The Fae Bound - Juliana Haygert Page 0,3

the day, Lark called on me to be by his side almost all day. First for breakfast, then for a walk in the courtyard in the center of the fortress, next for an audience with his people, where he sat at his throne and I sat in mine, and the shadow fae residing nearby came to tell their grievances to the prince. Most of the time, Lark seemed indifferent about the people’s problems, but here and there he showed some emotion, especially when it was all about revenge.

Once, I became too curious and asked him why the hell there were shadow fae living in the human world. Didn’t that mean they would also lose their powers, grow old, and die? Very happy with my sudden interest, Lark explained that his fortress was protected with his father’s magic, which didn’t allow anyone inside, plus the shadow fae residing nearby to suffer like the frost fae had.

After our boring morning, we had lunch. After lunch, Lark met with General Auron and his soldiers for a meeting—this one I wasn’t invited to. Later in the evening, Lark called me again to watch him train with his soldiers in the training center underground, just above the dungeons. I couldn’t deny he was an expert fighter and his magic was immense. If I had ever to face him, I knew without a doubt that he would win easily.

So I scratched “fighting the prince” off my list.

At night, after he showered, we had dinner, then we had another boring walk along the courtyard before Lark escorted me to my chambers, where I was supposed to stay until he came back for me the next day.

Besides the time when he listened to his people and I wanted to do more than he did, Lark’s day was simple. Normal. Boring.

Still, my mind didn’t stop working the entire day. How could I kill the fae prince if he was too strong for me, and he was always surrounded by his guards?

I only saw two solutions: I either killed him in his sleep by sneaking up in his chambers, pretending to want to be with him, or by poisoning.

What I needed was to research about poisons. Thank goodness, this damn fortress had a huge library. While Lark met up with his general and soldiers, I snuck into the library.

I made sure to pile my table with books about fae legends and some fiction stories, most about love and hope. If someone came to me, they would think I loved to read romance.

But, hidden underneath those, were books about herbs and alchemy. I had been searching for books about poisons, but I couldn’t find any. Either Lark didn’t have any, or they were somewhere else.

It was okay. Even if I didn’t find anything specific, I was sure I could find about some lethal herb.

On my fourth day at the Shade Fortress, Lark’s meeting lasted longer than usual, giving me more time alone at the library. Thankfully, he hadn’t appointed guards to follow me around, like they followed him. It wasn’t as if he needed them, not with some many guards spread around the hallways, and this damn fortress which was … well, a fortress. It was impossible to get in, and it was just as hard to get out.

The library was endless and while perusing, I did see some fiction books that caught my attention. If I ever had some leisure time, I would pick them up to read them.

Alas, I didn’t have any leisure time. Even if I didn’t have what to do with my time, it would never be leisure. Not while I lived in this place.

With a sigh, I advanced toward another row of shelves. I had been exploring shelf by shelf, from top to bottom, and slowly covering the entire library. The books were divided into sections and topics, but sometimes I found a small area that seemed out of place. This would be so much easier if Lark had caught up with modern days and had a computer here with all the books in the library on a database.

I kept going, careful to read each one of the titles on the bindings, making sure I didn’t miss anything that could be useful.

After going through three long rows and finding nothing, I stopped and looked around. At this rate, it would take me a whole month to cover the entire library. I didn’t have that time. In less than a month, the Moon Period would be over