“You’re a guard,” I said, eyeing the hilts of the two blades visible over his shoulders. “A warrior. Why not alert them to my presence?” Stupid words to say, but if he were going to hand me over to the blood king, the king of wolves, he’d have made his move by now.
“Call me curious,” he said in a tone that sounded more bored than intrigued. “It has been a while since I’ve seen a gold one up close, a daughter of the sun, and royalty at that.”
A collection of growls grew nearer, followed by laughter as his murderous friends called to one another.
The male next to me wasn’t just any male. He was a crimson—blood Fae—which meant I couldn’t trust a word he said. It was because of them that our people were now divided. Violent, bloodthirsty, and corrupt—mayhem was a song in their veins, and it’d made enemies of Nodoya’s royal factions long before my two and twenty years.
One kingdom was life—creation and peace. The other death—power and violence.
We of the sun had fought and lost many battles against the crimson’s invading armies these past several years, and though it had been relatively quiet for a couple of moons, I wasn’t naïve enough to believe they wouldn’t attack again.
No one was certain of what they hoped to gain besides death and destruction and—due to the demise of the blood Fae’s previous king and queen—revenge. The decimation of the harbingers of light—my family and my people.
The ravine below made it harder for them to surprise us, but it never stopped them. Our ranks grew thin, and they knew we could no longer patrol and protect as we once did.
They’d been the ones to destroy the First and Old Bridge, but they continuously brought their own contraptions for those who couldn’t make the leap or fly across.
A loaded minute passed with my breath growing hotter. Then another. The patrol began to move on.
“Shouldn’t you be going with them?”
The guard shrugged. “They won’t come looking for me if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Many things currently worried me—his presence, so heavy the air seemed to slow into an oil that slathered my pebbled skin, being the biggest concern.
As if he could sense that, his plush lips curved slightly. “You didn’t answer my question.” Noting my frown, he said, “You were crying. Why?”
That last word was clipped, a command more than a question, and I would’ve balked at his audacity if I didn’t know better. We were alone, and though I could hold my own to a certain degree, he was a trained killer wearing weapons.
The only weapon I carried laid inside me. For the most part, it was as useless as many of the gifts bestowed upon the light carriers. Healing, mending, growing, creation—we were but wisps compared to the dark’s descendants. Their abilities were vast, and I knew only some. I’d only heard tales of their might.
Tales that made me wonder how we’d survived all this time and what in the stars had ever possessed my grandfather to go up against the late rulers of the blood kingdom—to war with Vordane.
The male stared down at the water, so very still. I wasn’t sure why I answered, but the words left my mouth before I could think much of them. “I hear I am to marry.”
If it were possible, the stranger seemed to still even more, his entire frame, large and imposing, shunning the starlight that attempted to reach his blond hair. Clearing his throat, he kept his attention fixed on the traveling water below. “That is what princesses do, do they not?” His tone was colder, frosted. “So it seems pointless to whine about it.”
If I hadn’t been offended before, I was now.
I released a rough laugh as I curled my legs up over the tree to leave. My feet hit the inside of the trunk when I heard him say, “Wait.”
I didn’t. I’d been a fool to even spend time in his company. Guard, foot soldier, beast warrior—whatever he might be—it didn’t take away from the fact that he was the enemy, and I should consider myself lucky that I still breathed.
A yelp tore from me when he appeared before me. I stepped back, my heart galloping. “What…?”
“There’s another hole,” he said by way of explanation. Before I could look up to see where it was, he took my hand, calluses rubbing over my skin as he pulled me through the fallen tree’s innards and back inside the cave.
“Release me,” I snapped, tugging my hand free.
He didn’t apologize for his poor decorum. He merely smirked as he turned to walk backward, half shielded in shadow. “The human prince, I presume?”
It took me a moment to realize what he meant, and I felt my stomach ice. “That’s really none of your—”
“Makes sense,” he murmured. “Your lot are growing that desperate.” He stopped, and I almost walked right into him. “Tell me, sunshine, do you know how to fight?”
Incredulous, I gaped at the overconfidence of this male. “Sunshine?”
His smile tilted higher into one cheek, revealing a dimple and darkening his commanding eyes. “Answer the question.”
“Answer mine.”
“That wasn’t a question.”
I half rolled my eyes. “I believe it was, and you know it was.”
He blew out a petulant sigh. “Are you always this difficult? And stupid?” My eyes widened, but before I could retaliate, he raised a large hand, waving flippantly at me. “Did you not hear me say daughter of the sun?”
My cheeks flushed, the burn creeping down my neck. I was grateful he couldn’t see.
His rough chuckle said otherwise, but I was too distracted by the sound to care. It slid over my skin to seep inside it, slipping underneath to warm my blood. Tearing myself away from the feeling, I lifted my shoulders and chin. “I’m sure you’re aware that you’re insulting royalty.”
“Insulting?” he purred, unsheathing a sword from his back in one swift movement. “Why, you’re lucky that’s all I’m doing, Princess.” He hissed the title, his blade absorbing the precious little light from behind us.
Fear clouded, weighing every limb as I stepped back. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Pursing his lips, the crimson looked from his blade, which hung limp at his side, to me. I didn’t let that fool me into thinking he couldn’t strike before I could protest.
I was as hard to kill as he was, but all he needed to do was slide that sword into my skull. If it contained iron, then my heart, or he could carve the organ from my chest and reduce it to dust.
None of it sounded very appealing to me.
“If you hadn’t so rudely interrupted me, then you’d know I do not intend to kill you…” The way he made those soft words linger suggested he would not harm me right now. “Insults, sunshiny one, are going to be the least of your concerns if you are indeed to marry the human prince.”
He spoke true, so I said nothing, trying to gauge if I could move past him and somehow outrun him. I was royalty, and though my powers were not as great as those who hailed from Vordane, I was faster than most—especially a lowly guard who’d taken it upon himself to go rogue for the evening.
As though he could guess at my thoughts, his eyes flashed. A dare. A male who wanted to chase. Since some of the blood Fae and all of those in the king’s military were shifters, that did not surprise me. Though I’d heard enough horrific tales of what his ilk did to females they chased down to reconsider.