Page 93 of To Wake a Kingdom

He shouted my name, giving chase, but even with his new speed, he couldn’t catch me. I was already gone. This was our ending.

On wings of ruin, I leaped for the demon, and it snatched me in its taloned grip. Wings already beating, it rose into the air, and then there was nothing but a spiraling whirl of darkness.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Lightsearedmyeyesas they watered from the sudden onslaught of sensation. Golden bars wavered in my view, forming a cell. Not a cell—a cage. They surrounded me on all sides, parallel lines enclosing me in every direction and running overhead, revealing a clear blue sky.

A groan escaped my lips as I moved, my hip throbbing from sleeping on a bed of unforgiving marble. My memories were foggy after I’d jumped into the demon’s awaiting claw, his talons so tight I had blacked out. That might have been days or weeks or hours ago.

“Welcome back, Princess,” a voice said. The back of a dark silver head leaned up against my prison.

My response was to groan even louder.“I should have known you’d be part of this,” I hissed.

Maida swiveled his head to meet my gaze, a silvery eyebrow climbing his forehead. He wore a simple gray tunic that clung to his chest and back, revealing every dip of his sculpted skin.

Strangely, I was dressed in pale yellow layers of sheer gossamer, dotted with winking crystals. It reminded me of the dresses Kianna always wore. Only this was shorter, my brown legs mostly bare against the cold marble. Wherever this was, the landscape had yet to be touched by the creep of winter. Given my attire, I was grateful for this small mercy.

Head spinning, I pushed to a seated position, my hair loose and tangled. With a sickening feeling, I watched as a well-dressed Fae couple approached my cage, staring down their noses with twin sneers.

The female had pale skin, shiny black hair, and bright violet eyes. She sniffed as she leaned closer.“They do smell dreadful, don’t they?”

What?

“And look at her eyes,” said the male. An aristocratic face was set with bright blue eyes and topped with rich brown hair. He pulled on his companion as if to protect her…from me? “So devoid of any signs of intelligence. Nothing but animals. Feral. Someone ought to put them all out of their misery.”

Excuse me?

Rage formed a black ball in my throat. I lobbed it at them, lunging for the Fae, gripping the bars and baring my useless human teeth. They jumped out of arm’s reach, laughing nervously.

“Sometimes they bite,” Maida said, still reclined against my cage.

The Fae couple regarded him with mortification as if we’d ruined their innocent Sunday stroll. The male shielded the female, and they hurried away, moving toward another cage set along a carefully manicured path. Butterflies fluttered between the blooms, along with tiny sprites who hopped from stamen to stamen.

The next cage held another woman, who was so still she could have been made from stone. Blank eyes stared ahead, seeing nothing.

Finally, I took in the magnitude of my surroundings. It couldn’t have been more jarring or horrifying. An array of golden cages dangled overhead. Women filled these, too. Slumped against their bars, thin legs dangled as their prisons swayed in the breeze.

Fae strolled in every direction, dressed in their finest, pointing and laughing. Almost idyllic in their nonchalance, they laughed with the careless hilarity of the privileged, sauntering amongst the flowers and human shells.

“What is this?” I asked Maida, his back still turned to me. “Where am I?”

An arm swept out. “Welcome to Mare’s human menagerie.” As he stood, Maida dusted off his pants and tilted his head. “Where every princess is a plaything.” Something sharp moved in his gaze, and his jaw ticked.

“This is why she wanted me?”

I picked out your cage today. You’re going to love it.

“On the surface, it looks that way,” Maida said, “but she does seem to take a special interest in you.”

“Why? Why is she so obsessed with me?”

“I don’t know. Mare is…obsessive.”

“Why are you here? Did she put you up to the entire thing with Ronan?”

Maida’s eyes flashed. “No, that was not Mare’s plan. I was working for the king.”

“So you just bounce around, doing the bidding of the most evil Fae of the moment?”

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