The Fae Bound - Juliana Haygert Page 0,1

pieces, scattering across the floor until I could barely see the smooth dark stone underneath. Only once I was free of that, I wiped my tears away and took a deep breath in.

No, I couldn’t break down. Not now, not later. This was my life now and if I broke down now, what would happen to me for the rest of eternity? Because fae lived forever.

And Prince Lark was my husband forever now.

That knowledge, that fact, brought a sharp pain to my chest.

The idea of running away with the medallion fleeted through my mind, but I pushed away. Because running away wouldn’t solve anything; it would only make things worse. But most of all, Lark wasn’t an idiot. He had known I came to him using a medallion. He had taken it from me earlier.

But I had another thing he didn’t know about it. I hurried to the closet, where earlier I had hidden the looking glass under some dresses, hoping no one would find it.

My hands shook as I held the looking glass.

I closed my eyes and willed it to work.

When I looked at it again, the glass had become a canvas swirling with smoke. I held my breath as the smoke cleared and the image took shape.

It was me, sitting in an armchair, wearing a long, blue dress, with a big smile on my face. I opened my arms and someone, a little boy, ran to me. He jumped on my arms and hugged me tight. When he glanced up at me, I could see it. The boy could be young, but he had Wyatt’s hair, Wyatt’s eyes, Wyatt’s smile.

I almost dropped the looking glass.

What did this mean?

Then, the image was gone and the looking glass returned to its normal form.

“What the hell,” I muttered shaking it, as if that would make it work. Usually, the damn thing showed three scenes, not just one.

I put the looking glass back into its hiding place and dragged my feet to the window. The sun was rising, tinting the mountain with orange and yellow light. For a moment, I closed my eyes and let the sun’s warmth kiss my skin. If only life was this easy and kind.

But it wasn’t. I leaned over the window and glanced down. The fortress stretched under my window, with many turrets and sharp points, and beyond it, was the harsh mountain.

From here, no one could resist a fall, not even a fae.

But killing myself wasn’t the answer to this problem. Running away wasn’t either.

Then how could I make my cursed life a little easier to bear? Become a dutiful wife and bow my head to Prince Lark? Not in a million years.

There was only one more solution I could see, one I had no idea how I would accomplish, but … I couldn’t just pretend I was a pretty doll. I couldn’t just sit here and accept my fate.

Somehow, before the Moon Period was over, I was going to kill the prince.

2

Wyatt

This couldn’t be happening.

Even though I was sure Farrah was already wed to Prince Lark, I had tried entering the fortress many times, but every time I was stopped either by a horde of shadow fae soldiers guarding every entrance of the fortress, or by Ariella, who told me I would be killing myself.

She was right, I knew that, but I couldn’t just give up. Beyond these trees, beyond the walls of the fortress, was Farrah. So close. There had to be a way of saving her from him.

“She doesn’t need saving,” Ariella said more than once. “She chose this.”

I knew that too, but I couldn’t believe that. I knew what Farrah was doing. She was sacrificing herself for her people. That hardly seemed fair.

After many botched attempts to sneak into the fortress, I let Ariella guide me deeper into the forest, where we wouldn’t be found out by the shadow fae patrolling the area. She was sure they were expecting me and searching for me, with every intention to kill on sight.

I paced around the fallen tree trunk Ariella was seated at, my mind racing, my emotions buzzing, my blood boiling.

“Wyatt, you have been like that for hours now,” Ariella said, her voice hard. For an angel, she was quite the tough one. “You have to stop and rest and relax if you want to keep going later.”

I stopped, but I didn’t relax. I glared at her. “I don’t want to keep going later. I want to keep going now.”

Ariella rolled her eyes,