“Why?” she whimpered, struggling to hold back the tears that stung the corners of her eyes. The man, who was King Dunston’s personal bodyguard, shrugged his broad shoulders and turned his gaze away from her. There was a hint of regret in his eyes as he looked away, but it was gone when he looked back at her and sighed, “I’m just doing my job.”
Kira was about to point out to him that he knew what King Dunston would do to her if he got his hands on her, when the door to the cabin behind her swung open so hard and fast, it slammed against the wooden wall, causing the deck to judder under her feet.
“Please,” Kira mouthed to Farro, the silver-haired guard, hoping he might take pity on her and carry her back the way they’d come. The moment he turned and began to walk away, she realized she would’ve been better off begging for him to sink a blade deep into her chest. Anything was better than facing King Dunston again after all these years.
“Well, well, what do we have here?” the king’s voice dripped with malice as he crossed the deck with a languid step. “Little Kira, after all these years. It seems Farro has finally brought you back to me.”
Bile rose in the back of Kira’s throat once more, and, determined not to show her fear, she gagged on it and spat it at the king’s feet. A look of disgust washed over the king’s face, and he took a step backward, out of spitting distance.
"You know, when I received word from my son that he’d found the oracle, I couldn't believe what I was reading," King Dunston said with a menacing tone. Yet looking at him properly for the first time, Kira saw how he’d begun to age. Whether it was the stress of his wife's illness or of losing his oracle, she couldn't be sure, but either way, he’d begun to age dreadfully. The skin on his face was beginning to sag, and his hair was flecked with grey. If Kira had dared, she might’ve commented on how human he appeared compared to most fae, who aged gracefully and beautifully. Time had not been kind to him. Maybe because he always tried to have a hand in the future, Kira thought grimly, remembering his constant need to know what was just around the corner. She shivered as she remembered his methods for forcing her into visions, everything from starvation to beating. Of course, none of it had ever really worked. She had as much control over her visions as he had over changing the future. Yet he would not listen, and she still owned the scars to prove it.
"Never in a million years did I ever think I would find you again," King Dunston continued, chuckling with triumph. "I believed you clever. I believed you would use your visions to avoid me at all costs the moment you escaped my palace."
Kira bit back the urge to remind him that she had no control over her visions. She bit the inside of her lip to force herself to remain silent. Although she knew she could not be what he wanted now with her powers gone, she was at a loss as to what he might do if he learned she was powerless. Would he simply throw her overboard and leave her for the fish and the mermaids, or would he gut her right there on the deck for all his men to see? Part of her thought he might do both.
As he turned away from her, pacing up and down the deck as he started ranting about how stupid she was, Kira closed her eyes and tried to reach into her soul for the connection she felt welling deep within her. If she tried hard enough, she was sure she could feel her mates. Willing them to feel her trying to connect with them, she sent all her fear and all her anger surging toward them in the hopes that somehow, they might learn that something was terribly wrong.
They have to know that I’m gone, she told herself hopefully. They must have come looking for me by now.
Although it couldn't have been more than an hour since Menion had left her in her bed chambers, she felt that at least one of her mates had to have found her chambers empty by now. The ache she felt in her heart at their absence assured her that on some level, they had to feel the same way.
Blake! Drake! Menion!
She screamed their names in her mind, hoping she wasn't just imagining it might actually alert them to where she was.
The hand that suddenly grabbed her chin and forced her face upward startled her into opening her eyes, and terror gripped her as she realized she was staring right into the dark, foreboding eyes of the King of the Forgotten Isle.
"You should know better than to ignore me!" He bellowed, pinching her chin until she was certain her skin would bruise. The second his hand released her, she knew what was coming. Flinching away instinctively, she bit back a scream of pain as the back of the king's hand struck her face. The guards holding her tightened their grip as though they thought she might try to fight back, and it felt as though her arms might pop right out of their sockets.
Suddenly unable to feel anything but anger, Kira braced herself and glared at the king as she snarled back, "You really shouldn't have done that."
The king began to laugh, throwing his head back with the effort. "What do you plan to do to me, little girl?" he demanded when he finally stopped laughing and wiped a stray tear from his eye. His reaction only caused her to grow angrier. She sucked in a deep breath, preparing to rant at him, but just as she opened her mouth, everything went blank.
A moment later, her vision had entirely changed. She was no longer standing on the deck of the ship pinned between two fae guards from the Forgotten Isle. Instead, she found herself soaring high above the ocean once more. She was not fearful as she had been the first time. This time, all she felt was elation, her arms wrapped around the strong, muscular shoulders of the fae that carried her. Glancing at him, her heart swelled with joy as she recognized the handsome face of Blake, his gaze focused on the horizon, a stern look of concentration upon his brow.
"Don't worry. Everything is going to be alright," he assured her before he began to swoop downwards toward the land that suddenly came up below them.
A sensation of relief and elation followed Kira back onto the deck of the ship, and when she saw the anger-filled expression on the king's face, she realized she was smiling like a fool. Quickly, she pursed her lips and forced her face to become expressionless.
"You dare to laugh at me?" the king demanded. "Do you have any idea what I plan to do to you?"
Kira couldn't stop the smile beginning to spread over her face once again. She may have been able to brush off her last dream as just that, but there was no way what she’d just seen could be put down to wishful thinking. Her heart soared, and the fear melted away as she realized, I still have my powers. My mates are coming for me!
"Your son is coming, King Dunston," Kira announced with a smile, "and he won't be alone."
The truth was, although she hadn't actually seen Menion in her vision, she was certain he would come. She could feel it right down to her bones. All three of her mates were coming, and they would not rest until she was safe.
"Why should he not come?" the king demanded, "I shall welcome him with open arms for locating my most prized possession."
The bile rose in Kira's throat once more as she remembered what it was like to be the king's possession. She’d been a woman living in the world between life and death, never quite alive and never dead enough to numb the pain of his torture.
"I do not belong to you anymore," Kira spat, glaring at the king, "I belong to nobler fae princes now."
"Princes, eh?" The king's brow raised, and the disgust in his gaze was obvious. "It seems you’ve been busy since you fled my palace. No matter. You will belong to me again soon enough."
With a wave of his hand, the king gave a silent order, and a tight burlap sack was suddenly yanked down over Kira's head. Remembering it from her vision and trying her hardest to hold on to the hope that her mates were coming, she tried her hardest not to panic or fight.
"Tie her to the mast," the king ordered, and Kira could hear his feet pounding on the deck as he began to walk away, back to the cabin. "If my son has something to say to me, we shall await him here."