The Fae Bound - Juliana Haygert Page 0,23

myself hidden behind tall blades of grass and bushes, I approached the prison as much as could and waited.

I was starting to think both women had been caught when I finally heard it.

An explosion coming from the other side of the prison.

19

Farrah

All I could do was pace around my bedroom and hope for a miracle. Despite knowing better, I stopped every few minutes and tried pulling the damn bracelet off my wrist. And each time, it remained intact.

I scoffed. Why did I even bother trying? I knew it wouldn’t come off so easily. If only I could go to the library and research some books.

The cat meowed, giving me a fright. Sometimes, I forgot he was even here, the damn animal. All he did was slumber on the armchair in the corner of the bedroom, or over my own pillow. At least, he was easy to care for.

Suddenly, the doors opened and Jennie entered my chambers, her head low. “Good afternoon, your highness,” she said in a meek voice, her eyes to the floor.

I frowned. “Jennie, look at me.” She flinched but lifted her head. I gasped at the new purple bruise on her temple and neck. I clenched my fists. “Did Prince Lark do this to you?” Jennie remained quiet. “You don’t need to defend him, you know. If he hurt you, tell me.”

She blinked, tears appearing at the corner of her eyes. “I shouldn’t talk like that about him, your highness. It’s wrong.”

Why the hell was she still afraid of talking shit about him? He beat her up. She had to hate him. How could I make her see just how wrong he was and get her to help me without actually telling her the truth?

There was a way she could help me.

“Jennie, I would like to go to the library,” I said, my voice firm.

“But the prince said—“

“I know the prince ordered me to stay in my room, but I would like you to go to him and tell him I’m bored out of my mind. I want new reading material and I would like a couple of hours at the library to choose a few books for myself.” I gestured to the closed doors. “What’s the worst that could happen if the guards will follow me there?”

Jennie hesitated, but she lowered her head. “Yes, my princess.”

She left the room, and I started pacing again.

Either the prince was more gullible than he seemed, or Jennie had been very convincing when telling him about my boredom. I didn’t really care about how she persuaded him to let me come to the library, all that mattered was that I was here now, surrounded by the tall shelves and thousands of books.

The four guards had entered the library with me, but they stayed by the entranced, their eyes following every one of my movements.

I started browsing the fiction section, trying to throw my guards off. I picked two books from there, as decoy. Slowly, I made my way deeper into the library, to the back shelves where the books in magical objects were.

My heartbeat sped up as I searched through the books as fast as I could, always maintaining the fiction books on top, so if I was caught, I could hide the others. I skimmed through the books, searching for anything in this damn bracelet. I needed to find a way to get this shit off my wrist.

One hour passed and dozens of books had been searched, and I hadn’t found anything about the bracelet. My nerves started to flare up in the second hour of my search. What if I didn’t find anything? What if I could never take this bracelet off? Even if Wyatt came back with Daleigh, they wouldn’t be able to rescue me.

My despair only grew with every minute.

Until I found something I didn’t expect to.

As I was skimming a thick book about magical jewels, I stumbled on a smooth blue stone pendant. Frowning, I fished the blue stone Wyatt had given me from my pocket. I had asked him why he was giving me that, and he said he didn’t know. I was given no other explanation before his time was tight and he had to sneak out of the fortress. Though I had no idea what the stone was for, I kept it close to me, just because it had been something Wyatt had given me.

But here it was, a drawing of the stone staring back at me on the pages of this