The Prince narrowed his eyes, pulled his sword and drove it deep into Ghosh’s belly so quickly he didn’t have a chance to fight back.

  “You, you killed him.” I gasped as the man fell hard onto the ground. That was two dead bodies I’d seen in less than twenty four hours. Two men murdered right in front of me.

  My stomach reacted, I turned away vomiting into the straw while on my hands and knees.

  “There’s only one way to deal with traitors.” He stated. The blood still dripping from his sword. He knelt down, wiped it clean on the straw then turned his attention back to me.

  I whimpered. “Please.”

  “Get up.” He said sounding like he didn’t even gave a damn about what had just happened.

  I shook my head. I didn’t want to cry but I could feel it, the tears right there, threatening to fall. “I just want to go home.” I said. “Please just let me go home.”

  “You’re coming with me.” He replied grabbing my arm, yanking me up and back out of the cell.

  We were in a fort, a small wooden outpost by the looks of it. All around us lay dead soldiers. I shuddered trying not to see it but it felt like the image was seared into my brain.

  Like every time I blinked their bodies were there, lingering.

  “Are you hurt?” Marke asked rushing up to me.

  “She’s fine.” Fain grunted before I could reply.

  “Like you even care.” I snapped back at him.

  “You’re right I don’t care.” Fain retorted. “Get her horse.” He said still holding me so tightly before lifting me up and depositing me into the saddle.

  “Tie her to it.” He ordered as he held me so I couldn’t get off and I couldn’t fight.

  “But…” I began.

  He silenced me with a look that sent chills through my spine.

  “I warned you. I told you not to try anything.” He said quietly so that only I could hear, his arms were wrapped around me, holding me firm. His body was engulfing mine entirely while another man tied my legs onto the saddle.

  Once it was done he grabbed the reins and walked back to his own horse leading mine with him.

  “We don’t stop until nightfall.” He said after mounting and looking round to see everyone else was ready. Kicking his horse he pulled mine with him.

  Nightfall? The sun wasn’t even up yet. How the hell could we ride for that long?

  I grabbed onto the saddle but my legs were too secure for me to come off. Little mercies I guess. At least I wouldn’t fall to my death from the horse though there was good chance the beast might collapse under me from the brutal pace Fain had set.

  The pounding of hooves echoed in my head as we galloped on and on and on. My jaw ached from gritting my teeth so hard. Carefully I moved one hand down to the rope. The knots were too tight. Far too tight for me to undo.

  There was no way I could escape.

  No way I could get free of him.

  He had me caught entirely.

  When we stopped Prince Fain untied me, yanked me off and dumped me on the ground beside Marke. He tied my feet back together with rope and then tied it off to the tree behind them like I was a horse needing to be tethered up.

  “You don’t leave her side.” He said as he pointed to Marke.

  In front of us the other soldiers were busy making a camp for the night. A soldier started a fire, near enough for me and Marke to feel the warmth and they all huddled around it. Two others stood on guard by the horses while another four took sentry roles around the rest of the camp.

  I sat shivering partly from cold, partly from exhaustion, and partly from fear too. Because this wasn’t a joke anymore and it certainly felt far from some cosplay thing too. None of it made any logical sense. Fain had killed a man, no two, had literally murdered them in front of me as if it was a perfectly normal thing to do.

  “You’re freezing.” Marke said before getting to his feet.

  “Where are you going?” The Prince asked from across the fire.

  “She’s freezing. She needs a better cloak.” He replied but was met with a stony face. “I doubt the High King will find much use in a dead Fae High Prince Fain.” He continued.

  Fain scowled in response.

  “Fine.” He replied standing up and pulling his own cloak off his shoulders and passing it to Marke. “She can have mine.”

  Marke nodded in response and took the cloak placing it carefully around my shoulders in a way that made it clear he didn’t want to touch me. Like I was dirty, or infectious, or something worse.

  I grimaced as he did it. I didn’t want his cloak on me, I didn’t want anything from him but I couldn’t deny the warmth of the robe and it brought me back to my senses.

  I glanced over at the Prince but he was talking to one of the other men. Ridley I realised, the man who’d helped bandage my arms. Without his robe I could see the thick muscles of his arms as his shirt clung to them and I was only too aware of his smell on the cloak that now surrounded me. In any other situation, he’d be attractive, irresistible even despite the hardness of his face but right now all I could see was the hate I felt for him and the hate he evidently had for me too.

  Marke handed me some stew, again careful not to actually touch me but I was too hungry to care. I wolfed it down. Once again burning my tongue. If they offered me seconds I would have taken it, not because it was good, although it wasn’t bad, but I was starving, and the heat was doing more to warm me than the fire was.

  “I’m sorry for what’s happened to you.” Marke said quietly next to me.

  “Which bit?” I retorted because as far as I was concerned every moment of the last two days had been an ordeal I wanted to forget.

  “Lord Ghosh for one. He shouldn’t have done that. He shouldn’t have tried to take you like that.”

  I looked away. Feeling the shame rise at the memory. He’d tried to… no I wasn’t going to dwell on it. At least the Prince had helped there. Though his actions afterwards showed he had no compassion, no empathy.

