worrisome—her brows drawing together and forming a little wrinkled V in the middle of her forehead. “That obviously didn’t work,” she said quietly.
I winced. “No,” I said. “But I can understand the attempt. Do you know exactly what happened?” I inquired.
She shook her head. “Just that you’d been kidnapped and taken to the King’s castle. No one would tell me anything, but I had a feeling it was bad. After you were back, that’s when I found out about the execution.” Her hands began to tremble against mine. “I was so scared.”
Yeah, I understood that. Had our roles been reversed, I would have been terrified out of my mind. “I’m okay now,” I assure her quickly, squeezing her fingers roughly. I bit down on my lip, considering what to tell her. “There were courtship events,” I said. “Special ceremonies that happen when a Royal gets engaged. In the middle of the last one, it was Tyr—Orion’s brother—who disrupted it. He kidnapped me and opened some portal to the Kingdom of Amnestia.” I swallowed against a dry throat as I recalled the Run of the Gods and how it had started so differently than how it had ended.
“Why?” Nel frowned at me. “Why would he do such a thing?”
“Because he’s helping the human Kingdom,” I confessed. “His plan is to force the Fae and humans into a battle that will wipe out all of the major players.”
“Even his own brother?” Her lips parted in shock. “How could he do that?”
“Because he’s evil,” I said. “Because he doesn’t care who gets hurt as long as, in the end, he’s the one left with power. He wants to rule over the ruins of what’s left after the war and he doesn’t care what he has to do to make that happen. When the Princes came to rescue me, he even…” I trailed off, remembering how Sorrell and I had found Orion with his veins turning black with poison. “He tried to kill his own brother,” I finished.
Nellie and I sat in silence for a moment. Neither of us spoke and yet so much connection filtered between us. The fear. The relief. The worry over what the future would bring.
Finally, she spoke. “So, what happens now?”
I shrugged. “We come up with a plan and we take him down, I suppose,” I said.
The corner of her mouth curled up in a rueful grin. “You make it sound so easy.”
“Psh.” I lifted one of my hands away from hers and waved it through the air. “We can do it. We’ve faced much worse. Remember that one time when Sister Madeline tried to cook the Winter’s feast?”
Nellie’s face blanched and she shuddered. “Cook was furious,” she said. “She burned the whole hog.”
I wrinkled my nose. “It smelled horrible,” I agreed.
“Not that you would’ve eaten it,” she replied, eyeing me. “I’ve noticed, though, that you seem to eat well here.”
“The food here tastes good,” I said.
“Do you think it has anything to do with it being Fae food?” she inquired, leaning forward as she reached for the book she’d laid aside. “I think I figured out why you had such a hard time eating at the convent. Fae are supposed to eat only things that come from nature. Wheat and fruits and nuts and—”
“Well, I do eat a lot of bread,” I supplied, cutting her off. “Does that count?”
She rolled her eyes, snapping the book shut once more. “Yes,” she huffed. “It counts.” The two of us lapsed into another moment of quiet, and then, she grinned at me. “So…” she began. “You and the Crimson Prince?”
My eyes shifted away as I reached up and gently scratched the underside of my jaw. “He was just trying to protect me,” I said.
“But … you’re engaged?”
I winced. We hadn’t really talked about it since I’d been back. “Sort of?”
“Either you are or you aren’t,” Nellie said with a raised brow.
“We are?”
“Are you telling me or asking?”
I blew out a breath and dropped my hand back to my lap. “Oh, I don’t know.” I released a groan. “When he did it, it was because of the Court of Frost and his mother—it was like a vow of protection. Not really an engagement.”
“That’s not how he acted when he returned without you,” she replied with a mischievous grin.
I narrowed my eyes on her face. “What do you know?”
"Clearly he still doesn't realize how much trouble you attract."
"I do not attract trouble!" I reached over and smacked her arm. Both of her brows