my dear.” Marci—the woman, my mother—shushed me, rocking me in her arms back and forth. “Oh, you poor thing. I know, my darling. It’s scary, but trust me—trust us—we love you. We only want what’s best for you.”
“We want her to live,” Henri, my father, said. “And if we’re going to do that, we need to find a place to leave her, now, before they catch up with us.”
“The humans,” she said. “They’ll take her in.”
“We can’t say what she is,” Henri replied.
My mother’s head shook. “No, we won’t even see them.” She started moving again. “There’s an abbey not far from here. We can leave her there. On their doorstep. The nuns of Coreliath will take her in.”
“Hold on.” The sound of heavy footsteps stomping back to the two of us sounded in my ears. “If we’re going to do this, my love, we have to protect her from them as well. The humans will take her in, but she’ll start showing signs of her magic soon. We have to…” He trailed off, the hoarseness of his voice becoming too much for him.
“Yes,” my mother finished for him. “You’re right.” Another tear fell onto my face. “Alright then.” She reached out and took his hand, drawing him closer, once more, to the two of us. “Then let us cast it.”
A wide, masculine palm landed gently on my cheek. My father’s thumb stroked down my smooth skin. “Our little Princess,” he murmured. “How I wish things had been different for you. How difficult your life will be. I hope one day, you can forgive us for this.”
Forgive them? What were they going to … I screamed as I felt something moving in me as they began to speak. Their words were hard to understand. I didn’t hear them with my ears but in my mind as something wove into my body, beneath my skin. Far beyond the recesses of my mind, I heard a door slam. Was that real or was it my imagination?
Everything grew heavy. My limbs. My eyelids. Darkness encroached. A weight landed on my chest, and suddenly my mother’s arms fell away and I descended into a dark oblivion.
“Cress?” a voice called out to me in the darkness. “Cress, are you there, sweetheart?” I recognized the sound. It was someone I knew. Someone I cared for. Who? Where was I?
Two strong arms came around me, lifting me back out of the shadows, and I gasped as my eyes popped open. Orion’s face appeared over me and as I sat up and looked around, I realized my memory had faded. No longer was I in the forest with the man and woman. I was sitting in a stone room, not unlike my cell except there was no furniture and no door. None of that mattered right then because Orion was there!
“Orion!” I launched myself into his arms, clinging tightly. He returned my embrace without reserve, his arms banding around me as he squeezed me right back. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re here,” I whispered thickly against his chest.
“Of course I’m here,” he said after a moment. “I’ll always come for you when you need me.”
I let myself have a few more moments with him, but when I realized that this wasn’t exactly reality either and it wasn’t possible for Orion to be locked in a stone room with no entrance with me, I pulled back. “What’s going on?” I asked. “What are you—”
“Cress.” He stopped me, his dark eyes looking down at me through even darker lashes.
I didn’t need to say it, but I did nonetheless. “This isn’t real,” I whispered. “Is it?”
He shook his head. “This is merely a dream. I’m here because we’re searching for you, Sorrell, Roan, and I. I need you to give me some information about where you are. Anything can help. Do you remember—”
“I know where I am,” I interrupted him quickly.
His brows rose in surprise as if he hadn’t expected that. “You do?”
I nodded. “I’m in Amnestia,” I said, and then with a sharp inhale, I told him the next part. “I’m in the King’s prison tower,” I admitted. “Tyr’s working with King Felix. The King has no idea that he’s a Fae. Orion, it’s bad. Tyr’s planning to let the humans and Fae destroy each other. I don’t know how long he’s been planning this, but there’s going to be a battle—”
“Shhhhh.” Orion’s heavy hand stroked down the side of my face as he quieted me. “It’s going to be