  “And the soldier who attacked you.” Marke added. “The Agnai.”

  I frowned at the unfamiliar word. Fain had called him that too. “What are they?”

  Marke let out a low breath before he spoke. “They’re a bunch of fanatics. Crazy people. They think anything but human is dangerous. If they could, they would kill all of us Magi as well but we’re too well protected.”

  I let out a low breath. There were people more crazy than this lot? But of course there were. “What are Magi?” I asked. Marke had called him that so many times now. But the word meant nothing.

  “You really don’t know anything do you?” He said though it didn’t sound like a criticism, he sounded almost sympathetic. “Magi are humans who can channel magic. But we have to have a receptacle, a way of channelling it.”

  “What?”

  “Like this.” He said pulling a dark crystal no more than a few centimetres in length. Clearly interpreting my disbelief for misunderstanding. “Usually we use crystals because they were formed when the world formed and are filled with the same elements. Sometimes we can use other things though, if they are very old, but they have to have some link to the world. Some of the world’s essence in them.”

  “Right.” I said hoping my face didn’t show how absurd this all was. The scary thing was he actually looked like he believed it.

  “So I could channel magic through that?” I said reaching towards the crystal. Marke flinched away from me like I’d done something offensive. “What? What did I do?”

  “You can’t touch another Magi’s crystal.” He hissed before he calmed himself. “Crystals retain the energy of their user. If another person were to touch this, it would be like touching my soul.”

  “Oh. Sorry.” I replied.

  “Besides you’re not human, you’re Fae and that changes everything.”

  I rolled her eyes. Here we go again. “So what is Fae?” I asked. Worse case I might be able to use some of this information to my advantage, especially if people were willing to kill me over it.

  “Fae are humans who’ve crossed over from another world. In making the journey your soul mixes with the same magic that created the world and you become magic.” Marke stated.

  “But that’s the same as Magi.” I replied confused.

  “No. No it’s not. Magi are humans from this world that can channel magic. Fae are magic.”

  I shrugged. “Sounds like a difference in semantics to me.”

  “It’s not. Fae have the ability to enter and leave worlds. No other creature has that.” Marke said.

  “So you’re saying that I’ve somehow left my world and entered yours?” I half laughed.

  “Exactly.” The serious look on his face said it all.

  “But that’s absurd. Surely I’d know if I left my world?”

  “I can’t answer that. I’m not Fae.” Marke replied.

  I closed my eyes, palmed them with my hands and sighed. They really were mad. The whole lot of them.

  Around me I heard laughing and looked up at the sound. Fain and the two soldiers were clearly enjoying a joke. I could still smell his scent on the cloak and the fact that it didn’t repulse me, that it did quite the opposite made more than a little irritated.

  “Tell me this. Why does everyone keep saying I belong to the High King?” I asked.

  “About six hundred years ago they passed a law that any Fae that came into this world would become property of the High King.”

  “Property?” I repeated in disgust.

  “It’s not as bad as it sounds.” Marke said. “There used to be a lot of Fae back then and not all of them good. It was a time of civil war and any minor king would give his right arm to have a Fae in his pocket. Too many people were dying. The High Council decided it needed to be controlled.”

  “So you think I’m the High King’s property?”

  “You are.” He said meeting my now angry face. “Do you realise how many people would be after you if they knew of your existence? Do you realise the war you would bring? You saw how Lord Ghosh reacted to you. There hasn’t been any Fae in this world for over a hundred years. King Yannis would burn half his kingdom just to get his fingers on you.”

  I shook my head and looked away. Marke was mad. They were all mad.

  “Why does everyone want a Fae so bad?” I muttered. “What are they supposed to do that’s so great?”

  “Fae have magic within their bones. Within their soul. They don’t have to use a receptacle to channel it. It’s in their very essence. Their power is unmatched even by the greatest Magi.”

  I swallowed at that. “I don’t have magic. I’m not magic. Do you really think I’d let you all tie me up and drag me wherever if I had magic.” I half hissed.

  “That’s because you don’t know how to use it yet. You’ve already performed some magic, but it was instinctual. You just need to learn how to be magic that’s all.”

  “I haven’t performed magic.” I said crossing my arms. “If I could actually do magic why on earth would I have let you tie me up like that?”

  “How do you think you got here in the first place?” He replied.

  “I didn’t magic myself here.” I said through gritted teeth.

  “And how do you think you got those ropes off your wrist back in Ghosh’s hall? They didn’t break apart by themselves.”

  “I, that, that wasn’t me.” I said thinking back to it, remembering how angry I’d been but little else besides it.

  “The sooner you stop fighting what you are the better it will be for you. No one wants to treat you like this.” Marke said gesturing to the rope around my ankles. “If you cooperate then you’ll be treated with kindness.”

  “Sure. Because High Prince Fain is all about kindness.” I muttered glancing over at him.

  “He’s not as bad as he seems.” Marke stated.

  “He tied me to a horse and dragged me halfway across the country.” I snapped.

  Marke just shook his head slightly in response.

