Page 9 of War of Her Heart

I didn’t blame her for that. Calum was perfect, and anyone would want him. It wasn’t her fault that her betrothed lovedsomeone else. I actually felt pity for her, but it didn’t change the fact that Calum was mine, and we would be leaving together.

Wehadto leave together.

I sat on my bed waiting for a servant to escort me to breakfast. Breakfast at eleven. That’s more of a brunch—almost lunch—but I guess the Night Realm’s schedule was a little different. A later breakfast must mean they were usually up later into the night, when the faeries and creaturesthrivedhere, so I’m sure it’s no different for their fae.

Night Realm schedule or not, I was starving and it looked like a servant wasn’t going to arrive until exactly eleven.

I was right.

There was a gentle knock on the door at eleven exactly. I nearly ran to the door. I opened the door and was taken aback by the servant standing in front of me.

The servants that were waiting at the castle entrance looked like fae, but I knew they were servants based on their attire. I thought it was weird because there are no fae servants in the Mountain Realm. Other faeries filled those roles.

The Night Realm lived by a different set of rules than any of the other realms. I guess unless you were the most important fae you were nothing but servants to the Sovereign.

I just assumed that a fae servant would escort me to breakfast.

Standing in front of me was the top half of a woman and the bottom half a gray mist. She was slightly see-through as if she was a ghost, and she had long black hair that seemed to float around her rather than rest on her shoulders. But the part that had me frozen in place was that she didn’t have a mouth.

I knew what she was—a wanderer. They were benevolent creatures, but because of the way they looked, Queen Mother assigned them to the Night Realm. She must have realized thatI was internally freaking out because she looked down, like she was embarrassed.

“I-I’m sorry,” I said, feeling horrible, “I’m from the Mountain Realm. I’ve just never seen . . . I mean, you . . . I’m sorry.”

She looked back up to me and nodded but still had a look of sadness in her eyes. She motioned for me to follow her.

I was almost running trying to keep up with her. She floated through the halls at a pace that was hard to keep up with. I made sure I paid attention this time to the turns we made and the stairs we took in case I needed to get somewhere on my own.

As soon as we made it to the entrance to the dining room, she motioned for me to go in. I walked past her, and as I turned around to thank her, she was gone. I couldn’t believe how fast she was at leaving.

I walked into the dining room and was completely disappointed to see that Calum was nowhere to be found.

The dining room was long and narrow with the same stone walls that were in the rest of the castle. It would be very dark in the room if it wasn’t for a window that covered the entire left wall.

Bronwen, a fae I’d never seen before, and unfortunately, Celine sat at the long table that could seat at least ten others.

When Bronwen saw me, she jumped up to greet me. “Good morning, Violet! I hope you rested well.”

“I did, thank you,” I said as I walked closer to the table.

“Please, sit.” I sat at the only remaining place setting which was by the fae I didn’t know. He looked at me up and down and narrowed his eyes. I knew it couldn’t be the shadow king because he wasn’t sitting at the head of the table. He was dressed like he was going to battle and held a stiff posture, which told me everything I needed to know. He was the Commander, and apparently, he didn’t like me.

I wished I knew what he was thinking.

“Violet, this is Adar, our Sovereign’s Commander,” Bronwen said, gesturing to the fae sitting next to me.

Adar was pale, ghostly pale, with long black hair tied neatly in a bun, and his eyes were black. He looked like he was dead. Exactly like fae native to the Night Realm.

“Nice to me—”

“Well, where is your Sovereign? His Commander is here, so is he joining us?” Celine interrupted me, something she was so fond of doing.

Adar gave her the same look Bronwen gave her yesterday. Bronwen giggled.

“He doesn’t enjoy entertaining guests that he wishes weren’t here in the first place,” Adar said as he moved his food around with his fork.

“Adar!” Bronwen said as she stared at him.

“Well, she asked,” he said, shrugging his shoulders and keeping his eyes on his food.

---