Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
They turned as one to offer Darby their hands. Her eyes were wide and frightened, but finally, she put her hand in theirs, and Clover drew her in tight.
“I’ve got you,” Clover told her. “You’re mine now.”
“Ours,” Hadrian said.
Darby tilted her head up and met each of their gazes. “Yes, I am yours.”
Clover held her people close. She’d dreamed of this moment for longer than she could remember. Never believing it was possible for it to happen.
She knew the world would not be kind. Two Fae in love with a human. They would never allow it when it came right down to it. And she also knew that she would do anything to protect them.
Her father’s necklace seemed to pulse against her chest at that thought. As if it read her thoughts and her intention of protection and gave her strength to endure. Maybe Thea was right. Maybe it was worth pursuing the necklace—amulet—if it meant fighting for the right to love whoever she wanted. The right to keep these two safe.
42
THE SNITCH
ARBOR
The cell was tiny.
Only large enough for her to walk a half-dozen paces in one direction and a half-dozen paces forward. Worse, it was made from iron. Her throat constricted when she thought about it, and her magic sputtered before disappearing entirely. She’d never had the sort of magic that Fordham and Wynter could wield. That sort of power had always been beyond her. She had relied her on her schemes and pretty smiles and cleavage to get what she wanted. But now that it had buried itself so deep that she couldn’t access it, she missed it more than ever.
She couldn’t understand how she had gotten here.
This wasn’t her fault.
Fordham had gotten her out of Lethbridge. She was the one to get her and Prescott to the city. They had started new. The past was the past. She shouldn’t be here.
“Let me out!” she yelled again.
Her hands touched the bars, and she hissed, retreating.
“Arbor,” Prescott called.
“Pres!”
They’d been separated by the guards. She was thrown into this iron cell, and he was taken far away. She’d called for him and called for him. She hated most being parted from him.
“Everything is going to be all right,” he called.
He sounded about a dozen cells away from her. Maybe more. She had no real concept of the size of the dungeons beneath the mountain. But she had to assume they were endless. Maybe his voice just carried this far.
“How could Fordham do this to us?”
Prescott was silent for a moment before saying, “I don’t know. It’s a misunderstanding. Someone will come talk to us, and we’ll get out of this.”
She hoped he was right. But it had been hours, and no one had come for them. Not even to offer food or water. They’d left her a bucket. A bucket.
She shuddered.
“I miss you,” she called to her brother.
“I miss you too,” he said.
And then they both fell silent.
* * *
Hours passed. No one came for them. Nothing moved in the dark.
Then, a light appeared at the end of the hall she had come through, and four figures appeared before her. Two of them were standard-issue guards. The same sort who had dragged her into this cell. The other two wore official Society uniforms. The female she didn’t recognize, but the male had stood on the stage with Kerrigan at the ceremony—Master Bastian.
“Please,” Arbor said, rising to her feet and shuffling forward as close as she would get to the iron.
“You can leave us here,” the female said, dismissing the guards. “I am Mistress Corinna, chief of the guard. This is Master Bastian of the Society council. We have some questions for you. Will you comply?”
She nodded as tears came to her eyes. “Of course. This is all a mistake. It’s a huge misunderstanding. We shouldn’t be here.”
“So, you didn’t help King Samael and Princess Wynter Ollivier orchestrate the Battle of Lethbridge?”
“Of course not,” she gasped, letting tears come to her eyes. It was a simple trick that she’d perfected. Anyway, she was scared enough to say and do anything to get out of this.
“We have multiple witnesses who confessed that you were the brains behind the operation,” Corinna said. “That you pushed them to attack. That you committed treason. And then you showed up in the city. What do you expect us to think now that you’re in Kinkadia?”
“We just wanted to start over,” Arbor gasped. “Fordham was the one who got us out of the city.”
Bastian held his hand up. “We have already spoken with Master Fordham. He admitted to releasing you but assured us you were supposed to go into hiding. It is a problem we will address with him. It does not change the fact that we worry you were conspiring to harm the Society in our own city.”