  “You should get some rest. Both of you.” Ridley said across the now dwindling fire. “We’ve got another hard day of riding tomorrow and neither of you are used to it.”

  I could feel Fain’s gaze on me as Ridley spoke and I glared at him. It felt like he’d known I’d been talking about him. The way he looked at me, that hate in his eyes made my stomach contort and the colour drain from my face despite my determination not to show he had any effect on me.

  I gritted my teeth and looked away.

  Turning my back to them and to Marke as well I pulled Prince Fain’s cloak up like a blanket and tried to get comfortable on the rough, hard ground.

  If I slept at all it’d be a miracle.

  By the time morning came I was not only stiff from all the riding but from the hard, uncomfortable position I’d somehow curled myself up into. My feet felt like ice blocks but at least it numbed the pain of all the cuts. I doubted I’d be able to walk without hobbling even to where the horse was tethered.

  Ridley once again gave me some food. It looked like porridge but not quite. I guess this is what people meant when they talked about gruel. It didn’t taste bad. It didn’t really taste of anything. But it was hot. And it filled the sickening emptiness of my stomach so at least that was something.

  I was led, tethered like an animal, away from the group, and given the privacy of a bush to piss behind. I didn’t complain. I was surrounded by men, and that Ghosh arsehole had made it more than clear that the danger to me wasn’t just from a sword in my belly.

  I squatted as soon as he was out of view. Pissing as quickly as I could, my legs shaking from the effort and my head screaming that at any moment the soldier would come back, would step right around and I’d be there. Exposed.

  Once I was done he led me back to where the Prince was waiting.

  He picked me up, deposited me back in the saddle and began tying me up once more.

  I glared at him as he did it, as he made each loop, but he simply stared back, tightening them further as if I weren’t a human at all. As if I weren’t capable of feeling.

  I still had his cloak on and I realised he must have slept all night without it. I felt a flash of gratitude at that, because I would have frozen even more with just my thin one.

  But I didn’t want to be grateful.

  I didn’t want to feel anything positive towards him.

  I wanted to hate him as much as he clearly hated me.

  As he took my reins and mounted his own horse I gritted my teeth ready for another agonising day in the saddle. My thighs were already screaming out in protest, my muscles were starting to cramp and my head hurt worse than ever.

  But worse than that, much worse was the realisation that the further we travelled, the further we rode, the harder it was going to be to find my way back.

  The citadel loomed ahead like a mirage of white stone as we crossed the marshy valley beneath it.

  We were walking now, the horses too spent to move any faster.

  I stared up, blinking rapidly, but it felt like my eyes were playing tricks. Like the entire world was now invested in this charade.

  A city like that couldn’t be real. A city like that I’d have heard about. A huge castle sat on the top of the hill, around it, descending down were hundreds of rows of buildings all safe behind the fortified walls. Even in the fading light it glowed, as if it really were illuminated by magic.

  Something told me that as soon as I entered the place, if I allowed them to take me there, that I’d never escape. That this was it.

  This mirage in front of me was a prison cell. A dungeon.

  My fear spiked. I could feel my body shaking. My head screamed to do something. Anything.

  That I had to get away. That I had to fight now.

  Fight or I would never see daylight again.

  I gripped the saddle harder. I tried to get my legs to move despite how well tied down I was.

  If the Prince noticed, if any of them did. they didn’t say anything. They just let me squirm. Let me silently fight in the only way I could.

  Until the last of my energy left me.

  Until the hours of riding we still had, wore me down, and once again I gave in.

  My head hurt so badly I could barely think, could barely process. My entire body felt like it was wracked with pain but it was dulling I realised.

  All my senses were dulling.

  I gulped, trying to focus. Trying to force myself back to consciousness because I was aware of what was happening. I was too weak, to pathetic now to even keep my eyes open.

  All I could do was sit limply in my saddle as the horse plodded on.

  “You should cover her head.” Marke called across as we got nearer.

  “Why? It’s almost dark.” The Prince replied with a shrug.

  “I’m sure your brother would rather she was kept secret as long as possible.” Marke said.

  Fain clenched his jaw in response before holding his hand up. Everyone around us immediately stopped. Even the horses, as if they were trained to be obedient to this signal too.

  Someone shoved a cloth over my head. It slumped down over my shoulders as I registered it.

  I should have fought. I should have protested but I didn’t have the strength for anything anymore.

  Four soldiers rode ahead of us. Two now holding my banners; a stylised helmet stitched above crossed swords. The rich red fabric still stood out despite the fading light.

  If anyone were to look now, there was a high chance they’d assume the damn girl was simply a prisoner. I’d been away long enough for it to seem plausible. Believable.

  Still, I kept her horse close. Kept her close.

  Something in me stirred at that thought, that she was there, touching distance from me. All I had to do was reach out and… I clenched my jaw forcing back the idea. Fae were always tempting but this one felt doubly so. Dangerously so. I’d be glad to get rid of her, glad to extricate myself from her.

  Behind me Ridley and the other soldiers followed. Along with the Magi.

  None of us spoke. The only sound coming from us was the horses hooves clacking against the cobblestones.