Prison Princess (Paranormal Prison) - CoraLee June Page 0,22

because she’d spent her whole life in that fucking prison, and she acted like everything, down to dew on the trees, was some sort of magical discovery that she had to stop and examine. It made getting her to hustle a little bit tricky.

Fuck. Me.

“Psst.” A voice called out to me. Sitting on the edge of one of the less traveled streets was a Puck. They were a huge pain in my ass, despite one of them becoming sort of famous in other realms. Dealing with the young Fae who fell into this category was always more of a nuisance than a joy. I didn’t care for riddles. Just tell me what you wanted.

I lifted an eyebrow. “Something to say?”

“You had something, and you’ve lost it.” He smiled at me. “I perhaps have nothing to say unless you are willing to pay.”

Oh, he could rhyme. How completely uncharming. “You’ve heard me looking, asking for help. I’m not going to give you any money if you can’t prove that you have information. And by that, I mean the answer can’t be that you know nothing. Or there’ll be no money.”

With these fuckers, you had to be very distinct about what you wanted, or they turned around and screwed with you. I didn’t have time for nonsense.

His smile had no mirth in it. “For the right amount of gold, I think you will like what you are told.”

And again with the rhyming.

I pulled gold out of my pocket. Not enough to pay for a locating spell, but maybe this fucker would take it. “That’s all you’re getting from me.”

He leaned back. This time when he spoke, there was no rhyming involved. “The assassins paid a troll to take her. You might want to do better protecting your property. She put up a pretty good fight, but the troll hurt her. Maybe she’s already dead.”

He smiled as he spoke, and a surge of anger had me wanting to reach out and carve that toothless grin off his smug face. A series of scenarios went through my mind as I tried to piece together what this meant. It had only been an hour, and assassins weren’t allowed within a five mile radius of this city. I just had to guess what direction they would go.

“The assassins’ devotee would take a boat,” the trickster said while walking away with the coins in his palm. I chewed over his words as he touched his money with the pad of his index finger.

A boat. Of course. A boat would be the fastest way out of the Fae city. And if Layne was unconscious, it would be easier to carry her that way. The Zanth River was just across the city. If I ran, I could catch them.

I gripped my pack and started jogging toward the mouth of the river. I needed to go there before it was too late.

Chapter Seven

I woke to the sound of rushing water and hums. It was a struggle to open my heavy eyes, and my body ached. “Good! You’re awake,” a familiar voice said. I twisted my head to look at Roota, who was tying a boat to a stump.

“I was worried there for a little while that I’d hit you too hard. They won’t relieve my debts if you’re dead.”

I rubbed at my aching head. “I can’t know for sure that they’ll help you. But it turns out that I’m royalty. Maybe my parents could pay off your debts if you bring me to them instead.”

“Oh no,” a male voice shouted out from the distance. “The time for making deals is long over, Princess. You can go, troll. Your debts are paid.”

I stared at the man talking to me. I’d never seen him before in my life, but I knew his type. People of power radiated it from their very skin. In their cells. In every ounce of their body. I knew them in prison. Most of them were there to avoid a problem that they needed to temporarily sit out. They controlled things even from within the prison walls.

This man was like them. With at least two dozen warlocks behind him, he walked toward me, bowing his head slightly. “Let me introduce myself. My name is Bhaltair. And I have been after you since you were born. That assassin who lost you? I trained him. That’s what I do. I run the Assassins Guild.” He indicated his followers. As he spoke, I rose off the ground, floating in the air.