Keeper of Storms (The Fallen Fae #3) - Jenna Wolfhart Page 0,41
on their blood and—”
“Oh.” She sighed, her face hardening into ice. “That again.”
Reyna frowned. “What do you mean, ‘again’?”
The cluster of air fae warriors shot each other uneasy glances. The golden-haired female cleared her throat. She stood taller than the rest, and her armor was more refined. Tassels of gold and red hung from her breastplate, signifying her as a captain for the army. The hard set to her jaw said everything her words did not. She wasn’t too fond of the wood king.
“Nothing for you to worry about,” she quickly said, palming the pommel of her sword. “Now, tell me why you’re here before I alert the Grand Alderman. He might be curious to know why a wood fae seems to be hiding out in our tents.”
“I am not a wood fae.” Reyna lifted her shirt to show the hilt of her ice dagger pressed against her stomach. “I am ice.”
Confusion rippled across the captain’s face, replaced quickly with doubt. “You could have stolen that.”
“I could have, but I didn’t.” Reyna shrugged. “Also, I spoke plainly. There is no hiding the truth, or twisting my words to convince you that I am something I am not. Ask me anything you want, and I will answer it.”
They didn’t know that Reyna could lie, though she didn’t plan to do anything but give them the brutal, honest truth.
The captain pursed her lips. She glanced behind her, meeting the eyes of her fellow warriors. Several of them gave her a nod. When she turned back to Reyna, her eyes had sparked with fire.
“Alright then. You said you’re ice. That could somehow be a twist on words, so I will ask you more plainly.” She stepped in closer. “Are you an ice fae? Were you born in the Ice Court? Are you loyal to the Ice Court? Did you somehow join the Wood Court even though you’re an ice fae? Answer all those questions, and then I might believe you are what you say you are.”
Reyna merely smiled. “I am Princess Reyna Darragh, daughter of High King Cos Darragh, former Shieldmaiden for the Ice Court army and currently first-in-line for the ice throne. The once-betrothed to your High King Thane Selkirk. Now, tell me,” she said, chest burning with the heat of her words, “am I what I say I am?”
The captain could only blink.
“Princess.” One of the warriors standing just behind the captain lowered his head. “Forgive us. You do not look yourself.”
“Of course I don’t. I never would have gotten this far if I hadn’t dyed my silver hair. But it is dye. I am not a wood fae.”
The captain cleared her throat. “Princess, I don’t quite know what to say. I must admit, there are a million and one questions swirling through my head. But before I ask them, can I just say how glad I am you’re here?”
Reyna smiled. It had been a risk, revealing herself to the air fae. She’d had a hunch that they would not be pleased about the king they were now fighting for. Sloane Selkirk had sent them here. They’d been following their leader’s orders. But that did not mean they would be thrilled to fight for a king who killed his own.
They likely did not even know that Thane wanted them back home.
“I could say the same to you,” Reyna replied with a smile. “I bring news from your king.”
The captain and her warriors all stood a little straighter at that. Reyna’s heart warmed. She could only imagine how she would have felt in their situation, if she as a Shieldmaiden had been sent to fight under the command of the wood king. To see a friendly face arrive with news from the court…an overwhelming hope would balloon over her head and lift the weight of the war from her shoulders.
Reyna quickly filled them in on the developments inside the kingdom since Sloane Selkirk’s death. They knew some of it, of course, though much had been twisted by Aengus’s own reports. When they heard that Thane was on his way to Tairngire, with ships, to retake it as his, they cheered.
“The Grand Alderman mentioned none of this,” the captain said, who Reyna now knew as Moina. Her eyes sparkled. “He insinuated that Thane was dead.”
“Well, he’s not dead. I saw him with my own eyes. He even gave me this dye.” Reyna cocked her head, thinking. “What I’ve been wondering is this. Who is holding the city with the Grand Alderman down here?”