Page 35 of Lifebound

“Not so much. The royal families of our Courts hold expeditions once every ten years to keep…updatedwith the latest advancements in science and technology. I’ll admit that part of your world fascinates me. The way you are able to survive and live without magic but use your minds to create objects instead is quite something.” He shook his head to himself. “When you met Prince Lyall, we were on our last expedition—his first.”

“That was thirteen years ago,” I said.

“Yes, well—time moves differently here than it does between Emer and Reme.”

That gave me comfort, too. Maybe I’d be gone less than eight days here on Earth.

“You never told me how you found me,” I asked, and my legs were starting to get tired—we’d walked for quite a bit. Possibly an hour, if my sense of time could be trusted.

They didn’t seem bothered in the least, though. A look back at the guards dressed in green and silver, and they had no expression on their faces and no trace of discomfort of any kind anywhere on them.

“Our seer tracked you through the Prince’s blood,” the man said. “That’s how we saw you.”

“Saw me? Like, you saw my face?”

“Yes.” He looked at me. “We saw your face with perfect clarity.”

Again, there was something about the way he said that. The way he sometimes spoke.

“Sorry—what’s your name again?”

“Helid Sunstinne—but again, you may call meSire.”

“Helid’s fine,” I said, and I wasn’t sure why. Maybe because I’d practically spent my entire life being on self-defense mode that I took any small remark or request as a direct attack against me? It came naturally to want to bite back. That part I never did control, and I never wanted to. People might have made me a victim my whole life, but I had yet to accept it and behave like one. So long as I could fight back, I would. In whichever way I could.

Which had admittedly gotten me into a world of trouble—but I digress.

“You are…not quite like the humans we’ve met before,” Helid told me.

“You’ve met humans before?”

“Of course. Heads of your cities and states. People who know of our existence. I have personally been in several meetings since my sister became the Seelie Queen.”

“Holy shit,” I whispered. “So, people actually know you exist.”

“Of course, they do.” Then, “You curse a lot. It’s not common to do so in front of the royal family.”

I looked at him. “Well, I’m mortal, so the rules don’t apply to me.”Did they?

“You are very different from what we expected, indeed,” he ended up saying in a whisper.

“Who’swe?” I wondered. “And how much longer until we get to the passage you spoke about?”

“The queen and I,” he said. “The Aetherway is close enough. Just a little more.”

“Okay, okay,” I muttered, throwing another look back just to make sure that those men were still there. They were. “What about the king? Who’s the king of the Seelie Court?”

“King Trogen died a long time ago,” Helid said. “The queen rules alone, and when the prince awakens, he will take his position as king now that he’s of age.”

“How old is he, anyway?” A king. And actual fae king.

Slowly I reached for my forearm and pinched myself. Hard.

It hurt like hell, but I didn’t wake up.

“The prince is twenty-one summers old.” Assumingsummerswere years, the prince was only three years older than me.

“So why hasn’t he become king yet?” I wondered.

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