Page 18 of Within the Hollow Heart

The prince said, “Both, it would seem. Though mine is the more pressing.”

Jules scoffed.

The prince rolled his gaze skyward. “Let us be done with it.”

And suddenly, without even a glimmer of warning, the room surrounding them disappeared.

* * *

Nickolas blinked,unsteady on ground that seemed to sway beneath his feet. Ground that was not the polished floor of the Filmore manor but greensward. He took a step backward and bumped against Jules.

She held the bird firmly against her chest, where he grumbled wildly inside a ruffled neck.

“You,” Nickolas started. “You made a bargain. For that bird.”With a fae princeseemed unnecessary to tack on, but he did so regardless.

The prince gave the pair of them a look. “I’ll leave you to it,” he said, waving a dismissive hand. To Jules, he added, “You know how to find me, should you change your mind.”

“Never,” she said again.

The prince’s expression seemed to imply he was plagued by humans, then he was gone. As easily as he’d transported Nickolas, Jules, and the bird, the prince of Rivenwilde walked through the filigree wall.

Nickolas stared. The Rive, an ancient boundary that surrounded the kingdom, in place to prevent just such a fae from crossing, stood tall and imposing before them in the shape of a finely carved wall.

They were in the hollow heart of the forest. Nickolas had watched the prince walk through the filigree wall.

He stared longer, in wonder, at the sight he’d been granted by laying eyes on the prince. Part of the curse that kept the kingdoms safe had allowed Nickolas to see through fae glamour. The magic that had always hidden such things was suddenly revealed.

Nickolas did not like it. What had appeared as delicately chiseled stone was now writhing with forms in the shapes of man and beast, tangled wire and thorny vines caging them for all eternity. The two sights were layered overtop each other, human and fae, just like the creatures that appeared trapped within the stone. A stone hand reached forward, the barbed metal holding it back pierced through its chiseled forearm, while something vaguely wolflike clawed upward on its carved-stone hind legs, the thing’s teeth bared and maw drawn in both directions by iron vine.

Nickolas suddenly yearned instead to be anywhere else, even penned inside Lord Carvell’s courtyard.

“Lord Brigham,” Jules said gently from beside him. “Perhaps we should go.”

He turned on her. “Oh no, you don’t. You did not just magically conduct us into the forest by fae bargain and then go on pretending all is well.”

Frederick squawked.

“And you!” Nickolas said. “You can stay out of it. This is between me and mywife.”

Jules slid a step back.

Nickolas advanced on her. “A curse. That was your secret? The trifling little thing you kept from me?A fae curse?”

She pressed her lips. “I never used the wordtrifling—”

“Indeed,” he shot back. “You said naught of it at all. It’s the most untrifling thing it could possibly be. What was it you called it? A minor legal matter? To break a betrothal. To a man of your station, apparently. But oh no, it was best that I find that out now from theblastedprince of theblastedfae.”

“Nickolas, my lord, you seem a bit… overset.”

“Over. Set. Truly?” He threw up his hands. “Yes. By all means, set me to rights.” He pointed at her. “Tell me the terms of the curse.”

She frowned.

“Right,” he said. “None of that. Curse can’t be spoken. Can’t ask for help. One of those, I’m sure.” Saints, he couldn’t believe it. He should haveknown. He was going to get back to the castle, back to… What had he been doing? Oh, right, he and his clandestine bride-to-be had just disappeared themselves in front of Nickolas’s mother and two of her men. Though, to be fair, they’d had their backs turned and had not seen the prince. They might have no idea how he and Jules had escaped. “Etta,” he said. “Etta can help us.”

But for now, Nickolas realized, he needed to guess the curse. “Sleeping,” he tried. “You’re always sleeping.”

Jules’s expression went hard. “Is that a fault, Lord Brigham? Because you did not seem to mind earlier today.”

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