Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
A single candle illuminates the small space I’m in. I shiver.
“You feel the cold. That’s a good thing.”
Gillian. I try to get my brain working. The Unseelie princess arrived a mere two days before. She’s an envoy for the Unseelie king, come to discuss some sort of treaty between our two tribes. I wasn’t surprised my father took the meeting, but I doubt there can be lasting peace between the Seelie and the Unseelie. Too much bad blood. Why am I here? Why didn’t Gillian McIver run?
“Can you move? Don’t try to sit up. Just flex your hands at first to get the circulation going. The magic I used was strong.”
Magic? I flex both of my hands and am surprised at how strong I feel. I take a moment, stretching and moving each muscle.
Gillian nods down at me. “You’re strong, Your Highness. Stronger than I would have given you credit for.”
I feel stronger. Something took root in my gut, some deep sense that I am changed forever.
“My parents are dead.” I know it, but I need to say it. The words make it real. My parents are gone, my home taken by that vile traitor. Torin. I call him uncle no more.
Gillian’s dark hair brushes the floor, and she gazes down at me. “Yes, Your Highness.”
“No. I’m not a princess now. I’m a… What is the word? Fugitive. I’m a fugitive.”
Gillian’s eyes go hard. “You are the princess of the Seelie Fae. They can take your crown. They can take your palace. But you never let them take your name, Bronwyn Finn.”
There it is again—that odd strength surges. I sit up. “Are my brothers alive?”
“I think so. Beckett Finn had a chance to kill the pretender, but he chose to save his other half. I believe they ran. It’s why I was able to move your body. Torin sent most of his army after your brothers. He believes you’re dead.”
“He won’t once he can’t find my body.” I need to run. We both need to get out of here.
Gillian’s nose wrinkles. She’s a lovely woman, but now she looks full of mischief. “Oh, he’ll find your body. I switched it with one of the servant girls. I didn’t kill her. She was already dead. I figured she wouldn’t mind. It rather was her duty to protect you. It seems everyone was a bit derelict today.”
I’m starting to feel a bit stronger. “You can’t blame the servants. They’re supposed to serve dinner, not fight off a coup.”
Gillian snorts, an oddly regal sound. “Unseelie servants know a coup can come at any moment.”
“Well, I don’t see your guards here.” I feel an inexplicable need to defend my house. I sit up.
“My guards are dead,” Gillian says in a flat tone. “They did their duty, but we were overrun once the battle began. As far as I can tell, your father was killed almost instantly. Torin seems to have bribed some of your father’s guards to his side. Or perhaps he’s been playing a long game and he had them placed here. It doesn’t matter now. The only thing that matters is getting you away from here.”
“How am I alive?” I take a deep breath, my lungs filling, the very act pleasurable in that I never expected to do it again. My feet feel steady beneath me. I died. I know I did. “Magic isn’t strong enough to bring back the dead.”
Gillian smiles, but even I can see the ruthless will behind it. My father warned me that the Unseelie princess might look like us, but she is and would always be Unseelie. The blood of goblins and trolls and all the dark creatures of the world run through her veins. “Perhaps Seelie magic isn’t strong enough, but mine is. Well, mine combined with my brothers’. Somehow they managed to help me even across the planes. You owe them your life.”
“Are they really symbiotic, like Beck and Cian?” I heard the rumor that the Unseelie king’s vampire wife gave birth to a set of symbiotic twins, as my own mother did. Symbiotic twins are born with one soul and two bodies. They’re extremely powerful when they find the right bondmate, a woman who can bridge their split soul. At least that’s what legend says.
“You’re going to find out for yourself.” Gillian stands and pulls a small pack from the table in the corner. I notice the Unseelie princess is dressed in soft leather pants and a man’s shirt. It makes her curvy body look a bit round, but with her hair tucked into a cap, she might pass as a peasant man if no one looks too closely.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean we must find a way off this plane and back to the Unseelie plane before that jackass Torin seals the exits. My father will take care of you, youngling.” Her eyes take on a serious air. “And so will my brothers.”