. The room was already small, but the presence of these large, armored men started to make it feel downright cramped, and way too claustrophobic for my liking.
Without speaking, and clearly without any kind of manners or tact, he grabbed my arm and yanked me across the room so hard it almost gave me whiplash. I fell to my knees before the sword of the soldier in charge.
“That’s it?” the man who had pulled me said, “That’s who we have come here to collect?”
“Yes,” said the one in charge. He took a deep whiff of the air around me. “This is the one.”
“But… look at her. She’s so meek, and… plain. Even her human glamor is boring, and she truly does stink.”
“It’s the human world,” another said, “Everything stinks. But yes, her, especially.”
“Hey!” I protested.
“You will be quiet,” said the man in charge, tipping the edge of his sword up to my chin. It was as cold as ice, and as sharp as a razor. “The human world has made you soft, but that will soon change. Speak out of turn, and I will hurt you. If pain does not convince you, I will have you stripped down for the duration of the trip, and you will walk in the cold. Now, stand.”
“It’s hard to move with this thing stuck to my throat.”
Frowning, the soldier pulled it away, and I got to my feet, not once breaking eye contact with my captor. Once I was up, he let the sword fall to his side.
He gestured with his head to the stairs. “Move,” he barked. “Try anything, and you will die.”
Well, you’re just super charming, aren’t you?
Taking a deep breath, I started down the steps where more soldiers waited to usher me through the Magic Box and out onto the street. It felt like the temperature around me had dropped a good couple of degrees during the time the fae had spent here. They certainly weren’t what I had expected, given the rumors I’d grown up hearing about the fae. Weren’t they supposed to be noble, and regal?
These guys were just icy thugs.
“This way, whelp,” said a soldier standing just outside the busted door to the Magic Box.
I was being carried away by armed men, and all I could do was worry about someone breaking into the shop now that the door was broken. “What about—”
“—this way,” he repeated, pointing at a shimmering point of light somewhere around the middle of the alley.
I started walking, escorted by three soldiers, with the others not far behind. The closer I got to the shimmering cloud, the colder the air seemed to get. By the time I reached it, I was shivering, my lips chattering, my limbs quaking. The cobblestones around the strange ripple in the air looked frozen solid.
“What is this?” I asked.
“Walk through,” a soldier barked.
“Through… that?”
“This attitude is starting to get boring.” came another voice, this one smooth, and deep… and almost disinterested. I knew who had spoken before I even looked. It was him. The guy from earlier. The guy who had grabbed me and… sniffed me. It was the weirdest, sexiest, most random thing that had ever happened to me, but today was full of random, wasn’t it?
I turned my head to the side just enough to see him. Unlike the others, he wasn’t wearing armor—he looked very much like a human. A human who owned private jets and expensive cars, but still human. Still… gorgeous.
Shit.
Why did my kidnapper also have to be gorgeous?
“It’s you,” I said, the words falling out of my mouth on a shivering sigh.
He stared at me, his icy eyes cold and uncaring. “Do as you’re told, and you will be unharmed,” he said.
“Unharmed? You’re kidnapping me, and you destroyed my shop. The harm has been done, you… you cockwomble.”
He turned to the man standing next to him. Without having to say a word, the soldier gave him his sword, which he then aimed at the ground beneath my feet. He looked at me, his eyes low and narrow.
“I don’t care enough to threaten you,” he said, “So, instead, I’ll ask you. Once. Go through the portal, now.”
I stared at him, grinding my teeth, but tears promised to spill from my eyes if I kept looking at him. I turned away from him and went back to looking at the portal in the alley. Shutting my eyes, and without another word, I took a step forward—and the world fell out from under me.
CHAPTER FIVE
A brutal, bitter wind bit deep into my face the moment I came out on the other side of the portal. My stomach had twisted into itself, my entire body felt like it had been dipped into an icy lake. Even before I opened my eyes, I knew, I wasn’t in London anymore. The air was too cold, but more importantly, it was too fresh—too wild.
Then I opened my eyes, and my mouth fell open.
A vast landscape of snowy cliffs and huge, white mountains rolled away from me in all directions. Air currents dragged fingers of condensation into the sky at their peaks. The wind howled as it pushed past me, rushing through my hair and over my shoulders, carrying with it a flurry of snow… and maybe even faint, distant whispers.
I’d never seen anything like this before, had never been anywhere like this; somewhere so primal and natural, but also so… empty. There was nothing out here, only rolling, icy hills and jagged mountains as far as the eye could see.
Something snorted nearby, and I jumped at the sound, my bones nearly leaping out of my skin. It was a huge white elk-type-thing with enormous, white antlers and a full, thick coat that was so silky it seemed to glitter in the sunlight.
I stared at the beast, my eyes wide, my heart thumping against my chest. Then another one moved into view, trotting lightly over the snow. When it shook its head, its entire body moved. I was so fixed on the creatures and how beautiful they were that I hadn’t noticed the reins attached to their bodies, and the massive silvery carriage they were attached to.
Seated atop the carriage was a man wearing a furry grey coat. He had long, black hair, bright eyes the color of the wintery sky above us, and… pointed ears… and a pair of thin, curved antlers that followed the shape of his head. He stared at me from where he sat from behind disinterested eyes.