Page 142 of Faeling
Her stomach did another uncomfortable flip. Fates, she knew what it was to flee and hide, but she’d never truly been alone.
Lost in her contemplation, Ravenna didn’t notice until Vallek’s footsteps were quite near that he approached. Standing on the other side of the stream, he loomed over them, his arms crossed over his expansive chest. He raised one brow when Ravenna met his gaze, obviously expecting a thorough explanation.
The fae barked a humorless laugh. “So you’ll what—sell me tothis brute?” She jutted her chin at Vallek.
“Of course not. He’s myazai.” She scowled at the fae woman. “So don’t look too long at him.”
“Healso speaks faethling,” Vallek grumbled. “And outlawed the selling of people long ago.” He turned a thunderous, annoyed frown on Ravenna. “Whatin all the hellsis going on?”
Finally retaking her feet, Ravenna brushed off the worst of the dirt from her cloak. “This is—well, she won’t tell me her name. But she’s the next Fae Queen.”
“What?” the fae sputtered.
Vallek, too, looked alarmed. Gaze bouncing between the two women, his face finally sank into his hand. Rubbing the bridge of his nose as if a headache gathered there, he muttered in orcish, “Just how many fucking fae fugitives are there in my land that I don’t know about?”
“That youdon’tknow about? I can’t say. But we are likely the most important—and the most wanted by Amaranthe.”
Vallek’s scowl clearly communicated how unimpressed he was with her answer.
“You’re mated to an orc, you have visions…” The fae woman slumped back into the grass. “Fates, just take me.”
“Not yet. I need you.” Kneeling down beside the woman, Ravenna said, “I mean to kill Amaranthe. It’s where we’re headed now, to meet her. Come with me, and I’ll help make you Queen. You can renew the cycle.”
“No, thank you.”
“You can help me kill her.”
“Still no.”
“Don’t you hate her?”
“Of courseI hate her. The bitch killed my mother.”
Ah, a niece then.
Ravenna’s smile was all teeth. “She killed my mother, too.”
The fae woman met Ravenna’s gaze, her expression losing some of its annoyance. She searched Ravenna’s face for a long while. Even with the manacles suppressing her magic, Ravenna could feel its immense power writhing just beneath the woman’s skin. They might hold her for a time, but Ravenna suspected no manacles, spelled or otherwise, could contain her forever. A royal fae’s magic was vast, too much to suppress, even with spelled irons.
Which meant she needed to get the fae onside before those manacles wore out.
Reaching down, she took the woman’s elbow to help her to stand.
—red wings blocked out the sun—flames danced along her legs—liquid gold dripped down a gaping maw—
When she returned to herself, it was to find the woman, still in the motion of standing, staring up at her as if she’d just said something outlandish.
“What was…I felt…?”
“Strange,” Ravenna breathed. “Your future is set in flames.”
The woman nearly tumbled back over. “And that’s not worrying to you?”
“No. Why would it be?”
“It isn’t exactly a rousing vision for my future, is it?”
“It could be metaphoric,” she said with a shrug. “Besides, I don’t plan to stay in the faelands. What care is it of mine what you do on its throne?”
