I ran towards the gate instead. He was right on my heels, cursing me to hell and back and gasping for air in between.

The first house we saw was abandoned, the second was left in a hurry with the door hanging wide open. It’s possible that I might’ve been wrong about people needing help.

Everyone here knew how to look out for themselves. There were safety protocols in place. Protocols which said the princess should head to the palace, where it was the safest. And I had taken us farther from it.

I stopped in mild panic, unable to decide the best course of action.

Regar had no such problem. “Are you done? Are you ready to come with me now?” he huffed.

I swallowed over the lump in my throat at his harsh tone and nodded. He didn’t throw me over his shoulder, just nudged me in the direction of the palace and kept a rapid pace until we ran into another fae.

“Ferro! Thank fuck,” Regar exclaimed, relieved to see the other fae while my own stomach turned sour in an instant.

Ferro’s gaze travelled from Regar to me and then back, a sly smile spreading on his face that disturbed me even more. Dread unfurled within my gut at the sight.

There was something wrong with my vision as my transformed eye kept blacking out completely whenever I tried to get a closer look at Ferro. I thought I was just lightheaded from our run, but Regar was fully visible, if only a lot darker than I was used to. Ferro on the other hand was shrouded in darkness. A dark and unrelenting cloud and when he smiled, the cloud thickened.

“An inconvenient time for a stroll, don’t you think?” he asked. His full focus on me made my skin crawl, but I refused to back away.

Regar had nothing crawling across his skin, nor had he any trouble with his vision, since he gratefully pushed me toward Ferro. “Very convenient to have run into you. Take Isay to the palace. I’ll go reinforce the gate.”

Ferro had no reservations against touching me. With an iron grip around my wrist, he started pulling me in the direction we’d been going. When Regar was out of sight, he steered away from the palace and toward the closest tower instead. I was unable to resist his direction.

Terror snaking down my spine, I’d tried to let go of the shield to pull out the barbs, but the darkness relished his skin against my arm. My protest went unheard as much as my physical restraint.

I didn’t know where we were going. All I knew was that I was not safe with Ferro.

Chapter 29

KARMUTH

DISTURBED BY SHOUTING OUTSIDE MY WINDOW, I ROLLED OUT OF the bed to go see what the problem was. Pulling my pants on, the shouting soon turned to screams, and I discarded my shirt, grabbed my dadao, and sprinted outside instead.

Death fae scurried in every direction from the collection of housing my one room apartment connected to. It was nothing as fancy as Isay’s quarters, but I didn’t use it for much other than sleeping. I was wide awake now.

A fae male ran past me, and I called out, “What’s going on?”

“Felrothians crashed through the gate!” he shouted back without stopping, breathless from his pace.

I’d left Isay with Regar, and I trusted him to keep her safe. I did not, however, trust her to follow orders. She was too damn stubborn for that. While Regar would never admit it, he was a big softy and would have a hard time arguing with her. I, on the other hand, would get her to listen.

I’d just made up my mind to go search for Isay, starting with the palace when the first emotion-feeder showed up.

I could not not do my duty, which is why I postponed my worries and stepped between the warrior and a female he held imprisoned. Her eyes were wide with fear, which is when I realised she wasn’t going to battle for dominance with her touch of death. As her face grew numb, I also knew he fed on terror.

Pulling my dadao out of its scabbard, I didn’t hesitate to come between the woman and the Felrothian. She fell to the ground when he let her go and swayed like a lunatic while I cut the attacker in half.

There would be more where that one came from. Many more, and while some of the lower fae stepped up to the battle of forces, the moment Felrothians weapons were drawn, I remained the only one standing against them.

Isay’s ecos coursed through me, strengthening me, but they kept coming at me from every side, crashing through my defences with force. Surrounded by more than ten warriors, I finally dropped my dadao and raised my hands in surrender.

One of them stepped closer, but not close enough, while the rest held a tight circle around me. “No, quaffer, I’ll not take the chances. Getting closer is not worth it, no matter what they say about the taste of you.”

“Nobody knows the taste of me.” Except for Isay, no fae had been able to get to me. But in this instance, Isay didn’t count. “Whomever you’ve been talking to has likely lied.”

“My source is solid,” the Felrothian reassured.

Not that it made much difference to me. I knew no one aside from Isay had fed on me. Their fear of me, however, had to originate somewhere. So did their nickname.

Quaffer? As in overindulging in my feeding habits?

That was simply ridiculous, since I detested the whole process with a fierceness they couldn’t possibly comprehend.

I would, however, devour them whole should they make a move on me. They knew it too, which is why none of them dared to get any closer even after their leader ordered my death.

“Don’t touch him, just kill him,” the fae in front of me turned around and walked out of the circle, leaving his minions to finish me off.

I bared my teeth as they held firm, weapons pointed at me and not moving an inch. There were plenty of stares going around between them, as if searching for a confidence boost they all supremely lacked.

Finally, one of them strode into the circle, but I’d been expecting it. Only a slight quaffle later, he lay dead at my feet and the rest of them tightened the circle around me. I would’ve laughed at their idiocy, but the longer I was held up here, the longer I wasn’t with Isay, and I found nothing funny about that.

“So, who’s next?” I growled, and I could have sworn they shivered. They must’ve had hella good horror stories about me, because I was damn pissed but I wasn’t that terrifying.

I’d show them terrifying. Not waiting for them to come to me, I broke out of the circle by storming the fae in front of me, killing him with a mere touch. The rest of them finally snapped out of their fear-induced trance and were on me in an instant. That’s when I did a complete Isay move.

Truthfully, I wasn’t sure where that pull originated from, but deep within me, a gaping hole opened, and I felt all of the warriors around me.

Their life forces and emotions alike fluttered around the air like corrupted butterflies, and that cavity in my chest lurched at the intensity of so much substance around me. I wasn’t starved, but I was tempted by the simplicity of it all.

The sudden pull grabbed every single opponent around me and collected everything they had to offer right into the spot in my chest.

Hadn’t Isay said her barbs originate from her chest? It didn’t matter, not really, because there was no way I was going to stop what was going down. Similarly to Isay in the forest, I collected the ecos of the fae around me and they crumpled to nothing at my feet. My only witness being the numbed woman still lying in the dirt.

I pulled her to her feet, because I couldn’t leave her here and she clearly had no care in the world for her well-being in the state she’d been left in, and dragged her with me. We were going as fast as we could, my heart aching in my chest as if something had gone terribly wrong, but I didn’t know what. My terror grew with each step closer to the palace. It vibrated through my chest doing its damnedest to freeze me in my steps. I wouldn’t stop.

Isay... she was in danger. She needed me. I had to find her.

We reached the palace to see our troops gathered in front of it, with Hiko at the very front. I pushed the woman at the closest warrior as I made my way to the prince.

“Isay?” I asked, a dagger wedged in my heart.

“With Regar last I saw them,” Hiko informed.

“Where?” I gasped.

“Saw them in the dining hall hours ago.”

Hours ago? He didn’t know where she was. With my heart jumping out of my chest, I had to ask, “Did you check her room?”