The rope continued to inch higher as the growls beneath us grew louder. Up and up we went until we finally tumbled over the edge, onto solid ground. I was still gripping Val’s arm. I couldn’t seem to let go, even when we were lying on our backs in the lush grass.
“Nellie.” The light of the eversun blinded me for a moment, filling my eyes with dancing stars. “How in the name of light did you manage to haul us back up?”
But it was not Nellie’s sweet voice that answered. It was one deep and dark and full of raw power.
“Nellie isn’t here,” he said.
A tall horned fae with flowing crimson hair and eyes as orange as flames stood over me. With a golden crown on his head and a glittering onyx necklace at his neck, he exuded gaudy wealth. His lips widened into a cruel smile, revealing a mouth full of sharp, elongated teeth. My heart flipped over, and my relief of being alive fled like a field mouse from a bird of prey.
It was the one person I’d hoped never to meet again, especially here with a pocket full of his precious stones. King Oberon had found us.
Two
Tessa
Mouth dry, I did what every human in the Kingdom of Light did when confronted with a fae royal, especially one with elite power running through his veins. I bowed. My hands splayed across the ground and soft blades of grass poked between my fingers.
“Your Highness,” I murmured.
Beneath my air of cordiality, I burned. The fae were our protectors. They kept the humans safe from the world beyond, where mist and shadow lurked like the monsters in the deepest part of the chasm. But they looked down on us. They sat up in their pretty castle, dancing at balls and feasting on the toils from our fields. We did all the work. They reaped all the rewards.
They punished us with whips and the broadsides of swords. Sometimes more.
He was my king, but I did not enjoy bowing to him.
My back itched from the memory of that day six years ago when I’d been nothing but a helpless innocent in the face of all that unbridled rage. A day I would never, ever forget. And the fae who stood before me now had been the one to do it.
Hatred boiled in my gut.
Sneering, he lifted me from my knees with nothing but a crooked finger under my chin. “What is your name?”
I bit the insides of my cheeks so hard I tasted the iron tang of blood.
His ember eyes flicked behind me to where Val still knelt, her head bent so low that she’d become one with the ground. “You. Stand.”
On shaky legs, Val hauled herself up to her feet. “Yes, Your Highness.”
“Go,” he growled.
My heart flipped.
Val’s eyes widened, and her cheeks blanched. “What?”
“I said, go!” He stalked toward her. “Don’t make me say it again. Go or I will remove my protection from your life and then toss you back down into that pit.”
Val cast an uncertain glance my way. Because of course she did. Even with the fae king threatening her life, she didn’t want to leave my side. I gave her a pained half-smile.
“It’s all right,” I whispered to her, desperately hoping she would listen. Val should not have to go down for my crimes. She’d come with me, but this had been my idea. It was always my idea.
“It is not up to you.” His voice boomed, echoing across the chasm’s expanse behind me. “Now, go before I change my mind.”
Val shot me one last worried glance before taking two steps toward the safety of the forest. She let out a whistling breath, her glassy eyes bubbling with unshed tears. Shaking her head, she twisted on her feet and ran.
As soon as she’d vanished into the trees, the king turned his full attention back to me. A strange smile curled his lips, the kind of smile I imagined lions might make when sizing up their prey. “Tell me your name.”
I swallowed hard. I could refuse him, but I knew what would come next if I did. And as stubborn as I was, I didn’t want to die this day. He wouldn’t remember who I was, anyway. I wasn’t the only human in Teine he’d punished. So, I forced it out. “Tessa.”
“Tessa,” he said slowly, as if he were rolling the word across his tongue. “Such a human name.”