Page 26 of Faerie Hunted

“You snitched on me,” I growled at Barbara, my companion in this prison. My stomach roiled. “I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t told them everything.”

“Everything?” Barbara said, and her subsequent laugh tapered into a hacking cough.“Do you really think I would have given themeverything? Shame on you.”

“I think I wouldn't be here if you didn’t.”

But that wasn’t entirely true. They came for me no matter how hard I’d fought, and at this point, even the anger petered out underneath the weight of fear.

“You poor, deluded little girl. I didn’t snitch on you. The premier himself used magic to force the truth out of me. I had no control over what I said.” She paused a beat, and then— “But I’m sorry.”

The apology, as surprising as it was to hear, also sounded genuine. I shivered, hugging my arms around my knees and drawing into a tight ball.

“He’s a special little freak, the premier, let me tell you. So many delicious things going on in his head. I don’t need power to know he’s got some major mental issues. He’s lucky he’s got magic. Painful magic, too.”

Barbara groaned as if reliving what she’d gone through.

Well, shit.

“So why the King?” I had to know. “You’re not even Fae. What beef do you have with Tywin?”

“I swear, there’s no reprieve, even here in this hell hole.” The sound of fabric shifting from Barbara’s cell, and when she spoke again she seemed closer. “Just more questions.”

“I have a lot of them,” I told her defiantly.

“And your first one isn’t to ask me if I know of a way outta here?” She choked out another raspy, bitter laugh.

It was my turn to scoff. “I’ve been here before. I know there’s no way out until they come to get us and take us…”

“You can say it, girl. It’s not like I’m the stupid old witch you always took me for. We’re gonna die. Premier Foxfall isn’t a kind man and he will never forgive me for what I told him. Under duress, I will stress.” Again came her hacking smoker’s cough. “So, why the king? You really want to know?”

I nodded before I realized she couldn’t see me. “Yeah, I do.”

“Are you settled in? Because it’s story time.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

In addition to the lack of light, something about the stones muted sound here. No one would hear us scream. It also made hearing her a little difficult.

I leaned against the bars, dropping my forehead into the space between them to better hear her.

If she was even going to be honest. My gut told me yes.

“A few hundred years ago, as all the stories begin, a witch married a fae man,” Barbara said with all the magnanimity of a seasoned storyteller. “She thought it was a match of love because, let’s face it, sometimes good dick canreallycloud your judgment. At least, it did for the witch.”

“You’re telling me that you’re the witch?” I pressed.

“Shut up or I’m not going to finish.”

Her usual acerbic wit helped ground me and I found myself grinning in the darkness.

“As is usually the case, the romance eventually petered out, and his eyes began to wander. Not to other women, because the witch was, naturally, a great beauty.” Barbara sounded proud of herself. “But to gambling dens. Anywhere he might go to get his next high. The debts began to rise. They mounted until they were too large for the couple to overcome together. And in order to pay off the debts to the kingdom, the man sold his own child to the royal family. He stole the witch’s firstborn, her joy, her heart…her daughter.”

A shiver shook me and ice crept down my spine from the base of my neck to my tailbone.

I wouldn’t like where this story was going.

I had no choice but to listen and I didn’t want to miss a word.

“The king fell in love with the little girl once she matured into a woman, and he bewitched her with fae magic to forget her past. He obliterated her memories of her life outside of him and his vile, corrupt court.” Barbara stopped, and her hiccup, if I hadn’t known her, might have almost been a sob. “I came here to get my daughter back. She’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

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