Page 116 of The Beast King's Bride

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ASH

Embar wades out to the shore of the lake and stops. It’s time for him to get back, I know, but it doesn’t stop my sadness from growing, taking hold of me.

Eventually, I can’t delay it any longer. I dismount and hug his neck, burying my face—wet from the lake water and tears—into his thick mane. “Why?” I whisper. “Why did he send me away? Don’t leave me here, Embar.”

He snorts, shakes his head as if to say it wasn’t his decision, almost throwing me back into the lake. I snicker through my tears.

“I know it’s not your fault. I’ll miss you. I’ll miss… everyone. And everything.”

Talen…

Embar snuffles at my face, bathing me in warm horse breath and I scrunch up my nose. Then he takes two steps back and turns around, toward the center of the lake.

I stop myself from reaching for him as he leaps away and then straight into the lake, vanishing underwater.

He’s fine, I repeat to myself even if I wait for bubbles to come up, bubbles that never come. He’s not drowning. He’s crossing back to his own world.

Back to his king, his land, his tasks that have nothing to do with a human girl.

A girl with no clear place in either world.

After a while, I turn away from the point where he vanished and drag my feet out of the water, the mud and the pebbles, and stop, trying to decide which way to go.

A village nestles on the slope of a hill not far away. I’ll ask for the way there.

The way back to my old life.

It takes me days to reach the town of Kyrene. The lake where I emerged has to be as far from it as the well through which I went the first time, only then we’d ridden Embar all the way. This time around I get to do it on foot.

I’m not penniless. In a pouch hanging from the belt of my dress, I find gold coins, and I’m still wearing the ring he gave me, gold with a blue stone and the horned tyger engraved on it.

But there is nobody going to Kyrene from up here, and I’m wary of showing the gold and attracting bandits and thieves. As for the ring… I couldn’t part with it. It’s my only gift from him that I got to keep.

Why give me a ring when I meant nothing to him?

Or maybe to the Fae a ring means nothing. Time to start thinking like a human again. I thought I understood the Fae but I was so wrong. They only imitate our ways. They aren’t like us. They can’t feel, that much is clear.

I meant nothing to him. I infused his actions with meaning where there was none.

A cart carries me the final stretch of the way, laden with onions and cabbages for the palace’s kitchens. We rumble over the bridge I crossed that night with a strange Fae king behind me, riding like ghosts into the night, over the roaring river underneath, and roll into the town. The horses’ hooves clack on the cobblestone streets, and the cart’s wooden wheels rattle.

So much noise here, in the town. People shouting at each other, dogs baying, chickens clucking. It’s market day, it turns out, and hawkers are selling their wares loud enough to cover the rest of the bustle, more carts rolling across from us, crowding the road.

After a while, I thank the cart driver and hop off to walk the rest of the way. The grand gates of the palace stand open, the drawbridge down, spanning the moat. The guards don’t stop me. People turn and stare at me as I enter, their gazes raking me over. There’s something different about their countenance, their behavior that I can’t put my finger on.

It’s not until I’ve walked through the courtyard and taken the way to the back where the kitchens and the laundries are that I realize what is different: there is no contempt in the people’s eyes when they look at me, no disdain, rather… curiosity.

It’s even more pronounced when I cross the backyard and head for the familiar door and set of stairs leading down into the cellar, lifting my skirts to step over puddles of water and other liquids.

A maid hurriedly curtsies at me as I walk past the pantries and the oil cellar. I stare at her so hard I almost plow into a wall before I catch myself. What is she doing?

I take down a short flight of steps, heading for the kitchens—not even sure what I’ll say to the cook, how to explain my absence. Perhaps she already knows. Perhaps everyone knows that I was taken by the Fae king. Will they accept me back?

I don’t know where else to go, what else I could do.

Another maid curtsies and I curse under my breath. “May I help my lady with something?”

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