Page 58 of The Fae Girl 1

“What changed your mind?” I asked.

She shrugged. “A number of things, I guess I got used to it. Besides my role wasn’t to enjoy Montefore. It was to protect it.”

“Like you think mine is?” I half snapped.

She met my eyes then, her own flashing. “Not Montefore.” She said. “This entire land. Every city.”

I let out a huff. “You really think someone is capable of that?”

“You are.”

I shook my head, glaring at her, as my anger flared. “Why should I? Why should I help any of you? You keep me here as a prisoner. You haven’t even asked for my help, you’ve just assumed I will. Maybe if you’d…”

“What?” She cut across. “Nursed your ego? Begged you?” She narrowed her eyes. “Is that what you want Fae, us to all get on our knees and beg for you to save us?”

“That’s not what I want, not what I meant.” I hissed.

“Then what else is there? People are dying. Every day more people die while you’re here, pampered, safe, and instead of doing anything to stop it, all you do is moan.”

“Because you’re keeping me prisoner.” I half shouted. The words echoed around us. All three of us.

Nela crossed her arms leaning back against the stone. “Not everything in this world is about your feelings.” She said with deadly calm. “Not everything is about keeping you happy.”

I bit my tongue, not wanting to reply. On some level I liked Nela, and I didn’t want to offend her more.

Indi looked between us. “If you two just wanted to argue we could have just stayed in the room.” She stated.

Nela laughed. Threw her head back and laughed. Indi laughed too. And as the tension broke I realised all three of us were, as if we’d gone mad, as if this whole absurd situation had sent us over the edge.

When we all fell silent Nela muttered about heading back. Reluctantly I agreed. If I could, I think I would have stayed here all night, camped out with blankets. But that clearly was not an option.

Inside my other guards moved back into place. Indi and Nela walked with me between them. To any observers we’d probably look like three friends out for a midnight stroll.

Except we weren’t friends. I had to keep reminding myself of that fact.

They weren’t my friends. They were my jailors.

I sighed at the thought and my head hurt again.

I wish I could just make my mind up and be done with it. Come up with a plan, a decision, and stop flitting from acceptance to mutiny at every given moment.

The castle was just as deserted as it was on the ascent. A few servants here and there but essentially there was just us.

Our footsteps. Our shadows.

Until it wasn’t.

Until something, someone, was barrelling into me.

And every one of my guards made sure to get out of the way.

Another dream. Another god awful, tempting dream. I didn’t want to do the maths on how many I’d had, how many hours I’d spent imagining she was here, imagining she was naked, imagining that I was devouring every captivating inch of her.

I groaned, kicking the sheets off, ignoring the raging hard on. So far nothing I’d done had stopped them. I’d tried the Chelsi route, and that had backfired spectacularly. I’d tried training, tried brutalising my body to the point of exhaustion, and all that seemed to do was produce more images of her, only then she was nursing me, massaging my sore muscles, easing out the tension in ways I had no right imagining.

No, it wasn’tmyfault.

It was hers. That god dam Fae girl.

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