Prince of Wolves - Tasha Black Page 0,29

lord it over everyone else. Or else they just give money and they don’t want to mingle with regular people in any way.”

Her words struck a familiar chord.

Ashe recalled a moment in the carriage visiting the Summer Kingdom. Her sister Wynter had hung out the window, dropping coins and laughing while the peasant children chased the flashes of glitter in the dusty street.

They had stopped at a farm house and the people there had offered them a meal.

The food was plain, and Ashe had thoughtlessly thrown most of hers away, still weary from the long journey. Looking back now, Ashe didn’t doubt that it had been the best food the people had, maybe their only food. She had probably tossed aside as much as one of them ate in a week.

There was so much she had taken for granted. Cruelty and excess had defined her life in Faerie, whether she had chosen it or not. She was only beginning to realize how much.

“That’s part of why I love this place,” Delilah went on, oblivious to Ashe’s awakening. “There are people like Eva Cortez who recognize how lucky they are, and want to give back personally, not just with money.”

The door opened at last to reveal an enormous space.

A row of computer desks was on one side wall and a round desk took up a bit of space in the center.

The rest of the space was made up of seemingly endless rows of bookshelves.

Ashe had never seen so many books in one place outside of the palace. It was dizzying.

A huge window made up the whole front wall of the library. Soft morning light from the overcast sky filtered in, bathing an interior window box of ferns that separated the window from the wooden floor in front of it.

“The Horticultural Society donated the ferns,” Delilah said cheerfully. “Aren’t they beautiful?”

Ashe nodded and admired the other details.

“Some of the woodwork and the antique radiators were salvaged from the old building,” Delilah said.

Ashe looked at the radiators, they were cast iron, with ornate swirls and vines. Even the functional items in this mortal space were made with such love.

This library might rival its equal in Faerie.

And this place was open to all, not owned privately by royalty or hoarded by a wealthy member of the court.

Delilah flipped a switch on the wall and frowned when nothing happened.

“I think the lights might be on a timer,” she offered. “They must be set to come on during regular hours. I’m not sure how to override that.”

“It’s fine,” Ashe told her. “We should have enough light to do what we need to do.”

A sudden flash of lighting punctuated her remark, and both women started a little, then giggled.

“Okay,” Delilah said. “There’s an empty cart. Let’s take it over to the children’s section and see what we can find.”

Ashe followed her, excited to choose wonderful books for the children. And to pour herself into a task that would take her mind off everything else for a while.

17

Varik

Varik paced the secluded space between the backyard and the surrounding woods.

Ashe didn’t want him to follow her. She wanted him to let her go.

Yet the need to protect her overpowered him.

How was he supposed to let her go, knowing what might be coming?

Cullen Ward’s words came back to him:

We protect this town and the woods beyond. We will allow no harm to come to the citizens of Rosethorn Valley…

Ashe counted as a citizen of Rosethorn Valley. She had been rightfully born to a couple here, she had a home, and even a job in the tiny town.

Surely, she could claim the protection of the Fae in the woods.

He called to Ronan, who was chasing a tiny butterfly out on the lawn.

The pup galloped toward him, his back legs going a little faster than the front so that he wound up making slightly sideways progress, his floppy ear moving like he was about to take flight, pink tongue lolling from his happy mouth.

For a moment, Varik’s heart was whole again as he smiled down at the little one who meant so much to him.

In Faerie, Ronan had been the only son of a political rival to the ruling family of the Winter Court. Ronan was hired by the Winter Queen to swap him for a mortal boy, effectively ending the family’s political ambitions by removing their viable heir. When Varik refused to complete the switch, Ashe’s mother had chosen to simply have his fae parents assassinated instead.

She assumed that Varik would