Jeondar had called her a little dryad, which meant she was a tree nymph who lived among nature.
Pushing away from Dandelion, I approached her again. Slowly, I kneeled by the patch of crumpled yellow flowers. I extended my hands over them and let my healing powers flow. I felt as the little broken stalks and petals mended, then I stepped away.
“Such beautiful things should never be harmed,” I said.
One big tear slid out of the corner of her eye and cut across her cheek.
I climbed on Dandelion and urged her forward, keeping my eyes straight ahead, knowing that if I glanced back, I would refuse to leave. The other ones had ridden ahead, but Jeondar was waiting for me. He gave me a sad smile as our horses plodded ahead, falling into step.
CHAPTER 13
“Doyouknowwhocould have harmed that girl’s family?” I asked Jeondar after several minutes of riding in silence.
“I can very well guess.”
“Fucking Mythorne,” Kryn grumbled ahead of us.
“As in Kellam Mythorne, the Unseelie King?” I asked, feeling a ball of dread knotting itself in my stomach.
Kryn nodded without taking his eyes off the road. “The same bastard.”
He was deigning to speak to me? To actually acknowledge me with something other than a sneer?
“His people,” Kryn said. “Not him personally, of course. I’m sure his bony ass is comfortably ensconced in one of the many velvet thrones he has lying around Highmire.”
“But I thought these lands belonged to the Seelie Court,” I said. “Why would he…?” I trailed off, realizing what this sort of aggression must mean.
“There is unrest like I told you before,” Jeondar said. “Mythorne is unhappy with his share.”
Kryn sneered. “That’s one way to put it.”
I felt that much was left unsaid, and I would’ve asked if I’d known how, but I knew very little of Fae politics. All I knew was that, in the past, the two courts had fought terrible battles, and their peace had been hard won.
As we pressed forward under the thick canopy, everyone kept watch, as if fearing another attack.
My thoughts swirled, recalling what had happened, the way Kalyll had acted. I watched his stiff back as he rode at the front, several yards ahead of Arabis.
Something was wrong with Prince Kalyll Adanorin.
This time, I hadn’t imagined that darkness in his eyes. Those had been veins, pulsing with dark blood. I had seen something the day he fought Kryn. I thought I’d imagined it, but today it was plain. He’d stood right in front of me, ready to chop my head off, a completely feral expression on his face.
Though, maybe that didn’t necessarily mean something waswrongwith him. Maybe I was just getting to know his true self. Yet, something told me that wasn’t the case. Something wasoffwith him. And what if that was precisely the reason for my presence here? What if he was sick? I’d seen worse things ailing people. I’d seen a little girl whose organs shifted while her body remained human. I’d seen vampires wasting away after a single dose of a mage-manufactured drug. I’d seen a demon wounded by a celestial blade, bleeding golden blood. What was to say the Seelie Prince hadn’t been bitten by a bug that turned him into an asshole for half the day?
It sounded crazy, but there was an odd pattern.
“I think we’re being followed,” Jeondar said, interrupting my thoughts.
My heart went into overdrive as I imagined the people who had killed Valeriana’s family stalking us.
“Are you sure?” I asked, my voice trembling and betraying my fear.
“It’s Valeriana,” Jeondar said. “What you said to her worked.”
I started to glance back over my shoulder.
“No. Dryads are proud. Let her believe we don’t know she’s there.”
“But how will she keep up with us?”