Page 61 of Faerie Hunted

Elaen let me struggle, winding through the tents until we reached a massive structure open on one side.

“You won’t find a way to get them off,” Elaen leaned in close to whisper against my ear. “They’ll shock you if you take a step outside of the camp boundaries.”

I seethed. “Like a dog with an electric fence.”

“I’m sorry.”

Elaen scurried off without making any introductions to the people working in the kitchen. None were needed, I found in a moment. A sullen-faced older gentleman with three arms, each of them boasting six gnarled fingers at the end of long hands, pointed me in the direction of a pile of potatoes.

A peeler rested on a butcher block slab beside the pile. His message was clear. Peel. And don’t stop until they were done.

It was a world of difference from Raelynn’s kitchen. Although my boss had been all business, the walls always rang out with laughter. Conversation flowed and the staff in the castle appeared to have their own language when it came to certain things.

Not a word would be said at times but someone would let out a snort of laughter that had the rest of them joining along once they understood the reason why.

These people were kicked, kicked, and then kicked again. None of them wanted to be here and I wondered if any of them had family at home missing them.

Those thoughts were too depressing.

I stood staring at the pile of potatoes until the older fae gently cleared his throat, then I moved into position.

How far away were we from the borders of the camp? How bad were the shocks from the collar?

I gnawed on my lower lip as I worked, the brown skin peeling easily away from the tubers to reveal white flesh inside. Shit and double shit. My stomach looped into a labyrinth of stress and with every inch I peeled, the more the acidic throbbing in my arm grew.

If magic made the collars work, then magic might be the key to getting out of them. Unless Dorian Jade specifically bespelled them to turn the user’s magic against them if they even made an attempt.

It might be a risk worth taking.

“Psst. New girl. Hey!”

A hot whisper ruffled the hair near my temple and I turned to see a small-statured boy with the legs of a goat staring from the workspace beside mine. He stood on a stool, his hooves polished to a sheen like obsidian and his gaze searching.

Maybe he only looked like a boy at first glance.

Because the longer I stared at him, the more his eyes seemed to suggest this faun had seen terrible things.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he started. “I don’t look like a pure-blood fae. But I’m Seelie and that’s what got me here. Just my luck to end up running into one of Dorian Jade’s minions. I’m going to guess you told him something that pissed him off, because I saw you around the fire withhis majestylast night. You looked like you were having fun. Right?”

My stomach flipped and took a nosedive. I’d almost banked on the silence to give me more time to calculate a plan to get out of here, despite coming up short.

“He’s not my biggest fan right now,” I answered honestly.

“I’d like to tell you it’s not so bad but I’d be lying. It’s really fucking awful.”

I jolted at the sound of such a harsh curse coming out of the mouth of someone who looked like a boy of ten. Then I decided I kinda liked his no-bullshit attitude. “Being a slave isn’t for the faint of heart, is what you’re saying.”

The faun shrugged. “In so many words, yeah.”

The older gentleman cleared his throat louder this time and both the faun and I turned back to our jobs. For the rest of the time, we worked. My pile of potatoes never grew any smaller and every time I reached for the last one, another pyramid replaced the first.

Lunch came and went, with only a five-minute break to use the restroom and grab some water for thehelp. I gulped down a glass until my throat unclenched.

Dorian Jade was a monster.

A prejudiced, hypocritical monster.

Once our break ended, the older fae, who appeared to be a type of foreman keeping everyone organized, clapped his hands and sent us back to work. Instead of potatoes, this time I exchanged places with the faun and scrubbed the dishes used by the rest of the camp.

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